Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Original poster

travel insurance for a car trip to Italy?

16 replies

nuttybananas · 30/11/2015 22:23

So we often do independent road trips to Europe and have generally been happy to go with breakdown insurance and our ehic cards.
We know that there may be an excess to pay relying on ehic, but have done so many trips that we are happy that the money we 'save' is there to pay these excesses. In 4 years this has worked and we've never had a problem.
I am starting to worry that maybe we should buy travel insurance but I'm not sure how it can benefit us if we are travelling by car. Can anyone advise what we are missing by not buying it other than the excess element of any state treatment for an emergency?

OP posts:
mummymeister · 01/12/2015 15:02

travel insurance will repatriate you should you need it. ehic will ensure that in the event of an accident you receive emergency treatment but it wont get you home. don't underestimate how incredibly expensive it can be to get back even from Europe if you have for example a broken leg or you are being transferred to the uk for further treatment.

you should look at the ehic as just guaranteeing you the same emergency treatment that the nhs gives you. travel insurance will ensure that you can get home and not have to pay out a fortune to do it.

PatriciaHolm · 01/12/2015 15:08

As mummymeister says; EHIC is really a basic safety net. If you have a serious accident, for example, EHIC won't get you home. Only insurance would do that (or if the worst happens, repatriate your body).

PestoSkiissimos · 01/12/2015 15:31

What if you get your possessions stolen whilst on holiday?
What if you have an accident on the slopes and don't have public liability insurance? You could be used for thousands of £'s.
What if one/all of you are killed and your bodies need to be re-patriated home? Not a nice position to leave your next of kin in.

Etc etc....

PestoSkiissimos · 01/12/2015 15:32

sued not used

NotAMumbutOnMN · 01/12/2015 15:35

I would definitely look into travel insurance. We were the same, but realised for around £40 we could get annual travel insurance cover for both of us, which considering the costs of travelling, kind of seemed insignificant, whilst giving us peace of mind.

Naoko · 01/12/2015 15:36

Medical costs/repatriation if sick or god forbid dead/stolen possessions/replacing stolen passports/so many other things. Also it costs like a tenner per person assuming you're not 80 and at death's door. I'm all for not over insuring but this really is a false economy.

Original poster
nuttybananas · 01/12/2015 16:28

Thanks all - so the real benefit would be repatriation if needed by ambulance rather than driving ourselves home. Not too bothered about possessions as happy to take that risk ourselves.
will check out some quotes but because our trips usually exceed the standard minimum length the quotes in the past have often been extortionate with many things excluded in the small print.

OP posts:
Original poster
nuttybananas · 01/12/2015 16:30

Oh and if we die - well let's just say that family have access to the money in the short term and will get plenty from our estate!

OP posts:
PestoSkiissimos · 01/12/2015 16:42

But if you were all to die, your estate would be frozen and they wouldn't be able to access your assets until the long & tedious process of Probate had been granted. This in itself is extremely time consuming and stressful, particularly if it is close relatives who have died. At that time of great stress and sorrow they would be left to source sufficient funds to repatriate your bodies and deal with the paperwork in a foreign language with no assistance from insurance whatsoever.

Trust me, I am speaking as someone who has been left in a similar situation, to have to deal with this sort of scenario, where the person who died did not put things into place beforehand. It took a lot of unnecessary personal expense and heartache to sort out, and a considerable length of time.

CMOTDibbler · 01/12/2015 16:55

Dh used to do travel insurance claims. So imagine you have a nasty fall, and have to have surgery to pin your leg. So a few days in hospital waiting for the swelling to go down, surgery, full plaster and so on. Maybe two weeks before you can be repatriated. You may or may not be able to afford the extra hotel nights for the other person, considering that you may have had to book last minute to be near the hospital, additional costs for the person taking the car back etc.

The help that an insurance company can be in the event of an issue shouldn't be underestimated either.

PestoSkiissimos · 01/12/2015 16:59

I agree Cmot. My mum fell & broke her arm in Lanzarote & the insurers couldn't have been more helpful.

Toffeelatteplease · 01/12/2015 17:08

You get ill before you go and have to cancel your holiday. EHIC won't cover you for that.

Sometimes it's accessing the expertise to handle a situation. Many insurers now it's one call and they can talk you through what needs to happen next.

specialsubject · 01/12/2015 18:45

the odds are low, but what you are missing could be:

  • one or both of you is killed. Your families have to pay cremation or body repatriation costs.
  • one or both of you is injured and cannot come home by car. Your families either leave you where you are or pay a LOT of money for repatriation.
  • one of you is injured or ill, too ill to be moved. The other needs to find accommodation while you recover, or not. Stuck abroad, no income.

you could also be robbed but that won't bankrupt anyone.

if the trip is longer than the usual 30 days on annual policies (could be more), buy a single trip policy.

leaving the UK? Buy some travel insurance. No brainer.

mrsmortis · 08/12/2015 15:13

My Dad had to have his appendix out as an emergency op while in Ireland for work. He reacted badly to the anaesthetics so everything took way longer than it should have. And when he was better he wasn't considered fit to fly.

The travel insurance paid for my mum to stay in Dublin with him. For the cost of rebooking the journey home so that they could travel by train and ferry and for a night enroute so that he didn't have to do the whole journey in one day.

Booking all of that at the last minute would have cost them a couple of thousand. And it wasn't expensive.

Buy the insurance, it's worth it!

iwantgin · 09/12/2015 11:32

I think it has all been said.

Travel insurance is not worth skimping on
It isn't even very expensive.

You hace European breakdown cover which is good. Have you checked that your car insurance is fully comp whilst abroad and not just 3Rd party too? Many policies offer it as standard bit it's worth checking.

C8tontherug · 12/12/2015 11:52

I think I paid approx £60 for annual multi holiday travel insurance, which includes extra cover for volcano ash cloud

£60 for peace of mind

-----

I know someone who broke a leg skiing abroad, helicopter off the mountain, hospital.
No insurance
Cost thousands

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread