Not long now until the summer and many people will have their overseas holidays booked and paid for already.
But even if the financial heavy lifting might be done, there are still ways to save – and to waste – money on the cost of summer jaunts, particularly when it comes to the finer detail such as car hire and travel insurance.
That is where we come in. Here are some things you might need know to make sure you save rather than waste in the weeks ahead.
You absolutely do need it. We can’t even begin to tell you how many queries we get from Pricewatch readers involving travel, with many of them focusing on cancellations and delays as a result of unforeseen circumstances: from illnesses and deaths to computer meltdowns, weather events and industrial actions.
We heave a deep sigh when many of the queries land because we know the difficulties might not have arisen had people taken out travel insurance.
Even though it is comparatively cheap – not something we can say about all insurance products – about half of people who travel overseas don’t bother with it. And too often they end up paying dearly for that.
If you have a mild heart attack in the US you might be out of pocket by at least €250,000, depending on where you are treated and for how long, while if you need an air ambulance home from somewhere in EU, it might set you back €20,000. A holiday cancelled at the last minute might see you €3,000 in the red, while even a lost couple of low-fare flights to Spain will probably cost you more than an annual cost of a multitrip policy for a family of four.
They might – and to be honest most airlines do tend to be sympathetic when it comes to bereavements or a diagnosis of a very serious illness. But their tickets are sold on a strictly no-refund basis so they don’t have to offer any comfort if a planned holiday is cancelled or cut short. They certainly won’t if the reason for a cancellation is considered comparatively minor. It is much the same story when it comes to tour operators, hotels and campsites.
While health insurance should see the cost of a travel insurance premium fall, it won’t cover cancellation or curtailment. Nor will it help you if you are the victim of a crime overseas. And some private hospitals overseas will ask for your travel insurance policy details in the first instance, and having one in place can save you a lot of grief. Another point worth making is that if you get sick while travelling in the EU, you will be treated in that country’s health system as if you were a citizen of that country – and it helps to have a European Health Insurance Card (Ehic) with you. But again, EU rules won’t help you if a misfortune other than illness befalls you.
[ The speed at which the travel insurance safety net disappears is shockingOpens in new window ]
Probably less than you think. We priced the cost of a year-long multitrip policy for a family of four with an online broker, and the cost ranged from just under €70 to almost €115.
Not necessarily. Not all policies are equal. When it comes to choosing the right policy, you should look at more than the top-line figures. Companies will boast about offering millions of euro of medical cover but, for most people, the level of cancellation or curtailment cover is equally important. The cheapest of the policies we priced offered us cancellation cover worth €1,000 – which wouldn’t make much of a dent in a family holiday overseas – while the cancellation cover for the most expensive of those policies was €6,000. That’s a hefty difference for the sake of less than €50 a year.
You can, but they are not always the best value for money.
It is actually a terrible idea. If you don’t have an annual multitrip policy, always take out cover as soon as you book your holiday. Close to 50 per cent of all claims are made before travel, with illness and death the most likely reasons for cancelled holidays.
You do. If you don’t, the chances are your claim will be denied if it has anything to do with your pre-existing condition. Some travel insurance companies do go out of their way to reject claims and some will show you the door if a cancellation or curtailment is down to a pre-existing condition you or even a family member who is not travelling has even if the condition has endured for years. So always be upfront with them. An absurdity that we have come across sees travel insurance companies deny claims because family members not travelling die having suffered from a significant illness for many years. Much of this stuff is hidden in the small print.
[ Want an airport upgrade? Getting business class seats or valet parking doesn’t have to break the bankOpens in new window ]
You have to read at least some of it. As we said, insurance companies don’t get rich by being generous with their payout, and they do place all sorts of hurdles in the way of consumers making claims, and many of them are buried in small print that can sometimes run to more than 20,000 words. Few people are going to read all of that but you could do a search of the terms and conditions of words and phrases such as “excess”, “excluded”, “not covered”, “passport”, “phone” and any other words you think might be important.
In some cases, phones are not covered while valuables may not be covered if they’re not with you at all times. And if your passport is stolen from your hotel room and wasn’t in a safe you might be in trouble.
If you’re going skiing or doing sone adventure sports the standard policies will not cover you so you will need add-ons to take care of medical evacuations, repatriation, and 24-7 worldwide assistance.
Not necessarily, and the lower-level plans can exclude travel rearrangement expenses, accommodation and cancellations relating to “natural disasters” other than weather disruption. Travel disruption cover is what you are looking for, and it is easily found and added to a policy for not much more than €20.
Always inform your insurer as soon as you realise there is a problem and you can’t go on the trip or need to cut it short or have been mugged. If you are the victim of a crime you absolutely must report it to the police quickly. If you leave a police report for longer than 24 hours, an insurance company might reject your claim. Make sure you get a clear and unambiguous report from the local authorities as it will be crucial to any claim being made.
