Do you think holiday insurance is a necessity or a luxury?

[faithfultoGeorgeMichael]

Where I live there are an increasing number of crowd funders every year for people who have an accident on holiday and have no insurance. I have always thought this was a minority of people willing to accept this risk but yesterday I spoke to a younger colleague (I am 51, she is 32) who said that no one she knows ever buys insurance and it is seen as a foolish waste of money to her and her friends.

She is off to Indonesia for a month in August with her children - with no insurance!

YABU: I would go abroad without insurance
YANBU I would only go abroad if I had insurance

I think you should be made to take it out. No insurance - no travel.

My husband had a heart attack in.Bruges. We didn’t pay for anything from
treatment to getting back home.

Well the bag itself wasn’t more than £20 but the phone kindle and passport were all pricey to replace!

Why? If you don't take it and end up in a bad situation because of that, that's your look out. Noone is forced to contribute to GoFundMe appeals.

Friend's daughter tripped over a pavement in Thailand, competely sober - 2 months into a 6 month trip round the world. It was a bad broken leg. Insurers paid for her hospital treatment and for her mum to fly out and come back with her as well as a doctor.

Yes! What if you are ill and cannot go, you would lose your deposit if not the whole amount? Plus luggage could be damaged or go missing. Personal possessions could be stolen.

🤷‍♀️totally missing the point, but whatever, I can’t be bothered to explain it to you again

.

An absolute necessity.

My mum ended up hospitalised, and requiring surgery last month, in a freak health issue.
She'd only been back from an abroad holiday about 3 weeks when it happened. She said at the time, "imagine if this had happened while I was away?!" Obviously, it doesn't bear thinking about, even though she did (and always does) have insurance.

I always have travel insurance. I've known enough people who've got ill or had accidents abroad, who would be up shit creek if they hadn't had insurance.

As far as tech is concerned - you need to carefully check your policy as many don’t cover tech over 18 months old.

My husband is having active treatment for metastatic cancer, so he can't get insurance. Unfortunately, though medical treatment has progressed a lot in recent years, and many people have healthy normal lives because of ongoing treatment, the insurance companies have not kept up, so although he lives a normal active life and is fitter and more active than many men his age or younger, most companies refuse to quote at all, and the few that will do so want more money than the entire holiday for both of us. If it were not for that, we would both have insurance.

How can you enforce that?

Make it part of purchasing a ticket, or require people to show proof of insurance before they leave the UK.

Part of purchasing what ticket? For example if you have an annual policy then why should you pay again to have it added into a ticket

As for " showing proof" Well all you would do there is buy the cheapest possible policy, even if you had zero chance of being covered by it. So leave out all the pre existing conditions and dangerous sports even if they apply to get cheap quite and show that paperwork

Necessity. You fall ill, someone falls ill, you die, someone else dies - accidents, cancellations, flooding, heatwaves, fires, kidnapping, assault, theft, hotel doesn't exist, hotel is only part-built, animal attacks you, transport fails, you catch the latest virus, you get stuck on a ship infected with the latest virus, you get mugged, belongings are stolen, passport gets lost, war breaks out - you're stuck, bombed, have to cut trip short, have to cancel trip etc etc.... And the golden rule is always get insurance before you book the trip or you won't be covered for cancellation. And get it at least a month in advance for the best rates, otherwise they'll hike it up. Happy hols

Agree.

Then annual policies could stop being a "thing" and people could have to pay per trip.

And in terms of proof, yes, that's always a chance, which is why you change it to make it impossible to purchase a ticket to leave the country without getting insurance with it. It's not hard.

Not all trips in the UK are holidays.

I have it now, but didn't used to. I only travelled within the EU (pre-Brexit) and had the EHIC card, which I know doesn't cover everything.

I have an annual policy now.

One thing that probably puts people off is hearing of people finding insurance companies not actually paying up when necessary.

true Why would I need travel insurance to visit my daughter for example

I went on holiday to the US years ago and got into a massive car crash the day after I arrived. $81,000 medical bill. Thank. Fuck my former-travel agent Dad had taken it upon himself to go and get me travel insurance before I went! Otherwise my parents would’ve had to sell their house (I was only 19 at the time). Also, when I was laid down on the road right after the crash, a paramedic leant over me and before he said a single word, asked “Do you have insurance?” 😐
Ill never forget seeing the Visa Mastercard symbols on the door of the hospital 🏥

I do pay for it although I’m always suspicious as to whether they would actually pay out.
I read a thread on here where about listing all previous illnesses, there’s no way I can remember all of those for everyone so I feel we’d be one of those unlucky families who don’t get a payout for a broken leg because of an ear infection years ago.

I have to show that I have cruise cover when going on a cruise.

But what proves you've given the insurance company the correct information so it actually covers you?

Yeah and someone upthread said you should get travel insurance if you use UK public transport 😂