Travel Insurance

DaveLUFC75

Martin Lewis states that customers should always take out travel insurance as soon as they book a holiday. I have booked a holiday for my wife my daughter and my grandchildren. Should it be me that books the insurance straight away as I have paid for it or should my daughter also book it for herself and my grandchildren?

dnpark38

ML recommends insurance straight away because an event to claim for might happen today.

NanookOfTheNorth

You need to buy the insurance for everybody travelling to be covered for all the reasons documented in the insurance. If only yourself is covered, then you'd just get your share of the insurance claim if you need to claim.  Get everybody travelling covered on the insurance.   

It's all down to costs, if you've a really cheap holiday and are happy to lose what you've paid/due to pay if things go wrong before travel, then thats the risk.  But either way, definately get insurance for all of you before travel. And make sure you declare all medical for everybody so find that out to be properly covered.

You will probably find yourself and wife buying insurance as a couple living at the same address, then your daughter and her children buying a separate policy if they are a separate address.

TELLIT01

If you are travelling together I don't think it really makes any difference how the insurance is booked.  Cover generally extends to illness of those travelling with you if that illness prevents you also from travelling.

heatherw_01

The insurance needs to cover anyone travelling.
Doesn't matter who books it, it is who is covered that matters.

silvercar

It may be hard to get everyone on one policy, though I haven’t tried. It may work out cheaper to have one for you and wife and one for your daughter and her kids. So 2 family policies.

MyRealNameToo

DaveLUFC75 said:

Martin Lewis states that customers should always take out travel insurance as soon as they book a holiday. I have booked a holiday for my wife my daughter and my grandchildren. Should it be me that books the insurance straight away as I have paid for it or should my daughter also book it for herself and my grandchildren?

Who pays for it is irrelevant, each traveller has to claim for their own share irrespective if they paid for it or was a gift. 

There are advantages of having a single policy covering everyone on the trip but your daughter may already have cover for herself and/or their kid. The other consideration is if she is going to tell you all her medical conditions for you to do her declaration on a Group policy or not... wouldnt be the first adult child who doesnt want to tell their parents they've recently had the clap. 

Slowslippers

It is also worth noting that in the event of a claim that affects more than one traveller such as a flight cancellation,  and in accordance with the policy small print, the policy excess will probably be applied twice in the case of a joint policy, once for each traveller. I fell foul of this when claiming for a cancelled holiday (French Air Traffic Controllers 2 day strike) and expected one excess deduction but got two! Just be aware if you need to claim.

jimjames

NanookOfTheNorth said:

It's all down to costs, if you've a really cheap holiday and are happy to lose what you've paid/due to pay if things go wrong before travel, then thats the risk.  But either way, definately get insurance for all of you before travel. And make sure you declare all medical for everybody so find that out to be properly covered.

The OP hasn't said where the holiday is so could be UK. If that's the case then travel insurance is less of a necessity as medical repatriation wouldn't be needed etc but you might still want to be covered for cancellation.

TELLIT01

Slowslippers said:

It is also worth noting that in the event of a claim that affects more than one traveller such as a flight cancellation,  and in accordance with the policy small print, the policy excess will probably be applied twice in the case of a joint policy, once for each traveller. I fell foul of this when claiming for a cancelled holiday (French Air Traffic Controllers 2 day strike) and expected one excess deduction but got two! Just be aware if you need to claim.

We had a similar unwelcome surprise when our holiday was cancelled due to Covid.  Flights and accommodation booked seperately and we were able to reschedule the flights at no extra cost.  We lost the accommodation deposit as the accommodation was still available.  Claimed off insurance and were hit with 2 x excess charge.  Ridiculous thing to me is that the accommodation was a one bedroom apartment which would have cost the same had I been travelling alone.  If I had travelled alone, I would have had lower insurance costs and only 1 excess charge to pay.  Nice easy money for the insurers.

MyRealNameToo

Slowslippers said:

It is also worth noting that in the event of a claim that affects more than one traveller such as a flight cancellation,  and in accordance with the policy small print, the policy excess will probably be applied twice in the case of a joint policy, once for each traveller. I fell foul of this when claiming for a cancelled holiday (French Air Traffic Controllers 2 day strike) and expected one excess deduction but got two! Just be aware if you need to claim.

But it works both ways because your policy limit is also per person so if you are going on a £10k holiday with your partner you need a policy with a £5k limit covering each of you