Are you paying TWICE for holiday cover you don’t even need?
JASMINE BIRTLES helps you with the cost of living crunch
Are you wasting money on duplicate policies? I only realised just how common this is after speaking to my friend Simon, whose parents realised they were inadvertently paying for two lots of travel insurance when they went to make a claim on a missed flight the other week.
It turned out they were paying for one policy as part of their Direct Line home insurance cover, and another as part of their Lloyds Silver bank account package ( which also includes AA breakdown cover and mobile phone insurance as part of the £10 monthly fee).
It got me wondering: if they have a duplicate travel policy, what else might they be doubling up on? Mobile phone insurance? Car breakdown?
After a bit of digging, it transpired that they did have more insurance cover they didn’t know about, from free global emergency dental cover as part of their Denplan payment scheme to free car insurance and breakdown cover.
Th ey even have personal liability cover through their golf membership, would you believe?
Apparently they, and everyone else who is a member of a UK golf club, have £10 million worth of personal liability cover for mishaps on the golf course? ( www.englandgolf. org/ benefits), which would come in handy if Simon’s mum were to accidentally hospitalise someone — as she did to herself a few years ago while trying to get out of a bunker.
even if none of the above could possibly apply to you, you never know, you might have other insurance policies you have forgotten about or didn’t even know you had.
Many employers, for instance, offer a raft of perks and discounts to employees. Simon had been paying for private travel insurance at his old job, until a colleague told him six months in that he was covered under the company’s policy, even though he was just a temp.
Life insurance and death-in-service cover are the two policies we are most likely to have through work. But it’s not just your employer who may have taken out a life insurance policy for you. you could have a policy if you’re a member of a union.
For example, anyone who’s signed up with any of the main unions, including Unite, Unison, the rMT and the GMB, is entitled to a free £5,000 lump sum payout in case of accidental death, as well as discounts on everything from home insurance to travel cover through union insurance.co.uk.
Then there is the free insurance you can get with financial products. Most credit unions, for example, offer free life insurance when you open an account.
Unify ( unifycu. org) and Discovery ( discoverycu.co.uk) credit unions will give your next of kin an extra 25 per cent on top of your savings if you die before turning 80.
you might also want to consider switching to a paid-for bank account which offers benefits, similar sim to the Lloyds Silver account ac used by Simon’s mum mu and dad.
Virgin V Money’s Club M Account, Ac for example, comes with wi worldwide family travel insurance in ( for under- 75s only), on UK car breakdown, and an mobile and laptop cover as part of its £12.50 monthly fee fe ( uk.virginmoney.com/ current-accounts/club-m cu -a account).
Nationwide’s FlexPlus a account costs £13 a month. It includes worldwide travel in insurance for the whole family, UK and european breakdown cover through the AA, and mobile phone insurance ( nationwide. co.uk/current-accounts).
The Co- operative Bank’s £ 15- a-month everyday extra account, meanwhile, includes mobile phone insurance, travel insurance up to the age of 79, and rAC breakdown cover ( co- operative bank.co.uk/products/ bank-accounts).
Also, you can still get free or reduced healthcare in mainland europe despite us no longer being in the eU. Far from scrapping the european health Insurance Card system, we merely renamed it.
It’s now known as the UK Global health Insurance Card. Apply for a card at: services.nhsbsa.nhs. uk/cra/start.
you’re also entitled to compensation for delayed or cancelled flights under what is essentially a free ‘insurance’ scheme that all the airlines are signed up to.
you could be sent up to £ 520 per person, which is what Simon’s parents both received. So they didn’t even claim on their two holiday insurance policies.
For more information, or to apply for a delayed or cancelled flight, visit: citizensadvice.org.uk/ consumer/holiday-cancellationsand-delayed-or-cancelled.
Got a question for Jasmine? Email her at AskJasmine@MoneyMagpie.com