Nationwide Flex-Plus... changing travel insurance provider.

myth123

zathrasB5 said:

kaMelo said:

zathrasB5 said:

After a quick glance at this I am getting royally screwed by it.  I am turning 60 this year so my wife and I decided to push the boat out and are having 24 days in Japan, flying business class.  The holiday is fully booked for us by a company called Inside Japan including all train transfers, local travel cards etc.  But it means we are forking out over £22K for the whole holiday.  So we had to pay an extra £146 to cover the full cost of the holiday.  They are saying that this upgrade cost is not transferrable to Aviva and we will have to pay the same again to get the upgrade (limited to £20K) as the holiday is not until Oct.  So we are being forced to pay the upgrade cost twice.  How is this treating customers fairly?  I would love a comment from the MSE team as to if this is even legal.  I understand that I am covered by the UK insurance until 1/5/24 but I think I deserve a pro-rated refund for the time we have paid for that they are not going to cover us for now.

Are you saying you don't have your annual renewal date between paying for the upgrade and taking the holiday?

I have already paid for an upgrade to cover the holiday in October.  There is an annual renewal date in between but the cover I paid was explicitly stated to cover the holiday.  In fact the way the lass on the phone had to do it was say the holiday was in April with a note on the policy that this was actually the cover for Oct/Nov as the system would not let her go to Oct due to the renewal date.  But I was assured that what I paid (and it was a lot) covered me until the end of the holiday.

On their website, it says..

"Existing customers will move over when their upgrades expire

If you have a FlexPlus current account already and don’t have any travel insurance upgrades, we’ll automatically move you over to Aviva on 1 May 2024. 

If you have a travel insurance upgrade that expires on or after 1 May 2024, you’ll continue to be covered by U K Insurance Limited under your current policy until your upgrade expires."

In which case, would you not move over to Aviva only after your upgrade expires with UK Insurance? Which I presume is after your trip. I think the best thing to do is to contact nationwide to confirm if there is any confusion when reading the new terms.

SevenOfNine

Middle_of_the_Road said:

Lots of changes to proposed cover provided by Aviva.
Notably.. no over 70's restriction-

FlexPlus Travel Insurance provider change | nationwide

Beware of that positive spin N/W gave it. I did a quick quote with Aviva & yes, there is no age declaration & additional payment.

What there is, that N/W have forgotten to mention, is NO worldwide insurance with Aviva for over 75, only single trip. With NO insurance AT ALL for over 80.

We currently pay N/W £13pm + £175 for age & medical declarations, worldwide annual multi trip. Aviva quote for single trip (husband is 76), came out in excess of £700, same medical declarations. Aviva want you to declare past 2 years as well, not 12 months as currently.

Luckily no rush, current renewal is October for us. 

kaMelo

zathrasB5 said:

kaMelo said:

zathrasB5 said:

After a quick glance at this I am getting royally screwed by it.  I am turning 60 this year so my wife and I decided to push the boat out and are having 24 days in Japan, flying business class.  The holiday is fully booked for us by a company called Inside Japan including all train transfers, local travel cards etc.  But it means we are forking out over £22K for the whole holiday.  So we had to pay an extra £146 to cover the full cost of the holiday.  They are saying that this upgrade cost is not transferrable to Aviva and we will have to pay the same again to get the upgrade (limited to £20K) as the holiday is not until Oct.  So we are being forced to pay the upgrade cost twice.  How is this treating customers fairly?  I would love a comment from the MSE team as to if this is even legal.  I understand that I am covered by the UK insurance until 1/5/24 but I think I deserve a pro-rated refund for the time we have paid for that they are not going to cover us for now.

Are you saying you don't have your annual renewal date between paying for the upgrade and taking the holiday?

I have already paid for an upgrade to cover the holiday in October.  There is an annual renewal date in between but the cover I paid was explicitly stated to cover the holiday.  In fact the way the lass on the phone had to do it was say the holiday was in April with a note on the policy that this was actually the cover for Oct/Nov as the system would not let her go to Oct due to the renewal date.  But I was assured that what I paid (and it was a lot) covered me until the end of the holiday.

