Member Article

Attitudes towards travel insurance cancellation cover

Following a few enquiries since summer holidays started, Beth Macer, travel insurance expert at PayingTooMuch.com asks what would you do if that big family holiday you’ve waited all year for and the day before you were due to travel you tripped, breaking (for example) your leg and involving a stay in hospital for several days, meaning you missed out on the trip and shelled out so much of your hard earned wages for?

“Most people, hopefully, would have taken out a travel insurance policy to insure their family for cancellation cover – meaning that if something (like the above scenario) were to happen, costs would be paid out if they were unable to travel. Although still disappointing to have to claim and not travel, at least they wouldn’t have lost out entirely, and could book another trip.

“Unfortunately though, a lot of people have the ‘it won’t happen to me’ or ‘I’ve never had to claim before’ attitude, and are just looking for cheap medical expenses cover (so they would only be able to claim for medical treatment if something happened whilst they were abroad) rather than a fully comprehensive insurance.

“Many people think they will never need to claim for cancellation because they are fit and well, have never needed to before and therefore see it as an expense they do not need to worry about. However unfortunately, all of us are capable of doing something as silly as tripping over or slipping off a curb.

“This is why it’s important to think about what could happen, in the worst case scenario, rather than what ‘won’t happen’ just to save a few pounds. Could you afford to lose £1,000 per person for that all inclusive family holiday you bought just because you didn’t think you’d need to cancel your trip?”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by PayingTooMuch .