To wonder why people don't buy travel insurance?

[EveningHare]

If you can afford a holiday then you should not look at travel insurance as an optional extra

It's vital that you have it, anything could happen and if you don't have lots of money in the bank, how would you pay for it? Go fund me?

Thank you Vitamin :)

For some people it is nearly impossible to get insurance or it is very expensive. It is approx £300 for insurance for myself, I do pay because its a gamble I refuse to take but I can understand why some people wouldn't pay that.

why would you want insurance for a day trip or for travel in your own country anyway?

I was responding to someone who regularly took day trips within the EU.

Personally though, I get multitrip insurance even though I mostly travel within the uk - in case we have to cancel trips, for emergency hotel stays, etc.

Missmoneyplant - I just took out insurance for a long haul trip to Mexico for 2 weeks, my son has autism so when doing our insurance I made sure to tell the women he had autism and it has been listed as a declared medical condition and she asked me these 2 questions

● When you travel will you always be accompanied by someone you know? - Yes
● Does this frequently lead to aggressive behaviour? - No

I have no ideal if it made my insurance higher. He’s not anxious though and doesn’t suffer from anxiety attacks or take any medication, and he’s only 4 so me or his dad would be with him all the time anyway.

Vitamin - if they had autism though would it go down as a listed medical condition when taking out the policy ? I personally don’t think it should of been listed as it’s not a medical condition, it’s a neurological condition.

Your medical conditions have been declared and accepted
Please see your attached Medical Screening Declaration for details of the conditions you declared

"I was very glad to have insurance for travel in this country when I broke my ankle."

Why? How did it help? You'd be covered by the NHS anyway.

Why? How did it help? You'd be covered by the NHS anyway.

will the nhs pay for you to get home?
will the nhs cancel & reimburse your hotel booking?

Some people are very naive about this whole subject. Most countries do not have the sort of care that the NHS struggles to provide.

Going to any country outside the EU and expecting NHS care is stupid - most people have to have additional health insurance in addition to what the government provides.

I have known several people who have been in accidents in Greece, Bulgaria, not to mention several African countries who have encountered horrific conditions in hospitals and been forced to go a chemist to buy drugs, dressings, etc. Most of the world has poor medical care, the wealthy and people with insurance fly out of these places to places with good hospitals. In these places you need insurance to get flown back to the U.K.

Because while they’ll cover my physical illness at no extra cost, the second I mention having something mental health related (anxiety) they bump up the premium and exclude it and are just grabby fuckers.

Because while they’ll cover my physical illness at no extra cost, the second I mention having something mental health related (anxiety) they bump up the premium and exclude it and are just grabby fuckerS

The rating is on probability. It MORE likely you'll claim in their experience. In a way heed that and def get cover. It might seem unfair but these are commercial decisions. Try and find an insurance company that is used to your kind of condition, they are less likely to take commercial fright.

In a way heed that

I’ve never claimed on travel insurance when I did have it, but thanks for the unwarranted assumptions.

I’m not more likely to claim for a mental health condition than a physical one, but thanks for perpetuating that lovely stigma. It’s actually been in the news recently that insurance companies discriminate against mental health problems.

You don’t even know what my physical health problem IS but in you steam making assumptions. My physical health problem is more likely to cause issues and has done before but that is covered at no extra cost.

So thanks for the really well-informed response

Further to which:
amp.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/22/call-to-stop-insurance-firms-refusing-cover-after-mental-illness
www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/19/people-with-mental-illnesses-refused-access-to-insurance-cover

Maybe you should contact all those campaigners and let them know it’s just “commercial decisions” and they should heed them.

FYI my anxiety makes me less likely to claim as I am so worried and careful. Stop and think next time you are about to write something so ignorant.

I did say speak to a specialist company. Companies are commercially cautious.

I work with insurance companies, so I may not know your experience, but I know theirs. Mental health issues cause many many claims. What is at odds with what you want is it is specifically travel situations. That's why a specialist is needed. Their claims experience will cover all areas.

I shouldn’t bloody have to though should I? I don’t have to for my physical health, which as I’ve explained is more of a problem.

Minikat - sorry, but you are being rude to people who are trying to help you. Do you speak to people like this in real life? Go without travel insurance if you wish, many do but don't start complaining when something happens.

Alternatively just don't travel abroad

No, I’m just really frustrated that people think it’s fine that physical and mental health aren’t treated the same and that certain assumptions are being made like telling me to heed these wrong assumptions. It’s not fair or equal and it’s wrong to say mental health is always more problematic.

Help me how? Telling me to heed a stigmatised view? Ok...

I don’t need advice and didn’t ask for any, I was just expressing a view.

Instead of ranting at a forum why don't you take a suggestion from a PP to go to a specialist company. People are trying to assist. I tried to get some car insurance for my recently turned 18 DS. The quotes I got were horrendous. I looked into it further and found some specialist companies and found something much more affordable.

I could of course complain that they are picking on my son by loading premiums and that he a very careful driver etc but as others said these are commercial decisions. They are not there to annoy you personally.

This is a forum question asking why people don’t buy travel insurance and I offered one answer.

Can't speak for all providers but my European multi trip policy does NOT cover Uk.

No, I’m just really frustrated that people think it’s fine that physical and mental health aren’t treated the same and that certain assumptions are being made like telling me to heed these wrong assumptions. It’s not fair or equal and it’s wrong to say mental health is always more problematic.

I doubt the premiums you are charged are dreamt up by the companies, with someone saying “ooo, the mentally ill, I don’t know about them. Let’s put them off by increasing their premiums.” It will be done by a numerical model and lots of data analysing how much different conditions cost on average. The issue can be where their model isn’t sophisticated enough to deal with subtly different conditions, which is why a specialist broker can help.

Because I think it's a waste of money. Because I literally never fall ill, and don't care about my bag being lost, and only travel long-haul to countries with cheap healthcare (like Asia).

My attitude to insurance is "if I can afford the worst thing that could happen, I'm not getting the insurance".

I don't have contents, jewelley, travel or any sort of insurance. Don't drive.

What about your family or other loved ones, @FieldsofWheat, if you were involved in an accident and they needed to get you home, with no travel insurance to help out?

Thanks to this thread I have got my travel insurance down from £144 to £62. I naively thought that my bank cover was the best because I have a prexisting condition. It turns out that the specialist companies are cheaper.

Well done, Grassyass! That's a good saving.

People always think of insurance as being just for the holiday. My mum broke her leg the day after booking a holiday. She was told she was unable to fly for 12 months due to the severity of the breaks. She hadn't yet booked her insurance so even though the incident was here, she lost her money because she couldn't cancel.
I booked insurance one time and someone died, I was able to claim and cancel my booking but had to get a copy of the death certificate for the claim.