holiday insurance must have

wolfee101

hello savers,
I want to tell you a quick story about a holiday.
I booked a cheap last minute trip to turkey. 1 week in the sun.
I traveled without checking my insurance cover, just hoped on the plane, fit and well not even having a cold for 5 years!

Within 4 days i`d been admitted to hospital and had bowel surgery, my bill for 5 days in hospital (i was discharged early, should have stayed in for at least 3 more days) was 3,500 euro excluding medication, extra holiday accommodation (you cant leave/fly after surgery for min of 10 days) or flights home.

I was covered by my banks free holiday insurance, thank you Martin for your recommendation and the bank.

While the insurance company checked my medical records before agreeing to pay, it was a worrying time.

The hospital had a big book of in insurance companies that were fraudulent!! and worthless policies.
There was a Russian man, whose wife was ill and had no cover and he was very distressed.
some tips b4 traveling
1. buy insurance from a good company...or get it free from your bank!

Turkey is a cheap medical country it can cost you all you have.
Insurance should be compulsory!

thebillet

Good advice, along with declaring all conditions and check whether the country is included as banks often only cover Europe. Nice to hear Turkey has come out of this well I dread to think what this would cost in USA.

wolfee101

insurance for europe covered turkey and israel which was lucky!!

Julz11

Travel insurance is an absolute must.

2004 I went to the USA for a couple of weeks...felt totally fine.
A week after i got there collapsed, having a massive seizure and woke up 10 days later having had brain surgery and needing to stay a further month before being able to return home (with little memory incl reading and writing)

The final insurance payout (all in) was £35,000
While the insurance company were dragging their heels in paying, it was made quite clear from the 'medical lot' in the States that they would pass the debt over to a UK based company to collect.
Fortunately all was covered and paid. £35,000 is A LOT of money.
Well worth the small amount i paid for the policy.

You really can't mess about when it comes to travel insurance. (even though it costs me a fortune now)

McKneff

And there are still chuffing idiots who travel without it.............................

stephb34

McKneff wrote: »

And there are still chuffing idiots who travel without it.............................

Yeh because where we live they have their stories featured in the local paper and tell a right sob story and people send money to pay for their hospital costs etc.
It makes my blood boil:mad: i'm all for giving to good causes and people collecting for charities and to send dying kids to disney etc but i wouldn't give them anything when they thought they'd save a few quid by not buying travel insurance, and the gullible public will bail em out.