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?

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

Fair enough, but I've calculated that my holiday insurance is 0.005% of the holidays I currently have booked. Seems like bloody good value to me.

Insurance companies rarely pay up any time I have ever claimed.

I've never taken out insurance - I've not been abroad since having kids (and only went to three countries) so I would now as would have more to loose. It was a calculated risk we both took. We only went to EU countries and took the risk if we became ill or injured that most would be covered by our E111. As it happens the risk was worth it and we never needed it.

Funnily enough I was having this conversation with someone today. I was told of a friend whose wife had a drink on holiday (had a known alcohol problem) and slipped, fell and died. Insurance refused to cover her as she had drunk alcohol.

I also know someone who was taking an internal flight to London then on to a long haul destination (return home not a holiday). Uk flight was delayed so missed main flight. They had to purchase two new flights home plus as they couldn't afford both flights on cards they had with them one had to come back to family and they had to lend them the cash to buy her flight. Insurance wouldn't cover as even though they bought tickets via travel agents they were individually purchased and not linked therefor they weren't covered.

Generally I think insurance is a bit like gambolling, more have to pay and not get a return than who do however of course some types of insurance it's just irresponsible (and illegal) not to have. So I do have car, house, contents and life insurance (and now pet insurance).

I cannot currently get travel insurance covering everything, because I am awaiting results of what set of investigations, and a procedure for something else. So I haven't yet booked a holiday this year. As soon as the above come through, I can work out what I can afford.

@Gasp0de, I have no kids so it would just be my partner. In that case we could go to the local hospital, or fly home. 2 flights would be OK for our budget.

These things have such a rare chance of happening. I've been flying abroad 3-5 times a year since I was 6, and have NEVER got into any sort of scrap abroad. The worst that's happened is a 4 hour delay. If your bag goes missing, the airline covers you. When my mate broke his leg skiing in France, the clinic only cost €100, which was less than the excess!! With travel insurance the excess is large and quite often you're not covered anyway.

The insurance for me is £10 for a £300 holiday - 3.33%. The chance I get into an accident is less than that. It's just not worth it for me. Insurance is designed for the average person to lose, that's why insurance companies make so much money.

It's easier to have it with your bank, DH and I are covered for travel, breakdown (my car is awful, used it three times since November), mobile phone (dropped mine in the toilet twice a couple of years ago after mocking a friend who'd fine the same - karma), and emergency home appliance and boiler. We both get cover for a joint cost of £12 a month. It's a no brainer, we go abroad 3-4 times a year and have UK trips, so that alone is worth it.

@YoloSwaggins, your choice obviously, but there are some horror stories on this thread and at regular intervals in the media about the huge cost of health care abroad and transporting somebody home with medical attendants when they're seriously ill. The cost of repatriating a body is also considerable. In these cases where there isn't any insurance to cover it families and friends feel obliged to step in and the consequences can be lifechanging.

£10 on top of a £300 holiday is nothing compared to the costs that could be racked up in the worst case.

Yeah, the flight home gets quite a lot more expensive if the person being flown is dead.

I’ve had to completely change my holiday plans this year as recent surgical complications mean that the cheapest insurance I could get for the US was £700, so for this year and probably the next couple of years I’m confined anywhere that isn’t the US or Caribbean.

Just wondering, how many people who don't get travel insurance play the national lotto?

As it's all just a gamble

Yeah, the flight home gets quite a lot more expensive if the person being flown is dead.

Also if you've broken your neck and are being flown home on a stretcher, with a nurse accompanying you, as happened to MIL.

If people want to take a risk themselves that is one thing but in reality family and friends would go into debt or sell their house if it meant the difference between a close relative abroad getting treatment and surviving or not getting treatment and dying. Is it fair to potentially put that on them to save 3.3% of your holiday cost?

A (distant) co-worker's child in their twenties travelled abroad for a few months to backpack, and ended up getting a life-changing but not critical injury. Obviously no travel insurance.

Then all the collections, bake sales, etc started at work to pay for his medical bills and MedEvac him back to the UK. The emails were practically begging, and we didn't even know the colleague. No donations from me or anyone on my team. I felt very sorry for them, but how incredibly stupid to not have insurance, especially as they could afford to be away travelling for a few months.

