Booking Your Holiday? Shop Around For Insurance
July 2nd, 2007 | POSTED BY ROB
It might be a bit late for most, as you may have already booked this year’s holiday, but a recent survey by MoneySupermarket.com suggests that the insurance that is often sold along with your holiday can be up to 4 times more expensive than insurance bought from elsewhere.
In one example they give, a couple booking a trip to Florida would be charged £114 for a single trip insurance policy through travel agents Thomas Cook - had they shopped around, they could have got the same policy for a quarter of the price, £28.50, through a company called Flexicover Direct. Similar levels of cover would be provided in both cases.
The good news is that the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the regulator of financial services in the UK, have mentioned that they will start to regulate insurance sales by travel agents from 2009.
Currently about a third of holiday insurance is bundled with the holiday package, although this is likely to decline if people realise there’s a good chance they’ll get ripped off, and now that it’s far easier to compare insurance providers online.
