Just over a month ago , my boyfriend and I decided to visit the beautiful city of Edinburgh for our 5 year anniversary. We live in Dorset , so we didn’t want to spend the whole time travelling. To make the trip easier on ourselves , we decided to fly there , and used a travel agent to organise the week long holiday. Imagine my surprise when I saw an additional £27.50 on the quote for travel insurance! We were only going to Edinburgh , not Pittsburgh!
I was offended that they thought we would be so stupid as to get travel insurance for a trip within the UK. They have hospitals in Edinburgh , and it really isn’t very far away. But later on , over a cup of hot chocolate , I put some more thought into it.
Holiday disasters can happen anywhere , not just abroad – so I made a list of what could feasibly go wrong:
· One of us could fall ill before we depart , we’d have no choice but to cancel the trip. The flights and the hotel were non-refundable , so we’d have to pay anyway.
· My Grandfather has been ill lately , if he got suddenly worse than I wouldn’t be able to go on holiday. Again , the trip would have to be cancelled.
· Either of us could be called up for jury service at any time.
· Flights are delayed and cancelled all the time. On top of the inconvenience , we may need to arrange an overnight stay near the airport.
· Anything could happen to our luggage , airlines loose suitcases all the time.
· My boyfriend bought me a wonderful digital camera as a present , if I lost it , it would be very expensive to replace.
Hang on a minute , what about our Home & Contents insurance policy? I bet that would cover us for loss of luggage or my camera as long as I was in the UK. I found the policy and read the small print. No such luck , only ‘personal possessions’ that were listed on the policy counted , so everything in the luggage wouldn’t be covered , and I’d need to make a phone call to get the camera included on the policy.
I remembered something else – we had over 4 years of no claims discount on our Home & Contents policy. If we had to make a claim , we’d loose the no claims discount. Our premiums would go sky high after that , they were already high enough as it is , at £305 a year. I realised that I really should look for a cheaper Home & Contents policy at the time of renewal , and promised myself to do that in future.
After the investigations I had made so far , I realised that £27.50 for a travel policy wasn’t actually too bad.
I’ve never been one to rest on my laurels though. I might have decided that travel insurance was a good idea , but it didn’t mean I was willing to accept the price quoted by the travel agent.
I went online to get some more quotes. The first two or three sites I looked at couldn’t give me what I wanted , but 10 minutes later , I struck gold. I found a single trip travel policy for the UK , and it was a good £10 cheaper than the travel agent’s quote.
I read the small print , no point signing up without knowing all the facts. I was pleased to see all the points I had listed were covered.
Now the exclusions – was it all too good to be true after all? Phew – no need to worry. If the holiday was less than 25 miles from our home address , or for less than 2 nights , than we wouldn’t be covered. No duduk masalah there. Otherwise the only downside was that we’d have to pay the £30 if we needed to make a claim. Fair enough.
Happy with the policy I’d found and with the decision that we did need travel insurance after all , I bought the travel insurance policy there and than.
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