If you are thinking about taking your children on holiday with you, don’t forget to get them travel insurance cover as they will only be covered if they are named on travel insurance policy documents.

If your child were to need emergency medical treatment while on holiday, and they weren’t covered by a travel insurance policy, you could end up footing a medical bill for thousands of pounds.

Travel insurance cover for children varies from provider to provider. Different companies have varying ways of defining a ‘child’ in terms of its age, different rules on who the child must travel with in order to be covered by the travel insurance policy and different limits for the number of children covered per policy.

Some travel insurance providers will insure your children for free when you buy travel insurance for yourself and others will cover children for half price.

If the provider does not offer a free or half-price deal, they will generally offer cheaper ‘family travel insurance policies’ which will provide cover for you, your spouse or partner and your children. Some providers will cover your step children or foster children under a family policy or on the adult’s single trip or annual multi trip travel insurance policy.

Age

The usual age range for children is 0-17, although some companies classify 0 to 2 year olds as infants and 2 to 17 year olds as children. Some providers will only classify 0 to 14 year olds as children.

Most companies will classify 19 to 23 year olds in full-time education as children for travel insurance purposes.

Who must the child travel with to be covered?

Generally speaking, you must be the parent or legal guardian of the children travelling on your travel insurance policy in order for them to be covered however some insurers will cover children travelling with Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles if the family member has at least a single trip travel insurance policy.

Others providers specify that the policy that the child is named on must belong to a parent or guardian who lives at the same address as the child.

Number of children covered

Insurance providers vary when it comes to the number of children eligible for free or reduced price travel insurance. Some offer unlimited child places and others offer a set number of children per adult insured.

If you are jetting off soon, compare travel insurance to find the best deals for you and your children