Travel Insurance Limits

M4rtyman

Ok, bear with me on this one ...
I moved home to live with my parents a few years back to help look afer my ailing mother. She passed away back in 2023, so it's now just me and my dad living in the house. He is 72 and I am 52.
On occasion we go on holiday together, but we always had our own individual annual travel insurance. One of us will pay for the trip - and sometimes we just taking it in turns to pay, or we pay the other person back. It can vary.

In the past each of us tended to only get individual cover with cancellation coverage of about £1500k. That always covered us if we travelled on our own, and i thought it would cover us individually if a joint holiday was cancelled, due to illness etc. However, I am now starting to think we may have got this wrong.

So as an example; If my dad was to buy a package holiday for the two of us, for say £2750, and we both had individual cover of £1500k each, would the full £2750 be covered (minus excess) if one of us took ill and had to cancel? Or would the holiday purchaser have to have £3k worth of cover? Does it matter if I paid him back or if I had just agreed to pay for the next holiday? Should we be getting a "couples" or "family" policy?

This all came into my head because my Dad also goes on regular trips with ex work colleagues (about 6 people), where one of the guys organises and pays for the whole trip, and all the chaps just pay him back. I can guarantee that the total cost of those trips is way more than the organisers own travel insurance policies.

Anyhoo ... any advice would be appreciated

Cheers

DullGreyGuy

M4rtyman said:

Ok, bear with me on this one ...
I moved home to live with my parents a few years back to help look afer my ailing mother. She passed away back in 2023, so it's now just me and my dad living in the house. He is 72 and I am 52.
On occasion we go on holiday together, but we always had our own individual annual travel insurance. One of us will pay for the trip - and sometimes we just taking it in turns to pay, or we pay the other person back. It can vary.

In the past each of us tended to only get individual cover with cancellation coverage of about £1500k. That always covered us if we travelled on our own, and i thought it would cover us individually if a joint holiday was cancelled, due to illness etc. However, I am now starting to think we may have got this wrong.

So as an example; If my dad was to buy a package holiday for the two of us, for say £2750, and we both had individual cover of £1500k each, would the full £2750 be covered (minus excess) if one of us took ill and had to cancel? Or would the holiday purchaser have to have £3k worth of cover? Does it matter if I paid him back or if I had just agreed to pay for the next holiday? Should we be getting a "couples" or "family" policy?

This all came into my head because my Dad also goes on regular trips with ex work colleagues (about 6 people), where one of the guys organises and pays for the whole trip, and all the chaps just pay him back. I can guarantee that the total cost of those trips is way more than the organisers own travel insurance policies.

Limits are expressed per person and on a multi-person holiday each person has to claim their share of the cost irrespective of who paid for it. Therefore if you have £1,500 of cover each then you could book a joint holiday up to £3,000 and except to get reimbursed less the excess in the event of a valid claim. 

The problem you will face having individual policies is that given your father's age I would guess he has at least some pre-existing conditions. Assuming he does then he can declare them to his insurer and get them accepted but you cannot do the same to your insurer as such were he to become ill due to one of these conditions his insurance policy would respond but yours most likely wouldnt (though obviously depends on exact terms). By being on the same policy you remove this issue. 

Unfortunately we have seen cases on here were people didnt understand travel insurance, booked a big trip for extended family for £10k, bought travel insurance just for themselves with a £10k limit but then when the holiday was cancelled they only got reimbursed £2k because there were 5 travellers but only one insured. 


NB - there is no "law" that says this is how things have to be, an insurer is free to deviate from the norm but should be making it VERY clear in the sales process if thats the case. Hence read what you are answering, including helper text and also the policy. I have seen one large group policy where the limit was the aggregate limit not the per person limit but its not the sort of thing sold on websites or marketed to consumers

M4rtyman

So four travellers had no insurance whatsoever? OK - I can see how that went pear-shaped. That's just nuts.

So basically what you are saying is that our current individual policies shoud cover a joint holiday. We would just need to make our own individual claim for half, even though one person paid for the whole trip? The only risk would be a trip being cancelled because of one person's pre-existing condition, and the other person's policy not covering the other half?

DullGreyGuy

Its the main risk, technically it would also apply if one of you was called for jury service etc too however there are more policies out there that will cover you if your travelling companions cannot travel for a reason that would have been covered had they been named on the policy