Travel Insurance for glasses and prescription sunglasses

DepositSaver

Cross-posted from Overseas Holidays boards as no joy with an answer there:

Hopefully someone can help with this - I am looking for a travel insurance policy which covers my glasses, and prescription sunglasses. I have found a couple which cover both, but only up to either £150 or £200. This would be enough for my sunglassess, but not my glasses (I need £270). Boots will insure my glasses up to £300, but exclude my sunglasses.

My glasses are covered under my home insurance, but claiming on that wouldn't include getting an emergency prescription to me, and getting me replacement glasses while still on my holiday, as I would have to go through their claims process. Plus I would lose my no claims discount.

Does anyone know of any insurer who wold cover both up to the amount I need? Or do I need to decide between covering just my glasses fully, or having the sunglasses fully covered and the specs only partly?

Thanks in advance

rs65

Aviva and PostOffice provide single article limits of £400 and £500.

DepositSaver

rs65 wrote: »

Aviva and PostOffice provide single article limits of £400 and £500.

Thank you, will check them out.

rs65

I'm sure there will be others - those are just easily accessible online.

DepositSaver

In the past the problem has been that not all of them them specifically mentioned they cover glasses in the policy document, so I've ended up having to phone them to confirm which gets a bit time consuming - some do cover, some don't. But I guess it's worth spending the time to get the cover I need.

rs65

They won't specifically mention everything that is covered. I would be focussing on the exclusions.

DepositSaver

rs65 wrote: »

They won't specifically mention everything that is covered. I would be focussing on the exclusions.

Good point. I've found some insurers with single article limits which are high enough, and which don't specifically exclude glasses or limit the cover for them. Some list sunglasses and glasses in the valuables section, others don't. Can I assume if they are not listed in valuables or in exclusions, they are would just come under "normal" possessions and thus not count towards the total valuables covered amount?

nobbysn*ts

This depends on how fast you need your glasses. For £270, I would guess you're like me, and not a 1 day turn around at vision express? So, after they're made, and shipped, there is a fair chance you would be on the way home anyway.I have my old prescription, a set of sports sunglasses that cost about £60 online, and a £10 set of non thinned glasses I bought online, which I always take with me. I can't see without them, so I can't wait though, I need my glasses unless I'm asleep. I don't bother with insurance.

DepositSaver

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

This depends on how fast you need your glasses. For £270, I would guess you're like me, and not a 1 day turn around at vision express? So, after they're made, and shipped, there is a fair chance you would be on the way home anyway.I have my old prescription, a set of sports sunglasses that cost about £60 online, and a £10 set of non thinned glasses I bought online, which I always take with me. I can't see without them, so I can't wait though, I need my glasses unless I'm asleep. I don't bother with insurance.

I do have expensive frames which contributes to the cost, but my lenses aren't a really simple one day turnaround. They usually take a few days to a week. I had stupidly not factored that in when thinking about getting them shipped out, so thank you I can see without my glasses (e.g. I don't put them on in the morning till I've showered and dried my hair), but not particularly clearly and I would end up with severe eye strain and a headache if I went a whole day without them, and would have great difficulty reading anything, so maybe I need to go the route of taking one of my old pairs, instead of looking for a policy that will replace while I'm away.

I think I would still want insurance that would cover me if they got lost/stolen/broken, as I wouldn't want to have to pay the whole cost of a new pair once I got back to the UK.

rs65

DepositSaver wrote: »

so maybe I need to go the route of taking one of my old pairs, instead of looking for a policy that will replace while I'm away.

Would any agree to replace them whilst you are away? You'd need an optician who is prepared to let you walk out with new glasses and bill the insurer direct.

Just take a copy of your prescription and a credit card and get the money back from insurers when you return.

DepositSaver

rs65 wrote: »

Would any agree to replace them whilst you are away? You'd need an optician who is prepared to let you walk out with new glasses and bill the insurer direct.

Just take a copy of your prescription and a credit card and get the money back from insurers when you return.

There are some (Boots and Virgin Money are two I've come across) who say they will send you emergency glasses, presumably from the UK and presumably paid for by them, but that's not actually going to be that useful to me.