If someone chooses not to get insurance, it should have zero impact on other people.

The insurance for me is £10 for a £300 holiday - 3.33%. The chance I get into an accident is less than that. It's just not worth it for me. Insurance is designed for the average person to lose, that's why insurance companies make so much money.

Well, obviously. If EVERYONE claimed on their insurance they would go out of business! You are presuming that you could just get a flight back though and that would be in budget - if you have to be flown on a stretcher or with medical assistance the costs are astronomic. Do you not have home insurance either out of interest?

But the chances of me being flown home on a stretcher are tiny, and I'm not willing to pay to cover that tiny chance.

I just answered the OPs question, and this is just my attitude with insurance. It's just another pointless thing that comes out every month that I'll never use. Statistically, the chance is tiny - I'm probably more likely to win on scratchcards than end up in a stretcher on a plane (I don't gamble either, no point). I just take a realistic view with the stats, rather than pay based on extreme and unlikely fears.

I rent so no need for home insurance. I don't have contents because the most expensive content I have is a 6 year old laptop, which I could just replace. Or jewellery - if I lose my ring/a diamond (tiny chance), I'd rather buy a new one than pay £10 a month forever.

'My house almost certainly won't burn down so I'm not going to insure it.'

'Our event is entirely dependent on good summer weather, and if we don't get it we will lose a small fortune, but it's June in the UK, what could go wrong? I won't bother getting insurance for the bad weather risk.'

'I'm a very careful driver, I don't think I'm ever likely to have an accident. I'm not going to bother with car insurance.'

'I'm young and healthy and have no dangerous habits. I also have two young children, a mortgage and a SAHP. I don't have a pension yet. We have no savings. I think I have a good chance of making it to retirement age and I'll have sorted some pension provision out by then. In the mean time, I'm not going to bother with life assurance.'

'I almost certainly won't have a bad accident on holiday, so I won't get travel insurance.'

All disasters waiting to happen. Insurance is worth having if the event you're worried about is low probability (so lowish premiums) but would wipe you out financially if it did happen. Or in the case of people seriously ill or dead overseas, would wipe out your family's assets.

Yolo, if you did need to be brought home on a stretcher, given that you couldn't pay for it and presumably your partner couldn't, what would happen? Will you leave strict instructions to your family just to leave you overseas and not to bankrupt themselves sorting the situation out? You do know that there would be no help from the UK government, don't you?

I don't know why you're trying to convince me - I replied to this thread to answer OP's question, not be told off. I still consider and will always consider it a pointless cost, and will never buy any non-compulsory insurance. My money, my choice.

But we both know that's never going to happen. That's like saying "if you won the lottery, who would you give the money to?". Both miniscule chances of happening. My attitude to risk is I would rather take it than constantly pay to mitigate it.

I won't waste any more time, Yolo, don't worry. I just wondered if it had crossed your mind that if the unthinkable did happen it wouldn't just be your finances at risk. However, if you think that's an acceptable risk to take, good luck to you. As mentioned above, probably a good idea to put your family on notice, though.

"I rent so no need for home insurance. I don't have contents because the most expensive content I have is a 6 year old laptop, which I could just replace. Or jewellery - if I lose my ring/a diamond (tiny chance), I'd rather buy a new one than pay £10 a month forever."

I'm the same. Don't have contents insurance because I don't have anything valuable.
I do sometimes think about getting it though because even though I don't have anything valuable, the total value of my cheap clothes and small possessions would be quite a lot.

All disasters waiting to happen. Insurance is worth having if the event you're worried about is low probability (so lowish premiums) but would wipe you out financially if it did happen. Or in the case of people seriously ill or dead overseas, would wipe out your family's assets.

indeed. the trouble is that people insure themselves against problems they'd simply rather not think about. for example, it makes very little sense to insure your phone. Unless you are a business person that needs a phone with some pretty high spec functionality, you shouldn't own a phone you couldn't replace. Most of the damage done by losing a phone is the hassle in changing passwords, and making sure everything is secure.

now house insurance, third party insurance for cars, medical insurance for travelling are definitely a must. all those things can wipe you out financially if things go wrong.