Travel Insurance shocker

[Kendhni]

My worldwide annual travel insurance renewal quote cam through this morning - and I got a bit of a shock.
Nothing has changed but the prices is up almost 275% percent (and no, there is no decimal point in that number).

Removing America/Caribbean still meant a rise of almost 230%.

Unfortunately when I phoned to question this I was told that there is nothing they can do with renewal prices. So I guess it is time to shop around again. I would be interested in seeing what other people are being quoted.

Not even sure that I will bother renewing at this point since at the minute I have no idea if any of our holidays will be allowed to go in the next 12 months.

[Gill W]

Our travel insurance is due for renewal in October. I had already thought of removing worldwide cover, and just sticking to Europe, but even that might not make any difference.

Ken, will you be covered for COVID19 on the renewed policy?

[Kendhni]

Hi Gill, I did ask and got a mumbled 'yes' answer. So not sure if that was a guess or a definitive - I would need to confirm that 100%.

[towny44]

Ken, do you disclose any pre existing health conditions on your insurance, or is the increase from a modest baseline price?

[david63]

My annual worldwide policy only went up about 10% and it included Covid19 cover, an additional three months (which in reality meant nothing as there would be no travel in those three months) but it was renewed in April so things may have changed.

The only reason that I renewed was to maintain continuing cover as we are over 70 with medical declarations

[Stephen]

My worldwide annual travel insurance renewal quote cam through this morning - and I got a bit of a shock.
Nothing has changed but the prices is up almost 275% percent (and no, there is no decimal point in that number).

Removing America/Caribbean still meant a rise of almost 230%.

Unfortunately when I phoned to question this I was told that there is nothing they can do with renewal prices. So I guess it is time to shop around again. I would be interested in seeing what other people are being quoted.

Not even sure that I will bother renewing at this point since at the minute I have no idea if any of our holidays will be allowed to go in the next 12 months.

Time to shop around Ken

We have used Insure and Go for several years now and with me having a few medical issues the price for our annual European cover stays about the same each year.

[Kendhni]

Ken, do you disclose any pre existing health conditions on your insurance, or is the increase from a modest baseline price?

Yea both Julie and I have disclosed medical conditions (which are covered) - nothing major.
The original price paid last year, while not being overly high (Under £150) was actually the most expensive we have ever paid (up until then with Quidco etc. I was getting annual world wide insurance for under £100).

[Quizzical Bob]

It's a bit rich considering that we shall have nothing booked in the next few months so our current annual policy is worthless.

[Mervyn and Trish]

I'm not entirely surprised. Ours comes as part of our bank account so when it renews in a couple of months they can't increase the actual premium as there isn't one. But they could increase the supplement we pay for being 70 plus and could impose exclusions or surcharges, as they do for existing conditions. On those we have choices. Some are included for no charge, others we can opt to pay for inclusion or opt not to be covered.

Even before renewal we are no longer covered for Covid on any bookings made after Mid March.

I did see a suggestion from one of the travel writers that eventually insurers may include medical cover for Covid, possibly subject to testing or vaccination, while still excluding cancellation, and probably at an additional cost. Maybe for single trip cover only.

We'll have to wait and see. We have two flights to Madeira, in November and March, which are still covered, though it remains to be seen whether we actually go. If we don't it's only the flights at risk as the timeshare accommodation can be banked for later use. We also have our QM2 cruise deferred (at our instigation before they cancelled it) to next May. That isn't covered at present and if we can't get it covered we won't go. But we have until mid February to decide and if we cancel before then only lose the deposit we had expected to lose this year anyway.

[Kenmo1]

We are about to cancel our fourth cruise (October) for this year so the holiday insurance has been wasted other than that during the current cover we booked a December 2021 cruise in January this year before Covid 19 was classed as a pandemic. We only paid a deposit of £180 which is less than our insurance cost. The annual insurance is due for renewal in November this year and will then be due for renewal again in November 2021. I am hoping that we are covered for Covid 19 for the Christmas 2021 cruise so long as we stay with the same provider. If the insurance cost shoots up we will have to decide whether it is worth renewing the insurance as I am not sure at this stage if I want to cruise ever again.

I will need to write out a list of questions for our current insurance provider plus for any other provider we approach in case our cost for cover shoots up. Possibly, with our current provider, we may have to consider just renewing with a single holiday policy for the Christmas 2021 holiday. I was rather hoping to use a large amount of FCC to upgrade from an inside cabin to an outside cabin or a balcony but I wonder if the insurance company will argue that is a new booking because of the change to the original booking.

I just feel it is all a bit of a nightmare at the moment with questions, questions, questions and I do wonder if it is worth the hassle and cost when there is so much of the United Kingdom we have not seen.

[Manoverboard]

I just feel it is all a bit of a nightmare at the moment with questions, questions, questions and I do wonder if it is worth the hassle and cost when there is so much of the United Kingdom we have not seen.

Perhaps we will also need to do a ' Virtual Tour of the UK ' ?

[Kenmo1]

Good idea, Moby, but I won't be able to participate in that so much.

Maureen

[Whynd1]

The Around Britain cruise we did last year on Oriana was one of the best cruises I have done.
Loved both Scotland and Ireland and the highlight was the Faroes.

[towny44]

Even before renewal we are no longer covered for Covid on any bookings made after Mid March.

I did see a suggestion from one of the travel writers that eventually insurers may include medical cover for Covid, possibly subject to testing or vaccination, while still excluding cancellation, and probably at an additional cost. Maybe for single trip cover only

I have seen on CC that some insurers, whilst excluding cancellation and curtailment covid cover, do advise that their standard emergency medical cover will still cover you for Covid19, and this includes all hospital and medical cover as well as repatriation.
I am assuming that they expect this to be minor compared with a whole ship load wanting payouts for cancelled or curtailed cruises, and of course these costs should be covered by the cruise line or as a last resort your credit card provider anyway.

[cruisin_duo]

Interesting to see what my renewal is like next month.