Your Personal Financial Questions – Does my insurance cover damage to my EV caused by my friend?

A Check your insurance records to see if you have open trips on your car insurance.

In general, as long as you have open top driving you should be covered once your friend is between 25 or 30 and 70 years old, is damage free and has a fully clean Irish, UK or EU driving licence, said Insuremycars.ie chief executive Jonathan Hehir.

To find out if you have open drive, check your insurance certificate and see if you can find an additional option called Open Drive Insurance, Open Driving, or Open Driver.

Even if your policy says you have open-top driving, there are usually some requirements that both you and the other driver must meet. For example, most insurers require you to be between the ages of 25 and 70 as a policyholder, and some also require you to have at least two years of no-claims bonus.

As long as you are covered for open driving, your auto insurance coverage level simply extends to the friend you allowed to drive your vehicle. Because both the damage and the claim are under your insurance, that claim will affect your no-claims bonus, Mr Hehir said.

In this case, if your friend has DOC (Driving Other Cars) coverage, it would only cover damage to the car if it is Comprehensive DOC coverage. Few insurers on the market offer comprehensive DOC protection. Third-party DOC coverage doesn’t cover damage to the car in this case, Mr Hehir said.

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Q My husband and I are hoping to book a winter holiday in the sun early this year. But we are worried about Covid. If we take out travel insurance would we get our money back for the holiday if one of us got Covid and had to cancel the holiday as a result?

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A According to People Insurance chief executive Paul Walsh, it depends on the exact travel insurance policy you’re taking out. Some, but not all, travel insurers have included Covid coverage in their policies.
But even where Covid coverage is available, it varies from insurer to insurer, Mr Walsh said. So you’d be wise to check the policy before purchasing travel insurance, he said.

The Covid protection offered by Irish travel insurers broadly covers medical expenses should you be diagnosed with Covid while abroad and cover for losses that would be incurred should you test positive for Covid shortly before your scheduled departure.

This cancellation protection usually also applies if a holiday has to be canceled because a fellow traveler or someone you wanted to stay with during your trip has been diagnosed with Covid.

Make sure the Covid coverage in the policy covers you should you or your husband catch the virus and have to cancel your holiday as a result, Mr Walsh said.

And get your travel insurance with your holiday, as Covid protection generally doesn’t apply if you get insurance less than a few weeks, or in some cases less than a month, before you travel.

While Covid coverage generally covers medical expenses if you catch the virus while on holiday abroad, you are not covered if you are traveling to a country where the government has advised against all but essential travel to that country , he said.

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Q I have just received an offer for Advanced Care Extra from VHI Healthcare for almost €3,000 over a year. Are there equivalent plans at a lower cost? We can’t afford to pay that much for our health insurance.

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A The VHI Advanced Care Extra is a good plan, says broker Dermot Goode of TotalHealthCover.ie, which is part of the Lockton Ireland group. But he said it was quite expensive at €2,740 per adult.

Assuming you don’t mind taking on a small deductible per private hospital stay, you should also consider VHI’s Advanced Care 50 Day-to-Day program, Mr. Goode said.

This health insurance offers similar coverage but at a lower cost of €2,016 per year. If you’re ready to switch providers, you can also consider Laya Healthcare’s new Momentum program for €1,825 per year.

This plan combines good hospital coverage with excellent reimbursements for a range of eligible outpatient expenses without first paying a deductible, Mr Goode said.