Even if you’re holidaying in the UK, things can still go wrong
Travel insurance is really important when you’re going abroad. It can cover a whole range of things going wrong including if you need to cancel your trip last minute, if you lose your belongings or if you need medical treatment overseas (which can be really expensive!).
Now, plenty of things can happen unexpectedly when you’re travelling in the UK – or having what’s known as a ‘staycation’ – but thanks to the NHS, you’ll not be hit with any unexpected medical costs if you need to go to hospital.
So do you still need travel insurance?
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What do you usually need travel insurance for?
In a nutshell, travel insurance is designed to pay out when you’re left out of pocket unexpectedly while you’re on holiday. What you’re covered for depends on what policy you go for, but it could include:
- If you miss your flight due to unforeseen circumstances
- If you need to cut your trip short or have to return home early
- If you need emergency medical treatment and/or need to be transported back to the UK
- If your belongings (including cash) are lost or stolen
- If your baggage is lost or delayed
It’s best to buy travel insurance as soon as you book your trip to make sure you’re covered in case something happens that stops you going on holiday, such as illness or injury.
Don’t be fooled that you’ll be compensated for anything that goes wrong – you’ll find a whole host of exclusions in travel insurance policies and some are better than others. There are also some that aren’t worth the paper they’re written on!
Why would I need travel insurance for a UK trip?
While you won’t need medical cover, getting travel insurance for a staycation may cover you if your belongings are stolen, lost or damaged, transport issues, or if you need to cancel the trip last minute or if you have to cut it short, say because a family member is seriously ill.
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Do I need to buy specific travel insurance for the UK?
No. UK travel insurance isn’t a specific type of insurance. But when you’re looking for a single-trip policy on a comparison site, or if you’re buying directly from a provider, you’re usually asked to state where you’re travelling to. So if you type in the UK, you’ll be shown relevant policies.
And if you’re opting for annual multi-trip travel insurance, whether you choose a European or Worldwide policy, it usually includes the UK.
However, make sure you check how the insurance company defines a ‘trip’ in the UK in its policy documents to ensure you’re actually covered for your staycation.
For example, it may be that you have to stay a minimum of two nights in pre-booked holiday accommodation and you may have to be a certain distance from your home, say 25 miles.
So that would mean that some staycations might not be covered, such as if you were camping and booked a pitch, instead of accommodation, or if you were staying at a friend’s house.
What’s not included in UK travel insurance?
As with any travel insurance policy, there are some things that aren’t covered automatically.
For example, if you want cover for your gadgets or higher risk activities, such as water sports and horseriding, you’ll probably need to add them to your policy as extras.
And as is standard with travel insurance, if you’ve got pre-existing health conditions, it could make your policy much more expensive – if it’s covered at all.
It’s worth trying to get a standard travel insurance policy, as providers have different risk criteria, to see if you can get affordable cover. If not, you can try specialist comparison site Medical Travel Compared.
If that doesn’t work for you, it’s worth speaking to a broker from the British Insurance Broker’s Association to see if they’re able to find you cover for your conditions.
Check for cover crossovers
It’s a good idea to see if you don’t have relevant insurance elsewhere.
For example, your home contents insurance policy might include cover for your belongings outside the home, including gadgets, so check and see.
If your items are already covered, then you might decide against getting travel insurance, or you might want to reduce the baggage cover offered by your travel insurance provider, to lower the cost.
Alternatively, some home insurance providers offer ‘cover away from home’ as an add-on, for personal possessions and specified items.
Watch out for the excess
The excess is what you’ll need to pay out of your claim. So the excess is £100 and you’re claiming for losses of £300, you’ll only get £200 if your claim is successful.
Generally speaking, you can cut the cost of your premium with a higher excess, or you reduce the excess and pay a bit more. You can have a play around on comparison sites to see what difference it makes.
Do I need UK travel insurance?
Not always – it depends on the type of staycation you’re planning to have.
If you’re going on a quick, cheap getaway, say for a weekend, and you’re not taking anything valuable with you and you’re able to cancel your accommodation if you need to, then it’s not worth bothering with.
But if you’ve got a full-on week planned for your staycation, with activities you’ve already paid for and non-refundable accommodation, it’s a good idea to consider travel insurance.
Cancelled wedding left me with non-refundable hotel booking
My brother and his girlfriend paid £350 for two nights in a Suffolk hotel to attend her brother’s wedding in July this year. He booked through a third party website and as per the terms and conditions, the room was non-refundable.
I don’t think many people expect a wedding to be cancelled, especially so late in the day, but when the bride and groom called off the wedding a few weeks before the big day, they were left with a hotel room they no longer needed.
If he’d had travel insurance covering that weekend, he could have tried to make a claim for the cancellation.
I suggested he contact the hotel anyway to see if they might reconsider refunding him. If not, they might be able to transfer his booking to another date or offer him credit to be used another time.
In this instance, my brother’s cheeky email won the hotel over and they said because he’d made them smile, they were happy to refund him.
But that won’t always be the case with non-refundable bookings. So if you are booking accommodation, and you’re going without travel insurance, here are some tips:
- Try and book flexibly where you can. It may cost a bit more than a non-refundable room, but you might decide it’s worth it
- Some hotels offer more flexibility when you book direct – so it’s worth checking prices with the hotel itself and comparing with a booking website
- If something unexpected happens and you can’t take your trip anymore, you can try moving your hotel booking to a later date. You can either use it then or, if you’ve moved it into a cancellation window, cancel it for a full refund
- If you’ve paid on your credit card and the booking cost more than £100, you’ll be covered by Section 75. Ordinarily, this means you can claim a refund if the hotel is at fault, for example if it cancels your booking, goes out of business or it doesn’t provide the services it promised. However, Section 75 also covers ‘consequential losses’. So, if you’ve booked tickets for a concert, for example, plus paid for travel and accommodation, and the concert is cancelled, you may be able to make a claim for your other expenses.
UK travel insurance tips
Compare
Use several comparison sites, such as MoneySuperMarket, GoCompare and Compare the Meerkat, to benchmark premiums
Don’t go cheap
Don’t just go for the cheapest cover – in fact, I’d avoid as there will likely be gaps in the cover. There may be star ratings on the comparison site offered by a third party – I always go for a policy with at least four stars. And then make sure you check the policy documents carefully to ensure you’re getting the cover you need.
Check reviews
Check online reviews. With insurance, the whole point of it is to give you peace of mind in case something goes wrong. By having a look at reviews you can see the experiences of other customers, good and bad, and help give you a steer about the customer service and, in some cases, the likelihood of a successful claim. Our sister site Smart Money People is the biggest review site for financial services, so it’s a really good place to start.