travel insurance?

cranezoe

Hi,

we're going to France (normandy) at the end of the month. got organised and got the EHIC cards but were wondering if we needed to actually have a travel insurance policy too? (and if so wher to get it from)

we will be driving our own car and getting a ferry, we are hiring a cottage with 3 other people.

we have two small children (age 4 and 7 months).

pre existing I have asthma and our 7 month old is about to be see by a paediatrician for a wheeze that wont go away following a bout of bronchilitis in feb.

not sure if we need to or what to get! thanks for any help!

huckster

EHIC will only cover treatment within the French health system that you would get in the UK with the NHS. If say you were involved in serious car accident, which meant you were in hospital for weeks, the EHIC would not cover you to be transported back to the UK, so you could continue to be treated nearer to home, with family and friends able to visit you. Even with Travel Insurance it is not automatically the case that Insurers would pay for you to be repatriated to the UK for further treatment. However, the Insurance would pay for a relative to stay with you in France, while you were in hospital.

In addition to medical expenses, obviously Travel Insurance, would cover cancellation due to non pre-existing illness or death of someone the trip relied on or a close relative. There is also the personal effects cover for items lost or stolen.

You are always best to take out Insurance, as in the event of something happening, you have more options available to you.

The policy most people recommend is from the Post Office which is underwritten by Fortis. You would need to give them a call, to see if they would cover the pre-existing medical conditions and if so how much this would cost. Tel no. 0800 294 2292

Quentin

huckster wrote: »

The policy most people recommend is from the Post Office ......

Dunno where that comes from???

Which's recommendations are here:

http://www.which.co.uk/reviews-ns/travel-insurance/europe-single-trip-insurance/index.jsp

No mention of Post Office or Fortis.

They also list the "good" ones for pre existing conditions.

cranezoe

thanks guys,

I'll take a look at the link.

I found cover for all 4 of us inc the pre existing stuff with nationwide for £35, need to look into exactly what is and isnt covered but it sounded reasonable. any thoughts?

Fatenbread

Seems expensive for a single trip.

You need to ensure your car insurance covers driving abroad (most do), but other than that, I'm not sure I would bother with travel insurance for a trip to France. The EHIC will cover most medical treatment you would need urgently, and Normandy is a 3 hour drive to the Eurotunnel if you needed to get back to the UK for longer-term care.

Up to you though.

McKneff

Fatenbread wrote: »

Seems expensive for a single trip.

You need to ensure your car insurance covers driving abroad (most do), but other than that, I'm not sure I would bother with travel insurance for a trip to France. The EHIC will cover most medical treatment you would need urgently, and Normandy is a 3 hour drive to the Eurotunnel if you needed to get back to the UK for longer-term care.

Up to you though.

Really Bad, Bad advice about not getting travel insurance.A thousand and one things could happen, which would not be covered by your EHIC.


Car crash, who is going to drive this 3 hours to the UK while someone lies bleeding in the back.
You must take out travel insurance, anything can happen and its sods law it will if you have no insurance. And you'd be worryig about it all the time. Peace of mind is priceless.

bouncydog1

Try direct travel insurance 0845 605 2500 - annual policy for three of us - 2 over 50's (athsma, as a pre-existing) and a 17 year old with an unusual pre existing - was £88. Covers trips within the UK subject to 2 nights pre-booked accommodation and also covers daughter for trips without us - e.g. with other relatives - Cover was European area. Just make sure that you provide detailed answers to every question asked - that way you are less likely to have a claim excluded.

You can also go online, but need to be screened by the phoneline for pre-existing. I think (but not sure) that it is one of the MSE recommended policies.

Also make sure that your car insurance is extended to cover on an equivalent basis in France. You may also want to consider breakdown cover - not funny if you have to be towed off of the french equivalent of the motorway and have to bear the cost. There are certain conditions though e.g. regular servicing, age of car etc. but fairly cheap. Our motor policy actually covers this as a benefit.

France is fab - enjoy your hols with the benefit of making sure that you have properly covered yourself for all eventualities - that way very unlikely to have anything go wrong!

FH_Brit

Quentin wrote: »

Dunno where that comes from???

Which's recommendations are here:

http://www.which.co.uk/reviews-ns/travel-insurance/europe-single-trip-insurance/index.jsp

No mention of Post Office or Fortis.

They also list the "good" ones for pre existing conditions.

No mention of Fortis but if you look at the Annual worldwide recommendations - the second company (Multitrip.com) is an AXA policy!!!! Even Which get it wrong soimetimes!!! Recommending AXA!!!

Anyone search above AXA and see how good they are!
Search the Financial Ombusman site to see how many times AXA has had a complaint upheld! And yet, Which still recommends it! If you still want to insure yourself with AXA and follow Which's (and whoever links to it) recommendations then you'l probably end up learning the hardway.

Recommendations are based on different things - amount of coverage Vs price is obvious what Which recommend on - but that is no good at all if, having tons of coverage, they deny 90% of the claims that you (te consumer) submit or drag their feet so much that you end up facing legal action because they fail to carry out their "promise to you".............(it'll be the first time AXA do actually fulfill this promise)

(from ttp://www.multitrip.com/common/MultiTripcom_UK_Policy.pdf)

Our Promise to You

l Acknowledge written complaints quickly.

l Investigate quickly and thoroughly.

l Keep You informed of the progress.

l Do everything possible to resolve Your complaint.

l Learn from Our mistakes.

l Use information from complaints to continuously improve Our service.

Quentin

FH_Brit wrote: »

Even Which get it wrong soimetimes!!! Recommending AXA!!! .

Having a rant about axa is hardly the point here. (Which is your continual pushing of fortis, and now suggestung they are "most peoples" recommendation!!)

Closer to home, a MSE member took "someone's" recommendation here and went with fortis, his case history shows it ended in tears:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2521811