Flexplus Account Travel Insurance Changes

thekman

Hello all, first time thread starter here. So I've just received an email from Nationwide explaining that they are moving from UK Insurance Limited to Avivia Insurance and there are some changes to the policy.

Wow...I mean lots of changes, they have been good enough to highlight the positives, negatives and no changes to the consumer, which is nice. Unfortunately the red negatives are vast and some of them are not good at all. One example (picked at random) current provider pays out after 2 hours of delay £10, £10 per 4 hours after that. The new one doesn't pay out a penny unless it goes over 12 hours! And then it is £25 instead of the £30 with the old. Not a deal breaker in itself but cumalitive with all the other changes, not good.

I am very much in mind to close my Nationwide Flexplus account, which is a pity as I've used it for years and benefited a few times from having it. It is nice to know you are covered well for all your usual travel needs.

So, the question it, is there a better bank account with insurance benefits?

thekman

Just read the Bank benefits on the MSE page, so I would ask, who has experience of the Virgin bank account and claiming on their insurance. Painless?

Thanks. 

DullGreyGuy

thekman said:

One example (picked at random) current provider pays out after 2 hours of delay £10, £10 per 4 hours after that. The new one doesn't pay out a penny unless it goes over 12 hours! And then it is £25 instead of the £30 with the old. 

It really depends who you are, the removal of the extra fees at 70 will be seen as a win by some. The travel delay was unusually generous under DLG but its a relatively low value section compared with the thousands paid out on cancellations and hundreds of thousands paid out on medical claims. 

You mention Virgin as a possible alternative, it's delay policy is worse than the new Nationwide one so if thats important to you it's not the right direction of travel. 

Ultimately it's going through the fine print and seeing which is best for you or having multiple. We have Barclays and AmEx because with AmEx you cannot declare pre-existing conditions, they are just blanket excluded but the AmEx does cover up to £50,000 of hire car damages/excess and a few other bits that Barclays don't cover. 

Penelopa.Pitstop

I only received email about changes today and see different issues with new policy.

1. Requirement to book return ticket before leaving UK for a trip. I often book ferry a day or two before coming back. Sometimes also book flights as I go on a trip, let say in USA when I book tickets for next day for another destination. On my last trip, I only had return ticket to UK, but nothing in between and I decided during the trip where to go.

2. No refund for any airmiles or points bookings, it was covered previously.

3. Missed departure doesn't mention other incidents on the road like accident and other external circumstances causing delay, only accident of insured person. It was previously covered with explanation that event had to be big enough, to be mentioned publicly. Like motorway closure due to accident, which almost stopped me from flying once.

4. Is canoeing and coasting a kayaking as well? Or kayaking is different sport? I have to ask for explanation.

SevenOfNine

We have worldwide travel insurance via FlexPlus, with declared medical issues & the 'age' declaration  (expiry Oct 2024), so we pay approx £170pa over the top of the £13pm.

N/W make it a positive not to have the age declaration with Aviva, so I did a quick 'test' on line with Aviva to see what would happen, you do have to put DoB in + medical declarations, not happy! Discover that over 75 they'll only offer single trip worldwide insurance, over 80 NO insurance AT ALL. Single trip was coming out in excess of £700.

So only at first glance of N/Ws version of 'plus, minus & equals' might things look better on the age declaration front, but you do have to dig deeper. Seems we'll be OK until renewal remaining with current UK Ins (we'll be 76 & 70 at renewal), depending when your're travelling, might want to start a tentative look sooner rather than later.

DullGreyGuy

SevenOfNine said:

N/W make it a positive not to have the age declaration with Aviva, so I did a quick 'test' on line with Aviva to see what would happen, you do have to put DoB in + medical declarations, not happy! 

How did you do this "test"? What address did you go to?

Seems you may have looked at Aviva's direct offering not Nationwide Flex Insurance... insurers offer different thing at different prices via different channels. 

harz99

DullGreyGuy said:

SevenOfNine said:

N/W make it a positive not to have the age declaration with Aviva, so I did a quick 'test' on line with Aviva to see what would happen, you do have to put DoB in + medical declarations, not happy! 

How did you do this "test"? What address did you go to?

Seems you may have looked at Aviva's direct offering not Nationwide Flex Insurance... insurers offer different thing at different prices via different channels. 

I asked this poster a very similar question on the other thread about this, they haven't answered that either.

harz99

DullGreyGuy said:

SevenOfNine said:

N/W make it a positive not to have the age declaration with Aviva, so I did a quick 'test' on line with Aviva to see what would happen, you do have to put DoB in + medical declarations, not happy! 

How did you do this "test"? What address did you go to?

Seems you may have looked at Aviva's direct offering not Nationwide Flex Insurance... insurers offer different thing at different prices via different channels. 

It seems he/she did look at Aviva's direct offering, they've finally admitted to that on the other thread in Banking and Budgeting, so all they've said above can't be viewed as correct.