Staysure travel insurance

[Heartbear]

Hi, just to make fellow hearties (and others) aware about Staysure's policy for renewing travel insurance which I recently came up against. I had a policy with them to cover my heart condition following a HA in July 2020 (I remember it well...). When it came to renewing a few weeks ago, they were happy to cover my heart condition given I have recovered well, am back to running, am discharged and there has been no change as confirmed by my recent annual GP consultation. They asked if I am under investigation for any undiagnosed condition. I answered 'yes' to this, because I had been referred to the Royal London hospital for an ultrasound scan on my foot regarding a suspected Mortons Nuroma, unrelated to my heart. Then came the "Ah, I'm sorry Sir....". Because an undiagnosed condition was being investigated, Staysure said they were unable to cover ANY pre-existing condition until I had a diagnosis for my foot. This included my heart condition, even though the heart and foot were highly likely to be unrelated. I challenged this to which Staysure said "really sorry Sir, it's our underwriter's policy", and they acknowledged that they would lose my business as a result, because I need a policy in place for a trip to the USA on 1st March.

I have switched to AllClear who were happy to cover the pre-existing heart condition, but not my undiagnosed foot problem, which is understandable and reasonable (in my opinion). I have now had my foot diagnosed as a minor bursitis - a fluid filled sack, 3mm in size, thankfully not at all painful (a mortons nuroma would be), and there's nothing much the GP can do about it. Likely cause is running and walking - great the couple of exercise activities I enjoy and have upped as part of my HA recovery. I will call AllClear on Monday to get my policy updated with my foot diagnosis. AllClear was also somewhat cheaper than Staysure's renewal quote.

The delightful world of insurance...

~ Heartbear

[meadfoot]

Lovely to hear you are settled insurance wise and can enjoy your trip, have a great time.

[Heartbear in reply to meadfoot]

thanks Meadfoot. I think it was just bad timing that my renewal came concurrent with my referral for the ultrasound. It’s just to make others aware that Staysure has this policy where they won’t cover any declared pre-existings if we have something else under investigation at the time of renewing. I don’t know, but this may also apply to a new insurance policy with them. In hindsight, it did me a favour because AllClear was somewhat cheaper. I don’t think it was a ‘new customer discount’ thing. Take care, Graham.

[Hidden in reply to Heartbear]

I was a potential new travel insurance customer last year, but with a pending investigation, and Staysure declined to cover me, after at least 20 minutes on the phone, which was rather annoying. But I also ended up with Allclear who would insure me, and I managed to reduce the premium by declining as much of the non health cover as I could because we already have that through our bank account.

[Wooodsie]

As an addition Heartbeat, in case you don't already know, you can get pads to put in your shoes for that. I've recently developed bursitis, it is so annoying.

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

I would urge everyone to get a quote from a number of companies as things can vary considerably depending on the specifics of your individual condition or conditions. For instance I am Type I diabetic and the word diabetes sends some into a tizz!