Single Trip Insurance for Family with different return date

G_samy

Dear Members,

I have purchased a single-trip travel insurance policy for my family, covering the policy period from 1st July to 10th August.

While all travellers listed on the policy started the trip from the UK on the same date, their return dates vary. However, all are scheduled to return before 10th August, within the insured period.

Unfortunately, one of the travellers fell ill during the holiday and required hospitalisation. I have registered a claim under the policy. I am now wondering whether the claim will be accepted, given the different return dates.

I would appreciate your thoughts or guidance on this matter.

Kind regards,

 

MyRealNameToo

Never been asked it before, can't think of any clause which would cause issues generally, presumably it was a single trip policy so the only potential issue is a disclosure one where you gave a single date however the insurer probably wasnt explicit in ask if everyone had the same return date and by using the last return date it doesn't sound unreasonable and would mean you've paid more than you needed to have for some.

What's the claim actually for? Just the cost of medical treatment abroad or were flights impacted etc too?

G_samy

Thank you for your response. The claim is solely for medical treatment abroad.

At the quotation stage, the insurance provider requested the departure and return dates, so I selected dates that covered the entire travel period for all travellers. One potential issue might be that we’re travelling as a family, so it may be assumed that we would all return together—especially since this is a single-trip insurance policy. I’d really appreciate your thoughts on this. The insurer might argue that I should have taken out two separate policies to reflect different return dates.

If this is considered a disclosure issue, I’m concerned it could affect my ability to obtain insurance in the future. Am I overthinking this?

MyRealNameToo

G_samy said:

Thank you for your response. The claim is solely for medical treatment abroad.

At the quotation stage, the insurance provider requested the departure and return dates, so I selected dates that covered the entire travel period for all travellers. One potential issue might be that we’re travelling as a family, so it may be assumed that we would all return together—especially since this is a single-trip insurance policy. I’d really appreciate your thoughts on this. The insurer might argue that I should have taken out two separate policies to reflect different return dates.

If this is considered a disclosure issue, I’m concerned it could affect my ability to obtain insurance in the future. Am I overthinking this?

The law on disclosure was changed a little while ago with a piece of legislation abbreviated to CIDRA. It was a bit double edged as it made some things much clearer but also made penalties worse. 

If an insurer is going to rely on a question they must ask it, they cannot rely on you volunteering additional information that they haven't asked for. Similarly they cannot ask broad open questions like "tell us anything else relevant". As such it very much comes down to exactly the question that was asked and any supporting/helper text that went along with it. 

Travel insurers are often dealing with single trip policies so just decline a claim rather than void policies etc because the policy has already ended by the time of the claim. They also dont report into CUE so there is no public record unless they think it was a serious fraud and put it onto CIFAS (which a simple wrong answer wouldnt be). 

I can't say I've ever asked a home or motor insurer if I have to declare declined claims from Travel, certainly they weren't interested in my declined cover for PHI or my special terms for business insurance. I did once for a laugh ask about "hole in one" claim which Hiscox will cover on Home insurance and the agent I spoke to got very confused and eventually decided it didnt need logging. 

G_samy

Thank you. Any other comments are welcome.