Why I never bother with travel insurance

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Madmel wrote: »

I have posted on this subject before, so apologies if you've read my story before, but I can't believe that people can be so cavalier.

3 years ago in the SW USA, my husband's appendix ruptured. A day of generally feeling unwell then stomach pains meant that we went to a local hospital in Arizona. They diagnosed him, but didn't have the facilities to treat him so he travelled 240 miles by air ambulance to Tucson where he was operated on. He spent 5 days on life support, a week in ICU, a further week on a ward and ended up with 4 operations. He had to fly back business-class so he could lie flat to rest.

Thank goodness we had bought adequate travel insurance. It covered EVERYTHING! And I only paid £50 for it!!! The helicopter trip alone was $38,000 USD, the ICU bed was $2500 USD per day and I never found out the costs of the surgeons, anaesthetics teams or drugs. I do know it ran to 6 figures, and we have never spent anything like that in travel insurance costs.

They paid for a hotel for me and the children, a car, my mobile phone bills and replacement flights. Apart from the horrid Canadian company I had to deal with (until the amazing head of social care at the hospital got involved and read them the riot act) we could not have received better care or met kinder or more compassionate people.

You never know when something like this is going to happen. Yes, it's rare, but it happened to us, and we very nearly ended up bringing DH home in a box. Thankfully he is now fully recovered, and we have been in touch with the wonderful people who saved his life. Please, please spend the £50 or whatever; the alternative is not worth it.

You could replace people with Nobjocki

Pollycat

Madmel wrote: »

I have posted on this subject before, so apologies if you've read my story before, but I can't believe that people can be so cavalier.

3 years ago in the SW USA, my husband's appendix ruptured. A day of generally feeling unwell then stomach pains meant that we went to a local hospital in Arizona. They diagnosed him, but didn't have the facilities to treat him so he travelled 240 miles by air ambulance to Tucson where he was operated on. He spent 5 days on life support, a week in ICU, a further week on a ward and ended up with 4 operations. He had to fly back business-class so he could lie flat to rest.
Thank goodness we had bought adequate travel insurance. It covered EVERYTHING! And I only paid £50 for it!!! The helicopter trip alone was $38,000 USD, the ICU bed was $2500 USD per day and I never found out the costs of the surgeons, anaesthetics teams or drugs. I do know it ran to 6 figures, and we have never spent anything like that in travel insurance costs.
They paid for a hotel for me and the children, a car, my mobile phone bills and replacement flights. Apart from the horrid Canadian company I had to deal with (until the amazing head of social care at the hospital got involved and read them the riot act) we could not have received better care or met kinder or more compassionate people.
You never know when something like this is going to happen. Yes, it's rare, but it happened to us, and we very nearly ended up bringing DH home in a box. Thankfully he is now fully recovered, and we have been in touch with the wonderful people who saved his life. Please, please spend the £50 or whatever; the alternative is not worth it.

Scary story, Madmel.
I'm glad it worked out for your OH.

It must have been bad enough worrying about him and your children without having to think about who was picking the bills up.

But Nobjocki has statistics on his side so he's probably not interested in your experience.

As he's never needed to be flown back from a holiday, the stats are in his favour. :cool:

Nobjocki wrote: »

Travel insurance is very much like car breakdown insurance - I've never had either and have yet to breakdown or need flying back from a holiday.

I accept there are occasions when this happens but, statistically, the number of people taking out holiday insurance every year versus those who actually claim on it must make it a comparative waste of money.

Enterprise_1701C

We have only ever claimed on travel insurance once, that was for a last-minute cancellation due of a skiiing holiday as my OH had osteomyelitis in his ankle. As far as I am concerned that one time pays for all the travel insurance we have ever taken out.

This year we are off to Egypt and I have done something I have never done before and taken a travel agents recommended policy (although the agent is a trusted friend) at £60 for 17 days. This is because we intend to dive, ride on dune buggies, ride camels and other risky ventures, we do not want to stop and think "is this covered by the insurance". As the holiday cost a pretty penny anyway I do not object to paying for good insurance so we can do what we want to do.

