Travel insurance

Gillba

Options on best and cheapest travel insurers for existing medical issues and the ones to avoid please 

Caz3121

there is a section regarding pre-existing conditions in this article https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/uk-travel-insurance/

marcia_

 I've had decent insurance for multiple medical conditions for all 3 being insured from the post office and stay sure. Both obv cost more but not ridiculous 

DullGreyGuy

Gillba said:

Options on best and cheapest travel insurers for existing medical issues and the ones to avoid please 

Which do you want? Best or cheapest? Its highly unlikely they are the same thing

TELLIT01

We've used Insureandgo but they aren't cheap.  Cost will be entirely dependent on the medical issues.

Have you checked what cover you might be able to get through travel insurance with your bank account?

J_B

We are currently with Staysure - a friend has recommended 'All Clear' who seem to have more cover for a slightly lower price.

Anyone have any experiences of them?

Mavericke

I'm looking closely at these 'front of house' folk such as Staysure, All Clear etc, and whilst they might offer very wide medical coverage, they aren't the ones who will accept a claim.  In the case of All Clear, they do not deal with insurance claims arising from the policy they sell you. They outsource claims handling to a company called 'Reactive Claims Ltd', whose online reviews are shocking. Staysure are underwritten by an outfit called Great Lakes, whose Trust Pilot reviews are qually dire.

Which begs the question, where can you buy a travel insurance policy that has a decent underwriter and a fair-playing claims handling company? Or is there no such entity?

DullGreyGuy

Mavericke said:

I'm looking closely at these 'front of house' folk such as Staysure, All Clear etc, and whilst they might offer very wide medical coverage, they aren't the ones who will accept a claim.  In the case of All Clear, they do not deal with insurance claims arising from the policy they sell you. They outsource claims handling to a company called 'Reactive Claims Ltd', whose online reviews are shocking. Staysure are underwritten by an outfit called Great Lakes, whose Trust Pilot reviews are qually dire.

Which begs the question, where can you buy a travel insurance policy that has a decent underwriter and a fair-playing claims handling company? Or is there no such entity?

Great Lakes is part of Swiss Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies. Great Lakes only operated on a delegated authority basis, which makes it very similar to reinsurance, so whilst they provide the capacity its someone else pricing the policy or settling the claim. 

I've made claims from both Axa and Aviva underwritten Travel insurance and both were reasonable but were for relatively minor matters. Who outsources who insources and to whom changes frequently. Last I heard was Aviva was insourcing its Home claims when its doing the underwriting but my recent bag snatch claim was outsourced to Davies so dont know if they've changed tack, that they do overflow or just because it was mainly a tech claim.

There are good and bad companies, even more so there are good and bad handlers, but always take bad reviews with a pinch of salt, the reason that the ombudsman upholds only circa 1 in 3 complaints is because the other 2 out of 3 customers were in the wrong but that doesn't stop them then ranting on review sites.