1st Time Travel Insurance Help

[zakmuh]

Hi All,

I've been travelling around the world for last 10 odd years but believe me, I've never ever bought a travel insurance. I've been lucky enough that nothing had happened during my holidays. Now my circumstances have changed. I'm now married and have a less than a year old daughter.

We've planned a holiday in December and I MUST get insurance for our trip. As I don't have any previous experience in travel insurance, can I ask if I understand from what's shown in insurance quote below is correct. The quote is £89 with £50 excess for all three of us for 30 days holiday.


– Missed Connection/departure/disruption £1000 = meaning if we missed the connecting/departure flight, the insurance company will pay maximum £1000 per person for another flight booking?

What are the insurance catches I should be aware of?

I'd highly appreciate if anyone could give some advice on this.

Cheers

[louiebaby]

I'm not gonna be a lot of use here, but my first thought was that Time Travel Insurance is bound to be a massive business failure. In fact, when we get to the stage of needing it, the whole Insurance Industry is going to take quite a pounding...

Enjoy your trip, I hope you get some useful answers.

[zakmuh]

Thanks!

I'll wait for few others advice/comments

[s2kjock]

Sounds cheap to me for that number of people and the duration.

Things I look at carefully as I they will vary from insurer to insurer and how much cover I want to pay for:

Medical exclusions
Ensuring I advise them fully of existing medical conditions and visits to the doc etc (exactly as they ask for them)
Cover for "freak" events such as volcano ash no fly cover
Extent of cover for travel delays
Cover to get home in an emergency (eg serious illness of close family)
Cover for sporting activities (mine cost more if I wanted to go walking above a certain level, or watersports a certain distance from shore, horseriding, motorcycling etc etc etc)
Cover for personal possessions - mine would not cover mobile phones as standard I don't think, so I had to pay extra for this

[zakmuh]

Thanks there!

I tried a couple of companies, including my car insurance one, they all come in that range. If I go for zero excess, then its like £110.

I mainly need missed/cancelled/delayed flights, medial and luggage covers. Rest are not important for me.

What do they ask for when it comes to any claim?

Cheers

[craig1912]

Sounds about right in terms of cost- crazy not buying travel insurance before but you have been lucky.

I'd go for one of the better/bigger names we haven't had any problems with AXA and Aviva.

Re your claims question- depends what you want to claim for but generally evidence that you have suffered a claimable event. All travel insurance covers what you want although quite often baggage/personal possessions are covered under home insurance.
Biggest claims are likely to be medical particularly in USA but most policies have a minimum of £1m cover

Edited by craig1912 on Wednesday 2nd August 13:42

[zakmuh]

The worst case scenario would be like we're missing a flight, flight got cancelled, hospitalised etc. I'd assume we just have to get a letter form the airliners, a letter form the hospital/doctor etc as proof to make a claim.

I just wanted to know what needs kept documented before/during/after the trip for travel insurance purposes.

[blueg33]

zakmuh said:

The worst case scenario would be like we're missing a flight, flight got cancelled, hospitalised etc. I'd assume we just have to get a letter form the airliners, a letter form the hospital/doctor etc as proof to make a claim.

I just wanted to know what needs kept documented before/during/after the trip for travel insurance purposes.

If you are claiming illness for abroad you will not only need receipts but credit card slips, credit card statements etc that tie into the dates of the claims. I had to claim after a snowboarding accident last year and despite the receipts from the pharmacy I had to provide the credit card receipts and statements to prove I paid.

I would suggest that you don't pay for anything in cash if you are expecting to claim afterwards from insurers

[Melman Giraffe]

zakmuh said:

Thanks there!

I tried a couple of companies, including my car insurance one, they all come in that range. If I go for zero excess, then its like £110.

I mainly need missed/cancelled/delayed flights, medial and luggage covers. Rest are not important for me.

What do they ask for when it comes to any claim?

Cheers

Does your bank account not have Travel insurance included as a deal

[craig1912]

blueg33 said:

If you are claiming illness for abroad you will not only need receipts but credit card slips, credit card statements etc that tie into the dates of the claims. I had to claim after a snowboarding accident last year and despite the receipts from the pharmacy I had to provide the credit card receipts and statements to prove I paid.

I would suggest that you don't pay for anything in cash if you are expecting to claim afterwards from insurers

Never needed credit card slips etc. For bigger emergencies the insurer will use an assistance provider and generally bills will be paid direct. For smaller stuff I've always found a simple receipt to be enough but just get as much documentation as you can.

[zakmuh]

Good advice guys. Excellent!

Keeping all the above in mind, I'll save everything I can, just in case.

I'm with Lloyds but don't have that fancy account which has travel insurance and break down cover etc. As I don't travel much, it works out to be cheaper to have these individually, rather than paying £17 every month to the bank, like £100 for AA (recovery+relay+repair) + £90 for travel insurance.

[parabolica]

Careful if you're travelling to the US/Canada as some Travel Insurance policies will have a separate section about the coverage (or lack there of) due to the high costs of NA medical treatment; be sure to read the small print and if there is a checkbox for including US coverage on the page when buying, make sure to tick it.

