Annual insurance policy.

[Drawweight]

I’ve got a cruise booked for March next year that I got a single use policy for.

We’ve decided to go another one in October. I’ve never had 2 holidays that I’d need insurance for.

I paid £141 for the first cruise. Is an annual policy going to be economical assuming the second cruise is about the same?

I know it’s vague but in your experience is an annual policy more or less than 2 singles.

This is just to save me filling in those damn medical sections.

[Mr Pointy]

I'd say yes, although since you have already bought one single policy how are you going to make it work? Wouldn't you would need to get a refund on that policy to make the annual one cost effective?

[E-bmw]

TBH generally, whenever I take out holiday insurance I always check the difference & frequently end up with an annual policy because the difference is minimal & frequently we end up using it again anyway.

Best case I have personally had is when taking out holiday insurance foe a P & O cruise, they prefer you to use a particular provider thatnthye give you a link for when booked.

It came out at £192 for annual cover, £191 for single trip, so obviously I took out annual cover & went away another 2 times in the period.

[surveyor]

Nationwide flex account. Worldwide holiday insurance and their medical upgrades etc competitive. To get missed ports cover you do need to upgrade per cruise but all the important medical stuff is there without the upgrade.

It also includes high level European (and uk) breakdown cover and gadget cover.

Put some money in a saving account alongside they usually give you a bonus payment of £100 per account holder too.

This way our cover cost us £24 for the year.

We don’t use the flex account - just put enough money in to lay the account fee.

[Doesitdrive]

Annual every time, one off cost, the cover you chose to some extent, and its always there should you choose to extend your holiday, go again during the year, and covers UK trips I believe.

[Every day a journey]

We always get an annual as we're away on short-ish trips to Portugal/Maderia fairly frequently.

Always works out much cheaper. Generally only get Europe cover but when we've needed 'rest of World (not US) it's literally a few quid more.

This year's cover for the two of us, Europe only, is about £60 I think

[Mr Pointy]

surveyor said:

Nationwide flex account. Worldwide holiday insurance and their medical upgrades etc competitive. To get missed ports cover you do need to upgrade per cruise but all the important medical stuff is there without the upgrade.

It also includes high level European (and UK) breakdown cover and gadget cover.

Put some money in a saving account alongside they usually give you a bonus payment of £100 per account holder too.

This way our cover cost us £24 for the year.

We don t use the flex account - just put enough money in to lay the account fee.

That's £432 a year though which could be quite pricey depending on how many are in the family. Even with £100 Fairer Share bonus (which comes down to £75 or £60 after tax) it's still not exactly cheap.

[TheK1981]

I just do an annual insurance (I use Tesco), remember the Martin Lewis saying, as soon as you book... an annual policy takes away any issues

[Drawweight]

Mr Pointy said:

I'd say yes, although since you have already bought one single policy how are you going to make it work? Wouldn't you would need to get a refund on that policy to make the annual one cost effective?

Still within the 14 day cooling off period so I’ll be okay.

[slievenashaska]

HSBC Premier Account - free worldwide travel insurance for the family (aged up to 70 and children up to 23) with a large number of pre-existing medical conditions covered for free (interestingly, although the insurance company is Aviva, the same as the Nationwide account you have to pay for, conditions that are covered for free with HSBC you have to pay for with Nationwide).

There is no monthly account fee like most other premium accounts but you must have an income of at least £100k or £100k of savings or investments with them, neither of which should be an issue for the 'Powerfully built' here.

[Sheepshanks]

slievenashaska said:

HSBC Premier Account - free worldwide travel insurance for the family (aged up to 70 and children up to 23) with a large number of pre-existing medical conditions covered for free (interestingly, although the insurance company is Aviva, the same as the Nationwide account you have to pay for, conditions that are covered for free with HSBC you have to pay for with Nationwide).

Unless you’re taking about very every-day things I’d check on that - are you sure they haven’t excluded cover for those things?

