When it comes to booking a holiday, there’s often a never-ending list of things to remember. From clothes to books, appropriate footwear to toiletries, or simply making sure that your pets will be fed in your absence, there’s plenty that you need to prepare for when leaving your home behind for a much-needed getaway. However, a new survey has suggested that British people are overlooking something particularly important when it comes to their holiday preparations.
MoneySuperMarket.com, who polled a selection of 2000 holidaymakers, has revealed that a staggering 80% of British citizens do not check their travel insurance policy to confirm whether their insurance provides appropriate cover for their holiday.
Nowhere is this lack of knowledge more concerning than when it comes to a favoured pastime of Brits on holiday; drinking. The survey suggested that 67% of those asked would be drinking on their holiday, but only 54% were aware that being under the influence of alcohol could invalidate a claim.
The figures are worse still for those polled who intended to undertake an ‘extreme’ activity like skydiving or jet-skiing; 80% were unaware of any injury sustained whilst taking part in something along these lines would be covered by their policy.
A plethora of other activities can also invalidate your travel insurance, such as not having the correct inoculations, injury sustained from a physical altercation and failure to take prescribed medication. Holidaymakers with a penchant for sharing their day-to-day lives in social media should also be aware that injury sustained whilst taking a dangerous picture (e.g. A selfie close to a waterfall or cliff edge) will not be covered if reasonable care is not undertaken.
With these findings in mind, Anna Sant, a travel insurance expert at MoneySuperMarket.com has offered a warning to consumers: “Personal injury claims can fail because of suspected intoxication, so it’s worth reading through your policy in full to make sure you don’t get caught out. As a general rule of thumb, the cheaper your policy, the more open the clause around alcohol is to interpretation. In many cases, especially with cheaper policies, it’s up to the individual to prove that they weren’t under the influence of alcohol when they got injured, which can prove almost impossible.”