Travel policies that cover shark diving — but NOT a family bike ride
FIRMS are selling travel insurance that covers extreme sports such as bungee jumping and shark diving — but will not pay out if you have an accident on a family bike ride.
Money Mail research found that activities most holidaymakers assume are perfectly safe — such as cycling, snorkelling and cricket — are, in fact, considered dangerous by insurers.
Yet adrenaline-fuelled sports the more risk averse of us would stay well clear of are seen as low risk because they are typically overseen by safety experts.
For example, Post office insurance will cover medical costs for someone injured while jet- skiing, water- skiing, scubadiving and bathing with elephants — but not sea kayaking.
it will cover jousting, sand-surfing (similar to snowboarding, but on sand dunes), parascending ( parasailing) and even octo-pushing (underwater hockey) — but not a game of cricket.
it also excludes any injuries sustained during ‘team building’ sports, because the fierce competition between work colleagues can get out of hand, leading to ‘unnecessary risk and injuries’.
travel insurers decide which sports to cover based on claims they have received in the past. if a firm receives high numbers of claims for football-related holiday injuries, for example, it may choose to exclude this.
if, on the other hand, the insurer rarely receives claims for gorilla trekking or abseiling, it may happily include these in its standard policy.
But experts fear most holidaymakers are unaware their policies may not cover ordinary leisure pursuits.
Rob Clarkson, a managing director at Post office Money, says: ‘in very rare occurrences, people have been severely injured playing amateur cricket.
‘if you are not wearing any protective gear and decide to play on an uneven surface on a sunny day, a cricket ball could fly off in any direction and be quite dangerous.
‘We are reviewing all activities in our policy and cricket is likely to be included.’
COMPANIES are often comfortable insuring against extreme activities because they are carried out with the help of an instructor in a controlled environment.
however, a family bike ride or a day of snorkelling on the beach are unlikely to include any professional supervision, which makes insurers nervous.
James Daley, of Fairer Finance, says: ‘You’ve got to be incredibly careful when you’re buying travel insurance.
‘You might assume that it will cover any activity you might do on your holiday, but there are dozens of exclusions — often for things that may seem relatively safe.’
Research compiled for Money Mail by comparison site Defaqto shows that 97 pc of standard travel policies cover snorkelling and 96 pc cover cycling.
of the 866 UK single-trip travel insurance policies analysed, 23 refuse to cover snorkelling and three will cover it only as an add- on. Meanwhile, 17 policies offer cycling only as an add-on and 20 will not cover it under any circumstances. We also found 53 standard policies do not cover horse-riding accidents, while 32 exclude scuba-diving.
Kevin Pratt, consumer affairs expert at price comparison site
Moneysupermarket.com, warns: ‘insurers exclude what they see as potentially hazardous activities — and that could mean sports we wouldn’t normally see as dangerous.’ other insurers will cover you for emergency medical expenses, but not cover you for personal accident or personal liability claims.
this means your insurer will not pay out if you injure someone else and will not give you a lump sum if you suffer a life- changing, longterm injury, such as losing a limb.
Asda, for example, does not include personal accident or liability for football, cycle touring, go- karting, horse riding and segway riding in its standard single-trip policies.
it also excludes the sport ultimate ( a game similar to football, but with a Frisbee), but will happily include bungee jumping, white water rafting, wakeboarding, water- skiing and cave tubing (floating through caves full of jagged stalactites in a rubber ring).
Virgin’s standard policy includes medical cover for most sports, but does not include personal accident or liability for fishing, cycle touring, football, horse riding or kayaking.
it also excludes dragon boating — a type of rowing the Duchess of Cambridge has taken part in.
But it does include full cover for white water rafting, wakeboarding, water- skiing, parascending, bungee jumping and river tubing (where you float along a river in a rubber ring).
James Walker, of free complaints service Resolver, says even if an activity was covered, holidaymakers may need additional sport-specific protection.
‘We recently helped two women who took a gentle horse-and-cart ride in Cuba that went terribly wrong when the horse bolted,’ he says.
‘though they had the right cover, it was not as extensive as it would have been with the adventure supplement cover.’