Avanti - Travel Insurance for pre-existing conditions (are they legitimate?)

MikeFloutier

Hi guys,

My wife and I are travelling to the USA in January and, because of my wife’s medical conditions, the insurance is pretty costly.

Bare bones, ie minimum cover, quotes range from £1010 to around £3,000

The cheapest is Avanti and before booking I checked them out on Trustpilot. The score was 4.8, out of 5 based on 115,000 reviews.

I thought that sounded pretty good until I drilled down and carefully read a couple of hundred of the latest reviews.

Turns out all the 5 star reviews relate to the handling of sales whereas the 1 star reviews (2230 according to Trustpilot, in total) were all relating to complaints about claim handling/non-handling

I struggled when trying to find a registration with the FCA; looks like the Trading name is owned by a company registered in Gibraltar.

I wondered if you guys could throw any light on this company; Avanti.

Kind regards, Mike

katejo

I do find the way in which most reviews are based on ease of purchase/sales really annoying and unrealistic. I have Avanti at the moment but haven't had to claim so can't help with that.

luci

katejo said:

I do find the way in which most reviews are based on ease of purchase/sales really annoying and unrealistic. I have Avanti at the moment but haven't had to claim so can't help with that.

I agree. I filter the reviews looking for the word "claim".

MyRealNameToo

MikeFloutier said:
I struggled when trying to find a registration with the FCA; looks like the Trading name is owned by a company registered in Gibraltar.

Personally would look at the PRA if looking at an insurer, they will be registered with the FCA too but this confirms they are actually the insurer rather than an intermediary who dont have to be authorised by the PRA.

https://www.fsc.gi/regulated-entity/ticorp-ltd-20067

The actual insurer is based in Gibraltar, but they are also behind better known brands like StaySure. 

luci said:

katejo said:

I do find the way in which most reviews are based on ease of purchase/sales really annoying and unrealistic. I have Avanti at the moment but haven't had to claim so can't help with that.

I agree. I filter the reviews looking for the word "claim".

Even then the problem is that people will try to claim for things that arent covered, were never going to be covered, and then leave a 1 star review because they did exactly what they should have. Some are helpful because they tell you that they claimed for their £20,000 Rolex but the single article limit was £500 so thats all they got. Unfortunately others are less open and so you remain in the dark if the company did something bad or it was user error. 

MikeFloutier

Many thanks @MyRealNameToo, they are registered, which is the first hurdle.
This Morning I had a good trawl through the two star reviews AND the replies.
My impression was that claims were taking a couple of months typically to be met and that one had to have a valid claim, have all the right info, documents and had been completely transparent on one’s original application. Also you need to be persistent, patient and polite.
I also learnt that they had changed their claims handling company in June, who were playing catch-up.
The Trustpilot replies, from Avanti, were consistently reasonable and friendly.
I now feel much better about going ahead.
Thanks again for all the help!

MyRealNameToo

What sort of claims are you looking at though? Medical based claims often do take a long time and 75%+ of that is because the GP is very slow at completing the insurers questionnaire and often doesnt complete it properly so it has to be sent back for them to try again and often then there is an argument if a second fee is appropriate... obviously some GPs try it on and see it as a cash cow whereas insurers point out its not additional questions just questions they were too lazy to complete the first time round and so no additional fee will be paid. 

MikeFloutier

MyRealNameToo said:

What sort of claims are you looking at though? Medical based claims often do take a long time and 75%+ of that is because the GP is very slow at completing the insurers questionnaire and often doesnt complete it properly so it has to be sent back for them to try again and often then there is an argument if a second fee is appropriate... obviously some GPs try it on and see it as a cash cow whereas insurers point out its not additional questions just questions they were too lazy to complete the first time round and so no additional fee will be paid. 

Such a good point, thank you!

luci

luci said:

katejo said:

I do find the way in which most reviews are based on ease of purchase/sales really annoying and unrealistic. I have Avanti at the moment but haven't had to claim so can't help with that.

I agree. I filter the reviews looking for the word "claim".

Even then the problem is that people will try to claim for things that arent covered, were never going to be covered, and then leave a 1 star review because they did exactly what they should have. Some are helpful because they tell you that they claimed for their £20,000 Rolex but the single article limit was £500 so thats all they got. Unfortunately others are less open and so you remain in the dark if the company did something bad or it was user error. 

I try to read between the lines to see if they have a valid reason for a claim being refused. As you say, many of the claims that are declined are down to purchaser error, deliberate or accidental. 

I had a major medical claim in January when I was hospitalised in Tenerife for 2 weeks and only allowed to fly home accompanied by a medic and oxygen. I was insured with LV and couldn't fault them once they accepted the claim after reviewing my medical records.

katejo

luci said:

luci said:

katejo said:

I do find the way in which most reviews are based on ease of purchase/sales really annoying and unrealistic. I have Avanti at the moment but haven't had to claim so can't help with that.

I agree. I filter the reviews looking for the word "claim".

Even then the problem is that people will try to claim for things that arent covered, were never going to be covered, and then leave a 1 star review because they did exactly what they should have. Some are helpful because they tell you that they claimed for their £20,000 Rolex but the single article limit was £500 so thats all they got. Unfortunately others are less open and so you remain in the dark if the company did something bad or it was user error. 

I try to read between the lines to see if they have a valid reason for a claim being refused. As you say, many of the claims that are declined are down to purchaser error, deliberate or accidental. 

I had a major medical claim in January when I was hospitalised in Tenerife for 2 weeks and only allowed to fly home accompanied by a medic and oxygen. I was insured with LV and couldn't fault them once they accepted the claim after reviewing my medical records.

I haven't tried LV so far but have heard that, once pre existing conditions are declared, there is no requirement to tell them about further medical tests/diagnoses until you need to renew. Is there a catch/drawback to this ? 

MikeFloutier

Many thanks for all these comments guys.

We’ve decided to go with Avanti having been exhaustively transparent with our medical history. In the event of a claim I’ll update this thread.

Thanks again!

Kind regards, Mike 

luci

katejo said:

luci said:

luci said:

katejo said:

I do find the way in which most reviews are based on ease of purchase/sales really annoying and unrealistic. I have Avanti at the moment but haven't had to claim so can't help with that.

I agree. I filter the reviews looking for the word "claim".

Even then the problem is that people will try to claim for things that arent covered, were never going to be covered, and then leave a 1 star review because they did exactly what they should have. Some are helpful because they tell you that they claimed for their £20,000 Rolex but the single article limit was £500 so thats all they got. Unfortunately others are less open and so you remain in the dark if the company did something bad or it was user error. 

I try to read between the lines to see if they have a valid reason for a claim being refused. As you say, many of the claims that are declined are down to purchaser error, deliberate or accidental. 

I had a major medical claim in January when I was hospitalised in Tenerife for 2 weeks and only allowed to fly home accompanied by a medic and oxygen. I was insured with LV and couldn't fault them once they accepted the claim after reviewing my medical records.

I haven't tried LV so far but have heard that, once pre existing conditions are declared, there is no requirement to tell them about further medical tests/diagnoses until you need to renew. Is there a catch/drawback to this ? 

It was me who mentioned that a while ago. I had several new conditions before my policy was due for renewal and I didn't declare them. I had two advisors who told me the same thing.