holiday insurance - how much do i need?
Discussion
Me and the wife are going to California in April for 2 weeks, France in July for 2 weeks and Greece for a week in August. I was thinking about taking a policy out with TravelInsurance.co.uk to cover all three trips. just not sure which to go for... silver gold or platinum? screen print below
Also, anyone used them or can recommend another company? thanks
Also, anyone used them or can recommend another company? thanks
Main difference that catches my eye is the length of the trip. Most insurers have a max trip length of 31 days, whereas for their more expensive insurance it's more.
The medical insurance difference you might as well ignore, as you will be struggling to rack up over £10m. If you do, then you'll be wanting to worry about other insurance too, like whether your life assurance has cover for you never working again.
Also your European trips the majority of the expense would be covered by EHIC, which if you don't have I would recommend getting.
If you've spent more than £3k on the US trip, then I'd suggest on of the more expensive policies is best.
Check the small print and make sure it's consistent across all the policies, it might be that the more expensive ones have more incidentals covered that the cheap one doesn't. Stuff like phone calls associated with delays/hospitalisation/ash cloud disruption, whatever. Often cheap policies don't cover it, and I racked up over £500 in a week when my mate ended up in hospital in Argentina.
Finally, check out who the underwriters are, and scout out customer service reviews just in case. Aside from AXA not covering the phone calls, and their Buenos Aires office not speaking to the American one, I'd rate them fairly highly.
Certainly their American claims handler was top notch.
The medical insurance difference you might as well ignore, as you will be struggling to rack up over £10m. If you do, then you'll be wanting to worry about other insurance too, like whether your life assurance has cover for you never working again.
Also your European trips the majority of the expense would be covered by EHIC, which if you don't have I would recommend getting.
If you've spent more than £3k on the US trip, then I'd suggest on of the more expensive policies is best.
Check the small print and make sure it's consistent across all the policies, it might be that the more expensive ones have more incidentals covered that the cheap one doesn't. Stuff like phone calls associated with delays/hospitalisation/ash cloud disruption, whatever. Often cheap policies don't cover it, and I racked up over £500 in a week when my mate ended up in hospital in Argentina.
Finally, check out who the underwriters are, and scout out customer service reviews just in case. Aside from AXA not covering the phone calls, and their Buenos Aires office not speaking to the American one, I'd rate them fairly highly.
Certainly their American claims handler was top notch.
You are going to the US, as such I would go for Platinum as medical bills in the US could be high consider repatriation, long term care etc all it takes is an accident land up in a coma or need prolonged treatment and the bills will mount up, without the trip to the States any of the other insurance policies would make sense.
Unless you have Haemophilia or need a transplant, then £10m per person is a SERIOUS amount of medical cover. You're talking about a year in ICU in the states at that sort of cash.
I deal with foreign patients charging in the UK, and we've not even touched 6 digits with a 2 at the front for a single patient!
Granted the US is about 3 times more expensive, but if you can rack up £1m you've been properly broken.
Air ambulance back from the states likely to be of the order of £50-100k.
Seriously, £5m medical cover is not what you want to focus on! Just a gimmick to make to policy look 50% better.
I deal with foreign patients charging in the UK, and we've not even touched 6 digits with a 2 at the front for a single patient!
Granted the US is about 3 times more expensive, but if you can rack up £1m you've been properly broken.
Air ambulance back from the states likely to be of the order of £50-100k.
Seriously, £5m medical cover is not what you want to focus on! Just a gimmick to make to policy look 50% better.
Tale your picj, all of them look good and with some good high levels of cover. Personal choice would be the first one,a s it's got plenty on there.
Make sure you do take some out no matter what though.
And the EHIC card is a very basic level of NHS type A&E cover and bugger all else, I certainly isn't a substitute for Travel insurance in Europe in any shape or form.
Make sure you do take some out no matter what though.
And the EHIC card is a very basic level of NHS type A&E cover and bugger all else, I certainly isn't a substitute for Travel insurance in Europe in any shape or form.
R1 Loon said:
And the EHIC card is a very basic level of NHS type A&E cover and bugger all else, I certainly isn't a substitute for Travel insurance in Europe in any shape or form.
True it's not a substitute, but very basic is a bit much!You get care to the state standard of the country you're in, it's just that we happen to get more free than anyone else does.
Most of the euro countries you'd want to go to operate some sort of co-payment system, so that being ill costs you cash and encourages you to be healthy. (So the thinking goes anyway). Of course the locals generally supplement it with some sort of private policy, or enhanced state cover via payments.
UK travel insurance is highly unlikely to cover anything that an EHIC would, so you really need both.
BigAlinEmbra said:
R1 Loon said:
And the EHIC card is a very basic level of NHS type A&E cover and bugger all else, I certainly isn't a substitute for Travel insurance in Europe in any shape or form.
True it's not a substitute, but very basic is a bit much!You get care to the state standard of the country you're in, it's just that we happen to get more free than anyone else does.
Most of the euro countries you'd want to go to operate some sort of co-payment system, so that being ill costs you cash and encourages you to be healthy. (So the thinking goes anyway). Of course the locals generally supplement it with some sort of private policy, or enhanced state cover via payments.
UK travel insurance is highly unlikely to cover anything that an EHIC would, so you really need both.
Fair enough! France actually has a very highly regarded health system.
(Actually, whisper it quietly, but outwith the UK the NHS is quite highly regarded too).
To be honest if it's an emergency you're stuck with the luck of the draw. I know less about Greece, but because France is fairly similar to us in that the majority of health provision is state funded, there's a pretty high likelihood that you'd end up in a state hospital in an emergency anyway.
If you look at the private hospitals in the UK, a lot of them don't have any emergency facilities. Most don't have an A&E equivalent, and in order to keep costs low some of them don't bother with expensive trivialities like critical care. And even if they do, it's usually more geared to elective surgery, so their capacity to deal with seriously ill patients can be fairly limited.
Then again, I'm the man that told the AXA door to door salesman a while back that I had been going to hospital 5 times a week for 5 years and didn't have a problem with it.
His look of horror was priceless!
(Actually, whisper it quietly, but outwith the UK the NHS is quite highly regarded too).
To be honest if it's an emergency you're stuck with the luck of the draw. I know less about Greece, but because France is fairly similar to us in that the majority of health provision is state funded, there's a pretty high likelihood that you'd end up in a state hospital in an emergency anyway.
If you look at the private hospitals in the UK, a lot of them don't have any emergency facilities. Most don't have an A&E equivalent, and in order to keep costs low some of them don't bother with expensive trivialities like critical care. And even if they do, it's usually more geared to elective surgery, so their capacity to deal with seriously ill patients can be fairly limited.
Then again, I'm the man that told the AXA door to door salesman a while back that I had been going to hospital 5 times a week for 5 years and didn't have a problem with it.
His look of horror was priceless!
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