Unfortunately it can. Ageism is rife in the sector and can see someone who is 66 paying double what someone aged 65 pays. Someone who hits 70 or 75 can often be simply denied insurance altogether, even if they have no known medical issues. We had a look around and justcover.ie offers cover with no upper age limit. Companies such as chilll.ie and insureandgo.ie offer cover for people until they are in their mid-80s while the likes of multitrip.com and theaa.ie have a cut-off age of 79 for single trip policies.
Yesterday. Car hire is one of those things that you are better off booking early but if you haven’t got it sorted yet, don’t panic – you still have time – particularly if you’re going to one of the well-travelled destinations well served by car-hire companies.
The first thing to consider is if you actually need a car at all. While prices have come down from their dizzying post-Covid highs, you can still spend €1,000 or more for a two-week period – that is €71 a day. If you are using the car a lot – or if it is essential to get from A to B when you are away – it might be money well spent but if the car sits idle in your hotel car park for days while you frolic by a poolside bar, it is a complete waste of money.
Check the public transport options in your destination and, remember, with the advent of taxi booking apps and Uber and the like, it has never been easier to move around without hiring a car. Even if you spend €40 a day on cabs wherever you go, you will find it is still significantly cheaper than renting a car. Using public transport can also be part of the adventure – as long as it is readily accessible and frequent. We are not going to suggest for a second that standing by a dusty road in the heel of Italy for 90 minutes waiting for a bus that may or may not come is time well spent. A quick visit to wikivoyage.com will help you find out virtually everything you need to know about the transport options in your destination.
There are the big car hire companies as well as smaller companies and online brokers that will help you find the best deal. Aggregators such as Skyscanner.ie or zestcarrental.com are probably your best bet as they can search dozens of car-hire companies as well as brokers and travel agents and allow you to filter the search results based on fuel policy, air conditioning, transmission, pick-up, car size and a lot more. Take care with the Ts&Cs, and tot up how much extras – booster seats, additional drivers and so on – will cost. Always google the car-hire companies you are considering to see how they rate when it comes to customer service. Two minutes researching could save you endless heartache if it allows you to avoid a company with an appalling record.
Well, there are a couple of other things you should do before you leave home. The first, and most important, is to make sure the car hire company has your flight details. And make sure you let them know if your flight is delayed and you are going to miss your pick-up time. We have heard on more than one occasion of people losing their booking entirely because their flight was delayed. Many companies have a six-hour window for you to collect, and if you don’t do it in that time frame and don’t let them know, you are going to be taking the risk that they simply cancel your booking and keep your cash.
You need to check the car inside and out for any damage. It might be no harm to film the inside and outside of the car
It can be but some car hire firms will sneakily try to make you pay for an upgrade if they can’t provide you with the car you have paid for. To make sure this does not happen, read all the documentation put in front of you in the airport before signing anything.
Companies will try to sell you super-collision-damage-waiver insurance when you are picking up the car. We are in two minds about this. It can be very bad value for money and will add hundreds of euro to the typical cost of car rental. On the other hand, having it will save you money if you drive into a bollard or have a puncture, and it does mean the hire company won’t freeze a fairly heft deposit on your credit or debit card. Whether or not you have the extra insurance, you should make sure you get the number you need for breakdown assistance – put it into your phone. It is much easier to get all these details when you are in the airport than at on a deserted roadside in the midday sun.
No. You need to check the car inside and out for any damage. It might be no harm to film the inside and outside of the car and mail the footage to yourself so you have incontrovertible proof of the state of the car at pick-up.
If you spot some damage and choose to ignore it, there is little you will be able to do to stop the car-hire company blaming you for the damage after the fact and taking the money from your credit card.
Putting petrol in a diesel car or vice versa will do untold damage to an engine, and no amount of insurance is likely to cover you for that. And remember: companies that make you pay for a full tank of petrol and return the car empty are chancers. Not only will they charge you twice the price of petrol at garages nearby, you will almost never get to use the fuel you pay for. What you want is a company that offers a full-to-full policy: that way you only pay for what you use.
Try hard not to do that and do your best to return the car when the hire company is open and make sure you have the car inspected by an employee and get the fact that the car is being returned in good working order in writing and signed by a rep from the company. If you must return the car outside working hours or are in a mad dash to make your flight, take pictures of the car when it has been parked in the designated area and use your phone to record a 90-second video. Mail the pictures and the footage to yourself.
No. Some car-hire companies have an annoying tendency to add charges to your credit card weeks – even months – after you get home, so you will need to be vigilant to make sure fuel payments and excess charges and the like are returned.
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