AIBU to think that its madness not to book travel insurance as soon as you book a holiday?

[CwtchesCuddles]

So many people seem to leave sorting out insurance until its too late! If you have a holiday coming up have you got insurance cover already? If not why not?

For those with medical issues try world first , I have Crohn’s with stoma and quite advanced kidney disease and an annual world inc USA cover is circa £100 with very reasonable excesses

A friend’s mum died on holiday. They were bloody glad their mum had insurance to get her body home. Very unexpected. She wasnt ill at all before.

Ive travel insurance with my bank but we took out a different policy for our big holiday this year. I probably should have ready the policy of the bank first

I don’t trust travel insurers really. A couple of policies we’ve had required us to declare every single gp visit in the last two years, otherwise the whole family’s policy was void. Seriously hard trying to remember if any of the kids had antibiotics 23 months previously.

Then a well recommended insurer for pre existing conditions pulled a fast one on us, well they tried to. I had insured with them 6 months earlier. I phoned to say DS had been unexpectedly ill and had an op, at which point they said he wasn’t covered until he got the all clear from a doctor to travel. A month later he didn’t have the all clear, so they tried to weasel out of paying cancellation by saying he hadn’t been insured since the op. What’s the point of insurance if you take it out, something happens and you need to cancel, and the insurer says no because of your previous phone call

We do have an annual policy now. You still have to think about it though as have to let them know of any subsequent diagnoses. Had to pay £15 last month as DH’s medication was tweaked. All of you who never have to think about it, do you never go to the gp for a prescription?

That must have been awful for you TheGnusShoes [flowers*

I'll try again

Thank you @Ginfordinner ❤️
it was and I couldn't believe it was happening tbh. It still doesn't feel real but I'll never forget to insure, especially going away with DS, it's just not worth the risk.

@TheGnusShoes so sorry to hear that, it is the kind of thing I saw working in consular assistance, awful for the family without the added stress of not being insured.

Several cases of people who died or were seriously injured in road accidents have stayed with me, these were not people who didn't expect to come home from their holidays.

Thank you @unicornflakegirl that's the thing isn't it, you never expect it'll be you or your family. It's always a sad story about a stranger, or a friend of a friend until suddenly it's not.

I hope you're ok, it sounds as though you've taken on a lot of emotional stress through your career. It must stay with you

Someone lost their passport on the way to the airport. Refunding their £100 flight and £200 hotel for the two days they ran around getting a replacement more than covered the fee.

Didn't in my case, as I hadn't yet left the country. Fortunately, I was only losing the cost of a cheap flight, as I should have been staying with a friend on arrival, and most of the cost of that would have been taken by the excess.

It's worth checking the small print if you have insurance from the bank. I got extra insurance, because I wouldn't have been covered for doing yoga. (I was going on a yoga retreat.) I was quite amazed at what fairly mild activities were excluded from the basic bank policy.

I think if you're prepared to risk the cost of the holiday, it's fine to get insurance just before you go. The really big costs are if you need a hospital stay or repatriation. As long as people are aware of the possible consequences of their choice, it's up to them. I think not everyone is aware, though.

I had my honeymoon booked a few years ago. 3 weeks in the USA, and a pretty large sum of money paid out.
Got appendicitis 4 days before flying and had my appendix removed.
Luckily we were insured, as the only thing I couldn't claim was nfl tickets. Got every other penny back.
You just never know what's going to happen

Our travel insurance is included with my home insurance. I made sure it included winter sports as my kids went skiing one day last trip - not all the cheap insurances will cover extra things like that.
My son had to go to a &e in the US and the bill was almost £850 which we only had to pay the excess. My father had to be air ambulanced back to Uk from Spain. He did not have insurance and it cost £12,500. Luckily they had the funds to cover it (sadly died a few weeks later).
I know a nurse who works for an insurance company whose full time job is travelling the world escorting patients back to UK on air ambulances, so it must happen all the time.

Like @TheGnusShoes, my father died whilst abroad. I wasn't there, but had to sort out repatriating his body - which is actually a really difficult and stressful process at a time when you're least able to cope. I was dealing with consulate (who were amazing) and trying to comunicate with police and morgue in a different language (which I don't speak) in order to find out what had happened and get my dad home. After a couple of days I found he had insurance and when I called them they took over everything: organised an international funeral directors, liaised with police and consulate to find out where he was, paid for it all! It's not just the financial implications (it cost £7k to repatriate his body, which I'd have had to pay for), but the expertise and practical help. I cried after I got off the phone to the insurance company as it was like someone had just lifted the whole load off me and left me to grieve. Natwest, if you're interested. They were phenomenal.

@Toastytoes1 - sorry another one saying get insurance!

I used to work for an emergency assistance company- the ones you ring when it goes wrong!

A simple injury can end up costing 000's!

