Cheapest Travel Insurance Discussion

peejay67

Im not sure if this has been covered in any thread, had a search and although there was a thread on FSA regulations, the Travel angle wasnt covered.

Just to make people aware that as of 14 January 2005, if you purchase Travel Insurance it has to be through an FSA member. You cannot book insurance through a travel agent as a stand alone producty. i.e you have to have booked your holiday through them to book their insurance.
We have always sold travel insurance as a stand alone product, but have had to refuse customers as of 14 January who hadnt booked through us.

The facts of the matter are that from 15 January 2005 any business involved in the sale of a general insurance product must comply with the EU Insurance Mediation Directive, which is being implemented in the UK through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. To continue insurance mediation after 14 January 2005 companies/individuals need by law to have authorisation from the FSA.

The good news, however, is that the travel industry will be excluded from regulation where their activities are limited to travel insurance sold in conjunction with ‘travel arrangements’.
The Insurance policies have to:
- be for five years or less (including renewals);
- have an annual premium of 500 euros or less;
- cover the risk of damage to, or loss of, baggage and other risks linked to the travel booked with the travel company;
- be complimentary to the service supplied by the travel company; and
- are in standard form.

In short travel agents will still be able to sell personal travel insurance policies to their clients as long as they are selling them as an add on to ‘travel arrangements’ they are providing.

If they do not sell ‘travel arrangements’ as part of their service then they will need to apply for FSA regulation.

Apologies if it has been posted before.

PJ

MAYFLOWERS

teabag02 wrote:

Ring Norwich Union - we rang everyone and was quoted crazy prices, and my dad was getting very upset. Last year we went on a family hol to the USA, and it looked like a repeat visit this year was not going to be possible as he couldn't get insurance. He had a heart attack 2 years ago and is 67 yrs, Norwich Union were happy to give an annual insurance to cover the States at a very reasonable price. We checked and checked and re-checked thinking they have got something wrong, but they sent us their policy and confirmed again and again all in order and great result - it has done wonders for my fathers ego, and he is currently in the caribbean !!!

Thanks - Dad just going to try Norwich Union now! Fingers crossed and Will update later!!

MAYFLOWERS

Hi

Well unfortunately Norwich Union wouldn/t insure his heart complaint - they gave him a really good quote but wouldn/t cover him if anything happened due to his heart problem! So its back to square one - he has one quote of £450 which is the best at the moment and is waiting on Lombard Direct who have quoted £275 plus an excess for his heart condition - he has posted the medical questionaire today so they can advise of the excess!

If anyone else has any ideas - would really appreciate it!

teabag02

I'm so sorry Mayflower, i really had hopes that Norwich Union would be the one for your dad. If i come across anything else i'll post, fingers crossed for you. Have you checked the British Heart Foundation website, they used to have a list of insurers but i found them expensive.

paulac_3

Hi

My Mum (who is 72) has a number of longstanding medical problems including angina and diabetes and had a quadruple bypass twelve years ago. She has always found the travel insurance offered by Age Concern to be a good deal.

We took her to Florida last year and she paid £270 with a £500 excess. We did a lot of phoning around and Age Concern were the lowest by far.

Hope this helps

doryb_2

FFGOLD wrote:

This one sell's worldwide cover @£70 for a couple and I think its around £50 for a single policy.

The good thing is they will cover most pre exsisting medical conditions, at no additional cost, if you phone the helpline number given when you ask for a quote.

Bad thing they charge £25-£50 if you use the emergency medical cover, but nothing if you use the E111 in Europe. £50 quid wont buy you a plaster in the USA!! so its not that bad.



http://www.insuranceforliving.co.uk/accesssite/pages/atravel_insurance.html

I'm new to this but here goes. The link doesn't work and when I tried just https://www.insuranceforliving.co.uk, the page said the site was being updated. There was no other information. Are there any other contact numbers as I would like to pursue this because of what you said about pre-existing health conditions?

Hope someone can help with either another address or phone contact.

Also, if there are other companies who are reasonable about pre-existing health conditions this would be helpful. For anyone who has not yet experienced this, you can have a pre-existing health condition for which you have had no problems for years, or claims on travel insurance ever,!! but getting insurance can still be a real drag and unreasonably expensive.

Savvy_Sue

Trying to sort out insurance for a trip to France in Feb for the two of us plus one son, knowing that another son (15) will probably also go to France in July, on his own, so thought I'd look at annual policies for Europe as well as singles.

But Insure and Go displays a figure of £26.39 but then doubles it in smaller type underneath. Have just twiddled the quote and that's because there are two adults. Come on chaps, play fair, put the real price in big print! Have just emailed them to complain.

pin

I'm pretty sure this has been mentioned before (on the old boards at least), but cannot find reference to it, Ryanair seem to do a pretty competitive range of travel insurance. Personally have not used them, but a couple of friends have, and they have been pretty happy with the service.

http://www.primarytravelinsurance.co.uk/goto/ryanair/

Ally

I have never had to take Travel Insurance before ... what should I be looking for?

I need to get some pronto - Family of 4. As we have 2 other trips planned for later in the year, annual european will work out far cheaper .... right

Off to read the article now

Ally

Anyone used: TMSM Travel Insurance from Club Direct
Policy: Annual Multi-trip (European)
For 4 people: £56.40
Medical: £10,000,000
Personal Liability: £2,000,000
Cancellation: £5,000
Baggage: £2,500

what does the 'Excess' bit mean I don't get it ... couldn't see anything on the moneysupermarket site about it!

Cheers:)