World First Travel Insurance Blog - For The Most Comprehensive Travel Insurance Around
What does Brexit mean for British travellers?
Whether you are an innie or an outie, there’s no doubt that Brexit will have some kind of effect on your travel plans at some point. It might just be a short term lack of buying power for the pound or it could have more serious long terms resonance for many of us. So we thought it’d be good to have a quick round up of what we know at this point, while the government and opposition shuffle their papers and work out how they are going to lead us forward.
So here’s what we know.
The Euro and Pound.
At the time of writing on Monday 27th the pound is worth £1.202 Euro (according to XE Currency). That means £500 of holiday money at these rates will get you €601 compared with around €655 on Thursday before the referendum. A pint, according to pintprice.com will now cost you about £4.45 in France but £1.66 in Spain. So that’s a relief. The pound may be down but it’s not that bad at the moment.
It is highly likely that there will be change, but for the moment it does mean your holiday will be about 10% more expensive when it comes to your exchange rate. So seek out the best rate of exchange before you go. As always, homework pays off.
Travel insurance.
For the moment our rates remain the same. And that means we still offer great value policies for people travelling with or without medical conditions. Our cover remains the same too, so you’ll still be protected by up to £10m in emergency medical cover as well as all the other benefits.
The EHIC card.
The EHIC card is a card that guarantees the person holding it the same treatment in a public hospital as someone from that country would receive. It comes from an agreement between EU states. Until it is renegotiated things should remain the same, but it will have to be renegotiated nonetheless. However, the UK also has reciprocal agreements with lots of other nations including Australia and Barbados, so there’s no reason it can’t be renegotiated.
Cheap flights.
Enjoy them while you can, until we negotiate. The Common Aviation Area Agreement allows any airline owned and controlled by nationals of EU member states is free to operate anywhere within the EU without restrictions on capacity, frequency or pricing. It is something that has enabled companies like Easyjet and Ryanair to offer cheap flights all over Europe. The referendum result, in theory, means we are no longer included in this. However, Norway and Iceland are also included in this so we’d have to look to them for a model and try to renegotiate a decent deal.
Passports.
For now you’re stuck with your European Union passport, whether you feel like you have your country back or not. Borders are still open between EEC states and, for the time being we can still enjoy freedom of movement, the freedom to study, live and travel in any EEC state. But watch this space as it may all change.
What does Brexit mean for British travellers? | World First Travel Insurance Blog