Travel insurance quotes - why so high?

TrixA

My family (2 adults, 1 child aged 5) are traveling to New Zealand for a month to visit family. We are making a short stopover in Singapore on the way back. I am attempting to purchase single trip travel insurance but the quotes I'm getting seem crazy - £200-£300 for a basic no frills policy and £400-£500 for a comprehensive policy.

The main thing I need cover for is flights and baggage. We'll be staying with family in NZ so don't need any cover for accommodation costs, and we don't need medical cover while in NZ because we are all NZ citizens or permanent residents and entitled to use their public health system. I feel like our quotes may be being bumped up because of the duration of the trip and because of pre-existing medical conditions (we both have mild asthma and husband had an operation a year ago for kidney stones).

Any suggestions on how to get the quote to a more manageable level? Can I just not declare medical conditions on the basis that we don't expect to need cover for them or is that a massive no no?

DullGreyGuy

False declaration entitles the insurer to void the policy and avoid any claims if they can prove it was intentional or reckless.

A quick check using dummy data (assuming early 40s) shows premiums at circa £220 on Compare The Market with the specified medical conditions on a single trip if £2,000pp is sufficient cancellation cover or £150 for an annual policy with similar limits as long as the total number of days away on the trip is 31 or under. 

TrixA

In practice how would they find out about an unrelated medical condition if we were to make a claim for, say, lost baggage?

I'm guessing nearly everyone in their 40s/50s has some sort of medical history and making you declare absolutely everything just seems like a way to justify charging higher premiums. There should be an option to declare pre-existing conditions but state you don't require cover for them.

It does seem like annual multi-trip is cheaper than single trip in this instance which is a bit surprising!

Flugelhorn

TrixA said:

In practice how would they find out about an unrelated medical condition if we were to make a claim for, say, lost baggage?

I'm guessing nearly everyone in their 40s/50s has some sort of medical history and making you declare absolutely everything just seems like a way to justify charging higher premiums. There should be an option to declare pre-existing conditions but state you don't require cover for them.

It does seem like annual multi-trip is cheaper than single trip in this instance which is a bit surprising!

maybe worth going for that then?

i remember doing an insurance policy for the family, came up with a figure but you had to phone if you had a prexisting condition - so I rang and the premium went down! Sensibly I presume they realised it was unlikely ever to cause a problem 

DullGreyGuy

TrixA said:

In practice how would they find out about an unrelated medical condition if we were to make a claim for, say, lost baggage?

I'm guessing nearly everyone in their 40s/50s has some sort of medical history and making you declare absolutely everything just seems like a way to justify charging higher premiums. There should be an option to declare pre-existing conditions but state you don't require cover for them.

It does seem like annual multi-trip is cheaper than single trip in this instance which is a bit surprising!

And in practice many get away with insurance fraud but it's at least good you know the risks before doing so. 

There are a small number of insurers that dont cover pre-existing conditions so you dont need to declare them. Certainly some will allow you to decline the cover to avoid most of the additional premium but only ever seen this happen with telephone based medical screening rather than online. I've had travel insurance packaged with bank accounts before and this was an option with these. 

Annual cover is often not much more than a single "summer holiday" abroad and not that surprising that it's cheaper than a 1 month long haul holiday. For each person buying annual cover thats going to NZ for a month there will be a dozen that arent going on holiday at all but keep it "just in case" and two dozen may have 2 week/fortnight trips to Europe so on average it all evens out whereas everyone who buys a 1 month single trip to NZ will have a much higher potential claim. Layer on top of that the potential for renewals etc and there's a reason why annual cover is cheaper

lisyloo

I went with insure & go and pretty sure they listed that only certain medical conditions needed declaring (it could have changed).

is your baggage covered on your home insurance?
It can be a nightmare if you are doubly insured when it comes to claiming.

DullGreyGuy

lisyloo said:

I went with insure & go and pretty sure they listed that only certain medical conditions needed declaring (it could have changed).

is your baggage covered on your home insurance?
It can be a nightmare if you are doubly insured when it comes to claiming.

Insure and go ask only for conditions you've had in the last 2 years (had symptoms of, taken medication for, seen a doctor about)

Home and Travel having overlap isn't too uncommon and both will be experienced in resolving the co-insurance

tacpot12

I've found Avanti insurance to be ok for Travel Insurance with pre-existing medical conditions. I've never had to claim on them, but the premiums have been ok. 

TELLIT01

The OPs trip also includes a stopover where they would not have medical cover through other means.  Pre-existing conditions do not automatically increase premiums.  Many insurers have a list of conditions which do not have to be declared.  The insurance we have through our bank has a very long list of conditions which don't need to be declared.