Travel Insurance

MrsBSaver

Hi All
Can anyone recommend a good travel insurance company that doesn't charge extortionate amounts for travel insurance preferably one that you have  claimed with before. It appears that most companies wriggle out of paying up

silvercar

For claims I’d be looking at the defaqto ratings to see which companies are highly rated. https://www.defaqto.com/star-ratings

I would guess that the more reliable companies are not going to be the cheapest, so choose what is more important.

MrsBSaver

Thank you for the link. Yes I have compared 5 star travel insurance but when I look at reviews most of them are negative so was looking for some personal recommendations

TELLIT01

I've claimed on Insureandgo and had no problem with them paying out.  Just make sure you answer all the questions regarding health accurately.  If in doubt phone the company involved for clarification when applying.

I haven't made many claims on any insurance but I've never had an insurer try to get out of paying.

NoodleDoodleMan

MrsBSaver said:

Thank you for the link. Yes I have compared 5 star travel insurance but when I look at reviews most of them are negative so was looking for some personal recommendations

I can't remember the member who made a pertinent comment on such negative reviews quite recently - but it was to the effect that only people with a grievance generally left a review - which skewed the real picture.

DullGreyGuy

So you want as cheap as possible but as good as possible? Can't see why you have any problems with that 

silvercar said:

For claims I’d be looking at the defaqto ratings to see which companies are highly rated. https://www.defaqto.com/star-ratings

Just be aware that defaqto stars are just like hotel stars... there are fixed features you need to hit each level and no consideration for "service" or other subjective matters. It's therefore easy to design a product to hit the absolute minimum of any given star level you want.  Like the hotel on the TV program a while back that when they went from 2* to 3* simply by closing their smallest bedroom as that increased the average room size to get the next star. 

fingzuk

What is wrong with EHIC GHIC? - All Insurance is a Business, they aren't there to lose revenue to 'Bleating Claimers' unless the Claim is small and your 'Excess' in their Small Print is covering half of your claim (Good for stat's) - The very minute an insurance handler hears you're in a non-public expensive hospital, they'll harvest your detail and location quicker than AI, then call the hospital to say they are unlikely to cover any Billing until investigations have been concluded as to Drink-Drugs and undisclosed & uninsured activities - at which point you'll be swiftly loaded onto a Sack Truck with Billing up to the phone call from UK Insurers and Taxied into a GHIC hospital for the next weeks at which point the Insurers will say "sorry for the delay, and we're now ready to Pay!".
Don't get Ripped.

DullGreyGuy

fingzuk said:

All Insurance is a Business, they aren't there to lose revenue to 'Bleating Claimers' unless the Claim is small and your 'Excess' in their Small Print is covering half of your claim (Good for stat's) 

Yes, most are for profit businesses, just like those non-public hospitals and the vast majority of other business we buy products and services from. 

You seem to not realise the concept of insurance? Is a risk transfer mechanism, you exchange the risk of a big loss in exchange for a small loss (the premium). The choice to have an excess for you reduces your premiums and for the insurer removes frivolous claims whose operating costs are disproportionately high compared to the settlement. Dont like paying the excess if you have a claim but happy to pay a higher premium then buy a policy without an excess. Due to negative selection, and surprising on the surface, doing so may actually lower your premiums in Home. 

Having dealt with a $1.2m travel claim (would be close to double in todays money), we did move them, by medical evacuation helicopter from the private hospital on an island to a much more expensive private hospital in the US. 

fingzuk said:

What is wrong with EHIC GHIC?

Well if you need the list...

• Doesn't cover you if you are too sick before travelling for cancelling your holiday
• If you are seriously injured or ill where GHIC is accepted then you are stuck in that country until you are well enough to fly home or your paying for your own medical evacuation and they are not cheap
• Doesn't bring your corpse to the UK if you die on holiday
• Only covers you for what locals would get, there are places where there are significant co-pay arrangements or pay up front then recover afterwards so you need the funds to do either/both
• Doesn't cover you if the airline goes bust whilst your on holiday
• Doesn't cover you to come back to the UK in an emergency if your parents fall ill, house burns down etc
• Doesnt cover you if your iPad gets stolen

To add to bullet two, you'll be stuck in the foreign hospital potentially for months without anyone else. You may have to fund convalescing in the country for further months before you are fit to get on a flight. Whilst doing that you potentially are also going to have to deal with overstaying your right in the country. 

Travel insurance will typically cover either someone staying with you or someone flying out to be with you and their accommodation etc. If your told you can't fly for 6 months, you can't take more than a dozen paces for the first 2-3, where are you going to live? How you going to get food? 


If you think an excess halves the average claim you are really misunderstanding the size of claims that are made given most insurances are £100-£200 excess. 



Obviously the average person doesn't make a massive claim, else the premiums would be vastly higher, but there are many that do make big claims and thats really what the insurance is for. Unless you want to be the next GoFundMe page for someone who travelled without insurance. Dont tend to make the headlines but there's one every couple of months in summer that makes the newspapers like the one last month of a 15yo hit by a paraglider in turkey and trying to raise money for the £45,000 operation she needs else she will be there indefinitely. 

Frozen_up_north

fingzuk said:

What is wrong with EHIC GHIC? - All Insurance is a Business, they aren't there to lose revenue to 'Bleating Claimers' unless the Claim is small and your 'Excess' in their Small Print is covering half of your claim (Good for stat's) - The very minute an insurance handler hears you're in a non-public expensive hospital, they'll harvest your detail and location quicker than AI, then call the hospital to say they are unlikely to cover any Billing until investigations have been concluded as to Drink-Drugs and undisclosed & uninsured activities - at which point you'll be swiftly loaded onto a Sack Truck with Billing up to the phone call from UK Insurers and Taxied into a GHIC hospital for the next weeks at which point the Insurers will say "sorry for the delay, and we're now ready to Pay!".
Don't get Ripped.

What a load of nonsense. I have travel insurance with LV and was ill while on holiday and ended up in a private hospital in Tenerife. LV paid the bill (less excess) and paid the claim for my partner travelling from the hotel to the hospital by taxi, paid for her snacks at the hospital, and would have paid for her accommodation if we had to stay beyond the flight home date. The incidental expense receipts were often on scraps of paper, yet were accepted without question and LV paid out in 5 days from uploading a scan of the receipts. On top of that, they didn't hike the annual premium the following year.

No doubt some insurance companies are a pain to deal with, but not my experience as far as LV are concerned.

Pollycat

fingzuk said:

What is wrong with EHIC GHIC?

Just reading about a 76 year old lady with health issues who couldn't afford the $3k travel insurance for her trip to Disney World.
Brit Grandmother stranded in hospital after refusing travel insurance
I wonder if she feels her EHIC GHIC is sufficient now...

katejo

Pollycat said:

fingzuk said:

What is wrong with EHIC GHIC?

Just reading about a 76 year old lady with health issues who couldn't afford the $3k travel insurance for her trip to Disney World.
Brit Grandmother stranded in hospital after refusing travel insurance
I wonder if she feels her EHIC GHIC is sufficient now...

I wouldn't consider going abroad if I couldn't afford the travel insurance, particularly to the USA and particularly if I had serious chronic conditions as she did.