We tried a couple of the financial institutions and my cover was hundreds more and they wouldn’t cover wife at all. NatWest changed their insurer so tried again and got same result.

[Sheepshanks]

Drawweight said:

I ve got a cruise booked for March next year that I got a single use policy for.

We ve decided to go another one in October. I ve never had 2 holidays that I d need insurance for.

I paid £141 for the first cruise. Is an annual policy going to be economical assuming the second cruise is about the same?

I know it s vague but in your experience is an annual policy more or less than 2 singles.

This is just to save me filling in those damn medical sections.

Can’t you just do a quick online comparison with your insurer? Then call and ask to amend if it looks OK or else you’ll cancel.

We found a weird thing with Staysure last year where annual was cheaper than a single week. I though something must have changed in the region covered, but it hadn’t.

[slievenashaska]

Sheepshanks said:

slievenashaska said:

HSBC Premier Account - free worldwide travel insurance for the family (aged up to 70 and children up to 23) with a large number of pre-existing medical conditions covered for free (interestingly, although the insurance company is Aviva, the same as the Nationwide account you have to pay for, conditions that are covered for free with HSBC you have to pay for with Nationwide).

Unless you re taking about very every-day things I d check on that - are you sure they haven t excluded cover for those things?

We tried a couple of the financial institutions and my cover was hundreds more and they wouldn t cover wife at all. NatWest changed their insurer so tried again and got same result.

All this is covered for no extra fee, and when I checked with Nationwide they quoted several hundred to cover the conditions I declared that were on that list.

Allergy/Anaphylaxis (no hospital admissions in the last 2 years)
Arthritis (no neck or back problems)
Asthma (no nebulisers or oxygen at home and no hospital admissions in the last 12 months)
Benign prostatic enlargement
Broken bone/fracture (not head or spine)
Cataracts
Chicken pox
Common cold/influenza
Constipation
Cystitis
Diabetes (no complications, for example retinal, kidney or nerve damage)
Diarrhoea and/or vomiting
Dislocated joint (not following knee/hip replacement)
Eczema/dermatitis
Essential tremor
Fungal nail infection
Gastric reflux
Glaucoma
Gout
Haemorrhoids
Hay fever
Hernia
High/low blood pressure
High cholesterol
Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid)
Impetigo
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Joint replacement (no dislocation of replacement joint)
Macular degeneration
Migraine (confirmed diagnosis, no ongoing investigations)
Minor infections (treated with no more than one course of antibiotics)
Osteoporosis (no back or neck fractures)
Peptic ulcer
Polymyalgia rheumatica
Psoriasis
Retinopathy (not linked to diabetes)
Sinusitis
Soft tissue injury/tendon

[Mr Pointy]

Sheepshanks said:

Unless you re taking about very every-day things I d check on that - are you sure they haven t excluded cover for those things?

We tried a couple of the financial institutions and my cover was hundreds more and they wouldn t cover wife at all. NatWest changed their insurer so tried again and got same result.

Have you tried Saga, if you are over 55. They were quite reasonable for medical conditions.

[_Rodders_]

As has been pointed out we pay less than that to Nationwide and get European breakdown and mobile phone insurance included too.

The cover tends to be much better than a typical cheap quote of a comparison site too.

[Sheepshanks]

slievenashaska said:

All this is covered for no extra fee, and when I checked with Nationwide they quoted several hundred to cover the conditions I declared that were on that list.

