Is Your Cheap Travel Insurance Legal?

Is Your Cheap Travel Insurance Legal?

At this time of year, New Year’s resolutions are a long forgotten memory. The diet you pledged to stick to has been replaced by chocolate, and the strict exercise regime has gone out the window. On the plus side, you can still look forward to your summer holiday.
However, travel insurance has gone through some changes in 2009 and, unlike the rest of us, the companies who sell cheap travel insurance stick to their resolutions. So before you take your well earned break, it’s worth checking your policy.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) took it upon itself to regulate the sale of all cheap travel insurance from all travel agents and tour operators. A lot of tour operators signed up in advance to get FSA approval, but not all operators and travel agents have been FSA approved. It’s easy to be confused by acronyms, as a lot of travel agents are members of ATOL or ABTA which gives the impression that they are certified and approved to sell cheap travel insurance.

For clarity, ATOL is the Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing which is a part of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). ATOL helps to protect travellers abroad by making sure that the tour operator or travel agent they book their holiday with has the financial reserves to compensate their customers, should anything go wrong. If an ATOL approved company goes bust, holidaymakers are guaranteed to get their money back and a flight home should the company collapse whilst a customer is on holiday.

ABTA is the Association of British Travel Agents and is a representative body of 5,300 travel agents and almost 1,000 tour operators. ABTA are a representative body which acts on behalf of its members to ensure high standards of trading practice among travel agents. However, whilst ABTA membership does mean customers will get “choice, value and high levels of service” there is no requirement for ABTA members to provide cheap travel insurance.

In essence, what this means is that whilst carrying the ATOL or ABTA badge might help you source a good travel agent, in reality this has no bearing on their ability to provide you with cheap travel insurance. If you are going to buy a policy, make sure it’s from a reputable vendor that has approval from the FSA. Without it, you could be in severe trouble should you have an accident abroad.

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Travelling Without Insurance?

Over A Million Travelling Without Insurance

Many of us dream about that perfect holiday or that quick getaway and when the time finally arrives to pack everything up and fly off, many want their paradise vacation to run as smoothly as the cocktail in their hand.

However, it has been revealed by a travel insurance company that many of these holiday goers do not purchase travel cover, therefore quickly turning that well planed holiday into an expensive nightmare.

The survey showed that nearly 1.3 million Brits with pre-existing medical conditions travelled abroad without telling their travel insurers about their health conditions. This is a dangerous move, as it could not only endanger a traveller’s finances, but could also jeopardise any future claims.

Insurance as important as the suitcase
The insurance company revealed that over the past year, an estimated 206,000 individuals concealed the fact that they had respiratory problems, 149,000 cancer sufferers also hid their health issues and 267,000 people with heart problems travelled without telling their travel insurance firm about their condition.

It's important to be honest with your insurer and provide all the information they ask for. It's simply not worth taking the risk and travelling with potentially invalid cover or no cover at all.

Another alarming figure displayed that 500,000 people with medical problems went overseas in the past year with no travel insurance cover at all.

The factors influencing medical concealment
The study found that 19% of holiday makers said they left out information on their travel policies because they believed they would get the cover cheaper, compared to if they were honest.

Therefore, it was found that fear and cost were the two main factors as to why people did not tell their insurer about their medical issues.

A further 15% said they were worried that they would be refused cover altogether if they had told the truth and noted their health problems.
Marrs pointed out that whilst a travel insurer will set a slightly higher premium once they have found out a client’s health history, they still provide cover for most medical conditions.

Why travel cover was so vital: “The purpose of travel insurance is to ensure that if a disaster does strike, you'll receive the necessary care and support.”

The insurers have reminded the public that travel cover should be top of the holiday check list, as it provides financial compensation for delays, picks up the cost if a holidaymaker needs an emergency flight home, covers medical costs and lastly, could pay for damages caused to a property.

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