travel Insurance

[Happyrosie]

a while ago there was a query about getting travel insurance when you’ve a medical condition.

Personally I get my annual travel cover through my bank account which costs £13 per month plus around £75 for being over 70 plus whatever the insurer charges for medical conditions. In 2022 for example the whole thing, worldwide for up to 30 days, cost me about £700. Through other providers when I tested the market about five years ago it was around £2000.

Martin Lewis in his Moneysavingexpert website does helpful articles on insurance and it well worth a read if you are contemplating a holiday.

[Fanfab1]

hi my travel insurance with my bank account sounds extremely similar to yours. So you used that but paid additional amount regards health? Just checking I read it right!

That’s good to know.

[Happyrosie in reply to Fanfab1]

Yes! £75 I think for being over 70 plus medical screening another few hundred

[Lowerfield_no_more]

My wife and I have one of these accounts with travel insurance as a benefit. Although I consider myself to be reasonably healthy I have three or four medical conditions including heart related like BP, cholesterol, and a previous HA, which insurance providers don't like. So when I approached the bank's insurer I found the additional premium to be very high, So what we do as we only usually take two European holidays of about a week duration each is to take out the banks insurance policy which covers my wife entirely and me with medical exceptions and I take out separate medical travel insurance with as much of the extras already covered by the bank insurance stripped out. And that works out cheaper, although if you are a frequent holiday take that will likely not be the case. I have also heard, although I have no evidence, that the banks insurer are not too good at paying out, but then insurers are always reluctant aren't they!

[Sb1171]

I too use the bank insurance, paying extra to cover medical conditions. It is much cheaper than even a single trip long haul. If only travelling in Europe, single trip insurance policies would be cheaper for me though.

[Blyth1]

Hi Happy Rosie, I had one of these bank accounts too, no problem getting cover when I had one condition, Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis. Then I had two heart attacks in quick succession, a week apart - first one stented.

Following that my insurance with the bank would not provide cover for the existing conditions, only if anything untoward happened that was unrelated to known medical conditions. I closed my account as I had it purely for that perk.

Since then it has been interesting attempting to get cover, even with the companies that advertise they are there as specialists who cover known medical issues. I have been declined by the vast majority. The one that I got cover with for a week in September was almost as expensive as the holiday!

I now have the addition of being told in December that I require oxygen if going anywhere by air travel. We did have a holiday booked for February but cancelled as it was becoming too stressful to try and coordinate everything😞

[Hidden in reply to Blyth1]

I have just bought Avanti insurance through the Coop, for a weeks French river cruise. I will be 79 and my husband has just had his 80th birthday. We just got a basic one for which we had to declare hypertension and cholesterol-both medicated and stable. The premium was £136, which I thought very good-it covers cancellation, hospitalisation, repatriation, all the usual, and we're not doing anything risky!

[Cruise1]

We, too use the banks travel insurance paying extra for being over 70, for health problems and a trip extension. Our last holiday was 69 days and they cover cruises and will extend up to 180 days for additional trip extension. Other companies more than 300% higher, no cruise cover and no trip over 35 days. Paid out quickly when we had to cancel a cruise last minute due to a positive Covid test.

[Ironfloor173]

I assume your with Nationwide. The insurers they use is UK Insurance a subsidary of Direct Line. They immediately cancelled my cover when I informed them that I had had a silent heart attack. They explained that they were low risk insurers, meaning that they don't want to cover people who might be more likely to claim. I worked in the insurance industry for over 40 years, and sometimes these general insurance companies (ie. non life) can be difficult when making a claim, so you have to make sure that the medical information you supply to them is spot on.

[Happyrosie]

yes I’m with Nationwide. But they’ve certainly insured my husband (with heart trouble and many other conditions) and me (with cancer), far more cheaply than I found elsewhere. And I certainly gave them all the information they asked for truthfully