Travel insurance mystery....

morganlefay

We have an annual travel insurance with Staysure which renewed yesterday. The premium was £226.55 because the two of us have things wrong with us and are over 70. Reading the small print I saw that it doesn't include Spain, which is where we are going on Sept 4th, so I rang them to get it included. I was quoted an extra £113.43, which seemed very steep, but the man said that it might be better to get a one-off policy just for our 14 days in Spain from TIM (a sister company to Staysure, I was told) so today I phoned TIM who could do a one-off for £78.49 for Europe including Spain from 4th to 14th Sept. Good stuff, so I bought it. BUT then I noticed that on the annual (Staysure ) policy I had forgotten to declare sleep apnoea, which I suffer from, so I rang them to get it added (are you keeping up at the back ? !) I was quoted £114.26 to add sleep apnoea to the annual policy for which I'd already paid £226.55. I said that was a bit much and muttered a bit, and then she asked me if I'd like to add Spain to the policy if I was adding things. I said I'd been through that and it was too expensive, and she said that I could add sleep apnoea (had to do that anyway or they wouldn't insure me) AND Spain for an additional £114.26. So that means that the £113.43 to add Spain yesterday has become £2.74 today. I queried this in every way possible and said how could this be, and she was adamant tht it was correct so I just went for it, and will cancel the one-off Spanish cover for which I paid £78.49 this afternoon to TIM
Can anyone understand how this could happen or why ? HELP !!!
How can we ever trust insurers again ?

FutureGirl

You would have had to pay an amendment fee for the change, which would be included in that figure, so check what that is (it will say in your policy documents). It could also just be that figures change daily as well.

agrinnall

I find it hard to believe that any policy for travel insurance outside of the UK would exclude travel to Spain, probably one of the top 3 destinations for travellers from the UK, unless the policy you bought was specifically for UK only or for non-European destinations. I certainly can't see anything obvious on the Staysure website to suggest there is any such exclusion.

morganlefay

Staysures policy documents say that both cruising and Spain (and islands) are excluded - it's there in black and white, but they explained that its because medical costs in Spain are so much higher and as most treatment is in private hospitals an EHIC card (while we still have them) isn't much use.
On sleeping on it I decided to query this higher up the organisation and am now waiting for a supervisor person to ring me back. have always found Staysure to be good, so hope they can sort it out.

agrinnall

morganlefay wrote: »

Staysures policy documents say that both cruising and Spain (and islands) are excluded - it's there in black and white...

Do you have a link to this, as everything I can find seems to suggest that they do cover travel to Spain?

Quentin

agrinnall wrote: »

Do you have a link to this, as everything I can find seems to suggest that they do cover travel to Spain?

Staysure have 4 different regions you can choose for annual cover.


Spain is excluded from the cheapest


If you remain a doubting Thomas, google staysure policy docs

katejo

agrinnall wrote: »

I find it hard to believe that any policy for travel insurance outside of the UK would exclude travel to Spain, probably one of the top 3 destinations for travellers from the UK, unless the policy you bought was specifically for UK only or for non-European destinations. I certainly can't see anything obvious on the Staysure website to suggest there is any such exclusion.

I have come across an exclusion/extra payment for Spain before. Not sure of the reason. It didn't affect me so I didn't query it.

elle_may

agrinnall wrote: »

I find it hard to believe that any policy for travel insurance outside of the UK would exclude travel to Spain, probably one of the top 3 destinations for travellers from the UK, unless the policy you bought was specifically for UK only or for non-European destinations. I certainly can't see anything obvious on the Staysure website to suggest there is any such exclusion.

I have found when going to Turkey, some include it in the european policy and some in world travel when looking for quote's.

agrinnall

elle_may wrote: »

I have found when going to Turkey, some include it in the european policy and some in world travel when looking for quote's.

It's more understandable for Turkey (not in the EU, a large part of the country physically in Asia) but a bit odd for Spain which is definitely in the EU and physically in Europe; however, I have now been convinced that policies exist that do exclude it.

morganlefay

I have now paid up and sorted it, but despite ringing them and really having a go I still don't know what was going on. They did explain to me that Spain is more expensive because there are mostly private hospitals there so it costs a lot more to be ill in Spain (presumably EHIC cards while we have them not much use). I attach, for the avoidance of doubt, an extract from our original policy document which excluded a lot of countries. As we almost always go to France this hasn't bothered me before, and as we are unusually going to Spain I'm really glad I read the small print properly !

Cover
Cover details
(All options and benefit limits should be shown)

Date of Issue: 21/08/2016 Policy Type: Annual Trip Basic
Destination: Europe: excl. Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Malta, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey
Cover Start Date: 22/08/2016 Return Date: 21/08/2017 Period of Insurance: 365 days




Cancellation Limit: £500 Cruise: EXCLUDED
Cruising is not automatically covered as standard on this policy, to be covered for a cruise please contact Customer Services on 0800 088 4828 (Inside UK) or +44 1604 210 845 (Outside UK).