To think it's impossible to find reliable travel insurance?

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People on Mumsnet love travel insurance and say that you're mad to travel without it. I followed advice on Mumsnet and went on an online comparison site and entered details. It came up with lots of suggestions, from cheap to expensive. I then went through the list of suggestions on Trustpilot. A lot of the companies came up with around 4.5 stars, so looked great. But when I filtered the reviews for "claims" it was a completely different story. Everyone said that when they had to claim they were then dealing with a separate company. Almost without exception, all the reviews about claiming said that the experience was absolutely terrible, caused huge stress and financial difficulties, etc etc. So - setting up what looks like good value insurance cover is one thing, but claiming under it is something else entirely. And it's the claiming part that actually matters.
Can I ask for recommendations from people who have actually had to claim under their insurance and had a good experience? I'm really struggling to find anything I feel I can place any reliance on.

I also have insurance through a Nationwide Flex Plus account. Haven’t claimed for illness but successfully claimed for missed ports on a cruise.

The underwriter has changed since then to Aviva so can’t comment on how good they are for travel insurance but we made a claim on our home insurance for storm damage and they paid up promptly.

When looking for travel insurance you must have repatriation cover. For cruises you need to have medevac cover so they can get you off the ship by helicopter.

I think most of the problems with claims going wrong, stem from either the policy holder not understanding what they are covered for, or not declaring any pre-existing conditions. Ticking boxes on the internet is all very well if you understand insurance but for lots of people, it would work better if they went through a broker who could explain fully what they are covered for & check they’ve made all the correct declarations.

We had travel insurance last year with Staysure. They were recommended by a friend who used to work in insurance. The premium was expensive because DH has a huge medical history. We booked to go to the Caribbean to stay with friends, so airfares were the only cost.

Then a few weeks before departure, DH's rehab nurse told him that one of his meds would make him intolerant to the sun and suddenly going to the Caribbean became a very bad idea. BA were helpful and froze the value of the airfares so that we could see whether he would be able to come off that tablet and travel later in the year, but no.

Eventually, we got around to filing the claim, which was complicated. I spent hours on it, and the claims processing firm (not Staysure) were super-picky about everything but almost two months after I submitted the claim, it was paid out in full, less the excess.

I have cancelled my annual travel insurance, because it was rubbish.
After investigating what I got when paying with credit cards it did not make sense. My compulsory health insurance covers me for that side of things. The other cover for possesions etc. came nowhere near the cost of replacing items.
I would advise anyone to look at exactly what cover you are paying for.
I normally travel with an iPhone, iPad, MacBook and jewellery. €2k would not replace those tech items...

For stuff like this, I look for a DEFAQTO five star rating:
https://www.defaqto.com/star-ratings/view

Who leaves a review about how great a travel insurance is? That would never occur to me. People only leave reviews to complain. Unless you have specialist needs, in which case Insurance With is good, they are almost all going to be the same as long as you accurately answer the screening questions (and my guess is 90% of the time problems arise with people lying about stuff to get a cheaper quote!).

We have had annual cover with LV since 2018. We had a big, costly holiday booked March 2020 which we couldn’t go on due to Covid and they handled the whole thing excellently. I couldn’t get proof that I didn’t take an internal
flight abroad, but they accepted my explanation and even refunded the currency exchange fee that my bank had put on the payment.

We haven’t had to make a medical
claim but they are really helpful when adding on medical conditions (you only need to do it at renewal whereas some require you to notify them asap and still charge you extra for the current year.

We always have a big trip booked on the horizon and have stuck with them because of our experiences.

Small losses or expenses I can cover. Minor illnesses GHIC is good enough.
I am paying for the worst case scenario of critical illness or death requiring repatriation which could run to six figures.

The first thing they check when you submit a claim is your GP record. If there is anything on there that you have not declared, your whole policy is void. So go on the app and check your records. You will find mistakes and you will need to get them corrected.

If you are waiting for any test or investigations results they will not insure you.

I've just claimed on my Aviva with nationwide. The form the GP had to complete asked for medical history. (Unlike most insurers Aviva only ask you to declare conditions for the last 12 months). They don't get to view your GP record.

