Annual Holiday Insurance

[alisonbestford]

Just thought I'd throw in a recommendation for M&S holiday insurance if anyone is unsure of which to buy.
I purchased an annual policy last year for myself, DH and 3 kids (aged between 6 and 21, all in full time education) for £145.
I originally saw someone else recommend M&S on DIS as the compensation rates were pretty good but what finally won me over was the fact that they would cover all 3 kids, as most others I'd looked at only included 2 under 18s, and also DH (who has a brain tumour) with no excess premium.
We've just returned from a fantastic trip to Orlando but were delayed 36 hours on the way home due to the plane developing a mechanical failure. I sent the tickets and letter from Virgin to M&S as requested last week and, this morning received a letter, with the original documents returned, saying we were due £270 (£90 each) and they'd be sending out a cheque
No problems, just a straight forward reply.
I had to claim medical expenses for DD a couple of years ago from Churchill and it seemed a never ending stream of letters and phonecalls until we were re-imbursed!
Guess who'll be renewing her M&S policy for next year
Alison

 

[SEVANS2208]

The price seems a bit high (we've just got annual cover for a family of 4 for just under £90) but it's good to know that their service is good. Will get a quote from them when our insurance expires.

 

[London Calling]

£90 sounds good (who with ?). last year I managed to get it for just over £76 with E -sure, but the quote they have offered me has gone up a fair bit this year.

 

[alisonbestford]

Forgot to say that we paid extra to have no excess and also business cover so that would add a little extra.
Yep, £90 sounds good but, as I said, we're a family of 5 with 'big kids' that I haven't found other policies covering. They cover 'children' up to 23 still in full time education, even if they're travelling outside the family group - as long as there's an adult travelling with them.
In the past we've needed to buy a policy for the 2 youngest kids and ourselves and a separate adult one for DD (now 21) which obviously bumps up the cost
I believe Sainsburys are quite good too.
Alison

 

[SEVANS2208]

London Calling - ours was through www.columbusdirect.com I seem to remember we got a couple of extras so actually it could have cost even less than this.

Now someone is going to tell me they're a dodgy company!!!

 

[London Calling]

No they seem kosher to me, they advertise all over the London underground. I usually go to a finance site such as insuresupermarket and for 2 kids, and 2 adults dont expect to pay more than £80.

 

[alisonbestford]

Found one on the columbus website that looked good - £85 or something similar - and covered all 3 kids.
I priced the M&S one without the business cover and it was still either £112 with the £50 excess or £131 without.
Still, M&S came up trumps for us and I'm a firm believer that you never know how good something is until you have to claim on it....
Hopefully few people will have to experience a 36 hour delay but the £30 each for each 12 hour delay pays for the next holiday deposit...
Alison

 

[Twinks]

We did our annual worldwide Multi-trip with Nationwide as our eldest turned 18 and was no longer covered on most policies. Nationwide too cover them up to 23 I think so long as they are in full time education. Our premium was £107.42. It excludes personal possessions and money, as we have cover for this on our home contents insurance! But for a family of 4 with the eldest child being classed as an adult, we felt this was very good value for money

Twinks

 

[gilld]

We've always had an annual policy free with our HSBC CC. Ours also covered all off-spring up to 23 if in education, something we no longer need as ours are a bit older now.

 

[alisonbestford]

How do you get the free ins with HSBC?
Is it standard with the CC? I have one but hid it in a drawer ages ago
Alison

 

[Lisa Francis]

yes i would be interested in knowing about the HSBC as DH has their Gold card and when i looked a few weeks ago i dont think it covered travel insurance...! there again i'm not the best person with these web sites it may be better if i give them a ring to check.

 

[Lisa Francis]

also i know slightly going off track but does anyone know why i am suddenly getting lots of gobbly gook whenever i put a message on...as above...i didnt used to. the words java script seem to be springing up everywhere...sorry to go off track.

 

[slinky101]

lisa, its what used to be your countdown, you need to go to user cp and delete it all from your signature.

 

[alisonbestford]

Hi Lisa,
I just put HSBC into a 'Google' search and the site I pulled up said that the travel insurance comes with the Platinum card. It wasn't an actual HSBC site but one offering credit card advice - it suggested that you didn't take the card for the insurance alone as the card costs £80 a year (?!) and has quite a high interest rate of 17.5%.
Not sure how accurate this all is but we should all be dab hands at getting cheap insurance once we're through
Alison

 

[shellbell]

My MIL and FIL took out M&S holiday insurance last year when we were supposed to go to Florida (our trip was cancelled due to the hurricanes last september). We had taken insurance with Virgin When it came to claiming our money back for the Private villa we had booked MIL had no problems and they had their money back very quickly. But when it came to us claiming our money back from Virgin it took nearly 3 months We had numerous letters back from them saying we couldn't claim. So after a number of letters and phone calls we eventually got the money back.

M&S are very good. This year we have insurance with our bank. We didn't realy take notice of this last year but with the account we have at the bank we get free holiday insurance, and its worth £149. We have had to pay £22.95 to have DD added to the policy. So we have saved some money there.

Michelle

 

[gilld]

How do you get the free ins with HSBC?
Is it standard with the CC? I have one but hid it in a drawer ages ago
Alison

Our HSBC Card was one you had to be invited to apply for ie the income had to be very high. It is no longer available to new customers. It is also an account that HAS to be paid in full each month. We opened the account about 15 years ago. There is an annual fee but we also get preferential rates on our mortgage, free share dealing etc with it, WELL worth the small fee.

 

[alisonbestford]

Mmm! Well, as I said in an earlier post, you never know how good something really is unless you have to claim
M&S get my vote this time
Alison

 

[alisonbestford]

Our HSBC Card was one you had to be invited to apply for ie the income had to be very high. It is no longer available to new customers. It is also an account that HAS to be paid in full each month.

Well, that counts us out then even if it was still available

Alison