Has anybody had a positive experience claiming from a Travel Insurance Company?

Coraline

zagfles wrote: »

You've not been on MSE long then

I'm a newbie---when is too long "too long?"

zagfles

Coraline wrote: »

I'm a newbie---when is too long "too long?"

When hearing "you get what you pay for" makes you want to scream :money:

zagfles

To answer your question, if you're covered for medical (inc repatriation) it's debatable whether you need travel insurance, I never bothered while I had a company plan including medical.

But it depends what type of holiday you take, if you book hotels which are cancellable up to just before arrival (as I tend to) and either drive or get cheap flights, the potential losses are fairly minimal. (& stuff like airline delays, airlines losing your baggage etc are the airline's responsibility anyway, though the limits may be lower than some travel insurance)

Whereas if you book some all inclusive package 12 months in advance for £2k each then it's a different equation!

Coraline

I travel so frequently and don't book hotels in advance. Maybe once a year I go to a place and book a a private flat to just "chill out" for a week in a location to take pictures or whatever. But those I can always cancel quite quickly if need be and lose 1-3 nights deposit. A very low financial risk.

But most of the time it's a case of booking a ticket and just going somewhere and figuring what I do when I land, above and beyond a night or two the city I land in.

Delays don't concern me, and I never check baggage ever--if it doesn't come with me on the plane/bus/train, it doesn't go.

I don't do packages or cruises. I don't care if I wind up stranded somewhere for two days and need to sleep in an airport (done that several times!)

I don't do insurance in general unless legally required ( I had a car insurance policy in America 10 years ago), and it never made sense for me to buy travel insurance, as it wouldn't apply to me based on my style of travel as I summarised above. (If I did actually pay travel insurance for all the times I've traveled I'd be in the hole by now by at least four figures, probably ten fold of any potential loss I could possibly experience on a single trip excluding medical).

So... I guess the the stickler comes down to medical. I'm OK in the UK...but don't have medical insurance abroad (I'm not a citizen so I don't have that reciprocal EU card thing)


Which means now that I really think of it, is it possible to get just a travel insurance policy for medical only? I haven't heard of something like that.


Off to google some more kind folks! Many thanks!

mum2one

I can say a big vote for Insure and Go, I had an annual policy at the time, and had 2 claims....
1st - day before we were due to fly my DD come down with Chicken Pox, and they paid out within about 2 weeks of "our due date back", so we resheduled - later in the yr, - but I fell on wet toilet floor and fractured my knee..... we got paid quickly as well on that.
They were reasonable priced. x

victor2

zagfles wrote: »

To answer your question, if you're covered for medical (inc repatriation) it's debatable whether you need travel insurance, I never bothered while I had a company plan including medical.

But it depends what type of holiday you take, if you book hotels which are cancellable up to just before arrival (as I tend to) and either drive or get cheap flights, the potential losses are fairly minimal. (& stuff like airline delays, airlines losing your baggage etc are the airline's responsibility anyway, though the limits may be lower than some travel insurance)

Whereas if you book some all inclusive package 12 months in advance for £2k each then it's a different equation!

Both of our claims (over £1K each) were not covered by our medical policies. They were medical reasons for claiming, but as I was hospitalised before one planned trip, the travel insurance covered it, and as a relative passed away just before the other, the travel insurance covered that as well.
There are indeed money saving ways to ensure you have adequate cover, but as Coraline says, often you get what you pay for, and it's worth not saving quite as much to be assured what you're paying for will be there if needed.

zagfles

victor2 wrote: »

Both of our claims (over £1K each) were not covered by our medical policies. They were medical reasons for claiming, but as I was hospitalised before one planned trip, the travel insurance covered it, and as a relative passed away just before the other, the travel insurance covered that as well.
There are indeed money saving ways to ensure you have adequate cover, but as Coraline says, often you get what you pay for, and it's worth not saving quite as much to be assured what you're paying for will be there if needed.

Like I said, it depends on the type of holiday you take. Last holiday I went on would have cost virtually nothing if we'd cancelled a couple of days before going, because everything that was pre-paid (flight tickets mainly) were refundable and hotel reservations were cancellable up to the day before arrival.

Voyager2002

My last claim on travel insurance came after my pocket was picked. I did get back the amount I had lost (quite a lot) but the whole process of getting a police report and so forth was a hassle. Certainly not a positive experience, but I'm glad that I was insured!

For those who say "you get what you pay for", I have to respond that there is no substitute for reading the policy wording. If you do so, you are likely to find that the very cheapest policies offer only very restricted protection, but there are usually plenty of "good buys" costing slightly more than the cheapest that offer quite good cover, and lots of expensive policies that again exclude most of the risks you are likely to encounter.

InsideInsurance

Coraline wrote: »

Aside from the medical part (which I've always been covered for from other types of insurance)....what's the point?

What other insurance do you have in place that covers medical emergencies abroad?

If you look at claims expenditure for travel insurers then by far the biggest payment goes towards medical related costs overseas. Second is typically cancellation, and all the rest (delay, third party liability, baggage) is way down in third

I;ve only ever claimed for delay which was with Axa via my bank and had no issues. After the claim form they asked for proof that my fianc!e and I met the policy condition of living together for over 6 months which was simple to do and the cheque followed after. It was a bit slow but it was the winter with heavy snows and so lots of claims (like myself)

opinions4u

Policies tend to screw you over when you buy cheap and / or don't declare the obvious up front.