Travel Insurance

agooner

Junior Member
Messages
103
Anyone know any good travel insurance deals. I normally just do something through the bank (Lloyds).

Going to Kenya later this month then taking wife to Hong Kong in June. So will need global cover.

Not doing any extreme sports or risky stuff but my wife is planning extreme shopping while in HK.
 

2b1ask1

Special case
Messages
20,220
Post Office do multi-trip global for about £80: Does me ok, I keep it on a rolling renual.
 
Messages
1,117
Do you have pre-existing medical conditions? If not sure, then do a telephone screen with the company you are enquiring with.
Global can be with/without cover for the US/Canada. Will be cheaper if you exclude US/Canada.

Go on a search site. The cheapest ain't the best usually - lots of exclusions and confusing clauses on what constitutes 'lost documents' even excluding passports not on you in person but in suitcase or hand luggage or left in a rental car which was burgled.

I found Insure & Go very good for pre-existing medical conditions. But plenty of choice. Found Saga very poor value for money - remember they don't do insurance (much like AA don't do car insurance). They are a broker who introduce you to providers and under-writers.

Pre-existing condition (or failure to declare even unintentionally or through lack of knowing the right responses) is a main reason why people end up without cover for medical claim on holiday and end up footing the private medical care bill that can run into thousands.
 

bigbob

Member
Messages
8,952
Anyone know any good travel insurance deals. I normally just do something through the bank (Lloyds).

Going to Kenya later this month then taking wife to Hong Kong in June. So will need global cover.

Not doing any extreme sports or risky stuff but my wife is planning extreme shopping while in HK.

Amex Annual is good. You can exclude NA, add conditions and cover very high value holidays. Buy online for a bigger discount.
 

Davidc

Member
Messages
183
I’ve got a Nationwide Flexplus account which includes free family worldwide travel insurance and UK and European breakdown cover for 2 cars. I think it’s about £10 a month for the account but well worth it.
 

highlander

Member
Messages
5,214
Lazy sod that I am I just do a price comparison search with one of the well known search engines, always easy to find pretty good value even for higher cover levels WW.
 
Messages
1,117
I’ve got a Nationwide Flexplus account which includes free family worldwide travel insurance and UK and European breakdown cover for 2 cars. I think it’s about £10 a month for the account but well worth it.

I'dbe surprised if any product off the back of a bank account or credit card will cover pre-existing conditions. If a medical claim is made, automatic authority is given to the insurer to access one's medical records and one of the insurer's well-trained escapologist doctors will go through it and find that the claimant did not declare a pimple on his a&se and first degree piles rendering the cover null and void whislt the claimant is in a private bed in some WW location racking up costs in treatment bills.
 
Messages
1,117
First degree piles are internal and not visible. 2nd degree come out to breathe some fresh air but then go back in again with the push of a finger. You can guess 3rd degree.
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,547
I'dbe surprised if any product off the back of a bank account or credit card will cover pre-existing conditions.

Be surprised then. My HSBC insurance covers (and always has done) Mrs Catman with Tetralogy of Fallot, and have sent us several letters to confirm.

C
 
Messages
1,117
I am indeed surprised. Presumably they are confiming cover for corrected ToF as untreated it has short life expectancy into the 2nd or 3rd decade.

I know of quite a few instances where people (unintentionally) did not declare pre-existing conditions - hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes (type 2), undergoing tests to diagnose a condition etc. and the cover was null and void - most found out when they got the full contract in the post and studied it.

But your example is a first.
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,547
I am indeed surprised. Presumably they are confiming cover for corrected ToF as untreated it has short life expectancy into the 2nd or 3rd decade.

I know of quite a few instances where people (unintentionally) did not declare pre-existing conditions - hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes (type 2), undergoing tests to diagnose a condition etc. and the cover was null and void - most found out when they got the full contract in the post and studied it.

But your example is a first.

Yep, corrected in '76 if memory serves (which is should given the last few months) I'll need to talk to them again before we go to Cancun as she's only just had the BT shunt clipped off (by keyhole, apparently a first at Barts) as they couldn't get to it when they corrected everything else. She's just waiting for a date for the pulmonary valve replacement :)

BTW not sure I appreciate the implication that Mrs Catman must be older than her 3rd decade :D (which of course she is, but!)

C
 
Messages
1,117
Good to hear it has been corrected. The implication was unintended - its just based on what is known about ToF and a guess based on that. Seems she is in good hands. The pulmonary valve replacement seems to be the one outstanding measure needed, and some of the guys who do this are real whizz kids. We have a cardiology tertiary referral centre here in the NW and the work they do with the cardiothoracic guys is simply amazing. The NHS surgeons in this and many other areas have some of the best outcomes in the world - even versus countries with private healthcare that provide some audit data (many simply don't have the data other than perhaps how many of a certain procedure they carry out but not the outcomes).
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,547
Good to hear it has been corrected. The implication was unintended - its just based on what is known about ToF and a guess based on that. Seems she is in good hands. The pulmonary valve replacement seems to be the one outstanding measure needed, and some of the guys who do this are real whizz kids. We have a cardiology tertiary referral centre here in the NW and the work they do with the cardiothoracic guys is simply amazing.

The implication was joke, chap. No harm, no foul :)

The valve was stretched in the original correction, but has now stretched further and is leaking un-acceptably (one of the factors that caused acute de-compensated heart failure which started to become apparent in December) with a weight gain of about 2 stone, as well as classic breathlessness etc. Initially mis-diagnosed as chest infection which didn't help. The keyhole surgery was great and they have installed a stent (I understand) to mount the new valve on, and that's intended to be keyhole, virtually out patient. (OK so 48 hours but....) it's all good, and way better than most of the alternatives :D

C