Do you declare EVERYTHING for travel insurance?

[Squeekey]

Just that really.

I would always declare my daughter's health condition as it's serious, will affect whether we get coverage etc, but do you really declare everything everyone in the family has seen a Dr for in the last 2 years?

Last time I phoned up about insurance (phone needed because of daughter), they spent about 20 minutes asking innane questions about my husband's 5 minute trip to a Dr 9 months ago for foot pain.

I'm perfectly happy to accept that I won't get coverage for anything we don't declare, but in reality what do people do? I keep, I think I had a phone appointment with the GP last year for antibiotics for a chest infection - according to the insurance rules I need to declare it.

I'm considering that I might benefit from antidepressants for the first time to get me through a very very stressful few months and I can feel my mid plummeting, but I can't face having it over analyzed for donkeys years by insurers.

What do people do?

Anyone know if you have to declare if you're on a waiting list for genetic testing? Most insurance companies won't insure you if you're awaiting treatment or investigation but my genetic testing is due to family history of cancer rather than symptoms.

I don’t know and am actually wondering the same for dd. Takes six months for her to get the results back! 🫣

yes if you do not your insurance can be invalid as incorrect information given

mine has recently jumped up because I am on a low dose of beta blocker even though no apparent reason for fast sitting heart rate but I am not going to risk not declaring the medication I am on

I wouldnt take travel insurance out if I wasnt going abroad

A quick update. I phoned our insurance company and told them about the fall and injury to my arm. Several questions later it was noted on the policy as a fracture, and the actual injury (minor displacement of a radial in my elbow) put in the notes with a resultant extra charge of £17.42 (£15 of which was an admin update fee for a change to the policy). They confirmed that I would not have been covered for any subsequent injury to the arm had I not phoned to update them.

The question is - if you had had any other medical incident unrelated to your arm, would they have paid out?

Or would they have looked at your medical records, said "You didn't declare your arm, so we won't pay for your unrelated medical incident"

@cakeorwine That specific thought didn't occur to me to be honest, I was more concerned to ensure that I had declared in accordance with their policy document, and just in case anything did happen with my arm.

Premiums are accessed on risk, so a person who falls and breaks their arm may be seen as a higher risk to falls or more, lifestyle wise, more prone to accidents, so a higher premium charged.

So i don't declare a minor speeding conviction, i get hit from the rear in a traffic jam, the policy may not pay out, not because it wasn't a speeding related accident but because i didn't pay the correct premium for the risk i represent, that lowers their profitability.

I thought of this thread when I read this story the other day. It looks like you do have to declare absolutely everything. It seems really harsh on the woman in the article though and makes me nervous about travelling abroad even with insurance. 😕

https://www.itv.com/news/2025-03-04/woman-faces-34000-medical-bill-after-insurance-was-invalidated-because-of-hrt

yes I am awaiting a scan for menopausal related bleeding and without any kind of diagnosis I am technically uninsurable. Luckily I only need to wait a month for it but it's not ideal.

What if you have to cancel your holiday a few days before ? You’d lose all the cost of the holiday! What about contents of your suitcases, your spending money, phone, iPad etc if lost or stolen? You need insurance whether home or abroad!

Whereas I agree that everything should be revealed, most of us do not have a list of every ailment, illness, surgery, or accident, if you are elderly. If you’ve lived in several different places, or countries you won’t have access to everything in all your notes. It will be a very thick volume or volumes! It won’t all be on the app either. I keep a note of medical conditions, OPs etc but I can’t remember every single little thing.

Oestrogen in hrt slightly increases your risk of a blood clot as does the pill. I’d declare both because god forbid you collapse mid flight with a pulmonary embolism and haven’t declared taking oestrogen every day.

That's not been my experience with the Coop bank account. We had to declare our preexisting conditions to the insurance company -AXA and luckily no extra premiums were needed. There's a long list of conditions they waiver on the website, still need to be declared though. Might be worth you checking. Unfortunately I've since been diagnosed with gallstones so I'm not insured until the situation is resolved. I am for lost luggage etc but not for that
I do think the way the insurance companies behave puts people off going to the doctors. I have a friend who won't go with a bad knee because it will affect her premiums.

After reading this thread I rang our Insurance before our holiday last month to let them know I had started on HRT 6 months ago
They couldn't have been less interested. Said I didn't need to inform them!

Do we need to declare we’re waiting on an appointment for fertility investigations?? Would that mean we can’t get insured for our upcoming holiday?

@TennisLady as you’re awaiting a hospital appointment I’d declare it just to be on the safe side. You’ll still get insurance cover and I doubt it will make much difference to the price

I’ve managed to add that (and an appointment about a mole that was fine). I can’t add my DH’s recent medical appointment or fertility investigations because it says he’s already covered for an upgrade (asthma) until June so he’s then covered for anything new that pops until then too. Problem is holiday is just after this date so will need to go on and add this again and hope it doesn’t cause any issues.

I have claimed for medical reasons once on holiday insurance. My insurance is a bit more expensive but I declare everything as have a few conditions. The bill for 1 night in hospital and an ambulance and scan was $6,000 and that was 18 years ago.

Look specifically for a company that only asks for the last 2 years medical stuff, easy to double check everything on nhs app. That way nothing will be missed/ forgotten!

@NeedWineNowI went over on my ankle and went to A&E for an xray. It was torn ligaments, no follow up. Called insurers, no extra premium but £30 admin to add note on file.

Our insurance is £2.5K thanks to DH and holidays we had booked before his problems.

Hoping it’s lower on renewal.

I've never thought about this before but wanted to go to Spain in a month!!

I have a disease! Can I just put refer to GP?!

No. They'll do that only after you submit a claim and they want to look for a reason to decline the claim. Get your records and list everything.

Oh dear this could be a palaver

Yes because I've read so many things on here about claims denied to those who haven't. I went through my NHS app to be certain I put down every visit/diagnosis in the last 2 years. Thankfully I didn't need to put it to the test.