Travel insurance through a bank

Habbo

I have been looking at a Nationwide Flexplus account simply for the travel insurance and breakdown cover. I have it in my head the insurance would be easier to deal with in the event of a claim as you could ask the bank to back you up?

I also have a small tear in my lateral meniscus which doesn't affect my mobility but am attending physio for which I guess would ramp up the premiums when going through a standalone provider.

Is it better or just as cost affective to get insurance this way for an under 40 male with no other conditions?

Annemos

Nationwide is just a Seller of the policy. In my opinion it will make no difference. It is not the job of Nationwide to administer policies. They will likely pass any problems straight through to the Loss Adjuster and Insurance Company. 

I suppose if they noticed a lot of Complaints, they might change provider.


===============================

The website also says this....

What's not included?

Here are the main exclusions.

• Pre-existing medical conditions that you haven’t told Aviva about. They have to agree to cover them. You will need to pay extra to cover some conditions.

Cover for medical conditions

If you have any pre-existing medical conditions, you'll need to get a quote from Aviva to cover them before you open a FlexPlus account.

We'll ask if you need a quote – and tell you how to get one – before you start your application.

When you get a quote, Aviva will let you know if they can cover the condition and if any terms apply. You might need to pay extra for cover.

Mark_d

Habbo said:

I have been looking at a Nationwide Flexplus account simply for the travel insurance and breakdown cover. I have it in my head the insurance would be easier to deal with in the event of a claim as you could ask the bank to back you up?

I also have a small tear in my lateral meniscus which doesn't affect my mobility but am attending physio for which I guess would ramp up the premiums when going through a standalone provider.

Is it better or just as cost affective to get insurance this way for an under 40 male with no other conditions?

As above, Nationwide a just a reseller of the policy.  It's the insurance company you deal with.  From my experience Aviva give you better service if you buy the insurance through them directly rather than through a third party.

It sounds like you have a pre-existing medical condition for which you are currently undergoing treatment.  Buying insurance, which hasn't confirmed acceptance of this condition, is a waste of money because it will not pay out if you have to make a claim in any way related to this.

Personally I've had bad experiences with the offerings of packaged bank accounts - most recently the breakdown cover provided under Nationwide's Flex Plus.  My advice would be to buy insurance policies separately from you bank account.  This way you can ensure you have the policies most suitable for you.

Habbo

Thanks for the reply.

Do you know if your premiums are more likely to go up with a standalone provider than with a packaged bank account as it's a group buy in?

The cost of the policy is £216. 

Breakdown cover can replace my current one worth about £70. 

Mobile cover i probably wouldn't use. 

That leaves worldwide travel insurance needing to be worth £146. 

Is that a decent price assuming a couple of  holidays a year? I have no children so just me and my girlfriend (does that count as a partner or do you have to be married?)

cw8825

have a shop around
the fee for the flexplus account is £216 for the year, admittedly that includes breakdown cover and phone/ travel insurance

i personally can get each of those things for less than the £72 each so it is not worth it for me

Mark_d

In September I bought an annual travel insurance policy for my spouse and I.  It cost £154.  Worldwide exc. North America.  That covers our pre-existing medical conditions..but I'm not sure it would cover you for something you're receiving treatment for at the time you take out the policy.

You'd need to check the policy wording to check if your gf counts as a partner.  I think partner is someone you live with in a husband/wife type relationship....so if you're dating but not living together, your gf probably won't be covered.

DullGreyGuy

Habbo said:

Thanks for the reply.

Do you know if your premiums are more likely to go up with a standalone provider than with a packaged bank account as it's a group buy in?

The cost of the policy is £216. 

Breakdown cover can replace my current one worth about £70. 

Mobile cover i probably wouldn't use. 

That leaves worldwide travel insurance needing to be worth £146. 

Is that a decent price assuming a couple of  holidays a year? I have no children so just me and my girlfriend (does that count as a partner or do you have to be married?)

Its not that simple... 

Breakdown significantly benefits from the group purchasing because, for example, Barclays Premier includes European Breakdown but what percentage of banking customers actually take their car abroad with earnings over £150k? It'll be tiny hence on a wholesale basis the difference is small where as on an individual basis the difference is massive. 

Travel Pre-Existing Conditions is different because you have to declare them and anything undeclared is blanket excluded. Additional cost should/could be less than the total you're currently paying because the element to do with your age etc is already paid for and it will benefit from wholesale pricing for similar reasons to breakdown but ultimately you are getting a price from a single insurer and they may have a really negative view of torn lateral meniscus and so their AP outweighs the saving on the other aspects. 

TELLIT01

We have travel insurance through our bank (Lloyds) and it was surprisingly painless taking out the policy.  The only item not on the list of items which didn't have to be declared was my hip replacement.  That introduced a cost of approximately £40.  When I called first time, my wife was waiting for the final consultation following a bad fracture to her leg.  The person at the insurers advised me to wait until after that, a matter of a couple of weeks, as the status of 'under investigation' might mean they couldn't provide cover at all.