Holiday spending but not on travel insurance

Have you bought holiday insurance?  According to research from Asda Financial Services  a whopping 32% of parents do not insure their kids or even take out a family policy ahead of going abroad exposing both themselves and their children to the potential dangers of travelling uninsured.

This isn’t just isolated to parents, a quarter (24%) of Brits don’t have any travel insurance, with a third (33%) of the younger generation aged between 20 – 29 not bothering to take out any at all.

Asda can reveal that the UK spend a whopping £2.8 billion on pre-holiday items such as books, sun cream and medication followed by a further £12 billion during their holiday on taxis, excursions, ice creams and drinks.  But they’re failing to fork out just £36.91³ to cover their families for their trip, the equivalent of a meal out for the family or a new outfit for their holiday. Further research recently showed that British families are now £6⁴ a week worse off than last year and with this in mind it is no surprise that one in three adults (33%)⁵ have been impacted by the rising cost of insurance and one in ten (13%) has cancelled a financial product to save money.

With summer just around the corner and those all-important breaks abroad being planned, mums and dads should be putting everything in place to make sure they are covered but they aren’t.  As a Mum, I understand the importance of making sure that where possible the whole family is covered when on holiday.  It’s worrying that parents are taking such a big risk by not having adequate cover, and by simply sacrificing a meal out or round of ice creams on holiday they can travel with peace of mind.  There may be some families who believe an EHIC⁶ card will cover more than just medical expenses, however it will only provide medical care at the same cost as a national of that country (they could still be left with a large bill) and what’s more without travel insurance they won’t have any cover in place for such things as repatriation, cancellation, lost luggage or theft of property.  Holidaymakers should make sure they ask their insurance provider what they are covered for especially if they are visiting the Eurozone this summer. – Kirsty Ward, Head of Financial Services, Asda

Regionally we are all guilty of not putting the appropriate travel insurance in place, but the biggest offenders are those in the Midlands with over a quarter (26%) failing to take out travel insurance.  They are closely followed by the Scottish with a quarter not taking out cover, the Welsh are the most cautious as only 8% have not taken precautions this summer.

Asda Travel Insurance provides affordable travel insurance cover, with a single trip to Europe starting from as little as £4.50 and annual cover from £37. Kids and Grandkids go free and it also covers babies from birth whereas most providers do not cover infants in their first 6 months.

How Asda Travel Insurance compares

1. Research of 1251 people conducted for Asda Pulse of the Nation from 25^th April to 2^nd May 2012
2. £2.8 billion = 56,000,000 trips abroad last year x average spend of £50 on pre-holiday preparing = £2,800,000,000 +  £12 billion =  56,000,000 trips abroad last year x average spend while on holiday of £218 = £12,208,000,000 – £14.8 billion
3. The cost of insuring a family for a 8 day holiday to Europe with Asda is £36.91
4. Asda Income Tracker – May 2012 full report
5. Communications Revolution, a report from Lansons Financial Services/Opinium LLP (Sept 2011)
6. EHIC – will provide medical cover in a European country, but only to the same level as received by its nationals – so any cost that they would normally pay, a UK citizen would have to pay the same (if they don’t have travel insurance).  Countries covered by EHIC are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus (not including Northern Cyprus), Czech Republic, Denmark,Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania,Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.