Family travel insurance tips

Family Travel Insurance.

It’s enough to make you wish you never left home: you arrive at the airport and your luggage doesn’t, your mobile phone goes missing in that quaint street market or your son gets chicken pox the day you’re due to leave.

Most travel companies insist you have some sort of insurance for a reason. Minor accidents and hiccups can ruin your holiday and even send you home early.
There are lots of different types of insurance - and potential problems, so it’s worth taking a good look at your destination and plans to make sure you’re covered for all eventualities. But do shop around and don’t be pressurised into taking the insurance your travel agent or airline offers. Travel agents often make more money selling insurance than holidays.

You can usually get better deals just by spending a few minutes on the phone or online, where you can find comparisons of dozens of providers for every category - singles, families and the over 65s. For example family insurance for year will often work out cheaper than trying to find coverage for individual tips and you can get it for as little as £15 a year. And online insurance for rental cars is often easier and cheaper than doing it at the airport. You can cover single trips from £5 per person using ProtectMyHoliday*which you can buy direct online. This covers airlines, accommodation suppliers, car hire companies, ferry operators, train companies, excursion providers, and theme parks. But it’s probably only worthwhile if you don't fly away too often (once or twice a year).

Trip Cancellation
If you or a family member gets sick and you have to cancel your holiday, part or all of it may be non-refundable. Trip Cancellation Insurance will reimburse you for the non-refundable portions of your trip.

Trip Interruption
These policies pay out if your trip is cut short because one of you has an accident or serious illness. You're also protected if you have to fly home because of a serious illness, or death, in your immediate family. But it’s worth noting that policies for these types of travel insurance must sometimes be bought when you buy your air tickets, or within a few days of purchase. Trip interruption travel insurance is usually much cheaper than trip cancellation coverage. Some companies, i.e. Club Med require guests to buy a "membership" when booking a holiday; but certain travel insurance protection is provided too.

Medical
Ask your insurer to explain what is covered and the limit on any hospital bill, especially relevant for trips to countries like the US. USA cover is expensive because of the high medical costs. If you are heading for Europe make sure you get your free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) which entitles the holder to free or discounted medical treatment in state run hospitals in any EU country plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. It means you’re treated like a citizen of that country - very useful in emergencies.

Scheduled Airline failure cover.
Most travel insurance policies won’t pay out when an airline goes bust. A few will include ‘Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance' (SAFI), but they can be costly and are often unnecessary. For package holidays, if your agent's a registered travel agent with ATOL, you’re entitled to a full refund anyway (see ATOL).
Alternatively, book a ticket costing over £100 and pay for some or all of it by credit card, and the Section 75 law means the card issuer is jointly liable if things go wrong, so if a retailer goes bust, you can still claim cash back. But do pay the card off in full at the end of the month so you’re not charged interest.

Travel card insurance.
Do check what that ‘travel insurance’ your credit card offers really means, there may be certain eventualities you are not be covered for stipulated in the small print. Usually only travel accident insurance, which only covers accidents in a train, plane or hire car paid for on the card. Some platinum cards or bank accounts do genuinely offer free travel insurance, though the cover levels are usually poor and you often have to pay both the deposit and the full holiday cost on the card.

Other types of insurance. The list is ever growing! You can pick up flight life insurance, accident insurance, lost baggage insurance, collision damage coverage for car rentals, insurance for pets – every eventuality is covered, if you want to pay for it.
Check out comparison websites for the many different types of travel insurance and companies.

Family Traveller Tip: If you're travelling with a laptop, digital camera or other precious gadget ask your household insurance company what the "deductible" is. It might be worth paying a bit extra to insure a particular item.

Useful addresses and sites:
www.essentialtravel.co.uk
www.travelinsurance.co.uk/family_travel
www.easycover.com
www.money.co.uk/travel-insurance