Would you pay more for travel insurance to avoid being slapped with a £20,000 bill?

Holidaymakers often take out the cheapest travel insurance available, spat out by a comparison website – but doing so can sometimes mean not getting vital protection when you need it most.

Now a new travel insurance comparison website called Albert & Eddie has launched which ranks policies based on what you need, rather than the lowest price.

The website could be especially helpful for people with pre-existing medical conditions, as it aims to help them find specialist insurance deals quickly.

Albert & Eddie aims to crack a common problem with travel insurance – that consumers buy something cheap that isn’t fully suited to their needs.

Up and away: A new travel insurance site called Albert & Eddie aims make it easier for people with medical conditions to get travel insurance  

The rise of price comparison websites means Britons tend to buy insurance based on price, and travel cover is no exception.

Cheap policies are cheap for a reason – they tend not to cover as much as more expensive ones.

That is not a problem provided the inexpensive deal does everything a traveller needs it to.

But when a policy does not give sufficient cover the results can be catastrophic – and can mean travellers paying medical bills of tens of thousands of pounds.

While all insurance deals clearly state what is covered in the small print, it is easy for customers not to understand this, or to ignore it. 

Another common issue is for travellers with pre-existing medical conditions, who struggle to get cover from existing price comparison websites.

Currently, people in this group have three options with travel insurance.

They can go overseas with no cover, they can run the gauntlet of trying to get protection through price comparison websites or they can spend time contacting specialist insurers individually.

Aiming to crack this problem, Albert & Eddie is a new price comparison website backed by travel insurance giant Tifgroup.

The name is a nod to physicist Albert Einstein and inventor Thomas Edison, whose inventiveness was an inspiration to the Albert & Eddie team.

How does Albert & Eddie measure up?

We crunched the numbers for travel insurance cover from the new site and from the four biggest price comparison websites, to see how premiums – and cover – stack up.

We looked at single trip travel insurance for a week long trip to France for a traveller with serious asthma.

Cover at Albert & Eddie for one person for a week starts from £11.12, from the insurer Alpha 175. 

This price is right in the middle of the pack of rival quotes from the mainstream price comparison websites.

The cheapest policy for this traveller elsewhere was from Confused.com and GoCompare, which both offer cover at £6.30 from Post Office Insurance.

At CompareTheMarket it was £9.72 from insurer Virgin Money and on MoneySupermarket premiums start at £11.64 from Admiral.

Albert & Eddie is as easy to use as any of the mainstream price comparison sites, but it does takes slightly longer to answer all the questions in the medical screening section – which is a good thing.

You also need to fill in each of the medications you are taking for any medical conditions. 

Amber Moon, brand manager for Albert & Eddie, said: ‘Because it’s relatively quick and easy, travellers are used to using price comparison websites to buy travel insurance. 

‘This has led to an over-emphasis on the cost of the policy rather than what cover it offers.’

Getting wrong cover can mean £20,000 bills 

Travellers who have to claim on their travel insurance but don’t end up having the right cover can be hit with huge bills.

Tifgroup shared some of the worst travel insurance bill horror stories they have seen.

In one instance, a 28-year-old man was faced with a £20,000 medical bill after sustaining serious injuries, including a fractured skull, after a motorbike crash in Thailand.

Although he had had worldwide travel insurance, the policy would not pay out for medical expenses as he had been away from the UK for more than 31 days.

Another man, from Scotland, has found himself stuck with a £20,000 hospital bill after suffering a heart attack on holiday in Tenerife – despite having travel insurance.

However, as he had forgotten to mention he had asthma on his insurance form, the firm refused to cover his expenses.

Ticking the boxes: The new site offers the choice of two medical screening tools, bespoke and standard

Albert & Eddie is also helpful to people with pre-existing medical conditions because it is the only price comparison website to use two medical screening tools, instead of the standard one.

In practice this means consumers with medical conditions can find more appropriate cover, faster. 

There are two main screeners that travel insurance providers on the market use – Protectif and Verisk – and they both work in different ways.

Protectif looks at what medication customers are taking. It them prompts them to reveal all their health conditions that they otherwise might forget, which means no surprises at a later point.

Verisk looks at the medical conditions themselves and assesses risk in a different way. 

As a result, they can both result in vastly different quotes depending on what kind of medical conditions the customer is declaring.

Tony Brown, director of underwriting at Tifgroup, said: ‘The price comparison sites only work with one of them, Verisk. 

‘This can dishearten or disillusion the customer if they can’t find affordable cover on the price comparison sites and may even deter people from travelling if they can’t get affordable cover or any cover at all.’

‘The only alternative, until now, was for those with complex medical conditions to spend time trawling through all the specialist providers individually to try and secure cover for their trips. 

‘This can be a challenging and time-consuming task which can take many hours.’

Asked how thorough medical screening checks on price comparison websites are, consumer champion Martyn James said: ‘Rubbish, generally. Comparison sites work because they skip you through the process of getting quotes really quickly.

‘The faster it takes the more likely you are to stick with the process. However, it’s only when you click through to the website to the insurer that these questions often crop up. And even then, I don’t think the exclusions or ramifications are nearly clear enough.’

What the price comparison websites say 

Matthew Harwood, lifestyle insurance expert at Confused.com, said: ‘At Confused.com our aim is to help as many customers as possible, including those with pre-existing conditions. 

‘To do this we work with a wide range of travel insurance providers. And this means we are able to provide guaranteed quotes online for over 90 per cent of customers with pre-existing medical conditions, meaning those who quote will likely find a policy to suit them, while also comparing prices at the same time.’ 

A Compare the Market spokesperson said: ‘During the process required to receive quotes for travel insurance, all of our customers are asked if anyone in the travelling party has a pre-existing medical condition, or are on the waiting list for treatment(s) or undergoing any medical investigation. 

‘For those who say yes, they are then asked follow up questions about their condition(s). This allows the providers on our panel to return the most suitable results. 

‘A range of results are then displayed and the customer can adjust filters so they can select a policy that meets their needs.’

MoneySupermarket and GoCompare have been approached for comment. 

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk