Len Salisbury Posted October 8, 2015 Author Share Posted October 8, 2015 I'M home.The recovery process started at 0500 hrs when the taxi picked me up and took me to Manchester airport. Ryanair took off 10 mins late but landed on time at Charleroi. I hired a taxi for 20 Euros with receipt which took me to the railway station. I was asked what was my age and when I said 82 a ticket was issued to me a for a 2 hour train ride to Antwerp where I had another taxi which cost 55 Euros to where the MH was located again with receipt. I told the family that I was leaving after a cup of tea and drove to Dunkirk port arriving there at 1645 hrs. I went to the booking office and had to pay £8 for amendment to original ticket and was informed that the 1800 was full up and could go on the 2000 hrs one which I declined saying that I would go on the 0600 ferry to Dover. I spent the night there and it was OK with a few more MH and caravans there too. I set the alarm on the clock for 0500 and was awake before then and got on the ferry, had a breakfast then filled up in BP Dover with fuel and was hoping to be in N Wales by 1300 hrs but the M6 around Wednesbury area had had some accidents and so this prevented me from arriving on time. I arrived at 1345 hrs. Not bad for an 82 year man. Now to place a claim form in to Green Flag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted October 8, 2015 Share Posted October 8, 2015 Not bad indeed Len, and well done! I hope your wife's recovery is now well under way. Now, having (I hope!) recovered a bit, might I suggest you take up Curtisdean's suggestion of looking for a more integrated insurance package, that would perform better under similar circumstances. I think your tale has highlighted some very interesting points regarding the extent of various insurance covers when the unexpected happens. Particularly as regards what happens when the named driver is OK, the vehicle is OK, but one's "significant other" is not! Also, it seems there may be a nasty little wrinkle regarding what happens to one's insurance covers should one die while abroad, and whether summary cancellation of cover under those circumstances is an industry standard, or is merely the policy of individual companies - who might be best avoided. Leaving said significant other to sort out the mess of one's death, while traumatised by the event, only to find that all insurances taken out in one's name are now void leaving at least the vehicle with no insurance, plus a need to get it repatriated, seems exactly what I would have hoped these insurances would cover. From posts above, it seems this is not necessarily so. I know I "snapped" at Curtisdean (for which I apologise) for the timing of his suggestion, but his central point was valid. Having a bunch of insurances for travel, health, vehicle recovery, vehicle, and possibly personal effects, especially if from different insurers, does leave a lot of scope for gaps between the various covers. You seem to have come out fairly well, albeit at considerable personal discomfort, but it could well have been significantly more difficult, and costly, than it proved. It would be interesting, and instructive if, in due course, you could let us all know what you find out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtisden Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Brian Kirby - 2015-10-08 10:34 PM Not bad indeed Len, and well done! I hope your wife's recovery is now well under way. Now, having (I hope!) recovered a bit, might I suggest you take up Curtisdean's suggestion of looking for a more integrated insurance package, that would perform better under similar circumstances. I think your tale has highlighted some very interesting points regarding the extent of various insurance covers when the unexpected happens. Particularly as regards what happens when the named driver is OK, the vehicle is OK, but one's "significant other" is not! Also, it seems there may be a nasty little wrinkle regarding what happens to one's insurance covers should one die while abroad, and whether summary cancellation of cover under those circumstances is an industry standard, or is merely the policy of individual companies - who might be best avoided. Leaving said significant other to sort out the mess of one's death, while traumatised by the event, only to find that all insurances taken out in one's name are now void leaving at least the vehicle with no insurance, plus a need to get it repatriated, seems exactly what I would have hoped these insurances would cover. From posts above, it seems this is not necessarily so. I know I "snapped" at Curtisdean (for which I apologise) for the timing of his suggestion, but his central point was valid. Having a bunch of insurances for travel, health, vehicle recovery, vehicle, and possibly personal effects, especially if from different insurers, does leave a lot of scope for gaps between the various covers. You seem to have come out fairly well, albeit at considerable personal discomfort, but it could well have been significantly more difficult, and costly, than it proved. It would be interesting, and instructive if, in due course, you could let us all know what you find out. Thank you Brian and well said. Insurance is something you should expect to work and fully cover you when you have a problem. Saving on your premium may seem cost effective, but will only be so if you don't call on it to pay out when things go wrong, as this sad tale has clearly shown. We all hope that his wife recovers of course. But if there had been a full integrated package in place, they would have been home over that weekend and