Travel Insurance

Agents Brokers - Travel Insurance

THE POST OFFICE™

Agents & BrokersEssential TravelMedibrokerOINCPortwoodTravsure
PulseBeacon1stQuoteAnsellColumbus DirectCitybond Suretravel
NetCoverDirectPost Office™Age ConcernHelp The AgedSAGABUPAChurchill
Insurance Choice

THE POST OFFICE

The Post Office - the biggest provider of foreign currency in the UK - now sells over a million holiday and travel insurance policies a year.

The fantastic advertising campaign starring those cute little ants boosted its profile on the high street nend and helped give it a major foothold on the market.

If you shop online, you can order your foreign currency, book airport car parking, hotel and transport to the airport at the same time.

You can even arrange car rental in the UK and abroad.

Benefits

Arranged by Aon Limited and underwritten by Fortis Insurance Ltd, key benefits of Post Office travel insurance policies include -

  • Medical Emergency - up to £10 million (limited to £10,000 in the UK)
  • Personal Liability - £2million
  • Legal expenses - £25,000
  • Homecare - £250 for SOS repairs to your home
  • Hospital Benefit - £800
  • Personal Accident - £30,000
  • Personal belongings - £1,500
  • Cancellation and curtailment - £5,000
  • Lost passport - £250
  • Delayed departure - £300
  • Missed departure - £1,000
  • Scheduled airline failure - £1,500
  • Hijack - £1,000

Qute and buy online

Online purchasing is as easy as abc, and for single trip cover, the good news is that there's no age limit.

As with all insurers, you'll pay over the odds if you're among the growing band of silver surfers who happen to be over 64.

But buying online is easy, and beats queuing at the Post Office. To calculate the cost, you simply click your mouse on:

  • Cover type - annual, single trip or ski/winter sports trip.
  • Period of travel (anything from up to 3 days to 90 days, with a staggering amount of precise choices in between, eg 67 - 73 days)
  • Destination of travel - UK Europe, Worldwide (excluding the USA, Canada & the Caribbean) or Worldwide (including the USA, Canada & the Caribbean)
  • Type of travellers - Family or Couple (aged between 2 - 64 years of age), Individual or Lone Parent and the number of people travelling

It couldn't be simpler - or quicker.

Just before rustling up a quote for you, you're asked for the number of people aged under 18, 18-64 and 65 years and over.

Personalised cover

In less time than it takes to say abracadabra, your quote appears on screen with a confirmation of the policy details, so you can see straight away if you've clicked your mouse on the right box.

You can then personalise the type of cover you need by clicking your mouse on the various options (eg Ski/winter sports, Hazardous Activity, Golf, Extended baggage cover, or Excess Waiver).

Family holiday insurance

Families like Post Office travel policies because named dependent kids under 18 go free.

Children can't travel solo, though - they have to be with another family member (eg parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt) or a legal guardian who's already bought their own travel insurance cover from the PO.

Policy prices seem reasonable.

For a couple aged 64 or under heading off tEurope for a 3-day break, say, they quoted us £14 (£7 for a single traveller - there's ndiscount for twosomes).

If you're of a certain vintage, ie 65 and over, sad to say but in the insurance industry's view that puts you in the one foot in the grave bracket.

That's presumably why the cost for a 65-year-old rockets to an eye-watering £23 (over three times the cost for a 64-year-old!).

Looking on the bright side, the cost stays the same even if you're 102...

Annual Multi-Trip

You can get cover for every trip you take in a year, as long as nsingle trip is over 31 days and includes at least two nights away from home.

A major plus is the fact that it alscovers you for both business and pleasure trips.

But age restrictions apply - you must be under 65 at the start of the policy, plus there's a list of pre existing medical conditions that would exclude you such as -

  • Stroke
  • Cancer
  • Heart problems
  • Dialysis
  • Transplants
  • Diabetes
  • Any blood disorder
  • Breathing or respiratory problem
  • Psychiatric illness
  • Dementia

More on pre-existing conditions, there are many brokers happy to insure you.

