How can I buy family travel insurance?

Family travel insurance is kind of like the Kentucky Fried Chicken Bargain bucket. It's a policy designed to be bought in bulk that is big enough to suit the whole family, rather than asking a customer to pay for each person. Some insurance policies, such as single trip insurance, occasionally will cover kids for free, but only up to about two of them, whilst family travel insurance policies could cover up to eight kids. But these are hard to find.

Normal family travel insurance is really set up for the normal nuclear family. The service it provides and the price structure is based upon two adults and two children. So, what happens should you have a large family, maybe even enough to start a football team? Holidays are a costly enough business if this is the case, and insuring the whole family is just as bad. In fact, a recent survey found that parents found themselves penalised by travel insurers should they have more than the bog-standard average number of children.

Some companies refuse point blank to cover a family with more than 6 children. Some will charge about £400 to cover a family of two adults and seven children. But there are also some companies which specialise in family travel insurance to the extent that they will cover two adults and as many dependents of the couple for less than £25. So it's really worth doing your research.

Why is there such a disparity? Well, first of all, it is very likely that the higher prices are charged by travel agents who do not specialise in travel insurance and essentially offer it as an add on to their core service, which is selling holidays. So since they do not specialise in selling travel insurance they tend to charge higher amounts to mitigate their risks in a market in which they don't have a lot of knowledge. Insuring a large family going on holiday can be very risky, which explains the higher premiums Its also true that travel agents see the convenience of offering travel insurance as something to be charged for.

Ultimately then, you should buy travel insurance through specialists. These companies will understand all of the risks that go with insuring a family and thus not ask people to pay too far over the odds for the "privilege" of doing so. Make sure when you buy the family travel insurance policy that you check, as with any other policy, that you are covering the right things. If you are going skiing, or water-skiing, then make sure the policy covers you. Should you and your family take more than one holiday a year, think about annual travel insurance.

© AskFinancially.com 2008

Travel Insurance

Insurance & Loans

Copyright

How can I buy family travel insurance?

© AskFinancially.com 2008

Travel Insurance

Insurance & Loans

Copyright