there MH would be following them without the faffing about. I to have learnt a great deal from the various posts on this thread and the death abroad problems was something I had not realised was the case or taken into consideration. On checking with the CC it is a grey area. But I was told that as I had taken the package out for over 25 years it would be covered on the basis of customer loyalty, which I found the case this year when I made a claim. See Below. Having a heart condition myself that is quite serious, I have found the CC Red Pennant worth every penny, as along as you disclose fully in the first place and follow the rules on disclosure re condition change or medication change. Which means I am are regularly in contact with their underwriters. They cover me at the standard rate with no uplifts in premium or conditions. This is not the case I have found with some of the popular MH insurance companies offering travel and roadside cover as part the total premium. On disclosure they penalise you with a higher premium. You get what you pay for. Yes they do now and them withdraw cover for a particular condition, if you have a new condition, medication change or a consultancy appointment for a week or two. But fully restore the cover with no premium uplifts once the outcome is clear and disclosed. Or so I have found. They are a pleasure to deal with. Last year I had a 4 month period when I had Heart Fibrillation which on disclosure, Heart problems were not covered till the condition was investigated and stabilised. It was them fully restored. But this did mean that I chose not to travel overseas during that period. Being a euro tunnel frequent traveller I found I would be unable to use 6 of my 10 tickets (5 returns) pre paid passages even though they had 5 months to run. On contacting Red Pennant I was at first told, that as I had not got a holiday planned and had made my decision based on a personal choice, I was not covered. They went on to say that multiple bookings of this type were not covered in any case for various reasons. One being that the 12 months validity was not up, or any where near and may still be used. On pressing the claims department and pointing out my 25 years loyalty with the CC, interrogated cover only via CC products and Red Pennant restriction. They fully met my claim under the Travel elements of Red Pennant sighting customer loyalty as the reason for settling my claim even though there was 5 months to run. When 10 years ago we broke down in France in a New Land Rover towing a Caravan. We were given free choice on what we wanted to do,what car we wanted to hire and route we wanted to return from the second breakdown leaving both the caravan and Land Rover on a caravan site overseas. The caravan returned a week later on a truck followed a few days later by the still broken down Land Rover, delivered direct to our local Land Rover garage for repair, when the French dealer quoted 4 weeks before parts could be sorted. They did not just get us home they monitored the returns and recovered the Land Rover when it looked like we would be without the 4x4 for more than a few days. I rest my case. Loyalty is worth the premium. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowtelse2do Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Glad you're home Len and best wishes to your good lady, I hope she recovers quickly and with no problems. As for the problems thrown up about the insurance side of things, if something like this (or worse) happened to us then my wife would be in a pickle. She doesn't drive and never has any idea where she is. It's now prompted me to write down what she has to do if anything happened to me when away in the van, especially when abroad. My son and daughter are both named drivers, so getting the van back would not be a huge problem but having some kind of insurance to cover the problem that Len had would be better, so will have to investigate. Len, your thread has thrown up a very grey area like Peter said, but you're unfortunate predicament may indeed have helped others for in the future, so thanks. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pampam Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Curtisden :- may i ask if red pennant can be used for "normal" breakdown cover ,? i have a car and caravan at moment and took out aa breakdown cover before we bought caravan . But they dont seem that good with caravans and motorhomes when we had a 28' motorhome i was with arrival thru rac with c&cc but have since fallen out with rac after 25 years . So might give red pennant a ring when i go out on road with caravan (havent had maiden voyage yet) am getting it serviced first cheers pp:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtisden Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Pampam - 2015-10-09 9:32 PM Curtisden :- may i ask if red pennant can be used for "normal" breakdown cover ,? i have a car and caravan at moment and took out aa breakdown cover before we bought caravan . But they dont seem that good with caravans and motorhomes when we had a 28' motorhome i was with arrival thru rac with c&cc but have since fallen out with rac after 25 years . So might give red pennant a ring when i go out on road with caravan (havent had maiden voyage yet) am getting it serviced first cheers pp:) Hi Red Pennant is for overseas, but they do a Green Flag Mayday cover for UK. No limits on size and various cover to suit your level of cover. Look here. But you have to be a CC member. https://mayday.greenflag.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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