Holiday insurance?

B0bbyEwing

We've booked to go to Disneyland Paris in a few months. Having only ever been abroad once before & someone else sorted all that for me, I just paid the money, I thought I was good until work folks started talking about holiday insurance. 

So I figured I'd head in a direction where people are going to know a bit more - here.

To be fair, after they mentioned it I remembered years ago when my mum went abroad with my brother & sister & one of them got really quite sick. I think they had insurance at the time so things were covered.

What do you actually need though?

I imagine like car insurance you can keep sticking on add-ons all day long until you've emptied your bank account but I don't really know where to start with it, what's needed & what is overkill?

On-the-coast

You don’t legally need anything. 

For a European break and as a GHIC card holder (make sure you get one) I personally would be happy with self insuring for just about anything except medical repatriation. 

As for the rest - depends if you can afford to write off the cost of a holiday if you have to stay behind for any reason. 

marcia_

IMAO insurance is essential. The GHIC covers medical needs however you may still be asked to pay some costs. However lost or stolen luggage, missed departures, repatriation to the uk if sick are not covered by that.

TELLIT01

The GHIC card only provides the same level of cover for visitors as those resident in the country receive.  Not all EU countries provide free cover for everything.

Travel insurance also provides cover for cancellation due to illness or injury before the date of travel.

B0bbyEwing

I found out that I didn't "need" anything but I'm coming from a good idea pov rather than a what's the least I can get away with / cheapest I can make it pov.

Health-wise I don't tend to get ill during the month we're going - I get ill at the end of the year, but I'm not stupid enough to think it can't happen either.

We'll be travelling minimal (can't remember if it's 3 or 4 days we're there for) but at the same time I never considered lost luggage or missed departures either.

It's literally the first time we'll be away abroad ourselves so it'll be a case of stepping in to the airport (we're flying, not getting the train) & being like where on earth do we go now kind of thing. 

So bearing that lack of know-how & greenery in mind ... what would you recommend someone to make sure they got?

Also I'd never even heard of GHIC so thanks for the mention. I'll Google that & see what it is etc.

Also to be clear - are my OH & I going to have to get all this individually (so whatever I get they also would be best getting) or is any part of this a joint thing to cover the pair of us?

daveyjp

For a vew days in France the cost of insurance is lilely to be such a small amount (unless you have significant health issues), not buying is a false economy.

Most travel insurance offers 2-3 different levels of cover, but its easy enough to decide which level you want as there should be a comparison table.

I'd start just by going to an insurance website such as LV.com and go through the quote process.  Most companies use very similar interfaces for quotes.

lr1277

Yes you can keep sticking add-ons, but it depends how risk averse you are.

I haven't bought travel insurance for years (due to not travelling) but don't the comparison sites give a list of the benefits for each policy? You need to decide what benefits you think you might use or would come in handy if that particular event happened.

I don't know how you are travelling nor at what time of day you are travelling but some travel insurance covers missed flights/transport due to delays getting to the start point. By delays I mean like accidents on a motorway and not you leaving late. Obviously you don't have to pay for that, but if you miss your lets say flight due to traffic jams, can you afford to buy tickets at the walk up price (on top of what you have already paid)?

Another 2 options are to leave excessively early and possibly spend an age in the airport. Or travel to the airport the day before and stay in a local hotel overnight. How does that compare with the cost of the insurance? I imagine the same applies on the return journey.

There is the Amex Platinum credit card which costs I think £650 a year. However it does come with certain insurances.

There is missed holiday insurance - say you or one of your party get ill and have to cancel the trip, then they should pay for replacement flights and hotels for when you are better. Again you might be paying the walk up price for both these parts of the holdiay if you say have to delay your holiday by days as opposed to weeks. Edited to add: I don't know if you need to have bought your holiday, flights or hotel stay with the Amex for this insurance to apply. If interested you should investigate further. I am led to believe only the Amex Platinum offers this particular insurance.

I think it also has medical cover but has exclusions for pre-existing conditions. And you can't 'top up' the insurance to cover your pre-existing conditions should you wish to do so.

Another Edit: Some packaged bank accounts come with travel insurance e.g. Nationwide. Again you should check the benefits as to whether you might use such a benefit. And I don't know if Nationwide's insurance covers delays getting to the airport.

Emmia

1. The GHIC is free, please don't fall for any of the scam websites that charge you.

https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/healthcare-abroad/apply-for-a-free-uk-global-health-insurance-card-ghic/

2. I personally wouldn't travel outside of the UK without insurance... And now you have a trip booked I'd get that sorted.

On the train yesterday I was listening to two passengers, both fairly young and fit looking, one of whom was facing a fairly hefty bill for medical expenses after he broke his arm/wrist and needed surgery to fix it whilst on holiday in Italy (I think it was Italy). No insurance! He also didn't have a GHIC.

TELLIT01

As you are an infrequent traveller, check the issue date of your passport.  Since leaving the EU, the passport must be less than 10 years old from the date of issue.

Puddings

I've had to use my travel insurance for the first time in years recently - I have travel insurance through nationwide. I ended up in hospital in Bangkok with kidney stones, cost me £1800 (thank god for credit cards) and I've just had confirmation from the insurer that I should receive payment in the next 3-5 working days less the excess. Unlike the kidney stones, making the claim when I returned was pain free! 

I usually go through the comparison sites for insurance and you can easily compare quotes and what they include and decide what is right for you. But now that you have booked your holiday, get insurance asap!  

DullGreyGuy

B0bbyEwing said:

We've booked to go to Disneyland Paris in a few months. Having only ever been abroad once before & someone else sorted all that for me, I just paid the money, I thought I was good until work folks started talking about holiday insurance. 

So I figured I'd head in a direction where people are going to know a bit more - here.

To be fair, after they mentioned it I remembered years ago when my mum went abroad with my brother & sister & one of them got really quite sick. I think they had insurance at the time so things were covered.

What do you actually need though?

I imagine like car insurance you can keep sticking on add-ons all day long until you've emptied your bank account but I don't really know where to start with it, what's needed & what is overkill?

There arent many add ons to Travel insurance, generally "business trip", "cruise", "winter sports" and "adventurous activities" are the only optional extras and if you are buying a single trip policy they arent going to hard sell the winter sports cover when you say you are going to Egypt for a week. 

Note that limits are per person covered by the policy not the total for all people, even if you are paying for everyone everyone travelling needs their insurance and will make a claim if things go wrong - we've had people that thought only the payer needed insurance and so they only got 25% of the losses as the holiday for 4 was cancelled. 

The main thing is the pre-existing conditions, make sure you just answer the question exactly how they've asked it. Too many people try to overthink it and choose not to declare the fact they went to the Dr with a chest infection "because thats not what they're asking about" who then get the policy void because it should have been declared.