Allergy/Anaphylaxis (no hospital admissions in the last 2 years)
Arthritis (no neck or back problems)
Asthma (no nebulisers or oxygen at home and no hospital admissions in the last 12 months)
Benign prostatic enlargement
Broken bone/fracture (not head or spine)
Cataracts
Chicken pox
Common cold/influenza
Constipation
Cystitis
Diabetes (no complications, for example retinal, kidney or nerve damage)
Diarrhoea and/or vomiting
Dislocated joint (not following knee/hip replacement)
Eczema/dermatitis
Essential tremor
Fungal nail infection
Gastric reflux
Glaucoma
Gout
Haemorrhoids
Hay fever
Hernia
High/low blood pressure
High cholesterol
Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid)
Impetigo
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Joint replacement (no dislocation of replacement joint)
Macular degeneration
Migraine (confirmed diagnosis, no ongoing investigations)
Minor infections (treated with no more than one course of antibiotics)
Osteoporosis (no back or neck fractures)
Peptic ulcer
Polymyalgia rheumatica
Psoriasis
Retinopathy (not linked to diabetes)
Sinusitis
Soft tissue injury/tendon

OK, so it is every-day stuff. But be aware that if you're taking (or have taken in the last 12mths) any medication (ie for blood pressure - that's why it doesn't say "controlled") then you still need to tell them.

[slievenashaska]

Sheepshanks said:

But be aware that if you're taking (or have taken in the last 12mths) any medication (ie for blood pressure - that's why it doesn't say "controlled") then you still need to tell them.

I have done because I needed to contact them about another issue not on the list and went through the full medical screening - no charge and a letter confirming that I am covered for all those conditions.

Whereas Nationwide, with the same underlying insurer, wanted to charge hundreds of pounds for exactly the same conditions.

[Sheepshanks]

Mr Pointy said:

Have you tried Saga, if you are over 55. They were quite reasonable for medical conditions.

We've found one that pensioners (but may be ways for others to get it) over 50 can take that doesn't require any medical declaration - you just have to have not been told you're not fit to travel (sorry for the double negative). It's a member thing available through a couple of Associations.

Coverage is a little limited for PHers (max holiday cost £5K per person) but just about OK for us.

[Sheepshanks]

slievenashaska said:

I have done because I needed to contact them about another issue not on the list and went through the full medical screening - no charge and a letter confirming that I am covered for all those conditions.

Whereas Nationwide, with the same underlying insurer, wanted to charge hundreds of pounds for exactly the same conditions.

How odd. NatWest tried to get us on their Premier (or whatever it's called) banking - which was a bit odd as I thought we had it (says we do on our debit cards) and a big thing was the travel insurance. They told us it'd be fine but going through the screening they said "nope". Twice.

[surveyor]

Sheepshanks said:

slievenashaska said:

All this is covered for no extra fee, and when I checked with Nationwide they quoted several hundred to cover the conditions I declared that were on that list.

Allergy/Anaphylaxis (no hospital admissions in the last 2 years)
Arthritis (no neck or back problems)
Asthma (no nebulisers or oxygen at home and no hospital admissions in the last 12 months)
Benign prostatic enlargement
Broken bone/fracture (not head or spine)
Cataracts
Chicken pox
Common cold/influenza
Constipation
Cystitis
Diabetes (no complications, for example retinal, kidney or nerve damage)
Diarrhoea and/or vomiting
Dislocated joint (not following knee/hip replacement)
Eczema/dermatitis
Essential tremor
Fungal nail infection
Gastric reflux
Glaucoma
Gout
Haemorrhoids
Hay fever
Hernia
High/low blood pressure
High cholesterol
Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid)
Impetigo
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Joint replacement (no dislocation of replacement joint)
Macular degeneration
Migraine (confirmed diagnosis, no ongoing investigations)
Minor infections (treated with no more than one course of antibiotics)
Osteoporosis (no back or neck fractures)
Peptic ulcer
Polymyalgia rheumatica
Psoriasis
Retinopathy (not linked to diabetes)
Sinusitis
Soft tissue injury/tendon

OK, so it is every-day stuff. But be aware that if you're taking (or have taken in the last 12mths) any medication (ie for blood pressure - that's why it doesn't say "controlled") then you still need to tell them.

My wife had cancer treatment which appears to be not on that list. Nationwide upgrade £30.

Not sure how you got to £420 either further up. We pay I think £18 a month for the family. But get £200 back in bonus per year