The problem here, at least my understanding anyway which could of course be wrong, is that as the travel insurance is an annual policy any upgrade you purchase are only ever up until your annual renewal date, (you can't buy an upgrade for a policy that's not in place yet) hence why the system would not let the agent select any date past your annual renewal date. 
If the holiday you want the upgrade for is after the renewal date then you would have had to purchase the upgrade again as part of your renewal. The change of insurer has no bearing on this, it's something you would have had to do anyway.

The only impact the change of insurer has is when Aviva take over providing cover.. If no upgrades have been purchased then cover will begin on 01/05/2024  If you have purchased any upgrades your cover will be provided by UKI up until the upgrade expires (which will be your annual renewal date) Any continuation of cover from this point will be provided by Aviva.


Edited to add;
After re-reading both the old and new policy documents I'm now not so sure what I've said above is correct. There is a specific time clause in relation to health upgrades, these last for twelve months from the date you take them out which of course would mean they may span two annual insurance periods (although always conditional that you still hold a FlexPlus account and haven't cancelled the policy.) I can find no mention of any time length for any other type of upgrade including the extended cancellation cover. This may mean, as I initially mentioned, it expires at your annual renewal time but given the health upgrade can clearly span more than one annual insurance period, maybe other upgrades, like the extended cancellation cover, can do so as well.

Just for clarity, did you pay for the upgrade less than twelve months before the return trip of your holiday?
Also, what does it say about your upgrades when you log in?
https://nationwide.ukitravel.com/CustomerPortal/auth/logon

harz99

SevenOfNine said:

Middle_of_the_Road said:

Lots of changes to proposed cover provided by Aviva.
Notably.. no over 70's restriction-

FlexPlus Travel Insurance provider change | nationwide

Beware of that positive spin N/W gave it. I did a quick quote with Aviva & yes, there is no age declaration & additional payment.

What there is, that N/W have forgotten to mention, is NO worldwide insurance with Aviva for over 75, only single trip. With NO insurance AT ALL for over 80.

We currently pay N/W £13pm + £175 for age & medical declarations, worldwide annual multi trip. Aviva quote for single trip (husband is 76), came out in excess of £700, same medical declarations. Aviva want you to declare past 2 years as well, not 12 months as currently.

Luckily no rush, current renewal is October for us. 

Hi, when you did your "quick quote" was that via Nationwide online, over the phone via Nationwide, via a comparison site, or direct with Aviva?

I'm trying to understand further how Nationwide have missed these important points off their notice about the change of provider.

kaMelo

SevenOfNine said:

Middle_of_the_Road said:

Lots of changes to proposed cover provided by Aviva.
Notably.. no over 70's restriction-

FlexPlus Travel Insurance provider change | nationwide

Beware of that positive spin N/W gave it. I did a quick quote with Aviva & yes, there is no age declaration & additional payment.

What there is, that N/W have forgotten to mention, is NO worldwide insurance with Aviva for over 75, only single trip. With NO insurance AT ALL for over 80.

We currently pay N/W £13pm + £175 for age & medical declarations, worldwide annual multi trip. Aviva quote for single trip (husband is 76), came out in excess of £700, same medical declarations. Aviva want you to declare past 2 years as well, not 12 months as currently.

Luckily no rush, current renewal is October for us. 

Where does it say that, in the leaflet and policy document it mentions no upper age limit at all.

zathrasB5

OK.  Thank you to all the people who commented on my potential issue of having to buy an upgrade again due to the change of insurance providers.  I had a very useful and helpful conversation with UK Insurance today and the situation is not as bad as I thought.  
In effect what we bought when we paid our £130, was a full single holiday cover for that one trip to Japan.  UK Insurance will continue to cover us for anything to do with that one trip in Oct/Nov.  Come the 1st May anything else will be Aviva's issue. 
Personally looking at their (Aviva) cover, I think I will forget that we are covered under Flex Plus for all expect minor trips away and take out different cover.  I am not impressed with what Aviva offer in several areas (7of9 gave a great example).  So this makes the Flex Plus benefits one step closer to not being worth it.

harz99

zathrasB5 said:

