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Comparing family travel insurance

So why might you need family travel insurance? Well, when you’re on holiday it's essential to have travel insurance as it should protect you if things go wrong. giving you that extra peace of mind to enjoy your holiday.

People often buy a single trip travel insurance policy to cover them for their holiday abroad once a year. But if you and the family go away twice a year or more it could work out cheaper to buy annual travel insurance. Or as it’s sometimes called, multi-trip travel insurance.

What does travel insurance cover?

The main purpose of travel or holiday insurance is to protect you against the costs of medical treatment abroad – which can sometimes add up to thousands of pounds. It could also pay for you, your partner, or children to be brought home in an emergency.

Insurers have varying policies but most include emergency medical treatment costs to cover things such as hospital charges and ambulance fees. They will usually get you home after medical treatment abroad too, if you can’t use your original tickets. If your family need to stay with you while you’re treated, or another relative flies out from home to support you, this could also be covered.

Travel policies can also cover lost baggage or stolen possessions, and may provide a refund if the trip has to be cancelled or cut short for some reason.

So how much is your family travel insurance going to cost? It actually depends on a few things, so a good way to find out the options is to do a quick travel insurance comparison.

Where are you going?

When you compare travel insurance you first need to say whether your policy should cover you just for the UK, or for Europe, or the USA, Canada and Caribbean. For anywhere further beyond we’ll ask you to confirm the country.

You may have heard that people don’t need travel insurance if they have a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). If you need medical treatment while travelling within many European countries, the EHIC means you can get treatment in the same way as people who live in that country. However, it will be on the basis you get taken to a public not private hospital. In the event of an emergency you will be taken to the nearest hospital. But the EHIC isn’t a substitute for travel cover. It wouldn’t pay for getting you home or other costs linked to your medical emergency. They are also date-specific, so check the expiry on your card before you travel. Be aware too, that not all European countries recognise the EHIC. Also some policies will waive your excess if you have one.

Of course, outside the EU there’s no EHIC, so it can be more expensive to get medical support.

Who are you taking?

If you’re travelling as a family then you’ll probably want to buy cover for all of you in a single policy. You will need the dates of birth and details of any medical conditions each member of your family might have to get an accurate family holiday insurance quote.

Will you be travelling as a family more than once this year? If so, it might be more economical to buy an annual travel insurance policy, as opposed to single trip travel insurance which is one-off cover for a single holiday. If you take two or more holidays abroad every year, those single trip policies can cost more than an annual one.

What will you be doing?

If you’re going skiing, snowboarding or taking a cruise, not all basic policies will cover you. With winter sports there’s more risk of injury, while cruises might need specific elements, like cover for being confined to your cabin, or an emergency airlift to hospital. We’ll ask you about these elements as part of our quote information so that we can show you quotes that do include this cover.

If you’re planning on being adventurous on your travels, you might need to check whether things like bungee jumping or white water rafting are covered in your policy (should you need them).

How’s your health?

To get you a list of quotes, we’ll ask you a few questions about your family’s health and get you to add in the names of any medical conditions.

From an insurer’s point of view, if you or a member of your family has a health condition it could mean you‘re more likely to need medical help while you’re away. Because of this, some conditions might increase the insurance premium but this isn’t always the case with all conditions.

Make sure you list any medical conditions and give insurers all the information they need because if not, you might be charged more by your insurer or not be covered should anyone get ill. If your insurer discovers that the medical emergency on your trip was linked to a condition you already had, they could refuse to cover you or add a cost.

Compare and save!

You’ll then see a page of travel insurance quotes. These are listed in price order with the cheapest travel insurance at the top.

You can also see all the main features of each policy – how thorough it is according to Defaqto, the amounts of medical, baggage and cancellation cover and excess you would pay if you did make a claim. You can filter your results to only show those over a certain limit.

To find out more about what is and isn’t included in a family holiday insurance policy, click each one for more details.

Once you have found a travel insurance quote that suits you, click the button to go through and buy. But do make sure you read all the details.

Don’t forget, if you buy your travel insurance policy through us, you will benefit from the fabulous Meerkat Movies! You can get 2 for 1 cinema tickets on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, every week for a whole year*. A great reason to choose us for your family holiday insurance.