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.]

if someone dies overseas can you not just have them cremated there and bring the ashes back in hold luggage or something?

not necessarily. in some countries cremation is not available at all. in others only funeral specialists or coroners or similar are allowed to handle human remains which means costly specialist service.

Even for small things the insurance is so worth it. My handbag was stolen on holidays and I got back the cost of everything in it - nearly €400. Make up and medication and my wallet. Had to visit a surgeon for a minor condition on another trip and cost $350 (AUD) and was paid without a quibble.

There's also been a recent case of a hospital not releasing a body of a tourist until the treatment bill was paid. Cannot imagine how hard this would be for the family.

When I saw the title of your thread I was fuming and I was about to launch into a full-on tirade about how important travel insurance is and how wrong you were.

Then I realised that you were being sarcastic, so the point I am trying to make is no YANBU and I totally agree with you.

even with ehic - it's for primary care, i.e. hospital and ooh stuff.
not caring for someone who broke a leg but can't travel without adjustments.

They mean conditions you have been to a doctor about, not just things with a definite diagnosis.

--

Seems they wanted me to pay with no intention of actually covering me then. As I explained all of my problems, how often I am hospitalized, how often I see consultant, the emdication I am on (morphine..and low end opiates) and they asked if I was diagnosed, I said no and they said don't worry about it then :S

Vickyyy - if you have disclosed the details to the insurance company and they chose not to take them into account, you are fine - the worry is that many people do not realise that they need to disclose everything in their recent medical history. They quite understandably assume that one-off issues that are completely cured - like my patient's broken ankle - are irrelevant.

thomasrichard, thanks for the suggestions of companies covering pre existing conditions. None of them would cover my conditions, but I was directed to Freedom Insurance, who can cover my 2 weeks in the USA for £400, which is brilliant (£1100 cheaper than the other quote I had).

I met someone who fell ill in the Caribbean and needed airlifting to the US followed by a prolonged hospital stay including ITU, and then medical evacuation on a private jet back to the UK. It cost their insurance company $1.5m dollars!

I have pre existing medical conditions but have always managed to get reasonable priced cover that covers them.

Really good film from the Foreign office on travel insurance here hasn't been on TV for a while but with so many people still not taking it maybe it should be re released.

Target has gone up from £10k to £25k in last couple of hours. Apparently the hospital won't release him till they've been paid £25k. They're hammering local media.

Fuckwits.

Target has gone up from £10k to £25k in last couple of hours

Has it now? Maybe I'm a cynical heartless bitch, but that makes me very suspicious.

We are paying £13 for our family to insure us for our holiday. We all have declarable health issues. If you can't afford £13 perhaps you need to rethink your holiday

Over the past 24 hours I have 3 FB threads asking for donations to get people home from abroad because they don't have insurance plus one thread asking for donations to get a child to America for some bloody singing audition! Time to delete FB I think...

I'm not a bad skier (well I wasn't before the DC came along and ate all my money) and wear a helmet, but I ended up in Chamonix A&E when I was hit and injured by an out of control snowboarder. Glad I had snow sport insurance then; also when a bag of bike parts and tools went missing on the way to Spain; when pushchair was lost on way back from France; and when we nearly had to cancel a trip to Paris earlier this year because DD had Scarlet Fever. All situations where we needed insurance, all arising through the actions of a third party. We've just come back from a week in Scotland, got insurance for that. Largely in case we needed to cancel,but added mountain biking insurance in case DH had an accident and ended up in hospital 100s miles from home.

I've just paid £12 to insure five of us including DD2's pre existing heart condition.

BIL has twice come unstuck abroad whilst uninsured. SMIL has bailed him out both times at enormous cost.
Why he didn't get insurance after the first time is beyond me.

Just a quick reminder that although you can wait until 5 minutes before the flight to buy your insurance online, you probably shouldn't. The vital thing is of course medical bills and repatriation expenses, which could bankrupt you. But if you've spent significant amounts on your holiday then you should buy insurance immediately after you press "Pay" on the flight booking. That way you're covered for disasters which mean you have to cancel the holiday.

Our travel insurance cost £90 for a 10 day holiday.

I think many insurance companies will only sell you insurance if you haven't the UK yet, only a few seem ok to sell it to you when you're already abroad

oops - left the UK yet

I've never had cause to use travel insurance (fingers crossed that won't change as I'm currently away in the States and pregnant with twins- touch wood) but I would never go away without proper insurance, it's mad to me.

I certainly wouldn't be contributing to someone else for being daft enough to go away without insurance- honestly it baffles me as its so inexpensive!

My current annual policy won't cover me for something I was recently hospitalised for so I've had it excluded- I'm not worried as what I was treated for is actually treatable with antibiotics so my doc sent me away with a spare set of antibiotics which was nice of her. But I've told them about it and told them about my pregnancy- I just think it's mad not to be covered!

Travel insurance is extremely cheap compared to the price of the trip, accommodation and activities. There is absolutely no excuse not to take it.

I am a very healthy person with no pre-existing medical conditions and who does not practice risk sports. Still, I have had to use my travel insurance twice. They paid immediately (even though in both cases they were the cheapest insurance I found online) and saved me hundreds of dollars. There were minor issues but costs pile up when you count taxi cabs to go from/to hospital, medicines, treatment and hospital stay.

Not having insurance is unforgivable and inexcusable.

whatishistory

My parents used SAGA I think, I know they got cover for them to go to France for a week when my mum had diabetes and terminal cancer.

The first quote was £2000 with another company, SAGA was much more reasonable. There are also specialist companies that cover pre existing conditions.

You can indeed buy insurance at the airport. But if you can't go on the holiday for any reason, don't blub if you left the insurance that late. There's cancellation cover included too. Losing a holiday because a relative got sick or a kid got chickenpox would be quite painful enough.