Top-up Travel Cancellation Insurance

My wife and I have booked a trip to the far East early next year, which all up will cost about £15,000. We have annual multi-trip travel insurance that covers cancellation up to £5,000 per person, but were we cancel in the 60 days before departure the whole price is due and we'd be out of pocket by about £5,000.

No problem, I thought, surely I can increase the cancellation limit on my policy to £7,500 per person. Yes, but at a rate of 7% -- £7 per £100 of additional cover -- which is really just saying we don't want your business. £350 to cover £5,000 of additional exposure for 60 days seems outrageously expensive; I can buy a single trip policy with £10,000 of cancellation cover for that!

What I'm now looking for is a separate top-up policy that will cover the excess over the £5,000 cancellation limit on my existing policy. It would only need to pay out if I made a valid claim against that policy that exhausted it. I have sought, but I have not found. Travel cancellation policies seem to be available in the US, but I can't find any UK insurer that does it. Has anyone any suggestions? Any brokers out there who could help? The £5K limit seems pretty standard on travel policies and is reasonable for European travel, but with the pound gurgling down the drain it's easy to exceed it on a reasonable length long haul trip. I'd have thought it was an opportunity for somebody to fill.

Thanks for any help.

Comments

  • I don't know much about insurance policies but personally I would consider £350 cheap a) for the peace of mind that the top would provide b) the convenience of having to deal with one insurance company in the event that I had to claim.
  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 15,245
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    Have you asked the travel provider to help with insurance?


    When visiting the Far East I would not make advance bookings for most of my accommodation and things: that is not how things work in that part of the world. So the amount of committed expenditure before travel would be unlikely to exceed about 5,000: unless the entire thing was sold as some special package, in which case presumably the provider could help with insurance.
  • Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try the agent and the tour operator.
  • That may be the only way to look at it, but given that my annual premium for the multi-trip policy - which covers what I would think as being the higher risk elements of medical insurance and evacuation on a world wide basis - is less than the additional premium requested, either (a) I'm under estimating the probability of the average punter cancelling at the last minute; or (b) the insurers are pulling my leg to see if it's got bells on. This is top-up insurance, all the costs of managing the policy are already covered. A seven percent premium equates to something in the region of a 1 in 20 chance that an event accepted by the policy as a reason for cancellation (death, illness, injury to ourselves or close family and a couple of more obscure reasons like unavoidable jury service) will occur within 60 days of departure. I just don't believe the probability is that high. Maybe other people do regularly book and have to cancel, but I'd love to see the data that supports the implied probability.
  • michele-p
    michele-p Posts: 813
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    I think I would take out a separate single holiday policy just for this trip, which has the right level of cover, rather than trying to add on to what you have.

    I have European instance free from Nationwide, but for my annual ski holiday its cheaper to buy a new winter sports policy elsewhere where than to pay the add on to nationwide.
  • That may be the only way to look at it, but given that my annual premium for the multi-trip policy - which covers what I would think as being the higher risk elements of medical insurance and evacuation on a world wide basis - is less than the additional premium requested, either (a) I'm under estimating the probability of the average punter cancelling at the last minute; or (b) the insurers are pulling my leg to see if it's got bells on. This is top-up insurance, all the costs of managing the policy are already covered. A seven percent premium equates to something in the region of a 1 in 20 chance that an event accepted by the policy as a reason for cancellation (death, illness, injury to ourselves or close family and a couple of more obscure reasons like unavoidable jury service) will occur within 60 days of departure. I just don't believe the probability is that high. Maybe other people do regularly book and have to cancel, but I'd love to see the data that supports the implied probability.


    Well I know of at least one couple that lost thousands when they had to cancel a holiday due to ill health as they hadn't considered the upper limit of cover provided by their policy.


    Trouble is insurance is one of those things that will only be worth it if you had to make a claim.....depends on whether you're feeling lucky I guess.
  • Katiehound
    Katiehound Posts: 7,513
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    Last year I had to cancel a trip for medical reasons on an annual policy with a top limit of £5k. Because I had upgraded my flight the total cost came to about £50 over the limit- which I lost.
    This year I have taken out insurance that covers a higher limit- just in case! (Plus the claims agency were a nightmare- 3&1/2 months to settle)

    I wonder if it would be worth your while to take out a new annual policy and ditch the old one? Or as already suggested buy single trip cover for this one.
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