Get a GHIC card
The UK global health insurance card (GHIC) allows holidaymakers to use state healthcare in European countries, so it is invaluable if you fall ill or are injured while abroad. It was introduced to replace the European health insurance card (Ehic) when the UK left the EU. If you still have one, there may be no need to replace it straight away – it will be valid until its expiry date.
But while the GHIC is there to help in an emergency, Graeme Trudgill, the executive director of the British Insurance Brokers’ Association, says: “Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is an insurance policy, as it doesn’t provide comprehensive cover. It only provides limited emergency medical treatment and does not cover private facilities, repatriation or offer the wider cover for non-medical claims like a travel insurance policy does. You still need travel insurance to give you comprehensive travel cover.”
Are you already covered?
Before paying out for a travel policy, check whether cover is included in any of your existing financial products. Some packaged current accounts include travel insurance as one of the extras covered by a monthly fee.
For example, Nationwide’s FlexPlus account, costing £13 a month, includes worldwide family travel insurance, although there is a standard upper age limit of 70 for travel cover (for anyone aged 70-plus, you have to buy an age upgrade costing £65 a year).
Save with multi-trip cover
“Annual multi-trip cover is great for those travelling to multiple destinations over a 12-month period, and can be more cost-effective than buying multiple individual policies,” says Ceri McMillan at GoCompare’s travel insurance arm.
As an example, a search on the website TravelSupermarket showed that a standard single-trip policy covering a family of four during a two-week holiday in Spain, including gadget cover for up to £750, would cost £37.25 with Insure & Escape. A 12-month multi-trip policy offering the same level of cover for each holiday would cost £61.01 with the same firm.
One size doesn’t fit all
According to MoneySuperMarket, the most common claims on travel insurance relate to medical expenses abroad, cancellation of trips and lost, stolen or damaged baggage.
Fortunately, says Angela Dove at MoneySuperMarket: “Most policies cover cancellation, lost baggage and belongings, travel disruption, travel back to the UK if you have a medical emergency, and personal liability in cases where you have an accident and someone else is injured.”
However, there are significant variations between insurers and policies, so it is essential to read the small print to see what is covered and what isn’t.
If you plan to take part in sports or activities in particular, you need to check you are covered, Trudgill says. “Advise your insurance provider of any hazardous sports that you plan to undertake to check they are covered.”
Different insurers have different rules: for example, LV= includes activities such as paddleboarding, archery and hiking up to 2,500m in its standard policy.
Cost-cutting versus risks
One of the important differences between policies is the excess they charge – the amount of any loss you have to cover before the insurer starts to pay up.
“To help reduce the policy cost, you can opt to increase the excess you pay, or pick a lower amount of cover for your belongings,” Dove says.
But weighing up the savings against the risks is important. When we looked, the cheapest deal on TravelSupermarket for a single traveller taking a two-week break in Greece was £11.25 for Yourtravelcover.com’s “silver” policy.
However, the excess payable on a medical claim was £250. The same company’s “gold” policy cost £18.48 for the same trip but the excess for medical claims was a lot lower at £95.
Pay attention to the total amount covered in the event of cancellation, too. The Yourtravelcover.com silver policy provided cover of £1,300, while the gold policy went up to £3,000.
“Check that the value of your holiday is accurate so that you’re not paying for more cover than you need,” Dove says.
Travel light
“Avoid opting for additional add-ons if they aren’t needed,” McMillan says. “For instance, is it worth paying extra for gadget insurance, or could you leave expensive electronics at home, instead?”
If you add £1,000 of gadget cover to Yourtravelcover.com’s silver policy, the cost rises to £23.25, and there is an excess of £250 if you need to claim.
If you can’t leave them at home, check whether any items are already covered through your home insurance, mobile phone deal or bank account before ticking the gadget box.
Get the right medical cover
“Cover for medical expenses is one of the important protections people look for in a travel insurance policy, and can include not only the costs of any medical treatment but also compensation for lasting injuries, and even repatriation,” McMillan says.
“If you have any pre-existing medical conditions, you can still buy travel insurance cover but it is important to declare these to your insurer before buying your policy, as this will affect the cost.”
And Dove adds another warning. “If you don’t declare a medical condition, any claim can be declined,” she says.
Comparison sites, such as Confused.com, ask you to answer yes or no to whether you have any pre-existing conditions and then lead you through a list of questions to ascertain the details.
If your search on a generic comparison site does not produce any travel insurance options, that does not necessarily mean you cannot be insured at all. The government personal finance website MoneyHelper and Biba’s site have directories of firms that specialise in providing cover for people with medical conditions.
Pay on plastic
Few travel policies insure you against the risk of the airline or holiday company going bust (known as scheduled airline failure or end supplier failure). Paying with a credit card offers some protection under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act: consumers who used a credit card to pay for goods or services costing more than £100 and less than £30,000 can hold the credit card company liable for a breach of contract by the seller.
The same protection does not apply to debit cards, though.
Photograph: Colin Hawkins/Getty Images
Know your flight compensation rights
Insurance is not the only way to get financial reparation when holiday plans go wrong. If your flight is delayed for more than three hours or cancelled, you may qualify for compensation. You can claim if your flight left from the UK, or from within the EU, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland, or if you were due to arrive in the UK or EU and were flying with a UK or EU airline.
The rules cover delays caused by understaffing, technical problems, or even bad weather that delayed a previous flight and had a knock-on effect on yours. However, if the problem was caused by “extraordinary circumstances”, which can include storms or air traffic control strikes, you are unlikely to qualify.
The amount you may be eligible for depends on things such as the length of the delay and the flight distance, as well as the amount of notice you were given before a cancellation. For flights cancelled with fewer than seven days’ notice, compensation ranges between £110 and £520 per passenger. You can claim directly through the airline. Beware of companies offering to make the claim on your behalf in return for a chunk of your payout.
