MoneySaving Poll: Do you travel with or without travel insurance?

A question about : MoneySaving Poll: Do you travel with or without travel insurance?

Poll started 8 July 2014

Do you travel with or without travel insurance?

We believe travel insurance is a necessity for holiday travel abroad. Yet both away and in the UK - do you risk going without it?

For more help, see our Cheap Travel Insurance guide.

Vote in this week's poll

Did you vote? Are you surprised at the results so far? Have your say below. To see the results from last time, click this.

If you haven't already, join the forum to reply. If you aren't sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.

This Forum Tip was included in MoneySavingExpert's weekly email
Don't miss out on new deals, loopholes, and vouchers
FAQs
Privacy Policy
Past Emails
Unsubscribe

Best answers:

• I frequent the US quite a lot so it's kind of a must. Not sure I'd bother for just Europe though
• Due to health problems suffered by my wife, we have only holidayed in UK for several years. Recently we spoke about going abroad, so we checked one insurer and were quoted over Ј800 just for her! UK here we stay!
• I booked my travel insurance yesterday after looking at your page. I purchased annual insurance for myself and my husband. We both have minor medical conditions which cost us nothing and the total price for the 2 of us for the year was Ј82.57. Unbelievable!
  The company was Holidaysafe.co.uk. Hopefully it won't be too good to be true. Other companies were quoting 3 times that amount.
  Thank you for your help.
  You have a brilliant site. Use it all the time.
• If I was going abroad I would get travel insurance, but as we are going camping in this country we won't bother. Our camping equipment is covered by our house insurance, the traveling is covered by our car insurance and breakdown cover, and the site is only costing Ј140 for the week if we cant get there for any reason.
• It is so important to have it, imagine paying for a med evac?
• I used to have travel insurance. Then when my Dad died in 2011 and we had to cancel our holiday, the insurance company caused me so much upset in the process of paying up (at a time when I really could have done with a little bit of care and consideration), wouldn't pay up for some stuff and didn't accept that they should pay up for my partner's half of the holiday at all (the thrust of their argument being she could have gone on holiday without me). This all just reinforced my long held belief that insurance is just all a scam: I have the insurances I must have, of course (I'm a driver and my property is mortgaged, so there are some insurances I really can't get out of) but I'm pretty averse to "unnecessary" insurances. If I had to cancel a holiday, I'd just take the hit, these days. In the long run it'd probably be cheaper than travel insurance anyway.
  That said, we do mostly travel round Europe and my partner's medical history pushes her premiums up dramatically. When we went to Brazil in 2012, we did both get travel insurance because we knew that should something happen to us out there it could get extremely expensive if we were paying for medical bills etc ourselves.
• I always get insurance when travelling abroad, but would never consider doing so within mainland UK.
• No chance after a visit to the usa 3 years ago when pregnant and being rushed in due to a scare I have never been so thankful that I have travel insurance when I was presented with a copy of the Ј2,500 bill that my insurance had covered
• I always get it going overseas - not particularly to protect my property or in case of cancellation, but because if I died or was seriously injured then I would hate for my family to have to deal with that situation. I think it would be really selfish to do that - if you can't afford the travel insurance then you can't afford to go overseas in my opinion.
• I have multiple long term conditions and if I apply for travel insurance it is either prohibitively priced or all my existing conditions are excluded from any claim .... or both! Either way this makes travel insurance a non starter for people like me.
  If I travel to the EU I just simply fall back on the Euro Health Card.
• Insurance has a negative expectation value, so I generally avoid it for any situations that are theoretically affordable; I'd rather pay for a new phone or a new flight etc. In my book insurance is only worth it for peace of mind for the low-likelihood situations where a huge expense is required - ie huge medical bills or a house burning down.
  I don't bother at all for any travel within the EU. That's what the EU is for. Doubtless UKIP etc would love us to be faced with thousands of pounds of medical bills to be paid up front in cash when you break your leg in France.
  Outside the EU I'd look for a level of cover that paid for medical bills, but lost luggage, flight delays/cancellations and so on I'd rather suck up and use my money more wisely elsewhere.
• am looking for advice on this very topic really
  in 2 weeks am going on cruise with family fof 12 nights around the med.
  All of us have E111 card however am not sure whether should still get travel insurance or not
  Child 1 has nut allergies as well as various other allergies, plus recently had an eye operation
  child 2 suffers from frequent ear infections and has long ENT history.
  Will an E111 be enough as am conscious that if I get an off the shelf policy it probably wont cover the pre-existing conditions and will they refuse to pay out if anything occured?
  Anyone advice before i start to spend ages on phone/website to be horrified at the high premium i am expecting to be quoted?
  thanks!
• Thanks Zagfles
  Portugal and Canaries so am assuming we will be ok
  Cruise company says should get travel insurance but am assuming they would say that!
• Well you are probably right on that front! there is a group of us and i havent really paid much attention to now as I didnt book it!
  very good point and will check on this. thanks!
• If you can get travel insurance at an affordable price ..... then it makes sense to go for it.
  The issue is that if pre-existing medical conditions are excluded (and they usually are) then the most likely problems you might suffer on holiday will NOT be covered in any event.
  You need to be really clear with your insurers about just exactly WHAT is covered. Don't make any assumptions.
• I wouldn't go abroad without insurance. EHIC doesn't cover everything, and doesn't help with the costs of repatriation if you were seriously ill or injured.
  I don't buy insurance for travelling in the UK. I suppose that if I were booking an expensive holiday I might, but in the UK I usually either stay with friends or family, or have short breaks. House and car insurance would cover most damage or loss, so my risk is fairly minor.
  Hazel - I would definitely buy insurance if I were you. It's my understanding that the EHIC allows you to get the same treatment you would if you were a national of the country concerned, which means that in some cases you have to pay a contribution, or to pay for things which would be free here. In some countries you have to pay up front and then claim back costs
  It doesn't cover costs of repatriation if you are not able to travel back as originally planned.
  Also, not every hospital or doctor accepts the EHIC.
• I look at travel insurance as more health insurance than the flights/luggage/whatever. I only really go with the EU and yes I have an EHIC card but thatonly allows you medical care at the same price as locals so you're still paying.
  As me and OH are healthy and have no pre-exisying conditions then its ine for us and we do get it.
  I just bought ours for this year last week, Ј7.35 for the 2 of us for a week, be silly not to really!