If you’re planning a holiday with your partner or family, buying joint or family travel insurance can often work out cheaper than taking out separate policies – but not always.
While joint or family travel insurance makes sense for some people, for others it may not be the most cost-effective option, so here’s everything you need to know.
Contents
- What is joint travel insurance?
- What is family travel insurance?
- What do joint and family travel insurance policies cover?
- What do joint and family travel insurance policies NOT cover?
- What are the cover limits for joint or family travel insurance?
- Do you always need to travel together with joint or family annual multi-trip travel insurance?
- Why might you want to buy joint or family travel insurance?
- Where can you find joint or family travel insurance?
What is joint travel insurance?
Sometimes known as couples travel insurance, a joint travel insurance policy usually provides protection for two people over 18 years of age, who are in a relationship and are living together. You don’t need to be married to take out a joint travel insurance policy with your partner, you just need to live at the same address.
You can usually get single-trip or annual multi-trip joint travel insurance.
Generally, buying joint travel insurance is cheaper than buying two separate policies, so lots of people choose to buy their travel insurance like this. However, if one of you has a pre-existing medical condition, this could push the price up for both of you, in which case it might be cheaper to buy separate policies.
What is family travel insurance?
Family travel insurance usually provides protection for one or two adults plus at least one child. Most policies will allow you to add up to eight children to a policy, but they all need to be under 18 and will usually need to live at the same address as the adults.
You can usually buy either single-trip cover if you want insurance for a two-week break, for example, or annual multi-trip family travel insurance, if you’re planning to go away together two or three times in the same year.
If anyone in your family has a pre-existing medical condition, this could push up the price of cover considerably, so it might work out cheaper to either get separate policies, or take out a family policy with standalone cover with a specialist provider for the person with a medical condition.
What do joint and family travel insurance policies cover?
Joint and family travel insurance policies provide protection for all the usual things you’d expect to see on a travel insurance policy, including:
- Medical treatment and expenses
- Cancellation and curtailment
- Travel delay or disruption
- Repatriation
- Lost, stolen or damaged possessions and luggage
- Money and passports
- Legal protection
- Personal liability.
What do joint and family travel insurance policies NOT cover?
Standard joint or family travel insurance policies won’t usually cover:
- Cruises, skiing or extreme sports – you will either need to take out a specialist policy for these activities or you might be able to add them on as optional extras, so make sure to check the fine print
- Pre-existing medical conditions – if anyone on the policy has a pre-existing condition, you won’t usually have cover for this or any claims made as a result of this condition
- Incidents related to alcohol or drug abuse – While this sounds extreme, it’s worth noting that insurers often won’t cover accidents that have happened when you’ve had a few drinks
- Travel to high-risk countries against Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) advice
- Acts of terrorism
- Natural disasters.
You can find out more about what travel insurance will and won’t cover in our guide Travel Insurance for over 50s – Everything you need to know.
What are the cover limits for joint or family travel insurance?
The limits to the cover you’ll get depends on where you’re going and for how long, but generally most cover limits will be per person per trip on joint or family travel insurance policies. There are some exclusions to this, however, and usually, things like gadget cover and legal costs limits will be in total. Make sure you check the fine print of your cover so you know exactly what you’re covered for.
Do you always need to travel together with joint or family annual multi-trip travel insurance?
There are joint and family travel insurance annual multi-trip policies available that let you travel separately, but this is by no means the norm, so it’s important to read the fine print carefully to make sure you’re covered.
The option to travel separately is more commonly available with joint travel insurance, but it will vary from policy to policy.
If you’re considering taking out family annual multi-trip travel insurance, but some family members won’t be coming on certain trips, make sure it’s still the most cost-effective option. You may find that it’s cheaper overall to buy single-trip policies if some family members won’t be coming on some trips.
Why might you want to buy joint or family travel insurance?
There are a number of reasons you might want to buy a joint or family travel insurance policy, including:
- Convenience – Taking out separate policies for you and your loved ones could be a real faff, but with a joint or family policy, you can get travel protection for everyone in one go.
- Value for money – Buying joint or family travel insurance policies can work out cheaper than taking out individual ones, so many people choose to buy their insurance this way. Some family policies can even offer free cover for children, so it can be much more cost-effective.
Where can you find joint or family travel insurance?
Joint and family travel insurance policies are offered by nearly all insurers, and you should be able to find them on most comparison sites.
Learn more about travel insurance and the different types of cover available in our guide Everything you need to know about travel insurance.
If you’re looking for travel insurance, we have partnered with Staysure to provide you with first class travel insurance, tailored to suit your needs. There’s no upper age limit and they’ll cover most pre-existing medical conditions. You can also take advantage of their 20%‡ discount, just quote RLESS at checkout.
‡Discount applies to the base premium of the policy only and not to medical screening costs or add-ons where relevant. Terms, conditions, and exclusions apply.
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