Introduction
Travel insurance excess works differently to the single-figure excess most people are familiar with from car or home insurance. Because a travel policy typically bundles together several genuinely different types of cover, medical expenses, cancellation, baggage and more, the excess structure is often layered to match. This guide explains exactly how travel insurance excess is applied, including the situations that catch people out, such as multiple claims on one trip or group policies where excess is charged per person.
This is a general educational guide, not financial advice, and excess structures vary considerably between insurers and policy tiers. Always check your own policy documents for the exact figures that apply to you.
Key Terms Explained
- Excess
- The amount you contribute towards a claim before your insurer pays the remainder.
- Voluntary Excess
- An additional amount you choose to add on top of the standard excess, typically in exchange for a lower premium.
- Excess Waiver
- An included feature or paid add-on that reduces or removes the excess payable on an eligible claim.
- Claim Section
- A distinct category of cover within a travel policy, such as medical expenses, cancellation, or baggage, which can carry its own separate excess.
- Per-Person Excess
- An excess applied individually to each person named on a family or group policy, rather than once for the whole group.
- Per-Incident Excess
- An excess applied once to a specific incident, sometimes capped even where multiple people or claim types are affected.
Why This Matters
Underestimating how travel insurance excess actually applies can lead to a genuinely unwelcome surprise at claim time, particularly for families or groups where more than one person, and more than one type of loss, can be involved in a single incident. Understanding the structure in advance helps you choose a sensible excess level and, just as importantly, set realistic expectations about what you'll actually receive if you need to claim.
See our Travel Insurance UK guide for the complete picture of how travel cover works, including cancellation, medical cover and baggage protection.
How Travel Insurance Excess Works
When you make a valid claim, your insurer deducts the applicable excess from the amount they'd otherwise pay, and you receive the balance. If your claim is for less than the excess, you generally receive nothing at all, since the excess is deducted before any payment, not added as a separate charge.
Unlike a single-product policy such as car insurance, travel insurance typically covers several distinct risks within one policy, and insurers commonly set the excess separately for each section rather than applying one figure across the board.
Per-Person and Per-Claim-Type Excess
Excess by Claim Type
It's common for medical expenses, cancellation, and baggage or personal possessions to each carry their own excess figure within the same policy, and these figures are not always identical. A policy might, for example, set a higher excess for medical claims than for a lost baggage claim, reflecting the different scale and frequency of each type of loss. Checking the excess for each section separately in your policy documents, rather than assuming a single number applies throughout, is the only reliable way to know what you'd actually receive.
Excess by Person
On family or group travel policies, many insurers apply the excess per person per incident, meaning if two family members are both injured in the same accident, each person's portion of the claim can carry its own separate excess, effectively doubling the total excess deducted from a joint claim. Other insurers cap the excess once per incident regardless of how many people on the policy are affected. This distinction can make a meaningful difference to what a family actually receives, and is worth confirming before you buy, particularly for larger families or groups.
Multiple Claims on a Single Trip
A single trip can sometimes give rise to more than one type of claim, for example a medical treatment claim alongside a separate claim for baggage delayed or lost on the same journey. Because these are typically treated as distinct claim sections, each can carry its own excess, meaning the combined excess across an eventful trip can be higher than many travellers expect. This is a genuinely common source of confusion and disappointment at claim time, and understanding it in advance helps set realistic expectations.
Consider a traveller who falls ill abroad, requires hospital treatment, and also has a suitcase go missing on the same journey. Even though both problems arose from the same disrupted trip, they are usually processed as two entirely separate claims against two separate sections of the policy, medical expenses and baggage, each assessed on its own merits and each with its own excess deducted before payment. The insurer does not typically combine these into a single claim with a single excess simply because they happened during the same holiday. Travellers who assume otherwise are sometimes surprised when the total amount deducted across both claims is higher than they anticipated.
The same logic can apply where cancellation and medical cover interact, for instance if a trip is cut short on medical grounds and this also triggers a curtailment claim for the unused portion of the holiday. Depending on how the policy is structured, this might be handled as a single combined claim under one section, or as two related claims each attracting their own excess. Because the exact treatment depends on the specific policy wording, it is always worth asking your insurer directly, or checking your policy document's claims section, if you are ever in a situation involving more than one type of loss on the same trip.
Excess Types at a Glance
| Excess Type | How It's Typically Applied | What to Check |
|---|---|---|
| Medical expenses excess | Per person, per incident | Often the highest excess on the policy given the potential size of medical claims |
| Cancellation excess | Per person or per booking, depending on insurer | Whether it applies once for the group or individually |
| Baggage/possessions excess | Per claim, sometimes per item category | Whether single-item limits also apply on top of the excess |
| Voluntary excess | Added on top of standard excess across relevant sections | Whether it applies to every section or only some |
Managing Your Excess
Increasing Your Voluntary Excess
Choosing a higher voluntary excess, on top of the insurer's standard excess, typically reduces your premium. This can be a sensible trade-off if you could comfortably absorb a larger excess payment, but increasing it too far risks making a genuine claim, particularly for medical treatment abroad, financially painful just when you need support most.
Excess Waivers
Some insurers offer an excess waiver, either included automatically in a higher-tier policy or available as a paid add-on, which reduces or removes the excess payable on eligible claims. Whether this represents good value depends on the cost of the waiver against the excess you'd otherwise pay, and is worth calculating explicitly rather than assuming it's automatically worthwhile.
