4 Mistakes To Avoid
Hard truths first: insurance is boring and when you are booking your much loved and anticipated summer holiday - it's not something you want to spend much time on.
But spending just 30 minutes deciding what insurance to buy, could save you thousands of pounds and a lot of heartache later on.
So here are the 4 mistakes to avoid when buying holiday insurance
Mistake number 1 is: Buying It At The Wrong Time
You should get your insurance when you book your holiday (but NOT necessarily with the same company!!!!) you may well be covered if anything happens before you go away and need to cancel. That way you stand a good chance of getting your money back. If you wait to buy your insurance, just before you travel, you paying for holiday cancellation protection you are not benefitting from. So get the insurance early.
Here's a quick decision tree on what to consider:
Mistake Number 2 Is: Just Choosing The Cheapest
There are some great comparison websites which will show you the cheapest insurance policies to buy. Price is extrremely important, but it's not everything because biying a cheap policy which doesn't cover you for the type of holiday you are on - is actually a waste of money. So make sure the insurance is appropriate
Mistake Number 3 Is: Not Knowing What You're Buying
So, what are the hidden problems people discover when they buy travel insurance?
High Excess Clauses An excess is the amount you'll need to pay in a claim before the insurer steps in and pays the rest of the bill. Cheaper insurance deals often have higher excess clauses. So if you lose your luggage or an expensive camera is stolen, you might suddenly find your cheap travel insurance, might insists you pay the first £1,000 of any loss - so make sure you are happy with the trade-off between the price of the insurance and how much you would have to pay for any loss.
Missed Flights: Your insurance might not cover the cost resulting from missed flights or missed connecting flights. This can be important if you are doing complicated travel with different airlines on a more adventurous holiday than your summer beach break- but it can be important for everyone.
Lost or Stolen Personal Belongings: You might just bne taking a swim suit and a pair of jeans, in which case most travel insurance might be suifficient. But what if you are taking your expensive laptop, camera or phone. Not only do you need to ensure the cover is sufficient to cover the loss - but you need to check a bit of the small print called ''single item limit' – which is the maximum you can claim for any individual possession. So you might have £1,000 of cover but only £250 possible to claim on any individual item. So check that the cover is what you expect.
Check If You Already Have Cover: It is possible that you already have some travel cover or insurance for your possessions, whilst on holiday, as part of your home insurance policy, Checking this out first, might reduce how much you need to pay for travel insurance.
Travelling to USA or Canada: Often you need to have travcel insurance which specifically covers these areas.
Sports (Even if you are not sporty):
If you are skiing, you will definitely need skiijng insurance. But if you are going skiing that might be an obvious thing to think about. Less obvious is if you are sitting on a beahc and suddenly decide to to a bit of parasailling you see everyone else doing - being pulled by a great looking speed boat to a parachute. Many policies might cover you for scuba diving or waterskiing or even parasailing, but its worth checking before hand. GoCompare found that whilst most, but not all, policies covered parasailing, only half of them covered jet skiing.
Mistake Number 4 Is: Buying The Same Insurance Over & Over Again
You don't need to keep buying travel insurance, yuo can get one policy to cover you all year.
What's The Advantage of Multi-Trip Insurance
As with many things, buying in bulk tends to save you money. The same is true with travel insurance. So buying 1 policy which covers you for multiple holidays, can be much cheaper than buyin g a policy everytime you travel. Perhaps just as importantly, it means you only have to do your research once and then you can forget about it for the rest of the year.
Travel insurance for a two-week holiday for 1 person in Spain might cost £15-£20
Travel Insurance for a whole year for 1 person in Spain might cost £20-£30
(As checked with Confused.com August 2024)
So if you are going away from than once a year, it is certainly worth looking into multi-trip insurance.
Things To Consider:
If you are buying a policy for the whole family, are people included in the policy covered if they travel alone. I've heard of a case where a family bought annual travel insurance and then when their children went on a holiday without the parents, the policy didn't cover them.
Are you likely to travel to the US or beyond in the year or go skiing? In which case consider buying worldwide insurance that includes sports cover.
Check how many days you are allowed to be away each year - as this can vary dramatically
If you are buying insurance for a family with children, but your children are over 18, then you might not qualify for the family schemes but could look at booking your annual insurance as a 'group policy'
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