holiday insurance - chicken pox

tvaustin

myself, wife, 2 kids (5 years old and 3 years ols), Mother in law and brother in law are due to go to northern ireland this saturday (07/07/12).

We have paid for a holiday cottage, flights, car hire over in NI, and car park at stanstead x 2 (taking 2 cars to airport).

The holiday has been booked for about 6 months now.

At my oldest childs school there has been an outbreak of chicken pox and even though my oldest 1 has had it (aged 6 months) I have read that he could get it again. My youngest child has not had it at all.

My youngest child plays with a girl who had chicken pox 2 weeks ago (my boy was not in contact with her during this period) but has now just got over it but has passed it onto her brother who just so happens to be best friends with my oldest child.

I am now worried that knowing my luck 1 of my children will get chicken pox and we will be refused to fly. I was foolish to think that holiday insurance was expensive and so didnt purchase any, but could'nt believe how cheap it actually is (family of 4 single trip about £9).

Is it too late to purchase the insurance? what happens if any of my children do get chicken pox and I go to make a claim (would look very suspicious!)

what about if they break out in spots over in ireland?

cost of the holiday is about £1200

forgotmyname

They may ask for the doctors report or contact the school and then cancel your policy and mark you down as a fraudster.

Insurance will be £££££££ in future. Do you have home and car insurance etc?

Try getting quotes after committing insurance fraud.

jd87

forgotmyname wrote: »

They may ask for the doctors report or contact the school and then cancel your policy and mark you down as a fraudster.

Insurance will be £££££££ in future. Do you have home and car insurance etc?

Try getting quotes after committing insurance fraud.

That is very extreme. How would the insurance company possibly be able to prove that the OP knew the child would get chicken pox? When you apply for the insurance you have to make the usual declarations about existing conditions. I don't know for sure, but I can't imagine one of these declarations being "is there a chance your child might be about to develop chicken pox?"

OP you should get some insurance, asap.

System

You mean that it doesn't look suspicious taking insurance out 4 days before a holiday and then claiming on it virtually immediately? I think any insurance company would do some digging in that scenario.

jd87

!!!!!! wrote: »

You mean that it doesn't look suspicious taking insurance out 4 days before a holiday and then claiming on it virtually immediately? I think any insurance company would do some digging in that scenario.

You mean you don't think 1000's of people forget about their travel insurance until just a few days before their holiday? Look I'm not advocating any kind of "fraud" here, I'm saying maybe the OP should find out from an insurer, or get the insurance and see how things pan-out.

The suggestion that making a claim could affect the OP's ability to get car and home insurance in future is utterly ludicrous. Even if the insurer wasn't happy with the claim, they would simply refuse to pay out. There would be no fraud investigation, no judges or jail cells.

Surely not bothering to buy insurance, just because of the over-active imaginations of some "experts" on this forum, would be the worst possible option.

forgotmyname

I dont claim to be an expert. But i wouldn't put my head in the clouds either and think a fraudulent claim will just be ignored.

Extreme and worst case scenerio probably, But its not an impossible situation.

Spend a few days reading posts on here, Where the insurance have cancelled the policies or worse.

Some you do have to read between the lines but most of them do have you wondering.

One post had me checking my policy. (Final exit doors)

lisyloo

I think you should buy insurance for anything else except chicken pox that happens. For example you might break your leg tomorrow or a parent could die. I'm not trying to be morbid but there are hundreds of things that could happen which are not chicken pox which you need insurance for.

System

jd87 wrote: »

You mean you don't think 1000's of people forget about their travel insurance until just a few days before their holiday? Look I'm not advocating any kind of "fraud" here, I'm saying maybe the OP should find out from an insurer, or get the insurance and see how things pan-out.

The suggestion that making a claim could affect the OP's ability to get car and home insurance in future is utterly ludicrous. Even if the insurer wasn't happy with the claim, they would simply refuse to pay out. There would be no fraud investigation, no judges or jail cells.

Surely not bothering to buy insurance, just because of the over-active imaginations of some "experts" on this forum, would be the worst possible option.

Thank you for reading into my comment things that I didn't even consider. I never mentioned fraud, difficulty in getting other insurance etc.

I merely pointed out that if a claim was made so close after taking the policy out, taking into consideration that it had been booked 6 months beforehand, then the company would probably dig a little deeper than normal into the circumstances of the claim.

lisyloo

Surely not bothering to buy insurance, just because of the over-active imaginations of some "experts" on this forum, would be the worst possible option.

There is a valid point here though.
What about all the other things they may be validly insured for?

jd87

!!!!!! wrote: »

Thank you for reading into my comment things that I didn't even consider. I never mentioned fraud, difficulty in getting other insurance etc.

Was referring to forgotmyname's comment, not yours.