Expert advice
for holiday money

Read Richard's tips on buying travel insurance.

He is a general practitioner with a preference for investment planning, with an industry recognised qualification in Investment Portfolio Planning. He also holds the newly introduced Certificate in Equity Release, enabling him to advise clients on the specialist subject of Lifetime Mortgages.

Your questions answered:

I booked a holiday with my partner who I have now split up with. Neither of us want to go on the holiday now we are no longer a couple can we claim on our insurance?

No, travel insurance will not pay out because, due to a breakdown in a relationship, you no longer want to go. Usually the only time it will pay out if you choose not to travel is following the death of a close family member.

I am trying to buy travel insurance but am confused by all the different policies and don’t know if I need annual or single trip policy?

As a rule of thumb if you are planning to go away more than once in a year an annual policy works out cheaper than several single trip policies, if you only going once in the year a single trip policy is likely to be cheaper. For further tips on buying travel insurance click here http://www.holidayextras.co.uk/about-us/expert-panel/finance-advice/travel-insurance-tips.html

I have just come back from holiday, where I am sure one of the hotel staff stole some of my makeup, the hotel said that they could do nothing, is there anything I can do about it now am back home?

In order to make a claim against your travel insurance you need a crime number from the local police, unfortunately without one there is not much you can do. Also, unless your make up is very expensive, it is unlikely the value of the items stolen will exceed the excess.

When I took out a travel insurance policy recently I noticed that it covers personal belongings, such as handbags etc. My home insurance policy also covers this so should I be able to exclude this from future travel policies and therefore see a reduction in the premium?

Whilst your home insurance policy covers personal belongings outside of your house very few policies cover them overseas and those that do may well have a total sum insured far less than the value of the items you are likely to bring. However if your home insurance does offer sufficient cover then yes, you could look for a policy that does not include personal belongings to reduce the premium