Don't bother with travel insurance.....

[HeCantBeSerious]

Go in on your lovely exotic holiday. Take advantage of all the dangerous activities. When you have an accident and are in a coma/break every bone in your body the rest of us will club together to pay the tens of thousands of pounds of costs to bring you home through the magic of crowdfunding. No no, no need to get travel insurance before you go. What sort of fool does that?

[just been sent the third begging email this week for an eye watering amount needed to bring what's left of a foolish and reckless youngster home from the third world country he decided to risk his life in.]

Thing is, if you think about how insurance works, everyone who has insurance and doesn't get hurt IS paying for anyone who does. All crowd-funding does is cut out the profit to insurance companies. Which is actually a good thing.

It's actually socialism in action. Viva la Revolucion!

The only time I have claimed on travel insurance ( stolen items) I told the truth and was told that my 'goods' we're not insured while my 'goods' were in transit. I was moving from hotel to hotel on a tour. It appeared that if I said my 'goods' were stolen from a specific hotel room, I would have been paid out. Read the small print.

Good point MrsTP , but when you pay the premium to the insurance company you are getting cover for all the bad things that could happen to you - when you pay to a crowd-funding site you're getting bugger all for your ££s.

I doubt people are thinking about socialism when they are not bother to pay for insurance

I have known people not to bother when they travel to the states then moaned about paying over a $1000 just for basic treatment and a few prescriptions

YANBU

I even had an acquaintance tell me once that no one should bother with it because it never pays out....when I pointed out I'd had an accident on holiday and the insurance had paid for it all including a late return and extra time in hotel, she looked really confused!!!!!!!

No no, no need to get travel insurance before you go. What sort of fool does that?

I agree with you. You buy insurance for whatever activities you plan to do and ensure its enough to cover you for accidents, illness, bringing you home etc.

YAnBU - and half of them are scams anyway

I think the correct term is Less Economically Developed (rather than Third World) Country.

Many years ago I was injured while on holiday in the USA (just an accident, I wasn't doing anything reckless).

We had to go to an ER for treatment and a prescription, clutching my travel insurance documents. The cost of my treatment was several thousand dollars.

For most people travel insurance isn't that expensive, I'm fairly unsympathetic to those who choose not to buy it.

Glad it's not just me!

The whole crowdfunding thing is getting laughable.

Saw a request yesterday to raise £500 to replace stock from a local business that was burgled. Reading the story in the newspaper it appears owner is insured, but can't afford £100 excess. So where is the other £400 going to and assuming as he's a business he'll make profit on his £500 stock what happens to that?
Madness.

If there's one place where people should always have insurance, it's the USA. You risk being refused medical care without it.

I fainted with chest pain while on a work trip over there. I was taken by ambulance to the local hospital. It was a 5 minute ride. While still in the ambulance (& with oxygen make on), I was asked to sign an iPad agreeing to pay the ambulance costs before I was taken out. I was rolled to the front desk and asked for proof of insurance. I now know that they had contacted the insurance company to confirm I was covered before they started treating me.

A few months later, a bill for the ambulance of £1000 turned up at my home. The insurance company hadn't dealt with it fast enough, so the ambulance company decided to send it to me. (My work sorted it out immediately!)

I dread to think how much my 2 day stay in hospital, plus tests, cost my work's insurance, but I was so relieved that they were on the ball and remarkably helpful. I was stuck in hospital, completely on my own without so much as a toothbrush. I felt very, very alone. (The aunt of the woman in the next bed took me under her wing. I remember crying at her kindness, bringing me cups of tea, snacks and she brought me an ice cream. The food was worse than the NHS.)

The insurance company was available via text, email and phone 24 hours a day & they answered me within 5 minutes every time. They arranged everything I neededextended my stay at the hotel (as I was due to leave the day I was admitted), rebooked fights and trains for me & kept my husband up to date. The day I was discharged, I was supposed to be doing a 2 hour bus journey to the airport. While rearranging my flight, the insurance company went ahead (on their own volition) and paid for a taxi to take me insteadabout 80 miles. I was so grateful!

It made a massive difference to have an insurance company that went the extra mile to help me. It made me think more about which companies I will use when on holiday myself--I will pay more attention to their reputation, rather than snapping up the cheapest.

I bought insurance for a holiday to US twenty minutes before we left for the airport.

Six weeks later after DH had major brain surgery and six other interventions we were brought home first class with a doctor on board and in the taxi all the way home.

I reckon $500,000 minimum.

Please get insurance. You never know what's going to happen.

I had a mishap with a mobility scooter m, it was a complete accident but the hotel manager was not very nice about it and demanded £300 up front to pay for the (minor) damage. My insurance company reimbursed it all with no questions asked. Discovered this year that the hotel had t done the repair though. Why would you want to put your family in the position of having to remortgage their house to get you home. Just Coz you wouldn't pay for insurance.

Most insurance policies won't pay out on dangerous or extreme sports and activities anyway. I'm not suggesting not having insurance but they do indeed like to find some small print that will allow them to decline your claim.

We ski and dive so have insurance that covers those activities world wide. I pay extra to be covered to 40m rather than the standard 30m Max dive depth because whilst we're unlikely to go to 40m, I wouldn't ever want a claim turned down because we went to 30.5 or 32 etc.

It's less than £170 a year for 2 adults and 2 children on full worldwide cover. I don't understand why anyone would travel uninsured.

My car insurance wouldn't pay out for skiing accidents. That's not small print, that's a different sort of insurance?

Get travel insurance suitable fot your travels? Please?

Getting the right insurance is vital too. Lots of people get the cheapest insurance without realising that some of the activities they may want to do are excluded.

YANBU

if you can't afford the insurance then you can't really afford your holiday.

We had our whole holiday costs refunded when my husband took unwell with a pre existing condition (that we had declared) about 3 weeks before we were about to go away. It was worth every penny.

YANBU. I once saw a crowdfunding page for someone whose dog needed the same op my dog had had a month before. I obviously sympathised with the owners but our insurance paid for ours after we paid the excess. Why should I pay my insurance & you rely on crowdfunding?

I had travel insurance when abroad in Europe last year. I was ambulanced to a private clinic, given thousands of pounds worth of tests and then transferred to another hospital for treatment. I paid the £80 excess. And that was it.

I would never EVER travel without it.

YY whatis, I had my first child in an American protectorate. The company insurance was due to be switched on a fixed date. The same standard birth cover was provided but much less available for NICU costs should they be required. It was terrifying - some colleagues of ours had received a huge bill above the insured asking for the NICU treatment of their twins, which the company covered - but they didn't have to.

As DC1 was overdue the doctor approved an induction - as long as I was in labour by the switchover date the old insurance company would cover it. It was stressful and we had to cover the epidural ourselves - the best $500 or so I have ever spent. I will never, ever travel without really good insurance. YANBU OP.

Always always always get the best travel insurance you can afford.

I know someone who was shipwrecked and had to have S&R in one of the most inhospitable places on earth, plus medevac back to Civilisation plus extensive medical treatment. If that cost less than a few mill I'd be stunned.

I ended up in emergency in the USA and oxygen and a drip cost a grand...m,ore than that, they wouldn't treat me until they had my cc /insurance details.

The BMC do good cover for world travel and activities .

Totally agree OP.

I hate this attitude of "I'll save my own money then get everyone else to pay for my mistakes/misfortune.