Travel Insurance is it a con?

daveyjp

Price up how much it may cost to get a replacement passport and then consider if insurance is worth it. It will be a minimum of £200.

Decent policies cover up to £1,000, but some policies exclude cover.

Voyager2002

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Cooling off doesnt give you a right to full refund, it just gives you a right to cancel. Insurers are still entitled to charge a reasonable cancellation fee and for the time on cover.

Can you confirm that? What happens if the policy is unsuitable?

Nick_C

I would probably travel to an EHIC country without insurance.

I wouldn't dream of taking travel insurance for a holiday to Scotland, so why should I take it if going to France or Spain? The risks are the same. The question is, are you happy to "self insure", and cover any costs from your own resources. Personally I am, and I don't have home contents insurance either.

I wouldn't dream of leaving the EEA or going on a cruise without insurance though.

814man

Nick_C, your risks may be the same but the controls/resources that you have available to deal with them are significantly different. Particularly I'd suggest in respect of healthcare.

davetrousers

IMO the primary reason for travel insurance is for medical, hospital and repatriation (dead or alive). The cost of these can easily run into many many thousands.

A secondary reason is if the tour operator, airline, hotel etc. goes bust.

Tertiary reasons are for losses and thefts. The sort of things that might cost a few hundred £.

If you decide that you don't want insurance it's up to you.

I have a Nationwide Flexplus account so have travel, breakdown and gadget insurance, for a very reasonable sum.

Doshwaster

davetrousers wrote: »

IMO the primary reason for travel insurance is for medical, hospital and repatriation (dead or alive). The cost of these can easily run into many many thousands.

That's really the only reason I have travel insurance. I don't care too much about my possessions when travelling as they are never worth much and the only time I have tried to claim for a cancellation (because of the bad snow at Heathrow in 2010) it was turned down as bad weather is considered an "act of God".

Nick_C

davetrousers wrote: »

A secondary reason is if the tour operator, airline, hotel etc. goes bust.

If the cost is over £100, then the S75 protection you get by paying with a credit card can give you better protection than travel insurance.

I was meant to fly to Budapest with Malev in 2012. Two weeks before I was due to fly, I discovered that the airline (Hungary's state airline!) had gone into liquidation. I had paid for the flight with my HBOS (Lloyds) mastercard, and the hotel with my Hilton (Barclays) visa card. I also had an annual travel insurance with InsureFor.com which included "Scheduled Airline Failure cover".

I made a claim to HBOS for the cost of the flights, and to the insurer for the (non refundable) cost of the hotel. The insurer rejected my claim, stating the "Scheduled Airline Failure Cover" did not cover consequential loss!

I went back to HBOS and made a further claim for the consequential loss - the cost of the Hilton Hotel which I had paid on my Hilton/Barclays visa card. HBOS paid up without a quabble.

hollydays

Like all things slightly complicated, a bit of research is always worth doing. I seem to remember there are comparison sites that allow you to compare and show you which ones cover mobile phones etc in a table type format.

Martin Lewis has guides to this, and surely you know to do your homework before spending your money.

You usually find policies clearly state exclusions( household policies are the same and often exclude phones and bikes for example)

jackyann

EHIC cover gives you the same treatment as a citizen of the country you are in. So, for instance, in France, you are liable (except in some circumstances) for 25% of the cost.
Other issues pinted out above.
IMHO, the best value is to go to one of the specialist insurers. I have annual cover with Insure & Go. One of the conditions is that we use the EHIC service first. This is usually fine for us, but we did find out that some package holiday providers are not happy with this, and (as pointed out above) will send you automatically to their private doctor.

pollypenny

My aunt broke her hip in Belgium.

The hospital and her treatment were excellent. However, her EHIC Card only covered 75%.

She was transferred to a UK hospital by ambulance, luckily only to Kent. That cost €145 which ad to be paid in cash there and then.

Thankfully she was insured.