Travel insurance cash cover

Budget_mum

lisyloo said:

id be extremely suspicious of any seller who only takes cash when electronic payments can be made in minutes.

Lol in that case don't expect to buy in Greece 🇬🇷

Thank you for the response 🙂

tightauldgit

NoodleDoodleMan said:

If cash is stolen abroad this has to be reported to the local police for any subsequent insurance claims - and formal crime report documentation obtained.

I suspect that then becomes a drama scenario - for example, how does the victim prove what sum has been lifted ?

The insurers will want proof etc. - that's assuming they'll entertain such a claim - they'll ask the obvious question.

Although I'm not upon the practical details of making such payments in Spain, there must be a better method of settling this transaction apart from a wad of readies ?

Yes I had a lovely little adventure when I had my wallet stolen in Split last year. Had to find the local police station, hang around for ages, have a lovely "chat" with a slightly grumpy detective who didn't speak English, fill in a form I couldn't read and then get a formal crime report from the Croatian plod. Which in fairness they did without any complaint it was just a hassle to have to go through the process. 

You would also have to provide proof to the insurer of the amount - so evidence of ATM withdrawals or similar. Which in fairness my insurer were very good about - even got the cost of my wallet back. 

In my case this was for a couple of hundred quid - I suspect that the hoops to jump through for 5 grand might be rather more substantial. Had I only been in Split for 24 hours it would probably have been substantially more difficult though. 

tightauldgit

Budget_mum said:

Mands said:

Budget_mum said:

tightauldgit said:

Is there any reason they have to carry the cash with them? Can't they get the cash wired to Spain or do a bank transfer or similar? 

I've been through all this with them but they're only there for a day and ATM limits come into play

I think you misunderstood the question. Why are they paying in cash?

The seller has asked for cash 

Can we ask what he is buying for £5k in cash? If it's not bags of white powder surely there are alternative methods? 

Budget_mum

tightauldgit said:

Budget_mum said:

Mands said:

Budget_mum said:

tightauldgit said:

Is there any reason they have to carry the cash with them? Can't they get the cash wired to Spain or do a bank transfer or similar? 

I've been through all this with them but they're only there for a day and ATM limits come into play

I think you misunderstood the question. Why are they paying in cash?

The seller has asked for cash 

Can we ask what he is buying for £5k in cash? If it's not bags of white powder surely there are alternative methods? 

A handmade musical instrument

NoodleDoodleMan

I'm not au fais with international transfer of funds - so just thinking out aloud, if that's allowed !!!

Could he not send funds to a major Spanish bank in the area and have it collected by arrangement with the seller party present ?

Banco Santander (for example) have a widespread network branch.....any Santander in UK should be able to advise ?

There will be a fee of course.

The resident experts hereabouts can probably come up with a more convenient workable way forward of course.

eDicky

I fear that any Spanish bank will have nothing to do with receiving funds and dispensing cash from/to a non-customer, and Santander UK will be unable to advise on such a thing.

eDicky

100 polymer £50 notes is not such a huge wad to carry securely and discretely, and if payment is to be made soon after arrival I wouldn't be worried as long as nobody else knows. In fact I'd be more concerned about alerting the wrong people by enquiring and searching online, if any connection might be compromised, about insurance cover.

Voyager2002

I am reasonably confident that this risk cannot be insured against. And in any case the risk of theft/robbery is infinitesimally small so long as he takes reasonable care.

A far greater risk is that the instrument turns out not to be what he believes it to be, and of course if he pays in cash the seller could easily disappear leaving him no come-back. 

tightauldgit

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I'm not au fais with international transfer of funds - so just thinking out aloud, if that's allowed !!!

Could he not send funds to a major Spanish bank in the area and have it collected by arrangement with the seller party present ?

Banco Santander (for example) have a widespread network branch.....any Santander in UK should be able to advise ?

There will be a fee of course.

The resident experts hereabouts can probably come up with a more convenient workable way forward of course.

Probably better to do something like Western Union transfer than try to get a bank involved in the process if you don't have an account. 

DullGreyGuy

Budget_mum said:

A friend is travelling to Spain next week and will be carrying around £5000 in cash for a legal purchase. He is anxious to get travel insurance that covers the cash and despite a LOT of searching I'm having no luck. Any recommendations? 

If you look at mid net worth Home Insurance with the likes of Hiscox they include worldwide cover and are likely to have a high enough limit for Money... they'd need to meet their underwriting criteria though which in part will be owning enough contents and the premiums wont be cheap (think contents only minimum premium was about £600 last time I checked).

A lot of those that offer mid-net worth travel insurance require you to hold another product or it forms part of their home cover because it only covers cancellation etc because your possessions already have world wide cover via the home insurance. There are some exceptions to this but it'd be a case of reaching out to an appropriate broker (tend to be telephone rather than online) and again may not fall into their target market.

The better solution is to avoid carrying the cash as far as possible.