A simple way to weigh this up is to compare the cost of adding the waiver against your excess multiplied by the rough likelihood of needing to claim. For a family of four travelling on a policy with per-person medical excess, a waiver that removes the excess entirely could represent meaningful savings if even one claim is likely across the group, since a per-person excess is effectively multiplied by the number of people affected. For a single traveller on a low-risk short break, the same waiver may cost more over several trips than the excess it would ever realistically save. There is no single right answer, and the calculation is worth doing separately for each trip or annual policy rather than applying a blanket rule.
Annual Multi-Trip Policies and Excess
Choosing between single-trip and annual multi-trip cover does not automatically change how excess is applied, but it is still worth checking separately, since insurers sometimes structure their annual policies with different excess levels or different waiver options to their single-trip equivalents. If you travel several times a year, a modest difference in excess terms can matter more over an annual policy than it would for a single trip, simply because there are more opportunities across the year for a claim to arise. Comparing the excess structure alongside the premium, rather than focusing on premium alone, gives a fuller picture of which policy actually offers better value for your travel pattern.
Choosing the Right Excess Level
- Check the excess for each individual section of the policy, not just a single headline figure.
- For family or group cover, specifically confirm whether excess applies per person or per incident.
- Consider the realistic cost of medical treatment at your destination when deciding how much voluntary excess you could comfortably afford.
- Weigh the cost of an excess waiver against the excess it would actually save you.
- Remember that a claim below your excess typically results in no payment at all.
Real-World Examples
Example: A Family With Per-Person Excess
Two family members on a joint policy are both affected by a car accident abroad requiring medical treatment. Because their policy applies medical excess per person, each family member's claim has the excess deducted separately, resulting in a combined excess higher than a single individual traveller would have paid.
Example: Two Claim Types on One Trip
A traveller requires minor medical treatment and separately has luggage go missing on the same trip. Because medical and baggage claims are treated as separate sections, two separate excess amounts are deducted, one from each claim, rather than a single combined excess for the whole trip.
Example: Choosing Not to Claim
A traveller's delayed baggage claim would only be worth an amount close to their policy's excess. After calculating that the net payment would be minimal, they decide not to submit a claim at all, illustrating why checking your excess against a potential claim's value matters before deciding whether it's worth pursuing.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Assuming a single excess figure applies to every type of claim on a travel policy.
- Not checking whether excess is charged per person on a family or group policy.
- Increasing voluntary excess without considering the realistic cost of medical treatment at your destination.
- Submitting a claim without checking whether its value genuinely exceeds the applicable excess.
- Assuming an excess waiver is automatically good value without comparing its cost to the excess it saves.
Common Myths
- Myth: Travel insurance has one simple excess figure, like car insurance. Most policies set different excess levels for different sections, such as medical, cancellation and baggage.
- Myth: Family policies always share a single excess between everyone. Many insurers apply excess per person per incident, which can significantly increase the total excess on a family claim.
- Myth: One trip can only ever trigger one excess payment. A trip involving more than one type of claim can trigger more than one excess, since sections are often treated separately.
- Myth: An excess waiver is always worth paying for. Its value depends entirely on the cost of the waiver compared with the excess it would actually save you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is excess on travel insurance?
Excess is the amount you contribute towards a claim before your travel insurer pays the remainder. Travel policies commonly set different excess amounts for different types of claim, such as medical treatment versus lost baggage.
Is travel insurance excess charged per person or per policy?
This depends on the policy. Many family or group travel policies apply the excess per person per incident, meaning if several people on the same policy are affected by one event, each person's claim can carry its own separate excess, though some insurers cap this per incident instead.
Do I pay a separate excess for each type of claim on the same trip?
Often, yes. If a single trip involves both a medical claim and a baggage claim, for example, many policies treat these as separate claim types, each potentially carrying its own excess, rather than one combined excess for the whole trip.
Can I reduce my travel insurance excess?
Some insurers offer an excess waiver, either included in a higher-tier policy or as a paid add-on, which reduces or removes the excess on eligible claims. Increasing your voluntary excess, by contrast, is a way to lower your premium in exchange for paying more towards any claim.
Does annual multi-trip travel insurance have a different excess to single-trip cover?
Not automatically, though excess levels vary by insurer and policy tier regardless of whether you choose single-trip or annual multi-trip cover. It's worth checking the excess structure for each option separately when comparing policies.
What happens if my claim is worth less than my excess?
If the value of your claim is lower than your policy's excess, the insurer generally won't pay anything, since the excess is deducted from the claim amount before any payment is made. This is worth considering when deciding whether a low-value loss is worth claiming for at all.
Are medical excess and cancellation excess usually the same amount?
Not necessarily. Insurers frequently set different excess levels for different sections of a travel policy, such as medical expenses, cancellation, and baggage, so checking the excess for each section separately in your policy documents is more reliable than assuming a single figure applies throughout.
Should I choose a higher voluntary excess to save money on travel insurance?
It can be a reasonable way to reduce your premium if you could comfortably afford the higher excess in the event of a genuine claim, but increasing it too far risks making a real claim financially painful, particularly for medical treatment abroad where costs can be substantial.
References and Editorial Standards
This guide is reviewed regularly by the ShopTera Editorial Team and draws on well-established UK travel insurance industry practice around excess structures and policy sections. Individual insurer excess figures, per-person rules and waiver terms vary significantly and should always be confirmed in your own policy documents before you travel. This guide is intended for general educational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.
| Version | Date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 20 August 2026 | Initial publication |
Conclusion
Travel insurance excess is genuinely more layered than the single-figure excess most people expect from car or home insurance, with different amounts often applying by claim section and, on family policies, by person. Understanding this structure before you travel, particularly for group trips and policies covering multiple risks, helps you choose a sensible excess level and avoid an unwelcome surprise if you ever need to make a claim.