Do you think holiday insurance is a necessity or a luxury?

I might be wrong but Im sure its in the t&cs for tui that you need it.

Its not really that expensive. I dont know why people risk it

I just renewed our multi trip annual European cover today. I've noticed quite an increase from last year but still only £69 for 2 adults with good cover and a 5 star defacto rated company.

Just make sure you are covered but read the small print as insurance companies are very good at getting out of paying people if something goes wrong and will say it was in the small print. Be careful.

I would never go abroad without insurance, we just factor it into the cost. We’re
going abroad 4 times this year so we’ve got an annual policy which was around £600 as DH and I have both got pre-existing health conditions. I can’t stand the idea of being away and running up hundreds of thousand of pounds in medical bills.

I point blank refuse to donate to Go Fund Me pages for anyone who didn’t get insurance. They knew the risk and still went, not my problem to solve 🤷‍♀️

A solo travelling friend was taken ill on a plane to a country in South America. Luckily she had proper insurance because the demands for money started with the ambulance crew driving her to a cash point to get cash to pay them to take her to hospital!

She was able to contact her insurers at the hospital so didn’t have to fork out more cash, but it was a salutary lesson. The eventual bill from the hospital was huge and itemised to the nth degree, eg charges made for ampoules of saline to flush out a drip in her hand.

There probably is an age factor, our insurance is part of our bank account but when I first started traveling abroad in mid 1980s I’m sure you had to take out insurance when booking, it wasn’t optional. So maybe I’ve always assumed everyone did it. I also bought annual insurance for our DD once she became an adult and wasn’t included in ours, I’m sure it was under £50 for the year.

One of my kids needed a routine prescription in the US, which came to $200. We had to fork out the cash up front and claim it back on the insurance afterwards.

It’s worth pointing out that insurance is not just about covering medical bills abroad, it also covers you before you even go.

If you broke your leg a week before your holiday and couldn’t fly you’d have cancellation cover, or, god forbid, a relative died while you were away and you needed to fly home early then you would be covered.

i think Martin Lewis once gave a stat about a significant % of travel insurance claims are made before the holiday even starts.

The stupid ones are not the only the one's that refuse to buy insurance but also the one's that donate to any begging for help because the feckless can't afford to pay their hospital bills.

Its ridiculous to go without one. Ive just come back from mediterranean holiday. We had to go and see the doctor for dc for a swimmers ear. You wouldnt want to be worried about not affording a dr when in a different country with children. Or even by yourself. I was struck with bird flu in asia many years ago. Not fun if you have to wonder affroding treatment.

She’s a twit, pure and simple. she’ll be one of those crowdfunding if things go wrong. I donate to loads of crowdfunding pages but never those.

Why don’t you show her this thread or some of those crowdfunding pages.

You could probably report her to HR for being ageist as well if you were feeling petty 😂

I have a pretty basic phone that would cost me less than £200 to replace. I've never lost a phone in my life, so I consider the risk to be very low. I don't use it to pay for stuff, and everything important on it is backed up in the cloud. If the worst happened and it was nicked, I'd just buy a cheap replacement and a local SIM, and I'd be fine until I got home. I've never had phone insurance, and over the course of the nearly 30 years I've owned a phone, that's probably saved me thousands, so I'm willing to take the hit on that now.

I'm also a dual national with 2 passports, so the risk of losing them both is virtually non-existent.

I can't vote because I think sometimes it's more nuanced than people just not wanting to buy it. Some people genuinely can't get insurance, even through specialist insurers. Some would say they should spend their life stuck where they currently are; I disagree.

Which bank are you with?

This!

I am the family's insurance-whisperer. I sort out policies for everyone. For travel, pre-existing conditions and activities mean shopping around for adequate cover. I don't choose on price, though comparison sites are useful for identifying the providers who are in our niche so cost is managed. It is usually necessary to read actual policies before choosing, as even standard levels of cover vary, for example swimming in the sea is not always covered.

She's abusing her children by penny-pinching and putting their lives at risk.

I agree there.

And these are the same people who will then tell you your claim isn’t valid because xyz…..

There is a lack of transparency and regulations there.
eg we shouldn’t need to declare ALL issues including those dating back 15 years ago.
We shouldn’t need to include things that aren’t relevant anymore (eg you’ve had treatment and you’re now cured)
etc etc…

Necessity! Wouldn’t book a holiday without it.

I agree. My DH has cancer, under control but not curable. Our travel insurance worldwide is £1800 with Insurancewith. Please don’t quote prices like £3k as for the vast majority of people it’s nothing like this.

And what would have happened if the insurance had rejected the claim?

I don’t mean that maliciously. But insurance finding a way to refuse payment isn’t unheard off, even when people did the best they could.
So then what?

Id personally would have much less issue of paying automatically if you knew you’d be covered with no quibble.

I called it a scandal not because I don’t appreciate risk. If the companies do not want to insure people with pre existing medical conditions they should not advertise themselves in the way they do.
They are very happy to insure people who cost a lot.
They don’t really know much about the conditions they do insure. Not really.
I don’t think they would survive for long without the high price clients. But the prices are too high.

As some previous posters have said, never travel to the US without travel insurance, and declare everything for your policy. There are plenty of hospitals in the US who will not treat you, unless you are literally dying in front of them, without insurance, so you wouldn't even get past reception.

Just getting an ambulance can cost you thousands of dollars. Surgery and/or hospital stay and/or repatriation can cost you your house.

It's not an age thing, it's a lack of knowledge/stupidity thing. Just don't do it. Even if your travel insurance costs you £200, pay it!

Anyone who brings children abroad without insurance is stupid and neglectful.

100% need insurance! Its so easy and cheap (for most people) that I despair when I see these griffters starting a go fund me, because they didn’t want to pay £9.80 to cover them on their 2 week all inclusive to Spain.