family annual travel insurance with 18 year old

Rightmoves

I wanted to renew by family annual travel insurance but as one of  my sons has turned 18 I can't do it automatically so I wondered about actually getting him his own policy in any case. Is there any disadvantage to us travelling as a family of 4 with 3 of us (parents and one 17yo) on one policy and the 18yo on his own policy. I assume all of us using the same company makes most sense whatever we do 

Mark_d

No disadvantage.  There's little benefit to both policies being with the same company

zagfles

Some family policies cover over 18s if in full time education. But if he's going to be travelling alone/with friends at any stage may be better for him to get his own policy

martindow

Isn't there a disadvantage if one of the party has, for example an accident before the trip and you all want to cancel or someone ends up in hospital abroad and can't travel back on the return date? If the 18 yo suffers a misfortune the rest of the family would probably not be covered for any consequences as you would with a single policy.

Have you tried phoning the company to talk about getting him on your policy?

DullGreyGuy

Mark_d said:

No disadvantage.  There's little benefit to both policies being with the same company

There is a potential disadvantage as you cannot declare pre-existing medical conditions of someone who isn't covered by the policy in question. 

So let's assume the OP has previously had a heart attack, this is declared on the family policy and accepted. The Son cannot declare it on their policy. OP has another heart attack the day before they are due to travel. Those covered by the family policy will have their proportion of the holiday refunded, the son will be unable to claim. 

Rightmoves said:

I wanted to renew by family annual travel insurance but as one of  my sons has turned 18 I can't do it automatically so I wondered about actually getting him his own policy in any case. Is there any disadvantage to us travelling as a family of 4 with 3 of us (parents and one 17yo) on one policy and the 18yo on his own policy. I assume all of us using the same company makes most sense whatever we do 

Some "family" policies will cover older kids as long as they are in full time education still. Your two alternatives are separate policies for your son noting the disadvantage above or a "Group" policy but these tend to be more expensive than a family policy. 

Rightmoves

thanks all. He will be in full time university from September so I think I'll call them up and see what they say. I would never have thought of some of these issues so that is great. I would like him to have his own policy but maybe linked to us. I assumed same company would mean we all would at least have same T&Cs so thats really interesting thanks 

silvercar

Check the T&Cs, a lot of policies will cover incidents happening to travel companions.