Travel insurance for daughter and Friends
 

Hi

My daughter is looking at booking her first holiday away with out us next summer. It will be Mallorca all Inc holiday with her and 5 friends.

Now do I just let the travel agent sort out a group insurance policy (she will probably pay over the odds)
Or

Shall I just tell them to all sort out individual policies? (shop around and get better price/cover/lower excess etc

Reading terms and conditions most individual policies cover cancellation and curtailment etc if friend you are travelling with has serious illness etc so is there a benefit to doing a group policy?


Anyone else had experience with this?

Thanks

James

I suspect a Group policy (usually defined as 2 or more adults travelling with or without children) will be cheaper than 5 individual policies and I am certain you will pay more if you have the travel agent arrange it. The travel agent usually "buys" cover from the underwriter and then sells it on to it's customers with their margin on top. So cheaper to use a comparison site like Travel Supermarket and one of the group arrange it for the party. They would need to ensure they ask the others re any medical conditions though as that may impact matters and mean an individual policy for that person is better option or that all the rest of you need to make insurer aware you know of an existing condition amongst your travel party.
No massive cover benefit between group and individual policies - the wordings are largely identical. So on basis you answer all medical questions accurately and something happens then if I use a policy I bought and look at the scenario you mentioned of possibly having to cancel before travelling or curtail/cut short part-way through the holiday, the relevant wording on the policy I bought was bog-standard and would apply to each of the party up to whichever Sum Insured per person you select -

"Cancellation -If you cancel your journey before it begins because one of the following happens:
• The death, serious injury or serious illness of you, someone you were going to stay with, a travelling
companion, or a relative or business associate of you or a travelling companion.
• You or a travelling companion is called for jury service in your home country or as a witness in a court in
your home country
• You or a travelling companion is needed by the police following a burglary, or damage caused by serious fire,
storm, flood, explosion, subsidence, vandalism, fallen trees, impact by aircraft or vehicle at your home or their
home or usual place of business in your home country.
• Your redundancy
Curtailment
You cut your journey short (curtail) after it has begun because of one of the following:
• Anything mentioned in Cancellation except redundancy.
• You are injured or ill and are in hospital for the rest of your journey."

hope this helps

It helps massively thanks. I've just run an individual few quote for my daughter and it was around £28 with LV and aviva was over £40

I think I'll let them get a quote from the travel agent as they are all going together tomorrow to book so can sort out if their are any pre existing conditions etc and get a quote . I have said to my daughter if it works out more than £30 each then don't buy it as would be cheaper to go down the individual route.

Thanks again.

James

I went on a girls holiday with 3 of my friends a couple of years ago to Greece. I went on compare the market and did a group policy. None of us had any pre existing conditions. Got a mid level policy to cover decent gadget/personal money. Cost us about £9 each for the single trip.

Did a dummy quote on compare the market for 5 people just using random dates of birth from 1999 and going 2 weeks in June next year. No medical conditions. Decent post office policy at under a tenner per person with plenty medical cover, 2500 cancellation and 2000 baggage.

Excellent. I'll tell her if it's much above £12 each for insurance then decline and we will sort out our own policy.

Appreciate your help.

It's strange. I've just done a postoffice dummy quote. It's six going in total and Beth is a sept 2000. They are only going for a week. First it said the lead has to be 18 so I moved her birthday to get a quote but when the quotes come in they start at £105 with a high £150 excess and goes up to £146.68 with a £50 excess. (For six people)

I put in dates 3rd July to 10th July 2019.

Lets see what the travel agent comes up with!

Unless there’s medical conditions involved that doesn’t sound right at all. Try compare the Market.
I’ve never payed more the £20 a person for cover to various EU countries and the states, I use a comparison website, find the cheapest provider I recognise and check there’s adequate cover included (if not I go for the next one- usually the states). Honestly for myself and my mum in October (including my gall bladder removal covered) it was less then £30.

It might be that they’ve put the price right up due to the girls ages, unless the travel agent give them something less then £20 each it may be worth them each doing it individually as they turn 18.

Yes I wondered if it's an age thing to. I have to admit I just went to post office direct rather than comparison site so that may be another reason why it was more expensive.

Post Office will also have a range of policies too from basic to superior. I would run the quote on comparison site.