For an extra premium you can get cover for winter sports with your annual multi-trip policy.

The max period of cover is 21 days in total in any 12-month period. So in theory you could get 3 winter skiing holidays of 7 days' duration each in any one year.

Annual travel insurance makes sense if you plan on making more than one trip a year.

Over 65s

The Post Office provide single trip policies for people over 65, 70, 75, 80 and on, indeed they have no upper age limit on single trip policies. To get quotes for people over 75 you will need to call the contact number 0800 169 9999 for individual rates.

The travel insurance is priced according to destination: UK, Europe, Worldwide (excl. USA Canada, Caribbean), Worldwide (Inc. USA Canada, Caribbean).

Pre Existing Conditions

Healt restrictions do applu to policies and a health declaration must be made, or you can contact the Medical Screening Line, premiums may be increased as a result and not all conditions are covered.

Hazardous activities

Check the website to keep up to date with the latest hazzardous activity list as more extreme activities are not covered.

No fewer than 44 popular activities all carrying some degree of risk to life and limb, are covered under the Post Office policy. They are -

  • Abseiling
  • Archery
  • Badminton
  • Baseball
  • Canoeing/Rafting (tCat.2)
  • Clay pigeon shooting
  • Cross-country running
  • Cycling (leisure)
  • Deep sea fishing
  • Fell running
  • Fencing
  • Gliding (not piloting and subject to flying with qualified pilot)
  • Go-karting
  • Golf
  • Gymnastics
  • Hiking/Trekking/Hill walking (where no ropes or guides are required)
  • Horse riding (not racing, hunting or competing)
  • Hot air ballooning (licensed operator only, not piloting)
  • Jet boating
  • Jet skiing
  • Motorcycling (not racing or competing and subject to policy terms)
  • Orienteering
  • Parascending (towed by a boat)
  • Pony trekking
  • Quad biking (wearing protective clothing and in a controlled environment)
  • Rounders
  • Rowing
  • Safari
  • Scuba-diving to a depth of 30 metres
  • Shooting (range only)
  • Skateboarding
  • Snorkelling
  • Surface water sports
  • Surfing
  • Swimming
  • Trekking
  • Tug-of-war
  • Volleyball
  • War games / Paintballing
  • Water pol
  • Water skiing
  • White water rafting (to Cat.2)
  • Windsurfing
  • Yachting (coastal waters only)

As well as that little lot, if you go for for the Winter Sports Cover, you also get the opportunity to break your neck with the following daredevil and adventure pursuits:

  • Cross-country skiing
  • Curling
  • Dog sledding
  • Downhill skiing
  • Glacier walking
  • Heli-skiing
  • Ice skating
  • Mogul skiing
  • Monskiing
  • Skiing on or off-piste (with a qualified guide or instructor)
  • Snowboarding on or off-piste (with a qualified guide or instructor)
  • Snowmobiling
  • Speed skating
  • Tobogganing

The Ski/Winter Sports insurance covers single trips up to a max of 90 days.

More on winter sports and ski cover and hazardous activity cover.

Golf cover

You can also take out Golf cover - and if you're planning on teeing off while you're away, click your mouse on the Golf option to enjoy the following benefits:

  • Up to £1,000 for golf equipment
  • Ut to £200 for equipment hire if yours stolen or damaged
  • Up to £300 for pre-paid green fees

More on golf cover.

For a single adult heading to Spain or Portugal to get 13-17 days golf under their belt, golf cover costs just an extra tenner (£25 without specialist golf cover).

Baggage cover

You can up the ante on personal belongings cover up to a max of £1,000 for photographic gear, say, or sports equipment.

But read the small print - you must supply the original receipt if you need to claim. Have you got it?

For a short break to Europe - up to 3 days - you'll pay £17 in total (an extra tenner for baggage cover).

Contact details

Website:

Tel: Freephone 0800 169 9999

Insurance Choice