Anyone used Dogtag travel insurance?

[Kermit power]

Morning all,

I have in the past tended to holiday in France with the travel insurance that comes with the NatWest credit card I use to buy the travel. This year, however, we've got a week in Morzine which will include mountain biking, and the policy specifically includes mountain biking.... Just so long as you only do it on tarmac!!!

I have, therefore, been looking at specialist travel insurance. In all cases, I've gone for downhill mountain biking, since although I won't be doing anything massively extreme with my kids (13, 10 & 8), we will doubtless be using the chairlifts to get us up there, and this seems to be the very definition of downhill according to most insurers.

I've looked at a few, including Snowcard and Sportcoverdirect, and they're all coming out around the £250 mark for a fortnight for a family of five.

Dogtag, on the other hand, are between £112 and £163 depending on level of cover (and I can't really see a need for anything other than the basic, as in the worst case scenario, that'll still pay out £3m for getting someone off a mountain and through hospital). They seem generally well reviewed online, so I'm just wondering if I'm missing something very obvious to explain the price discrepancy??

[Johnny]

I used them previously for my RTW trip and, if memory serves, Whistler.

Didn't need to use the policy but I recall they were the only ones with decent cover for a competitive price.

[JPJ]

With insurance sometimes it works out cheaper to do annual cover than for a specific trip - no idea why but it's worth investigating.

I've used Dogtag for a number of years and they've been easy enough to deal with on the one occasion I had to contact them, so I would say yes, they're a good choice.

I did see on one MTB forum that they do have some exclusions around hspital expenses if you get taken to a private hospital in France for example. The concern seemed to be that if you have a bad accident, you may not even know which hosipital you are being taken to, nevermind if it' a private one.

[Kermit power]

JPJ said:

With insurance sometimes it works out cheaper to do annual cover than for a specific trip - no idea why but it's worth investigating.

I've used Dogtag for a number of years and they've been easy enough to deal with on the one occasion I had to contact them, so I would say yes, they're a good choice.

I did see on one MTB forum that they do have some exclusions around hspital expenses if you get taken to a private hospital in France for example. The concern seemed to be that if you have a bad accident, you may not even know which hosipital you are being taken to, nevermind if it' a private one.

Thanks for that.

I have just double-checked, and Dogtag would be cheaper on multi-trip for two trips, but not for one.

Anyway, the kids and I are all insured up, and as usual we're having to leave my wife off, as being a diabetic causes massive issues!

She won't be mountain biking anyway, which was my main concern, so should be fine on the standard travel insurance.

[P-Jay]

They're pretty good, I've had to make a claim in the past with them - ironically because I smashed myself up at Afan a week before I was supposed to go to Morzine and couldn't go, they made a tiny fuss, but paid me for my holiday.

Where they fall down for me is that they only offer a minimum of 10 days cover, where Snowcard are per-day, shorter trips are cheaper with Snowcard.

However, if you want cost-effective you can't beat Nomads. www.worldnomads.com they're primarily a backpackers cover company, but very flexible and offer all manner of extreme sports cover - they were 30% of the cost of Snowcard for me a few weeks ago for lift accessed Downhill riding (not racing) or words to that effect.

[Kermit power]

P-Jay said:

However, if you want cost-effective you can't beat Nomads. www.worldnomads.com they're primarily a backpackers cover company, but very flexible and offer all manner of extreme sports cover - they were 30% of the cost of Snowcard for me a few weeks ago for lift accessed Downhill riding (not racing) or words to that effect.

I've just looked at that, and as you say, it would've worked out at around £35 instead of £120. This leaves me asking what the catch is on the grounds of "if it looks too good to be true"?

[P-Jay]

Kermit power said:

P-Jay said:

However, if you want cost-effective you can't beat Nomads. www.worldnomads.com they're primarily a backpackers cover company, but very flexible and offer all manner of extreme sports cover - they were 30% of the cost of Snowcard for me a few weeks ago for lift accessed Downhill riding (not racing) or words to that effect.

I've just looked at that, and as you say, it would've worked out at around £35 instead of £120. This leaves me asking what the catch is on the grounds of "if it looks too good to be true"?

I read through all the T's and C's at length last month, the only thing I could find is they have specific exclusions for, and I'm quoting "Drunkenness" and "Stupidity". So if you have 9 pints and fall down the stairs, you're on your own, try jumping from your balcony on the 4th floor into the pool, you're on your own. The rest all seems pretty sensible - the limits for medical stuff is massive and handy in Morzine as if you're in an ambo you'll invariably end up in the private hospital who'll shrug and wave away your EHIC card away (or so I'm told). I did worry how they would be of say you tripped and fell after a few drinks, not drunk, but usual after-dinner drinks and ended up in A&E with a minor injury, would they argue you were drinking so cover was void, when really you might have tripped the same way blind sober?

It's also worth noting that they, like all other non-mainstream providers have relatively low maximum payouts for loss of property, delays, cash etc, this coupled with the above made me decide I'd use them, but I'd rely on my normal insurance if I had a non-biking issue.

Also, were you careful to add level 2 sports cover?

https://helpdesk.worldnomads.com/customer/en_gb/po...

I don't think it's an option on the quick quote homepage. There's an exclusion for personal liability with Mountain Biking too.

Edited by P-Jay on Wednesday 3rd August 12:03