I found the travel insurance guide on the Compare By Review site quite enlightening. I was shocked that 55% of people didn’t buy their travel insurance at the correct time. We always buy ours shortly after booking our holiday. It gives me a sense of security knowing its sorted. I would hate taking the chance leaving it any later. Then to top it off 15% just don’t bother with travel insurance at all!

We had to make a claim once. We had booked a holiday to Dubai but my eldest son was very poorly so we couldn’t go. Fortunately, we bought the insurance in good time, so we were covered. Otherwise it would have been over £4000 worth of holiday down the drain!

What I don’t understand is how someone can see no issues spending thousands on the holiday itself but then find an insurance policy for £100 or so to be unacceptable cost. Yes, its likely you won’t need to make a claim (fingers crossed!). But things do go wrong with holidays.

Here are the main reasons why you need travel insurance:

Losing Out On Your Holiday

If you lose what you saved for a holiday, then it most likely means you won’t be able to afford the cost of booking another one any time soon. Without travel insurance you might have to wait another year or more to have enough money for your next vacation. For many people trips to Florida for example are often a once in a lifetime holiday. It would be awful to lose all that just because you didn’t get your travel insurance organised.

The Cost Of Medical Treatment

I have heard of people who have had to sell their house because they needed medical treatment abroad and didn’t have the good sense to buy travel insurance before they went. The foreign office said skimping on travel insurance is a “false economy” and I totally get that! Apparently, it’s the age group 18 – 24 years that are most likely to go without travel insurance. It cost one South Yorkshire traveller £32000 to cover his treatment. Hopefully if you happen to be in that age bracket you will be a little bit more cautious from now on and prioritize booking insurance.

Missed Departure

If you have missed a connection, all is not lost. Travel insurance can cover the additional costs of a different flight, so you don’t miss out on the rest of your holiday.

Baggage

If your baggage is lost or stolen on your trip you will have some level of cover. Millions of bags are lost each year so it’s advisable having this covered.

Adequate Cover

When you do book travel insurance make sure you disclose ALL the medical conditions in your family. Shockingly 10 million holiday makers travelled abroad without the right travel insurance cover. Whether they didn’t have insurance at all, didn’t disclose everything or tried to do activities that weren’t covered in their insurance. Don’t give insurance companies any excuse not to payout! It’s important you read through all the fine print and see what you can and cannot do. So, if your planning on any high-risk sports think again or consider upgrading your policy to cover extreme sports. Personally I would give the skydiving a miss and stick to sunbathing anyway!

Always aim for a comprehensive level of cover, saving a few pounds by not upgrading your policy might seem worthwhile at the time but not if something goes wrong. When we had the money back for our holiday, I was quite glad that I had opted for a higher level of cover. It meant the excess I had to pay for each of us was a lot less than the cheaper insurance policy I could have taken.

COVID

When booking insurance, you need to be thorough and look for companies that will cover COVID-19 related medical expenses and cancellation. But if you choose to travel against Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office guidelines its likely your insurance will be invalid, so always keep that in mind when making holiday decisions.