OK.  Thank you to all the people who commented on my potential issue of having to buy an upgrade again due to the change of insurance providers.  I had a very useful and helpful conversation with UK Insurance today and the situation is not as bad as I thought.  
In effect what we bought when we paid our £130, was a full single holiday cover for that one trip to Japan.  UK Insurance will continue to cover us for anything to do with that one trip in Oct/Nov.  Come the 1st May anything else will be Aviva's issue. 
Personally looking at their (Aviva) cover, I think I will forget that we are covered under Flex Plus for all expect minor trips away and take out different cover.  I am not impressed with what Aviva offer in several areas (7of9 gave a great example).  So this makes the Flex Plus benefits one step closer to not being worth it.

It may be worth looking at the Co-op bank's packaged account instead of the Flexplus. The insurance seems to be partnered with AXA.

My age and health upgrades with Flexplus are good until late September, so I'll be looking closely for a better deal then.

I do wish @SevenOfNine would come back and answer the questions they've been asked though.

kaMelo

zathrasB5 said:

OK.  Thank you to all the people who commented on my potential issue of having to buy an upgrade again due to the change of insurance providers.  I had a very useful and helpful conversation with UK Insurance today and the situation is not as bad as I thought.  
In effect what we bought when we paid our £130, was a full single holiday cover for that one trip to Japan.  UK Insurance will continue to cover us for anything to do with that one trip in Oct/Nov.  Come the 1st May anything else will be Aviva's issue. 

I'm pleased my initial thoughts were wrong and it's all turned out okay for you in the end. 
I'm not so sure about everything bar that one trip being covered by Aviva from 1st May though,  that contradicts the leaflet published by Nationwide about the changeover of cover which would suggest cover is provided by UKI up until the purchased upgrade expires.

Please note: If you arrange an upgrade with U K Insurance Limited on or before 30 April 2024, your cover will continue to be provided by U K Insurance Limited until that upgrade expires.

This means your travel insurance provider will not change to Aviva on 1 May 2024. Instead, your travel insurance provider will change to Aviva when your upgrade expires.

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;zathrasB5 said:

Personally looking at their (Aviva) cover, I think I will forget that we are covered under Flex Plus for all expect minor trips away and take out different cover.  I am not impressed with what Aviva offer in several areas (7of9 gave a great example).  So this makes the Flex Plus benefits one step closer to not being worth it.

As I mentioned above, the policy document from Aviva has no upper age limit mentioned unless I missed it. Hence why I asked @SevenOfNine where they had seen it, whether it was on the Nationwide/Aviva policy document or was it on an Aviva stand alone policy document.  The two will not necessarily be the same.



PS,   I hope you both have a great trip.

SevenOfNine

KaMelo, afraid I haven't had time to answer what I considered to be superfluous questions! I had already said N/W had forgotten to mention 75+ limitation to single trip & 80+ limitation to no insurance at all. N/W supplied their +, = & - the Aviva policy is there for all to check etc. You looked & can see no mention of age declaration in it. Correct.

In the policy Aviva go to great pains to ensure health declarations may not be accepted, they don't mention age declarations, as N/W have confirmed, it's not longer required............as a DECLARATION!  I simply didn't take that at face value. 

I'm surprised it wasn't clear to you what I did next for confirmation.  Personally I check everything, just as everyone else can. What Aviva do when I instigated a quote enquiry on-line, is ask for age of travelers, crafty.

When it was clear 1 traveler would be 76, I had my fictional multi-trip request rejected & pop-up stating "single trip only for over 75". So I amended the request to single trip insurance which was accepted but accompanied with an advisor pop-up stating  "no insurance available for over 80s.

It appears an age declaration is there, disguised as DoB input. 

Now, it's possible that a policy via N/W with Aviva as provider may have age barriers completely removed.  Different to what is on offer with Aviva's external direct customers.

harz99

@SevenOfNine, you may consider our questions superfluous, but others may not come to the same conclusion.

Four paragraphs, and countless words later, you finally somewhat obliquely admit that you didn't find your information, if it can be called that, via Nationwide, instead obtaining it from an external dummy quote, which as you now also admit may not apply to Nationwide 🙄.