Insurance is one thing I will never cut back on because you can lose so much for the sake of a few pounds.

Mr.Harley_Quin

Holiday insurance makes a lot of sense. Like most insurance policies you buy it, but hope to never use it. Like most people I would hardly bother to claim from a simple camera, but for accidents it makes sense.

A good friend slipped in Spain and shattered his ankle. He needed pins in his ankle and it was all covered, including the return flight with extra seating.

Nobjocki

Pollycat wrote: »

Just had a quick look at some of Nobjocki's other posts:







Travelling abroad with 2 children without insurance makes (imho) Nobjocki even more irresponsible than I first thought after reading his posts on this thread.

Nobjocki - what are the statistics of another car hitting your whilst driving across the States?

Given the scarcity of cars on the road in vast parts of America, the fact that very little driving is done in two-way traffic and the considerably lower speed limits than here I would say that the chances of being hit by another car are miniscule.

Likewise, if you weigh up the number of people who successfully travel abroad each year without complication against the number of people who avail of travel insurance you'll find the percentages minute.

Travel insurance is mostly a con, flogged to you by people on a commission to sell policies which in many cases are largely useless.

For every unfortunate case mentioned on here I could find you 100,000 others where insurance was totally unnecessary - what on earth do you think is going to happen to you lying by a pool in Torremolinos for a fortnight ? You wouldn't buy insurance if that pool was in the Isle of Wight !

Holidaymakers would be far better served by avoiding obvious risks and using the commonsense that many appear to leave behind at check-in.

davidlizard

I would not need to buy insurance if I went to the Isle of Wight simply because the NHS will provide adequate health care at no expense - I will receive just about the same level of cover as I would at home. Additional health insurance is not necessary.

Whilst many other countries have reciprocal health agreements with the UK, this only entitles me to the same health service the locals get. In many cases, this falls short of what is available in the UK and also fees are often payable for which locals have private health insurance.

Whilst I fully agree that people should exercise commonsense whilst abroad, many of the reasons that end up requiring medical attention or facing personal liability claims arise through no fault of their own - its often just plain bad luck or being in the wrong place at the wrong time (food poisoning, drunk driver, unknown medical condition occurring etc) - as many of the examples in earlier posts here cite.

Given how cheap no-frills travel insurance is, and given the expenses that are likely if medical cover/repatriation are needed, is it really worth having to sell your house and possessions for the sake of not taking out a policy that costs the same as a round of drinks or half hour on a pedalo?

alanrowell

Nobjocki wrote: »

For every unfortunate case mentioned on here I could find you 100,000 others where insurance was totally unnecessary

DUH, can't work out if you are a troll or an idiot. Insurance of all kinds rely on it NOT being used by most people - it's called "sharing the risk" so that when the merde hits the air conditioning - or the air conditioning falls from 8 stories up and hits you - you aren't left with a bill the size of the national debt

Nobjocki wrote: »

Holidaymakers would be far better served by avoiding obvious risks and using the commonsense that many appear to leave behind at check-in.

So getting hit by low flying air conditioning would be an obvious risk to you and that by using common sense you would avoid it.

Presumably you don't have buildings, contents & car insurance as you avoid obvious risk and use common sense.

Face it merde happens and insurance is the way you ensure that it doesn't becoming a life changing event

BTW 35000 people on US roads each year, that's compared to 2200 in the UK - ie the risk per capita is 3 times as high as the UK despite all those empty roads.

Nobjocki

alanrowell wrote: »

DUH, can't work out if you are a troll or an idiot. Insurance of all kinds rely on it NOT being used by most people - it's called "sharing the risk" so that when the merde hits the air conditioning - or the air conditioning falls from 8 stories up and hits you - you aren't left with a bill the size of the national debt


So getting hit by low flying air conditioning would be an obvious risk to you and that by using common sense you would avoid it.

Presumably you don't have buildings, contents & car insurance as you avoid obvious risk and use common sense.

Face it merde happens and insurance is the way you ensure that it doesn't becoming a life changing event

BTW 35000 people on US roads each year, that's compared to 2200 in the UK - ie the risk per capita is 3 times as high as the UK despite all those empty roads.

