Group Travel Insurance

Standard Cover

Enhanced Cover

For many people, travel is often not in a traditional family unit, but with a group of friends. That can often be any size – and any age. When looking at group travel, it could be quicker and cheaper to think about a single policy to get travel insurance cover for your group, be it friends, family, a number of children (with adults of course!) or a mixture of all of those travelling together, and in that case group travel insurance policy could be the answer and give your group peace of mind when travelling together on one policy.

Emerald is proud to have thought about diversity when designing its travel insurance policy, so we cover individuals, couples, families (including pricing for single parents) -loss of money and groups. Cover can be up to 10 people on one policy, giving a single document for cover for you all when you travel.

What cover can I get for group travel insurance?

Emerald has two types of travel insurance – standard travel insurance and enhanced travel insurance. The standard insurance gives various different options and levels, and designed to be simThe enhanced insurance policy can provide cover with no upper age limit, or for those who have serious pre-existing medical conditions. It also includes a base level of cruise cover as standard for those who like a life on the ocean wave (save that you may want to look at upgrading for the full cruise cover as an option if your travelling involves being on a fabulous boat).

As travellers, you will want your travel insurance policy to cover what you might call ‘the usual’ – so lost baggage, loss of personal possessions, loss of money, medical emergencies, emergency medical expenses, personal liability – and then give you plenty of options, such as cruise cover, golf cover, winter sports cover, general or extreme sports cover. But with an Emerald travel insurance policy there is so much more that you can change, either to make the policy cheaper or to fit with your own personal circumstances. So with an Emerald policy, here are some of the options:

  • Gadget cover
  • Business cover
  • Sports equipment cover
  • Removing your excess
  • Missed connection cover
  • Terrorism cover
  • Cancellation cover
  • And much more

How do I get Emerald travel insurance?

It really could not be simpler to sort your group travel insurance. You can just go online here to get a quote – simply fill in the details for your group holiday travel plans. You will need to know the names of all your group, the ages of the group, the number of children and also whether any of the group have any pre-existing medical condition. Please note that it is very important that all the group declare their pre-existing medical condition to make sure that the emergency medical cover in the group policy remains valid in the event that one or more of the group need to make a claim while on holiday.

Having said that, with Emerald there are some pre-existing medical conditions that you do not need to declare, such as HIV. Emerald is the only holiday travel insurer in the UK that does not require, in most cases, a customer to declare their HIV status and not charge any more for the privilege.

When you declare a pre-existing medical conditions, this can be done confidentially through Emerald’s online screening portal. You simply type in your condition and the portal will provide you with a number of different options and so pick the one that best describes your condition. You will then be guided through a number of questions about your condition so that we can work out seriousness, travel risk etc for individual or group travel.

At the end of the screening, the result will be displayed and there are three options. Cover will be provided at no extra premium for your trip travel insurance, cover will be provided for an extra premium or (rarely we hope) we can still give you insurance for your holiday, but we need to exclude any issues that arise from that pre-existing condition. Note that this would only apply to the person in question and not the group as a whole, so for group insurance the other travellers in the group would still have fuller cover.

Can I get annual multi-trip group travel insurance or single trip travel insurance?

Emerald can provide single trip insurance, annual multi-trip insurance and backpacker insurance for those longer trips. However, for group cover, it’s most likely that you would want a single trip policy. Single trip policies cover travel of up to 91 days, so usually there will be plenty of cover for however long your trip is going to be.

Insurance cover can be worldwide, Europe or national and for European insurance you simply need to let us know which countries you are travelling to for your holiday when you buy your policy. Obviously a policy is cheaper in relation to group travel insurance for the UK and Europe rather than North America, but in most cases the price of group travel insurance should not really affect the group choice of destination.

On this point, it may be helpful to understand how travel insurance premiums are calculated. Premiums generally change because of different levels of insurance risk. Put simply, the amount that an insurer might have to pay out will affect the premium. So, for travel insurance, and group travel insurance is the same, if there are more travellers on the same policy, then the premium will be higher, as 10 of you on a trip will have more risk of an accident than just one of you. The level of cover will also affect premium as any payout may be higher. If you are older, you are more likely to become ill on holiday and claim on your insurance, and so again your insurance premium will be higher.

What should I be careful of with travel cover?

There are obviously some cases where your travel insurance will not provide the cover you want. Some of them are obvious, so you would not be covered, for example, if you decided to try jumping out of a plane without a parachute. Also, you may not be covered if you sustain an injury while drunk, or if you have taken drugs.

There are also some conditions to being covered that you should compare before you travel so that you know what to do. As another example, if there is a theft of money or possessions from a place or person, you may have to inform the local police and get a case number before you can claim, and that may have to be within 24 hours of the theft. When thinking about buying trip travel insurance, all this is worth a quick compare – and there are other restrictions, such as not being covered if your items are stolen from an unlocked car (or sometimes even a locked car overnight).

What else should I think about?

Obviously when looking at your group travel insurance policies you will want to make sure that your insurance is going to be enough, so levels will be important to you. Emerald has three levels of cover – £1,000, £3,000 and £7,500 and you can also change your excess (or remove your excess entirely with an Emerald policy with our excess removal option), so Emerald’s terms are flexible for all tastes and all pockets, and that level of insurance is available for single trip or multi trip policies. Remember that bringing your insurance up to a higher level of cover may only cost a few pounds, but for that little extra you can take your cover for, say, cancellation from £3,000 to £7,500. Depending on what you take with you when you travel, this may be a wise investment. Insurers cannot advise on the level of cover that you should take out, and some people are happy to know that only some of their belongings are insured. However, others want to make sure that they get as full a coverage as possible, so automatically go for higher cover. The choice is yours, but just make sure that you understand your exposure in that respect.

With group travel, you may also have group activities. While Scrabble may be exciting for some, the plans for a group of people on a holiday near the sea often involves water sports. You will need to check the wording of your insurance policy to check what is included as standard and whether you could need to upgrade to make sure that you and your group travel or activities are covered properly.

When you get a quote and hopefully buy an Emerald insurance group policy at a price that suits you, please note that you must make sure that you keep with you when you travel the policy number and the contact details for our claim team in case you need to make a claim while you are travelling together. The claims team can also give advice in situations where you may need to make a claim, and that advice for any emergency is available 24/7

We hope that here at Emerald we could save you money, but as with any holiday policy, you have a cancellation right within 14 days after purchase should you change your mind, on all Emerald policies. And remember when travelling abroad- pack a toothbrush and don’t forget your baggage!

Safe travels!

The Emerald Travel Team

Notes:

Please note that some covers may change at short notice because of COVID-19. If there is a change because of COVID-19, existing policies will remain unchanged. Please compare insurance for any person and any travel abroad before you buy and when you do compare, if you have any questions please call us to discuss in person. Changes to you policy may be free but may incur a charge. Additional children will not be covered for free. Free offers may change at any time.

Emerald Life Limited is a provider of financial services registered in England and Wales and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. You can see companies authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority at www.fca.org.uk. Emerald Life is the trading name of Emerald Life Limited, whose registered office is in England. Emerald Life Limited is authorised to broker insurance to residents of the United Kingdom but not other European business.

Article reference: insurance/group travel policy/group travel/travel insurance group/travel insurance/European travel insurance policies