Cranfield Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 I am about to renew our annual travel insurance and have started to wonder should I bother. Against; As you get older the premiums increase disproportionately. You have to include any remote illness you have ever suffered, or it will get excluded (affects premium also). We have never made a claim (fortunately). We can afford to "self insure" for replacement clothes, emergency flights home, most potential medical costs, etc. For; Cover against extreme medical costs in a Non EU country. I then started to think whether airlines insist on you having insurance cover, I know they will sell it to you, but having looked on a few websites, I can't find a definite answer. Does anyone know for sure ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatcatsplat Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 Not an expert in travel insurance by a long way, but we used to do a scheme a few years ago for a children's "wish" charity where airlines would not take the child unless travel insurance documentation could be produced - Think the only "kicker" for this was that they were carrying a terminally ill child and didn't want to get saddled with any costs. In my youth i have gone abroad bare of coverage and have never been asked to produce any documents - It's entirely down to the individual - IMO, if you go abroad without it, you are a mug - Especially for the price it costs. Not sure of how many candles we are talking here, but good places for travel insurance for the grey hairs used to be the good old post office, age concern and saga. Most policies have an upper age limit of around 75 and all will have a pre-existing conditions exclusion of some form or another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8landy Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 We sorted ours out through this site http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance...ravel-insurance We are in our early 30's fit and healthy so no major changes to std cover. Also how often and where in the world you go helps decied on the cover you need. e.g if just for Europe you can often get it free with your bank! As for older people of pre condtion medicals, you can opt these out of the insurance to either A get insurqance (but not for what you opt out) or B get insurance at a resonble rate.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 My travel insurance is 'free' with our household/contents insurance by Privilege. When we book our holidays, the travel company try and sell us their insurance. Some have insisted that we show them proof of our own insurance. When that's the case, we book elsewhere, or online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 I have Travel insurance linked to my bank account. Admittedly they do charge £14 a month for the account but as it is on a joint account both the other half and I get the benefits which include Full RAC membership, travle insurance, mobile phone insurance and the list goes on. As mobile phone insurance was £6.99 a month anyway we stopped that and basically get everything else FOC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 I'm guessing you're with Barclays MC as I've got the same benefits though slightly cheaper They do hide them reasonably well so you do need to talk to them and ask for all the forms etc to register for the benefits but they seem pretty good so far if you make the most of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 Yes I am with Barclays We have an Additions Plus joint account and they do give you a booklet with all the benefits in it. You do need to register for most. I have had my moneys worth out of them by using the RAC when my cam belt broke. To be honest I don't know how much it costs but I am sure it is £14 a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
100milesaway Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 I used to run my own travel agency and would always advise people to get cover weither it was with my company or anyone else was to me irrelavent. Insurance is not for going to the doctor with a sore throat or losing a pair of specs, it's for if you need major assistance with a real problem, if uninsured you could with a serios problem end up having to sell your house when you got back to pay for your treatment, etc etc. I always advised my clients that i didn't fly dead bodies home. Nuff sed CHARDS your man on here. from Auntie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicky T Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 Agree with Auntie - Chard is the man to speak to re: travel insurance on here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chard Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 (edited) Airlines don't insist that you have insurance, Cranners. I agree that the situation regarding pre-existing medical conditions and age is very difficult, and getting more so. Ours offers a medical screening service which may may be able to cover specific pre-existing medical conditions, sometimes at no charge. The standard prices go up to age 64, but will cover 65-69 years at higher rates. They only cover higher ages (up to 84 years) on a single trip basis. There are specialist travel insurers, like Free Spirit, who will cover just about any medical condition, but the prices can be very high. Better that than a medical bill of £100,000 in the USA I suppose. At the end of the day insurance companies are businesses, not charities. We ran one scheme for about 8 years with one Lloyds underwriter. They ditched it recently, as they lost a small fortune on the scheme. Claims far outweighed the premium collected, and all the big claims were from people with pre-existing conditions. The sad fact is, that if a passenger doesn't disclose a medical condition or only partially discloses it, by playing down the condition, if it goes to court, the insurer almost invariably loses. The system is weighted heavily against corporates, in favour of the consumer. Of course, the end result (and only result) is that they don't want to know. I believe it will eventually get to the stage where there will need to be a government-sponsored scheme for the elderly or those with pre-existing medical conditions, as it is not commercially viable to offer cover in these markets, unfortunately. Edited March 10, 2010 by Chard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr W Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 In my view insurance is just that, insurance against having to pay out £££s if something goes wrong, just because you've had incident free travel all your life doesn't mean that something might go wrong on the next one. I never go anywhere abroad without being covered. You're probably ok in the EU but outside that get some insurance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 Yes I am with Barclays We have an Additions Plus joint account and they do give you a booklet with all the benefits in it. You do need to register for most. I have had my moneys worth out of them by using the RAC when my cam belt broke. To be honest I don't know how much it costs but I am sure it is £14 a month. you're probably right with the amount they do seem to make it up a bit depending how long you've been with them, the RAC cover and phone cover makes it worthwhile as its hard to get reasonably priced phone cover anywhere these days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 Sorry Chard, I forgot about you. Chard is your man when it comes to Travel Insurance. It is Shooting he has a problem with :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesman Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 Who do you work for Chard? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted March 10, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 Thanks for the comments, much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piebob Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 Like MC, my wife and I get annual travel unsurance and other benefits via a bank account which also incurs a small monthly charge. I've used the travel insurance twice for things I hadn't previously considered. i.e. events happened at home that meant we could not go on holiday. We had our month-long trip to Oz all booked up- main flights, hotels, internal flights, trips, etc. You can imagine the cost! Then I went and snapped my achilles and ended up in a plaster when I was supposed to be on the beach! Insurance claim paid out with the usual caveats. Same thing happened at our second attempt to get to Oz, with my wife going into hospital for an urgent operation. Again, got most of our money back. But without the insurance we'd have lost thousands without even leaving home. Third time lucky though - and it was great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sapper063 Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 anyone travelling in the eu should try euplus its an extension to your existing free eu card Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardo Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 we get ours with out Lloyds bank account (and a whole load of other useful stuff), saved me a fortune over the last couple of years. http://www.lloydstsb.com/current_accounts/...ent_account.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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