It's symptomatic of the lemming-like behaviour of the crowd that when someone else proffers an alternative opinion they react with abuse.

Travel insurance is a choice - I choose not to take it. Likewise I choose not to have building or contents insurance, life insurance or indeed any form of insurance at all other than car insurance.

It has saved me many thousands of pounds over the years.

Insurance is sold by large companies whose main interest is looking after their shareholders not their clients many of whom benefit from false claims which push up premiums not the genuine payouts that companies have to make.

I choose to make a judgement based on risk and statistics.

I certainly don't insult anyone who chooses otherwise.

Kate78

Nobjocki wrote: »

I choose to make a judgement based on risk and statistics.

That's interesting, when we do risk assessments at work we have to use a formula that not only takes into account the likelihood but also the consequences.

So, it's unlikely that having one of these unfortunate things would happen but if that unlikely situation were to arise, the resulting costs would be astronomical.

Therefore, for the sake of £20 or so (and that's not a lot if I'm spending £600 on my hols), I will be buying travel insurance.

And if the worst were to happen and I died while away, I wouldn't want my family burdened with the cost of repatriating my body. Morbid, I know, but this has happened to someone I know.

FH_Brit

Yoghurt wrote: »

Yeah but in fairness, most of it's a joke:

Cancellation or Curtailment: What this means is cancellation or curtailment only under a strict set of circumstances.

Baggage: £75 excess. What, per bag? Ts & Cs don't say. So what's the betting they'll try and charge it per bag.

Scheduled Airline Failure: To be fair, if the airline fails I'll be dead anyway.

Supplier Insolvency: I'm not going with a travel agent or package holiday so that doesn't apply.

Missed Departure: What, because I'm running late or only if the car breaks down? And if it breaks down due to running out of petrol, is that covered too? Watch them wriggle out of that one.

Delayed Departure: £25 excess. Like anyone's gonna claim that then.

Catastrophe Cover: As per Cancellation or Curtailment.

Holiday Abandonment: !!!!!!?

Strike: Benefit of £200. Like that's gonna buy me a new flight at that short notice.

Hijack: £500. Brilliant. There are terrorists on board the plane but I'm all right, I've got 500 big ones waiting for me when I get home.

What a load of bollix.

You really deserve everything you may get! You, obviously by the look of your "eloquent" (that means articulate, but you may not know what that means either!) postings, are one of those people who buys travel insurance without reading the T&C's of the policy, and then when you actually make a claim you complain because YOU did not read anything about what you were/are covered for.

Cancellation or Curtailment = not just this your whole policy has strict conditions - but you would know that IF you bothered to read the policy!!!

Baggage: £75 excess = Don't buy CHEAP! - you get what you pay for! for a few more pounds you can have a policy with NO EXCESS!!!

Scheduled Airline Failure - It means financial failure not mechanical - showing your ignorance again!

Supplier Insolvency: I'm not going with a travel agent or package holiday so that doesn't apply. - Really! What happend on your do it yourself holiday when the accommodation YOU booked (Hotel/Villa etc) goes bankrupt?

Missed Departure: What, because I'm running late or only if the car breaks down? And if it breaks down due to running out of petrol - It is cover for most people who make "reasonable" arrangements to travel to the airport/seaport and not the MORONS who risk missing their £1,000.00+ holiday for the sake of £5 extra petrol, or who cannot be bothered to take and extra hour or two to be on the safe side.
(by the way if you are travelling on a motorway and run out of petrol you could end up with a ticket too from the police - Road Traffic Act states it is illegal to enter a motorway without sufficient fuel)

Holiday Abandonment: !!!!!!? - Nice language!!! - It can mean that if your close relative is taken ill back home and you need to "Abandon your Holiday" to return to them, you would be covered - but then you might not want to stop your holiday, because you are having sooo much fun in the bars and clubs. And anyway Grandma can take care of herself!!!!

Strike: Benefit of £200. Like that's gonna buy me a new flight at that short notice - It could rent you a Pedal boat though!!!!

Hijack: £500. Brilliant - Better than a bullet?

What a load of bollix - I agree you talk a load of it....................