Otherwise I tend to use the search markets to find the most reasonable; just make sure to read the conditions. I bought flight tickets for LHR - Montreal for my father and I through an online broker and they offered travel insurance as part of the deal, which was great as their T&Cs said the coverage went up to age 85 (dad is 69). 5 days before take-off I noticed the small print saying anyone 65+ travelling to NA would not be covered under the policy - had to scramble around to find separate coverage.

[zakmuh]

Thanks parabolica.

We're travelling to Sri Lanka. Perfect place for a holiday!

[tighnamara]

craig1912 said:

Sounds about right in terms of cost- crazy not buying travel insurance before but you have been lucky.

I'd go for one of the better/bigger names we haven't had any problems with AXA and Aviva.

Re your claims question- depends what you want to claim for but generally evidence that you have suffered a claimable event. All travel insurance covers what you want although quite often baggage/personal possessions are covered under home insurance.
Biggest claims are likely to be medical particularly in USA but most policies have a minimum of £1m cover

Edited by craig1912 on Wednesday 2nd August 13:42

Only my experience but wouldn't touch AXA.
Went with them last month as they were one of the bigger companies, broke my ankle and had operation in France.
Terrible emergency service with call centre in Mauritius, ended up deflecting everything even though they had no medical bill to pay or accommodation.
Only had to get me home, wouldn't / didn't arrange with airline we flew in with, ended up with flights in Spain and 3hr taxi journey either side.

Maybe just a bad and unlucky experience but it was a nightmare.........

[souper]

If you have medical conditions theses worked out best for me Aus, HK.
https://www.oktotravelinsurance.co.uk

[zakmuh]

Thanks

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Hope you've fully recovered now.

I don't have any medical conditions but thanks for the link though

Edited by zakmuh on Friday 4th August 08:27

[audidoody]

zakmuh said:

The worst case scenario would be like we're missing a flight, flight got cancelled, hospitalised etc. I'd assume we just have to get a letter form the airliners, a letter form the hospital/doctor etc as proof to make a claim.

I just wanted to know what needs kept documented before/during/after the trip for travel insurance purposes.

Nope. The worst case scenario is traumatic injury, heart attack, stroke, tropical disease etc requiring immediate surgery, critical care, repatriation etc. Not for nothing do travel insurance policies offer millions of pounds of medical cover.

Missing/cancelled flights would be the least of your problems.

The claims procedure on the policy schedule will tell you all you need to know.

Oh and read the small print carefully. For example, coming off a motorbike while pissed and not wearing a helmet will mean an invalidated claim.

[zakmuh]

I bought the flight ticked back in May for my family to travel in this December. I just got a quote from ERV Express Premier Annual Multi Trip insurance ( I haven't bought it yet ) and I downloaded T&C document to check what's excluded in the cover. I'm a bit confused with the followings:

Section 5 - Cancellation
Exclusions applying to Section 5
What is not covered
1. Any cancellation of a trip that was booked
before the Policy was purchased.

So does the above mean that I'm not able to claim if anything happens, as I've already bought the ticket or it means that if the already booked ticket is now cancelled and I bought this insurance after that cancellation?


6. Any cancellation of a trip
i. due to the fear of an epidemic or
pandemic

If closer to our travel date we found that the country we're travelling to is hit by an epidemic, the insurance wouldn't cover it?



Thanks

Edited by zakmuh on Friday 4th August 11:47

[nickfrog]

Cancellation : it's an annual policy so you can't know in advance what trip you're going to book. I think it's badly worded or you partially pasted. They won't cover if you cancel before buying the policy but will cover you for cancellations after buying the policy even if the trip was booked beforehand (providing it's not due to a medical condition that you found about BEFORE buying the policy of course even if you only cancel after buying it).

UNLESS, it does mean exactly that and I'd look elsewhere as this is poor.

Pendemic etc : you won't be covered for cancellation if it's your decision (fear) but they will if The Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against travel to that country (it's generally the case but check you T&Cs).

[craig1912]

zakmuh said:

I bought the flight ticked back in May for my family to travel in this December. I just got a quote from ERV Express Premier Annual Multi Trip insurance ( I haven't bought it yet ) and I downloaded T&C document to check what's excluded in the cover. I'm a bit confused with the followings:

Section 5 - Cancellation
Exclusions applying to Section 5
What is not covered
1. Any cancellation of a trip that was booked
before the Policy was purchased.

So does the above mean that I'm not able to claim if anything happens, as I've already bought the ticket or it means that if the already booked ticket is now cancelled and I bought this insurance after that cancellation?


6. Any cancellation of a trip
i. due to the fear of an epidemic or
pandemic

If closer to our travel date we found that the country we're travelling to is hit by an epidemic, the insurance wouldn't cover it?



Thanks

Edited by zakmuh on Friday 4th August 11:47

Don't think that's worded very well- generally you would be covered for cancellation provided you weren't aware that it was going to happen before you bought the policy.

The epidemic clause is a strange one- it states fear of an epidemic, not if there is an epidemic. Strange one as many mainstream policies don't have this.

... oh and you should always buy your insurance on the same day you book your trip as you never know what may happen.