Angered with holiday insurance company Staysure

[Kimkat]

Good day all, just thought I’d let you know what happened to me yesterday with my holiday insurance company. I have been using Staysure insurance for five years now, they are very competitive and cover mine and my husbands medical conditions. Yesterday I received my annual renewal documents and it had risen from £189 to £518, so I rang them and asked why this was as nothing had changed in our health since last year and all I got was erm well, ah let me look but really no answer, then she said ‘would you like to renew now?’ I said that we would be going away on the 29 February until 7 March but our policy is due for renewal on the 7th, are we covered? No, she said, it runs out at midnight on the 6th, so would I like to renew? Well as we probably won’t be going away for at least another six months, could we possibly extend our policy for an extra day? No, we can’t do that but we can offer you a single trip policy for you both at £98! Sorry??? So you’re charging me an extra £98 for what will be an extra 12 hours on our journey? Yes I’m afraid that’s the only way we can get around it. Ok, so what if I cancel my existing policy, which has another 17 days to run, will I get a refund? Yes, she said, that will mean a refund of £25.97. So you’re only going to give me that back, o 17 days but then charge me £98 for one week??? Yes, shall I go ahead with that? Wow!! Unbelievable. So again she asked me would you like to go ahead with that or continue with your annual policy? Persistent little devil eh! So there you go, no loyalty with these companies. Without going into more detail, I cancelled my policy so I should get my refund and I am taking out a single trip policy with a specialist company (we ski twice a year) that is costing £86 for both of us and if I did take out an annual policy that would cost £182. I thought I would give you all the heads up as Staysure are mentioned a lot on this site and I don’t think they deserve the recognition. So it’s worth trawling the Internet and finding a better deal, than these sharks can offer. Also just as information, an annual multi trip policy only allows you 31 days a year travel. We we away for 59 last year, so we wouldn’t have been covered anyway 😐

[Dovaston]

Wow that is absolutely shocking !

[Fredders]

That’s why we always look round for any insurance, no benefit for being loyal. When I got my car insurance renewal it had gone up by about £150. I had a search round and got it for the same price as the previous year, so rang them to say I wouldn’t be renewing they had a look and came back with a better price, when I asked why I wasn’t quoted that to start with I didn’t get an answer. I told them that if they couldn’t be loyal to me I wasn’t going to be loyal to them, and went with the other company. 😡

Wendy

[Kimkat in reply to Fredders]

I always check car, house etc but because of our age and medical conditions and the fact that we ski twice a year, I thought that their price was pretty good in the past. The cheeky sods sent me an email earlier to offer a 20% discount on the £98! Like you say they should offer that at the time of enquiry

[stillaboveground in reply to Fredders]

Same thing happened to me, quoted a lower price after I canceled with them, their loss.

[Sanpedro2019]

Thank you for sharing that information .

[GracieOS]

It's the same with any insurance, if you stay with them the premium goes up. Perhaps not so much at the first renewal but definitely thereafter. They bank on you not being bothered to shop around.

I've just taken an annual policy with staysure, cost just under £200, covers me and my husband. Me with rheumatoid arthritis and heart failure my husband on drugs to control seizures. I extended the limit on days away in any one year to 100 days as we will be away for two months later this year on one trip. I didn't renew with the company I used last year for various reasons but that included a hike in cost.

[fempop in reply to GracieOS]

I have just got a renewal for house insurance £133,88. I phoned them to ask could it be a little cheaper no was the answer. I went on a compare site same company came in at £118. Same policy churchill work that one out.

[Mobiscum]

Hi

Your saga of having to renew your tavel insurance rang true because I have had similar experiences in the past. Just one point - I think you'll find that the 31 days is the maximum duration of a single trip not the total number of days that you can be away in a single (policy) year. So you would have had cover.

[Kimkat in reply to Mobiscum]

Oh right I’ll check that out, thanks god that

[Hanibil]

Tried them found a company called insure and escape much better .

[Kimkat in reply to Hanibil]

I’ll have a look at them for future trips

[MelB51]

Personally I think that all insurance companies are crooks! I tried a couple that were recommended on this forum but even filling in the questionnaire started to be intensely annoying and not straightforward or didn’t work properly and so on. After a frustrating morning doing battle with these companies aides , I called Insurancewith. It turned out that they would not insure me on an annual basis, only on single trips. Ihave no idea why and couldn’t get an answer but by that time, I was desperate to get something sorted so I agreed to the 3 single trips insurance policies for this year, which is an expensive way of doing it, especially as one trip is only for a couple of days. The 3 trips are all in Europe and so for the moment, I am not even sure if I need insurance! Certainly, I haven’t got any insurance (apart from that supplied free by HSBC) for going to our place in France for the summer, although next year post-Bexit may be different.

Anyway, if anyone here can come up with the name of an ethical company that doesn’t just want to rip you off to make the most money out of people with health problems as possible, then please post! One with a user-friendly website would be a bonus!!

[IanGordon]

As I've no reason to be loyal to Staysure, may I ask who insured you for your skiing trip?

[Kimkat in reply to IanGordon]

Yes they are Fit4 travel, we are members of the ski club of Great Britain and got it through them but you can still use their link even if you’re not a member

[Boharford]

Nearly all of these company's use the same underwriter who decide wether to pay the claim or not. They all have terrible reviews for for not paying out- lame small print excuses. So I tend to go for the cheapest - but that is still expensive. and a racket- the mistake is to think they are on your side and want to help youth your advantage

[Saltysailer]

Do you mean max single trip is 31days

[Kimkat in reply to Saltysailer]

I thought it was but I may have that wrong I need to reread the policy, someone else said that it’s a max of 31 days at a time.