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. 

cw8825

You bought single trip insurance but isn't this technically multiple trips?

G_samy

cw8825 said:

You bought single trip insurance but isn't this technically multiple trips?

Yes, this point is bothering me.

 MyRealNameToo said:

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. 

Any thoughts on whether this will be considered as single or multiple trips.

MyRealNameToo

G_samy said:

cw8825 said:

You bought single trip insurance but isn't this technically multiple trips?

Yes, this point is bothering me.

 MyRealNameToo said:

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. 

Any thoughts on whether this will be considered as single or multiple trips.

Multi-trip in insurance terms means a policy that covers 1 year and any number of individual trips within that year subject to both a maximum duration for a single trip and in some cases, an aggregate limit of total number of days. 

A single trip is defined from leaving the UK to returning to the UK... a fact that confused another poster here recently who assumed going to 3 countries on one holiday would count as 3 trips. 

The question is if different people going on different dates means they are potentially not going on the same trip. To make a more extreme example would be a couple going to Egypt, their teenage son going to Corfu and their teenage daughter going to Amsterdam all on the same dates and their buying a "single trip" policy that covers the three countries. I think this would be more obviously not the same trip given nothing is shared whereas I think yours is more likely to be covered.

The other reality is you are claiming for overseas treatment and thats it you say and so the insurer probably won't ask additional questions that bring to light the different dates. 

G_samy

MyRealNameToo said:

G_samy said:

cw8825 said:

You bought single trip insurance but isn't this technically multiple trips?

Yes, this point is bothering me.

 MyRealNameToo said:

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. 

Any thoughts on whether this will be considered as single or multiple trips.

Multi-trip in insurance terms means a policy that covers 1 year and any number of individual trips within that year subject to both a maximum duration for a single trip and in some cases, an aggregate limit of total number of days. 

A single trip is defined from leaving the UK to returning to the UK... a fact that confused another poster here recently who assumed going to 3 countries on one holiday would count as 3 trips. 

The question is if different people going on different dates means they are potentially not going on the same trip. To make a more extreme example would be a couple going to Egypt, their teenage son going to Corfu and their teenage daughter going to Amsterdam all on the same dates and their buying a "single trip" policy that covers the three countries. I think this would be more obviously not the same trip given nothing is shared whereas I think yours is more likely to be covered.

The other reality is you are claiming for overseas treatment and thats it you say and so the insurer probably won't ask additional questions that bring to light the different dates. 

Many thanks for your latest response. Apologies—I have a couple of more questions on this topic, and I hope they will help put my mind at ease.

 At the time of purchasing the insurance, the provider asked the following questions to confirm eligibility:

 Please confirm that you and any additional travellers:

1. Are permanent UK residents
2. Will depart from and return to the UK
3. Are registered with a doctor in the UK
4. Are unaware of any reason why a trip would be cancelled or cut short
5. Have not started a trip
6. Trip start and end dates
7. Whether you will be travelling as a family, individual, or couple

 For item 6, I provided the start date when we all travelled together, and the return date reflects the latest return date, covering my earlier return.

There was no field to provide different return dates of the travellers insured within the policy.

 For item 7, the website states: “One or two adults who live at the same address plus at least one child. Please note that on family policies, each adult traveller is covered to travel individually as well as together.”

I purchased the family policy. 

My concern is with item 4, as I was aware that one of the travellers would be returning earlier. 

 My two questions are:

a) If the insurance provider sees this as an anomaly, could it be considered a serious issue that might be reported and affect future insurance applications?
b) Is there any risk of rejection based on the information provided above?

c) Technically, should I have purchased two separate insurance policies to align with the different return dates?.

 Frankly, I’m more concerned about item (a).

 Your final thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

MyRealNameToo

For item 4 that was planned not cut short or cancelled, they are talking about you knowing that there would be a reason for a claim to occur and obviously you can't claim for leaving on your planned flight. 

a) Unlikely, travel isnt reported into the CUE database and there is a high bar for reporting matters to CIFAS. In my claims days I dealt with some dodgy claims (eg a third party who sent a report on a bracelet that got damaged in a motor accident. The report said it was worth £3,000 as 18k gold. Given the value asked for it to be sent in as salvage and what arrived was damaged but looked cheap and didnt feel heavy enough but didnt have scales so sent it to our jewellery experts. Got an email back a few days later containing a page from the Argos catalogue where the item retailed brand new for £40 as 9ct plated. I offered £30, their solicitor accepted, didnt load them to CIFAS)

b) There is always a risk but then you have the financial ombudsman etc to appeal to if they do and you disagree with them. 

c) So, was it a Family Annual or Single Trip policy? Who were the travellers and do you all reside at the same address? Family policies typically cover Parents and their kids but I assumed from the original post that more distant family/friends were involved. 

G_samy

MyRealNameToo said:

For item 4 that was planned not cut short or cancelled, they are talking about you knowing that there would be a reason for a claim to occur and obviously you can't claim for leaving on your planned flight. 

a) Unlikely, travel isnt reported into the CUE database and there is a high bar for reporting matters to CIFAS. In my claims days I dealt with some dodgy claims (eg a third party who sent a report on a bracelet that got damaged in a motor accident. The report said it was worth £3,000 as 18k gold. Given the value asked for it to be sent in as salvage and what arrived was damaged but looked cheap and didnt feel heavy enough but didnt have scales so sent it to our jewellery experts. Got an email back a few days later containing a page from the Argos catalogue where the item retailed brand new for £40 as 9ct plated. I offered £30, their solicitor accepted, didnt load them to CIFAS)

b) There is always a risk but then you have the financial ombudsman etc to appeal to if they do and you disagree with them. 

c) So, was it a Family Annual or Single Trip policy? Who were the travellers and do you all reside at the same address? Family policies typically cover Parents and their kids but I assumed from the original post that more distant family/friends were involved. 

All insured travellers—myself, my wife, and my son—live at the same address. The claim is for my son, who fell ill during the trip and was hospitalised . My return date was earlier, while my wife and son had planned to return a week later to the same address we all reside at.

The purpose of the trip was to visit friends and extended family, so my wife and son decided to stay an extra week. This was part of the original travel plan, and the tickets were purchased accordingly. There was no change to the travel itinerary; the only unexpected event was my son's illness.

I am planning to submit a claim for the out-of-pocket hospitalisation expenses, for which I have all the relevant documents and medical reports.

My confusion is about how the insurance provider might perceive this situation, even though all the information provided at the time of purchasing the policy was accurate. In hindsight, I’m wondering whether it would have been better to take out two separate insurance policies—one for myself, and another for my wife and son.  

It was a single-trip insurance policy covering one location for a defined period. One of the questions asked was about how we would be travelling—among the available options (Individual, Couple, Family, and Group), I selected "Family" because we set off together, which included two adults and one child.