When travelling to Europe.....

[TicketsPleases]

What do you do regarding the insurance situation? Do you just use your GHICs for the insurance stuff or do you buy extra travel insurance? If so, where's the best place to buy travel insurance. We just used to go without. But now I see on the EES question they'll ask questions now.

I buy insurance through Coverwise. I don't know how good they are as I have never needed to use them (thankfully) but cost wise they were the best.

Always have insurance. The GHIC doesn’t cover much. If you become ill you will pay a lot of money. It also covers having to cancel your holiday (my colleague just had to do that add her husband became ill), accidents, lost money, phones, luggage. Mental not to take it.

DH is "no need to buy insurance. Just a waste money".

Ordered GHICs now as it's free and will let us answer yes with the new EES.

Relying on a GHIC is quite frankly the height of naivety. Of course you need travel insurance!!

Tell your DH to stop being so ignorant. In the (highly likely) event that the GHIC wouldn’t cover all costs in the case of illness/an accident etc you’d be liable to pay ££££s for hospital treatment and repatriation. Basic travel insurance is a waste of money yet you can afford to go on foreign holidays? Something doesn’t add up here..!

He's like that. What can I say. 🤷‍♀️

Please advise me on best way to purchase travel insurance? Can you get it when booking the trip?

Times I've used my travel insurance (and not paid a penny):

Fell seriously ill completely unexpectedly and needed an operation - all free
Trip cancelled due to dc being admitted to hospital the night before - money back
Flight cancelled, holiday lost, airport at fault - money back
Trip cancelled, lock down imposed from one day to the next - money back

it's a no brainer

It’s widely and easily available. You can go through comparison sites or a travel agent for example. Many banks offer travel insurance policies with certain credit cards. We usually just go through Post Office online - they’re reliable, reasonably priced and easy to deal with. DD fell ill (thankfully nothing major) whilst travelling in Australia recently and they were really helpful

A friend of mine had an accident on hols in France. Helicopter rescue after an unfortunate accident that could happen to anyone. He spent about 2 weeks in a French hospital. Needed to be escorted home. Wife needed to book new travel. Stay out for longer. All covered. They’d have been up shit creek without insurance.

check out a few sad face daily wail articles. It makes me really cross when people don’t bother with insurance and then put up some heartstring Go Fund Me.

you often get the option to add insurance when you book but it may not be the cheapest or best.

We have ours with our current account and DH uses Insure and Go via his company.

We had two years with issues. Last year one hospital didn’t accept the EHIC, a GP surgery also didn’t as they don’t have it set up in their System so we paid upfront and claimed part of it back via the EHIC/NHS system.

This year I ended in hospital after a fall, it wasn’t just the hospital, we missed our flight, paid a fortune to rebook and had to pay for a hotel.
Total upfront was over €1,000. We got all back from our travel insurance.
Now the hospital sent a bill as the X-ray wasn’t covered by the EHIC, that’s another €150.

Your husband is utterly foolish. Just book the insurance but be honest about any pre-existing health issues and read the not covered activities.

This morning I went on travel supermarket and got annual worldwide cover for DH and me including winter sports for £160. Post Office was best value.

I was taken ill with a blood clot in France. The ehic was sufficient I spent several days in hospital all was fine

If you are buying a package holiday you can usually just buy it as an add on but it tends to be pricier than sourcing yourself.

It's as easy (easier) as buying any other type of insurance. Go on Compare the Market or similar, just answer the questions and compare the quotes that come back.

Ignore your husband. Insurance is a non negotiable.

Would it have been sufficient for longer periods of time, major surgery, repatriation etc? Unlikely.

Embarrassed for your DH, he sounds thick as fuck 🤣

Just go on Holiday Extras and buy an annual policy. It’s very simple

Always take out travel insurance! A GHIC will only cover for basic cover. If you need to be repatriated back to the UK, a GHIC card won't cover you. As long as you have no existing medical issues it is pretty cheap to do. All supermarkets do travel insurance. Look at comparison web sites for other travel insurance too.

you should have travel insurance in place from the time you book the trip, it's to cover events that may result in you not being able to travel as well as incidents while you're away.

The EHIC will cover some costs of being taken ill in Europe. But it won’t cover

• costs of remainder of travellers staying on alongside ill person, or rearranging transport home
• repatriation either as an ill person or if someone dies - this could run to many thousands
• baggage lost or stolen or delayed
• holiday needing to be cancelled due to illness or other circumstances beforehand

the first two are the most important. Maybe you can absorb the cost of a missed holiday or lost suitcase, but extended hospital stays or repatriation could be stupidly expensive.

Thank you. When we book holiday we tend to do flights + accomodation. I'll be adamant about travel insurance for us and the DC. We've been lucky that touchwood nothings happened to us.

It's usually cheaper to buy a policy through a separate provider than bolted on with your holiday company if you compare like for like with what will be covered. We do an annual plan with the Post Office so we are all covered for multiple trips and individually. The website is simple to use and it's clearly laid out for choices so you can decide and immediately see the cost of optional extras.

We had to see a GP in Spain last summer - E120 straight out of the gate for a 10 mins appointment where we were immediately referred to a hospital. DH was aghast as it was his first brush with a non NHS health system. There is no way I would travel without insurance.

I like Insure & Go. I've never had to make a claim but very happy with their pricing, the first time I used them I didn't have any conditions to declare but did for subsequent trips and the price didn't go up by much at all.

Hell be a classic daily mail sad face case. It’s a good deal to get family insurance. Then your Dh will be covered.
Make sure you list all pre existing conditions. Go to a comparison site. You can get insurance for 1 trip or annually.

A friend got knocked off a bike on holiday in Spain. Had to stay a couple of weeks extra until she could fly home and then needed an extra seat on the flight plus someone to accompany her. Plus private ambulance to the airport. Cost thousands but covered by insurance.

Just as important is the third party liability insurance that is included in travel insurance policies. For example:

You rent a pushbike and accidentally crash into someone who suffers a broken leg in the accident. The bike is wrecked beyond repair. Third party insurance covers the cost of replacing the bike, but most importantly it covers the medical costs of the person with the broken leg, the accommodation costs if someone has to stay with them, the cost to them of re-booking transport (or the cost of an ambulance home) and any subsequent damages that you might be ordered to pay them for loss of earnings if they have to miss work for a few months, or even damages for permanent loss of mobility.

These costs can run into thousands, and can also involve legal action and costs - all of which a good travel policy should cover.