A leg break could see you needing minimum 3 seats on a plane. If you need a stretcher 9 plus.

You could need a doctor or nurse - that runs into high money - they are paid door to door.

If someone dies or falls ill at home they will get you home as soon as possible. .

I get it's a low risk if something happens if but for the low cost of insurance it's just not worth the risk.

And if you are in a tourist resort in much of Spain etc there are many more private than state hospitals and so your reciprocal card does not apply.

We met a fellow guest in Greece last year who had done something nasty to her foot and couldn’t walk on it. Insurance void and she’d left her ehic card at home . She’d done it by getting her foot caught in a stirrup after going on a horse beach ride, but hadn’t upgraded her insurer to include risky activities.

We have an annual policy with our bank, £12 a month (£17 a month but they credit £5 a month cash back when you pay in more than a certain amount a month which we always do) for travel insurance, mobile insurance, comprehensive break down cover all for two people and emergency home appliance cover I don't think there's a batter deal to be had!

It covers sports and covered me when I was pregnant so not a basic rubbish policy

@Ginfordinner It's not naive if you're informed. The insurance I booked at the airport was for a holiday that had, up until that point cost me £45 because all I'd needed was the flight as I was staying with friends. I'm fully aware that insurance doesn't cover you for cancellations if you don't have it yet but I was prepared to risk losing the £45. EHIC does cover you for what local residents of that country are entitled to and as I was staying with Swedish friends I was fully aware of what that was and it is very good. I was going for a few days and only changed my mind about insurance because I was 5-6 weeks pregnant with my first child and I didn't have enough time to fully clue myself up with how that might affect things; turns out actually you're still covered in the same way. But every time I would go abroad I would look at that specific country to understand what the EHIC covered and what it didn't and if I felt it appropriate I bought insurance. Only very occasionally did I not. I don't just randomly pick a country to travel to and decide to go with no insurance when I haven't looked into where I'm going.

Anyway, what I'm defensive about is that after offering a tiny amount of information to inform a comment on a random Mumsnet thread, multiple people have decided to make a judgement against me and how I choose to live my life and I don't see why that is appropriate or necessary. I'm not asking you to agree with me but who are you to describe me as naive and condescendingly tell me I don't seem to recognise that insurance is for cancellation of a holiday as well as health care? I never said I didn't know that, in fact I said clearly that I did understand that. You are assuming a lot about me as an individual, assuming a lot about my financial situation and my family's and it's just not at all your place to do that when I haven't asked you to.

I'll concede that I had not considered repatriation and I'm very sorry to all those who have struggled with this and appreciate them sharing their stories as food for thought for the future for me (though as I also said, with a new baby due any week, I'm not going anywhere anyway before I'd get insurance for every trip due to Brexit). I knew it wasn't covered it was just not something I had thought about in terms of what that would mean for my loved ones back home so I do appreciate that information. But those posters have not targeted me specifically to tell me how naive and ignorant I am like you and others have done based on the cancellation aspects!

I just looked at my bank policy and there is cover for winter equipment and sport

OK Toasty

It’s stupid not to get insurance.

I have pre-existing conditions (including type 1 diabetes), my annual policy is £80, I have claimed previously, very easy, quickly paid providers.

Just read the small print. My father visited the GP a few days before a holiday. GP not fussed about his condition "we'll keep an eye on it". Had to be flown home from his cruise due to it. Nothing covered because he hadn't told the insurance company he'd been to the GP.

@Mustbetimeforachange exactly what I said upthread. I imagine loads of people never declare minor health consultations though.

There was a gofundme recently where a man had travel insurance through his bank, but didn’t know he had to tell them he’d been diagnosed with high blood pressure and put on tablets by the gp. He died and His daughter is unable to get his body back as his insurance is void. Don’t know what happened but what a nightmare.

Optimisim bias and a casual attitude to risk. 🤷‍♀️ Travel insurance is such a tiny percentage of travel cost - I understand why people wait, but if the wrist is to happen it's very nice not to have to worry about getting the funds together to sort it.

Used to be a specialist travel insurance underwriter. The most simple of claims can easily become 5 figures, as soon as anything slightly complex is involved it's not hard to get into 6!

Largest claim I ever saw was over £2.5 million! All paid out by our company...

Is it worth the cost? Always!!! Even if the policy is expensive due to pre-existing conditions, it can't begin to compare to the cost of the claims.

It's the same as house and cars to me... if you can't afford the insurance, you can't afford to go, because any claim could be far worse than the cost of the insurance!

The point of insurance is that it is risk management. Yes, the likelihood of making a big claim is low, but the potential costs very high. Lie risk, high severity.

I genuinely despair whenever I see people in the media asking everyone else to pay because they were too irresponsible to take out correct insurance.

YANBU, repatriation is REALLY expensive, and if you're dead at the time it's tough for your family. Just google "go fund me repatriation" and dozens of pleas pop up.