Holiday insurance. OK, talk me through this please someone..

[55palfers]

Here's one for all the Insurance company bods.

It's that time of year my travel insurance is up for renewal.

Got some quotes for Europe and Spain, multi trip, annual cover. All OK.

I have some pre-existing medical conditions so I'm used to having to pay an elevated premium.

Made enquiries about cover for a Caribbean cruise and how much extra I'd have to pay for myself and spouse.

For a 21 day cruise the additional premium for a one-off cruise / worldwide trip came in at £800.

The lady said if I added the cruise cover & worldwide elements to my annual policy the additional premium would be £700! Around twice my European premium.

How can it be cheaper for a year of cover over a one-off 21 days?

Come on chaps, talk me through it please...

[steveo3002]

because the computer says so ...

same as a premuim might be cheaper on a 10k car vs £500 banger

[carreauchompeur]

Jeez! I’m lucky to have cheap cover.

Is the £800 extra from your existing annual provider or the cruise company? I know cruising is considered high risk due to eye watering onboard medical costs etc...

[55palfers]

carreauchompeur said:

Jeez! I’m lucky to have cheap cover.

Is the £800 extra from your existing annual provider or the cruise company? I know cruising is considered high risk due to eye watering onboard medical costs etc...

Existing provider.

Base Europe only policy was £260 for me and Mrs 55.

[carreauchompeur]

Ouch, that sounds like a ‘we don’t want to cover you’ price... I’d shop around. Have you booked the cruise yet? The tour operator is bound to have some sort of deal...

[mholt1995]

Have you stuck your details in any of the price comparison sites?

[55palfers]

Have done all the comparison sites.

For the sake of a few quid I stuck with the mob I used last year.

Cruise not booked yet. May substitute Caribbean for Baltic and Med. Quite like the look of those river cruises too. Rhine, Danube, etc.

[Insurancejon]

because the £800 rate is a one off travel rate

The £700 is the cost of upgrading your euro cover to worldwide, some of the premium has already been paid

[55palfers]

Thanks IJ - suppose that makes some sort of sense

Doesn't really explain the disparity of costing for days on risk though does it?

21 vs potentially hundreds.

Edited by 55palfers on Monday 14th January 21:45

[williaa68]

You might want to think about opening a nationwide flex plus account and then declaring the pre-existing conditions to the insurer that comes as part of that. We did that and ended up with a premium of around £150 with pre-existing conditions for both me and one of my children. The account costs £12 per month but you can recoup a chunk of that via the in credit interest on the first £2500 .

[deckster]

The headline figure is clearly high, but overall it fits the pattern I've seen where the crossover point between paying a daily rate versus paying for an annual policy. In my experience it's somewhere around the three week mark where the daily rate starts to exceed that of an annual policy so I'd say the quote they have given you is pretty typical.

[Rtype]

Key point here is the Americas healthcare cost.

Suitable healthcare may not be available on the island hence the need to fly you off by helicopter and pay Americas medicare costs...