Travel Insurance

[rp272]

Our personal travel insurance is due for renewal in January. We currently have a multi-trip policy with Carefree (I still think of them as this) as they permit up to 90 consecutive days with an annual maximum of 183.

For most people this might seem enough but next year when adding up all the things we have booked plus the trips we would like to do it comes to 197 days (outside the UK). Carefree insurance would not allow us to buy a single trip policy for Morocco even though the multi-trip would not normally cover Morocco and in any event would not have lasted until the end of the trip!

The Caravan Club's Red Pennant while very comprehensive only does slightly better at 185 but at quite a price.

I have been looking at LV (Liverpool & Victoria) who seem to offer unlimited trips of no more than 90 days in any one year. There are some very positive reviews (none negative that I have found) and I suppose that is encouraging.

What experience have you my fellow motorhomers have, either with this company or any other that offers a similar policy.

[lennyhb]

Have you considered changing your bank account, for example Lloyds & Nationwide offer free worldwide travel insurance with certain current accounts. Our Lloyds account covers multi trips up to 45 days each trip. I inquired last week about extending it , £70 for 12 months multi trip cover 60 days per trip, £130 for 93 days per trip.

[PJay]

As Lenny has stated, we have ours with Nationwide , any trip up to 90 days each time.

I am not sure if you can still get it if you are not already a member though

PJay

[rp272]

Hi PJay

I do have a Nationwide account which offers travel insurance but did not realise that it could be extended to trips of 90 days. I will have to give them a ring to check that Morocco is covered and find out how much the premium will go up for high blood pressure. Currently we have multi-trip insurance from Carefree but this has an annual ceiling of 183 days.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Roger

[PJay]

rp272 - 2014-12-02 7:27 PM

Hi PJay

I do have a Nationwide account which offers travel insurance but did not realise that it could be extended to trips of 90 days. I will have to give them a ring to check that Morocco is covered and find out how much the premium will go up for high blood pressure. Currently we have multi-trip insurance from Carefree but this has an annual ceiling of 183 days.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Roger

RogerThe insurance is UK insurace .Only up to 70 years old, but you can get age extension, as we have.Found them to be goodP

[KeithR]

as far as i know, ADAC are the only company that cover you for breakdown and recovery in morocco. the policy includes medical cover. your normal motorhome insurance should cover you for anything else with the green card.

[lennyhb]

PJay - 2014-12-02 7:37 PM

rp272 - 2014-12-02 7:27 PM

Hi PJay

I do have a Nationwide account which offers travel insurance but did not realise that it could be extended to trips of 90 days. I will have to give them a ring to check that Morocco is covered and find out how much the premium will go up for high blood pressure. Currently we have multi-trip insurance from Carefree but this has an annual ceiling of 183 days.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Roger

RogerThe insurance is UK insurace .Only up to 70 years old, but you can get age extension, as we have.Found them to be goodP

Nationwide FlexPlus account it is 31 days worldwide multi trip cover that can be extended, age limit 75 which can be extended for £50, Lloyds age limit is 80.

[StuartO]

One of the problems with "free" travel insurance for MH owners is the likelihood that pre-existing medical conditions will spply and a substantial extra premium will be payable.

 

The bank of building society buys core cover for low risk healthy people at a cheap bulk rate from an insurance company for its scheme, which serves its marketing purposes. The scheme uses an additional insurer to screen for existing medical conditions, allowing thm to charge whatever extra they wish. The "free" scheme will also usually also exclude older people, such as the over 75s.

 

My OH has osteoarthritis of the fingers (i.e. nobbly finger joints) which has no credible implications for extra travel risk (it gets better in warm weather and cannot turn into an emergency scenario) yet she was charged £120. We could have excluded that condition from cover but I worry that travel insurers will grab any excuse to limit or repudiate a claim anyway, so setting off with only partial cover makes no sense.

 

Last year my sister developed bowel cancer and had to cancel a holiday she had booked and paid up for. Her Barclays scheme (covered by Aviva) refused the claim on the basis that she had seen her GP (with symptoms which eventually turned out to be cancer) before she paid for the holiday, so she should have rung them about the symptoms as well - and they would have advised her not to pay. She didn't know she might have cancer and hadn't even seen the specialist at that stage. Nor had the possible diagnosis been mentioned to her. But Aviva were insistent and very hard-nosed about it. Fortunately Barclays could see that Aviva were letting down their customer badly, and paid up instead.

 

So you need a reliable insurer who will not quibble officiously, and ideally someone can be trusted to lean on the insurer for you if necessary too. Having seen how Aviva dealt with my sister's claim, I wouldn't take out any insurance with them at any price. Of course you must not tell porkies about existing medical problems or they might well dump you in your hour of need but most peope will think that dumping you when you have quite genuinely developed cancer and you need to cancel the holiday to undergo surgery and chemo etc is rediculous.

 

I am currently insured with LV, which I regard as a decent insurance company and since I go through CSMA to them, I gain confidence that if LV ever did misbehave, CSMA might lean on them for me.

