What Travel Insurance to recommend

What Travel Insurance to recommend

Author
Discussion

jcwuk

Original Poster:

1,127 posts

211 months

Tuesday 6th October 2009
quotequote all
Can anyone recommend a good travel insurance Company / Policy ?

For example if you are incurring medical bills abroad is there a policy which will take care of the costs while away on holiday instead of having to wait until you come back home to make the claim and eating into your cash reserve while away.

Many Thanks .

MrsMiggins

2,867 posts

250 months

Tuesday 6th October 2009
quotequote all
IIRC Endsleigh's travel insurance will pay direct for major ailments but expects you to pay and claim for minor ones.

Don't know what other insurers are like.

BigAlinEmbra

1,629 posts

227 months

Wednesday 7th October 2009
quotequote all
It's not usually so much the policy that makes a difference, rather whether or not your insurer has an agreement in place with the hospital whoever it is ends up in.

Endsleigh are underwritten by AXA, and my mate ended up in hospital in Argentina. We went to the hospital over there the insurer told us to, only for them to later say there was no billing agreement between the two. Nor did they sort this out over the week he was in.
Made the last day somewhat fraught, with the hospital solicitor being set on me, and about 3hrs of phonecalls to the insurer and arguing with the finance guy in the hospital.
Problem was the local office refusing to pay cos there was no billing agreement, but the american office telling me they'd pay if they got the bill.
Eventually the bill was paid, and we could head off.

I work in a hospital and take money off insurers as part of my day job, and this still wasn't easy.

That said, the USA office of AXA were great, so don't steer clear of them just because of the above.