Just over a month ago, my boyfriend and I decided to visit the beautiful city of Edinburgh for our 5 year anniversary. We live in Dorset, so we didn�t want to spend the whole time travelling. To make the trip easier on ourselves, we decided to fly there, and used a travel agent to organise the week long holiday. Imagine my surprise when I saw an additional �27.50 on the quote for travel insurance! We were only going to Edinburgh, not Pittsburgh!
I was offended that they thought we would be so stupid as to get travel insurance for a trip within the UK. They have hospitals in Edinburgh, and it really isn�t very far away. But later on, over a cup of hot chocolate, I put some more thought into it.
Holiday disasters can happen anywhere, not just abroad � so I made a list of what could feasibly go wrong:
� One of us could fall ill before we depart, we�d have no choice but to cancel the trip. The flights and the hotel were non-refundable, so we�d have to pay anyway.
� My Grandfather has been ill lately, if he got suddenly worse than I wouldn�t be able to go on holiday. Again, the trip would have to be cancelled.
� Either of us could be called up for jury service at any time.
� Flights are delayed and cancelled all the time. On top of the inconvenience, we may need to arrange an overnight stay near the airport.
� Anything could happen to our luggage, airlines loose suitcases all the time.
� My boyfriend bought me a wonderful digital camera as a present, if I lost it, it would be very expensive to replace.
Hang on a minute, what about our Home & Contents insurance policy? I bet that would cover us for loss of luggage or my camera as long as I was in the UK. I found the policy and read the small print. No such luck, only �personal possessions� that were listed on the policy counted, so everything in the luggage wouldn�t be covered, and I�d need to make a phone call to get the camera included on the policy.
I remembered something else � we had over 4 years of no claims discount on our Home & Contents policy. If we had to make a claim, we�d loose the no claims discount. Our premiums would go sky high after that, they were already high enough as it is, at �305 a year. I realised that I really should look for a cheaper Home & Contents policy at the time of renewal, and promised myself to do that in future.
After the investigations I had made so far, I realised that �27.50 for a travel policy wasn�t actually too bad.
I�ve never been one to rest on my laurels though. I might have decided that travel insurance was a good idea, but it didn�t mean I was willing to accept the price quoted by the travel agent.
I went online to get some more quotes. The first two or three sites I looked at couldn�t give me what I wanted, but 10 minutes later, I struck gold. I found a single trip travel policy for the UK, and it was a good �10 cheaper than the travel agent�s quote.
I read the small print, no point signing up without knowing all the facts. I was pleased to see all the points I had listed were covered.
Now the exclusions � was it all too good to be true after all? Phew � no need to worry. If the holiday was less than 25 miles from our home address, or for less than 2 nights, than we wouldn�t be covered. No problem there. Otherwise the only downside was that we�d have to pay the �30 if we needed to make a claim. Fair enough.
Happy with the policy I�d found and with the decision that we did need travel insurance after all, I bought the travel insurance policy there and than.
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