 

I used to think that insuring via the Caravan Club would yield the same benefits, because that is a membership organisation which you might expect would stand up for its members. But I had reason to become seriously disillusioned with CC and I would no longer trust them to weigh in for an individual member at all. CC is not really a club; it's just a holiday organisation which is ruled by arrogant, bossy women pretending to be a club and "membership" of it counts for nothing at all.

 

Choose your travel insurer with great care!

[lennyhb]

StuartO - 2014-12-03 10:09 AM

I used to think that insuring via the Caravan Club would yield the same benefits, because that is a membership organisation which you might expect would stand up for its members. But I had reason to become seriously disillusioned with CC and I would no longer trust them to weigh in for an individual member at all. CC is not really a club; it's just a holiday organisation which is ruled by arrogant, bossy women pretending to be a club and "membership" of it counts for nothing at all.

 

Totally agree, could add a lot more but Frank will jump in and bore us all to death. (lol)

[Wirralian]

I have been a faithful client of LV for many years with cars and household insurance and when I heard about their excellent multi trip travel insurance, I immediately made an application. But I was turned down! I had oral cancer 20 years which was successfully treated by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. But because the tumor wasn't surgically removed, the said no to me even though I explained to them that I was given the 'all clear' over 10 yrs ago.

 

For the first time in many years I shall not be renewing my car insurance through LV.

 

John

[Guest JudgeMental]

Yes L&V keep charges resonable by being fairly hard nosed re medical conditions...I fell at the first hurdle and felt quite hurt to be honest, as have always managed to get cover elsewhere at a price..... :-S

 

Being a customer seems to count for nufink 8-)

[peacock312]

Just renewed travel insurance with European travel ( caravan camping club) multi trip, 90 days single trip, 180 days total in one year,price same as last year £204.00

I take two blood pressure tablets daily,for last ten years,BP normal.

I have prostrate problem,for last nine years,controlled by medication,slightly raised PSA level at moment.

Normally pay excess of approx £ 10.00 to cover this,this year after screening no excess BUT no insurance cover available for above conditions, IE. If ANY problem occurs with Prostate, bladder etc.or ANY heart related problem, no cover!

I do wonder why we take out travel insurance except for repatriation,

One day I expect we will only get van insurance if we don't use it in rush hour,never exceed 50mph,never go on motorways,never go farther than 50 miles from home,excluding any van out of warranty! No cover for over 60 ? ITS COMING!

 

[lennyhb]

I have always been quite surprised on the long list of conditions you don't need to declare on the lloyds Bank policy.

[peacock312]

Quite unbelievable ! Will look at it next year if I make it again!

[StuartO]

Wirralian - 2014-12-03 9:30 PM

 

I have been a faithful client of LV for many years with cars and household insurance and when I heard about their excellent multi trip travel insurance, I immediately made an application. But I was turned down! I had oral cancer 20 years which was successfully treated by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. But because the tumor wasn't surgically removed, the said no to me even though I explained to them that I was given the 'all clear' over 10 yrs ago.

 

For the first time in many years I shall not be renewing my car insurance through LV.

 

John

 

I suspect that all insurance companies have blind spots and this sounds very much like one of LV's. Clearly your type of cancer, well and truly cured, but it is also a bit esoteric for them.

 

You are talking to a relatively unskilled Call Taker who follows a strict computer-driven script from whjich he/she has little or so scope to exercise discretion. It can sometimes help to ask to speak to the Team Leader/Manager when that sort of thing happens but rarely will you be able to get them to listen to sense because they cannot deviate from the script. Insurance of this sort works on large scale cver of low risks and, in LV's case, rejection of perceived higher risks. Other insurers refer you to a medical screening process which assesses your risk status in more detail by dialogue but will invariably charge you extra, even for trivial conditions.

 

LV's travel insurance is a good scheme and it might still be worth you writing to LV to ask them to reconsider. Enclose a doctor's letter confirming that your cancer has been completely cured, so it cannot present any continuing travel or any other excess risk.

 

[rp272]

peacock312 - 2014-12-05 11:32 AMJust renewed travel insurance with European travel ( caravan camping club) multi trip, 90 days single trip, 180 days total in one year,price same as last year £204.00

We insured with C&CC last year - exactly the same policy but it is the 183 days total that is the sticking point for 2015.

LV's policy permits the same 90 day trip limit but would provide cover for 4 such trips (or many more shorter ones) in a year as long as you could return to the UK between each. 

Roger

[chris]

Last year we took out Staysure single long trip which could be for 180 days and over 70yrs. This year we took out lv for up to 90 days several times a year and over 70 YRS .

CCC does up to 180 days but not more than 90 days per trip

chris

[starvin marvin]

Until end of the year I have annual multi trip cover with LV, however the Nationwide Flexplus packaged a/c provides along with a stack of other covers a Worldwide family travel policy for 31 days extendable to 180 days for a cost.

 

I've yet to speak to them re pre-existing medical conditions, we'll see as this cover is underwritten by UK Insurance!