Do you declare EVERYTHING for travel insurance?

[Squeekey]

Just that really.

I would always declare my daughter's health condition as it's serious, will affect whether we get coverage etc, but do you really declare everything everyone in the family has seen a Dr for in the last 2 years?

Last time I phoned up about insurance (phone needed because of daughter), they spent about 20 minutes asking innane questions about my husband's 5 minute trip to a Dr 9 months ago for foot pain.

I'm perfectly happy to accept that I won't get coverage for anything we don't declare, but in reality what do people do? I keep, I think I had a phone appointment with the GP last year for antibiotics for a chest infection - according to the insurance rules I need to declare it.

I'm considering that I might benefit from antidepressants for the first time to get me through a very very stressful few months and I can feel my mid plummeting, but I can't face having it over analyzed for donkeys years by insurers.

What do people do?

Yes. DH rang them to confirm.

Barclays. You need to subscribe to their Travel Pack.

Presuming that I booked a holiday, is the purpose of the insurance, and either they declined, cover or was financially, could I claim for the costs of cancelling the holiday?

@Squeekey my understanding is if you already have insurance in place and holiday booked, if you update them on a medical condition which they deem too high risk and won't cover then they will refund your holiday cost.

That's what happened with a friend of mine who had tests and heart condition diagnosed a few weeks before they were due to go on holiday.

Yes if this happened they would refund you the costs of cancelling the holiday but they would have no obligation to continue to insure you for the same premium if you wanted to still travel. Your options would then be to either buy a much more expensive policy that covered the newly discovered condition, or to buy a new policy that specifically excluded the new condition but covered everything else.

The best outcome would be to hope that the test results and diagnosis didn't happen before you travelled but that's not realistic with some holidays that are booked a year or more in advance.

How about a fit to travel policy? You don't gave to list conditions, just be fit to travel.

The trouble with relying on that is that they can make out that something is linked to a pre existing condition

As an example, migraine, i fyou are a migraine sufferer you're at higher risk for heart attack and stroke (see the qrisk for details), so say you have a stroke, but you dont have high cholesterol, high BP, any previous signs of stroke or markers, but you also do have a history of migraine which you have declared, I bet they would make out that its related.

You probably need to ask as soon as you book for your next trip!

Where do you get proof of being fit to travel? My GP refused to confirm this, the insurance said I needed to ask the gP simply to put it on my notes after making a referral for the gall stones, GP refused to do it, said they dont do that

I said I simply need confirmation that Im not unfit to travel based on the gallstone issue, wouldnt do it.

@soupfiend I think you have to pay. My dad had to pay for an unfit to fly letter

My annual policy with LV is the same - declare everything that falls in their criteria for being declared at renewal, and anything that develops or happens during the year doesn't need to be declared until next renewal.

I keep my own list of what I last declared, along with dates of the appointment or accident, and add any new things as they happen. Then at renewal I know which ones are old enough that they can be removed, and I add the new ones.

Me again with more questions

Do I have to declare my mildly sprained wrist in the summer?!

If you saw a clinician about it and it's therefore in your medical record, yes. Most insurers seem to ask you to declare any contact with clinicians in the past x years (mine is 2, I think I've come across some which are more).

Oh my god

I'm never getting insured again

Yes because you know that as you're leaving that night club, slightly tipsy while in Benidorm, and someone shuts your hand in the door and you seek medical attention for it and need to pay for a cast or antibiotics, they'll say 'oh, but you already had a weakness and an existing sprain and you never told us about that'

And what was your formal diagnosis for this, blah blah blah!

Just as I was booking some holidays earlier this month I remembered all this and thought Im never going abroad again.

@soupfiend I don't drink, but it would be just my luck that this trip is where something happens!!

But each company varies, we don't have to declare short illnesses or conditions which are solved with a single dose of antibiotics, I reported strep throat 20 months prior and they weren't bothered at all and you don't have to declare acid reflux with mine because it's so common post 40 years old it's factored in already!

//

But I think the point is you must ask them and then they'll tell you if if it is a condition they need to note. Often when I've played around with online forms and used the drop down menus they ask you a few questions then screen may return "No further action" for example. When I have them done a second quite this time omitting it the quote cost has been the same.

This

I have in the past waited until the 11th hour of just before balance needs paying and when we get a test result (assuming we can afford to lose deposit of worse happens in the meantime).

Often it's not knowing the outcome which either pushes premiums up massively or leads to refusal to insure.

This happened when DD was on the waiting list for her brace

Anyone know if you have to declare an appointment with a physiotherapist? I have a minor running injury and self referred for physio, but it doesn't appear on my health record on the NHS app.

It depends which insurance company you have gone for. I have spent the afternoon trying to phone around for quotes for doing a marathon abroad and wanted to make sure that I had everything right.

In the end I went with Sports Cover Direct who were only interested in medication or GP referrals, inpatient records from the past 12 months, but others have asked for the previous 2 years. I had a physio appointment back in June which won't have shown on my medical records. anyway.

You will have to ring and ask.

What good is a travel insurance if it does not cover existing conditions?

I've been thinking about this all day and I'm genuinely furious.

I understand very serious illnesses putting premiums up, but small things like a visit to your gp for a sinus infection is wild

I had a policy like this when my daughter was on a surgical waiting list. It excluded the issue she needed surgery for (benign cyst) but covered all other medical issues. Not every insurer would cover me. I used one called Good2Go. No idea if they are any good as I didn't have to make a claim.

Yes you're fine if you have a diagnosis and its clear what your problem is and that you're just waiting for surgery

What they dont like is that theres something wrong and either you dont have a diagnosis, or you're waiting for referrals, tests scans, appointments to get a diagnosis (or confirm there is no diagnosis)

And for some of us that is years away

Staysure is targeted at older people who would expect to have various conditions. I declared everything for our family and the premium was still low

Yes, sure. Though we're not going farther than the Isle of Wight so far this year.