Holiday insurance cover for real life issues!

UsOrThem

So I'm currently sifting through holiday insurance policy's and it's struck me that aside from the dramatic stuff like medical expenses and bankruptcy all the most likely things to occur are such low cover compared to today's valuables or make so many caveats they're pointless.

Once the policy has stated losing items from a car, the beach, unattended or not in a safe...I'm not sure what situation I can find myself in where if I lose my valuables I'm able to claim!!
Then when I do look at what value I'm going to get back (if I happen to have luckily lost my items via mugging - a nice an provable lose!!), it's set at a level that is pointless for modern day to day items. A phone (£600), camera (£500) Kindle (£300) are far more than most policy's single item cover. then take away excess and the excuses of age of item and you get !!!!!! all in a payout!

So point of all this is insurance policy's need to get up to date to offer a service where real situations are covered. Best I've found is £500 from the PO Premium but even that won't cover an ipad dropped in the pool!

Where I'm at now is getting a super basic travel insurance so if 'real' disaster strikes (car crash et al) I'm covered, then get valuables covered under a specific electronics policy.

I'd love if someone could tell me where I could do all this as a onner but I don't think it exist!

InsideInsurance

Because the claims that break the bank are not a phone for £600 or camera for £500 but the £1,000,000 for suffering a major trauma whilst on holiday and being in a foreign ICU for months.

There are some where the limits are higher but really the point of travel insurance is the big ticket items, namely medical expenses. For comprehensive cover of your stuff then just ensure you have Personal Possessions/ All Risks cover on your Home insurance and it will cover your items

You will generally find higher limits on annual cover than on single trip policies though if for some reason you dont want to have home cover

UsOrThem

yes the big issues like that are important but a £10 policy will cover you for that, its the day to day stuff that should be covered appropriately as these are the things a traveler is most likely to experience.
A 'travel' insurance should cover what happens when you travel, I shouldn't have to reply on contents insurance and push up my premiums for issue that occur while holiday.
Travel policy's need to get up to date and reflect the contents of the modern travels suitcase, especially when the vast majority of people assume their day to day items are covered under the policy.
the providers do little to resolve this assumption by offering higher rates for 'better cover' but the premium increase hardly reflect the gain. A £10 increase will get you another £100 on your cover, which still fall very short of the real value of items.
It's a simple case of offering a policy that reflects what is really required when traveling.

rs65

UsOrThem wrote: »

So point of all this is insurance policy's need to get up to date to offer a service where real situations are covered.

Real situations to me are being hospitalised abroad or being stuck abroad due to cancellations.

UsOrThem

rs65 wrote: »

Real situations to me are being hospitalised abroad or being stuck abroad due to cancellations.

yes and you'll find that whether your policy is £6 or £60 there is adequate cover for that.

So what are you getting for the additional £54? ... an insignificant increase in cover for all the other more likely situations. The whole reason the premiums goes up so much is these instance happen so much more. The point I'm getting at is offering a service where 'your valuables are covered' is falling well short of what is required.

dacouch

Travel Insurance is blighted by fraudulent baggage claims, the valuables cover is intentionally low and not new for old to encourage people to rely on their home insurance

UsOrThem

hmmm yes thank makes sense - not considered that.

rs65

dacouch wrote: »

Travel Insurance is blighted by fraudulent baggage claims, the valuables cover is intentionally low and not new for old to encourage people to rely on their home insurance

And baggage seems to increasingly becoming an optional extra.

nearlyrich

We haven't covered baggage on travel policies for years and portable valuables like cameras are all fully covered by the household policy.

InsideInsurance

UsOrThem wrote: »

yes and you'll find that whether your policy is £6 or £60 there is adequate cover for that.

So what are you getting for the additional £54? ... an insignificant increase in cover for all the other more likely situations. The whole reason the premiums goes up so much is these instance happen so much more. The point I'm getting at is offering a service where 'your valuables are covered' is falling well short of what is required.

There can be lots of differences between policies. Cover for cruises and winter sports or not both of which tend to increase medical claims (one cost the other frequency). Cover for outside the EU or inside USA, again both increase cost of medical claims.

The limit on cancellation also varies massively and having been looking to book an Xmas break, holidays certainly appear to be getting more expensive!

Some policies cover delay, others dont. Whilst most limits are low there is variation in baggage cover and whilst heavily capped its an area with a lot of attritional claims.

Some providers give better service than others. When I did some work with a travel insurance wholesaler their partners had a choice of what priority their callers got in the queue, if they wanted their customers calls answered first they could pay more for the product.

Then of cause there is the sellers margin and other commercial considerations which may or may not reflect the overall quality of the product. Again, my prior experience was that the wholesale price didnt always end up being reflected in the retail price as some effectively sold it at cost as just an ancillary cost. Others had a niche and it was a primary product and so they made a good margin.