I would like to agree with the suggestion that travel policy wordings need urgently to be simplified but as surveys have many times illustrated the fact that only a very small percentage of policy holders even try to read them and even fewer think to take them with them when they travel, is there any incentive for underwriters to attempt the enormous and onerous task of simplification? A few years back an ABI sub committee were working on a “standard wording” but the draft I saw was longer than the average and even more legalisitc and wordy.
Insurers we have to also produce a Key Facts document which should fill this gap but in order to be eligible to carry the official FSA logo, this has sadly to be in a strictly controlled and unhelpful format.
Perhaps the answer is to simplify the contents so that like a household policy the cover is stated purely in positive terms, i.e. what is covered in every day language, and if its not there then its not covered? this would eliminate all the tiresome and confusing exclusions but would it be legally watertight? the fear of becoming liable for unexpected claims which have not been specifically excluded is what drives travel underwriters to continually revise and add to the list.
I could cite many examples of claims which the policy holder thinks will be covered but actually are not.. “Travel Delay “is for example a small benefit paid after a 12 hour delay after checking in. It will not in most instances pay for hotel accommodation or new tickets.
Cover for “Personal Possessions” is always actual i.e. secondhand value not the new for old replacement cover we are used to when making household claims. “Valuables “include a wide range of items such as cash, jewelery and electrical goods and are not covered at all unless stolen from your person or locked in a safe.
If your mobile phone is stolen you cannot claim for the £2000 worth of calls the thief had run up, this was an actual claim as was one received last week for air tickets home from France because the family car broke down and had to be abandoned.
A government campaign to educate the public is what is needed but the much vaunted “Know before you go “campaign which should have filled this need has been a dismal underfunded failure

There is a huge gap between the public perception of the cover provided and what actually is on offer. To cite one topical example - Scheduled Airline Failure - what is the definition of a scheduled airline? does the general public appreciate the difference? would this cover actually include the failure of a chartered airline with no published timetable? ask two different insures and you will probably get two different answers.

I think you will find that premiums have increased this year because of changes in exchange rates mean medical costs to insurers have increased and underlying costs of medical treatment, representing 50% of claims in value terms, have also increased. No doubt when the costs of the increased fraud have filterd through and renewal terms are being negotiated this year then next years premiums will be higher still. Travel Insurance is written on very low margins to keep it competitive, too low to absorb increased costs so they are inevitably passed on. This tends to mean that yo get what you pay for, if the policy you are thinking of buying is very cheap then there will be a catch if not several catches (!)when you come to make a claim, it is one area where it is definately true to say you get what you pay for.

From a travel agents point of view this has not happened. But a lot of insures have been losing money on travel insurance for years. Now they seem to want to stop losing money.
As one conversation went, if everyone who we insured was 30 and fit, then insurance would cost £2. As in other insurance (house, life, car) not everyone pays same price or offers same risk.

When recommending insurance I use 3 rules of thumb.
1. Do they want basic cover? i.e. cheap £10 1 week Europe type.
2. Do they want to be covered for most things? i.e. family or someone booking ahead £15
3 Are they doing sports, or booking expensive holiday or want cover for everything? Then £20
(These are not quotes but close. All higher than real price)

Being a travel agent, in my opinion, about the best travel insurance one can get is……. you’ll never guess…. The Post Office. Since the FSA decided that Travel Agents (who have been selling travel insurance since Thomas Cook was a boy) really needed to be regulated, it became a bit of a pain. Anyway, for all you people, do give the Post Office close scrutiny - airline failure is covered and (if I remember correctly) they are pretty good about age, too. Price comparison websites are a way, but I really think it’s not about price, it’s about best value (and the two are not the same) - unless you were comparing Post Office A against buying at Post Office B, so to speak. Other funny things - medical cover. Given that the largest ever medical claim was £250,000 - odd, it’s a bit academic if you have 1 million or 5 million. Over £250,000 you are probably dead anyway (or as near dead as makes no difference) which would be a claim under a different clause. Personal effects - more important. Is it enough per individual item? After all, how much is a camcorder these days? Don’t be daft about this, though, if you claim for two Cartier watches, a diamond tiara and a Faberge Egg and you are on a two week all in package to Benidorm, the insurer may become a tad suspicious. Oh! And remember, chapter and verse, if something gets nicked. ALWAYS report it. The local plod may say they can do naff all about it, but you don’t really want them to do anything, just make sure you get a stamped piece of paper saying you had the stuff half inched. I agree with Tricia, passim, about travel delay - that is a ruddy joke. BUT, Tricia, I don’t think the GBP (great british public) need to know what a scheduled airline is and what isn’t. If it isn’t (ie ATOL, charter etc) then they will be covered by ATOL’s etc - what they just need to know is it covers anything they buy that isn’t covered under an ATOL - ie scheduled. (Actually, I would like to hear any views on that statement) Very important - check the cancellation per person value. Many people don’t. If you are going to Mauritius for 2 weeks, five star, chances are that cancellation cover for £1000 a head will not be enough. You need to ask “If I cancel this holiday, how much, in total, per person, will I need to be covered for?” - It is this last element - the value of cancellation cover - that very often drives the price and so the variations mentioned by darren in his article.