They will still cover you if you are awaiting tests but not for the undiagnosed condition. So if you have a serious illness and are awaiting tests for something minor that is unlikely to cause a problem, you could still travel

If you are waiting for any test or investigations results they will not insure you

How does this work with current NHS waiting lists?

The thing with insurance these days is that most of the firms on comparison sites are "fronts", i.e. just sales/marketing firms trading as front ends for a very small number of "real" insurance firms working in the background who actually do the work, deal with claims, etc. There are relatively few "real" insurance firms working in the background, but lots of "fronts". The "front end" sales/marketing firms just deal with the quotes and getting the business, then the "real" background firm deal with the admin, management, claims etc. So they're not really "fobbing you off" to separate claims management firms - the firm you bought your policy from is just a marketing/sales agent acting on behalf of the firm in the background - your policy was always underwritten by the background "real" insurance firm.

To a large extent, it doens't matter which "front" you buy the policy from - they're effectively competing against each other, but many of them competing are using the same insurance firm behind the scenes, so you can end up with the same insurance firm underwriting the policy and dealing with any claims.

It's the same whether it's travel insurance, pet insurance, home insurance, car insurance, etc.

Eg Direct Line, Churchill, Privilege and Darwin are all effectively the same background insurance firm, being UK Insurance Limited who don't actually trade directly under their own name.

I had to claim against a third party insurance firm when a neighbour wrote off my car. It was quite funny during the claims process when I had to make numerous phone calls to the claims handlers and they had to keep asking which insurance company it was as they were acting for lots of different "fronts". Once, one of the claims handler (on their direct line) picked up her phone and answered it in the name of a different insurance company by accident as my claim was with a different one!

Back to travel insurance, I once had to make two claims against "get going" travel insurance policies due to a serious health diagnosis. I expected the worse with them being "cheap and cheerful" but the claims handling firm was incredibly good - no quibbles, I just filled in the claims forms and they quickly paid out - both holidays were expensive so I expected arguments, but no problem at all - two payments of a few thousand each straight into my bank account within a few weeks of making the claim. Before I submitted the claims, I'd phoned them a couple of times to tell them of the diagnosis and cancellation and they were really efficient. So "cheap" doesn't always have to mean poor service. I'd happily use them again.

Travel Insurance Facilities Plc is an insurance firm used by a number of "front end" sales/marketing insurance firms such as Flexicover, Lighthouse Travel, Alpha Travel, Holidaysafe, etc.

They'd usually provide cover but with an exception for anything to do with what you're waiting for. I.e. if you're waiting for a hip operation, they'd not cover cancellation or hospitalisation resulting from hip problems, but would still cover you for, say, luggage lost in transit, or a hospitalisation from something different, or flight delays/cancellations, etc. Depends on the reason really - for anything potentially very serious, like suspected cancer, they'd probably not offer any cover at all.

Another one with Nationwide here, it’s free with our current account.
we have claimed twice- once for emergency hospitalization, surgery, and rescheduling journey home, and another time because our car died whilst on holiday in France.
they were excellent both times.

Another factor is that not all the information entered on the comparison websites filters through correctly to the insurance policy you choose. You have to be very careful and double/treble check.

I saw it last year getting a car insurance quote. I answered a couple of the questions honestly into the comparison website. One being whether the car had ever been written off to which I answered yes category N, the other being whether I'd had any accidents (fault or no fault within the past 5 years), to which I answered no because the last accident had been 6 years ago. Got the list of options and chose one, clicked through to their website to buy, and I checked the small print/detail before buying. The fact that the car had been written off hadn't been populated through, so the "fact sheet" showed it hadn't been written off. Further down, the question was whether I'd had any accidents in the last 10 years, answered with a no, but I had to change that too as the comparison site questionnaire asked about last 5 years. By the time I'd changed those two things, the quote had doubled!

The devil really is in the detail with insurance and unfortunately comparison sites just add an extra layer of potential errors/ommissions.

For anything remotely complicated, I'd definitely recommend using a real live "in person" broker if you don't have the time/ability/inclination to check through everything with a fine tooth comb yourself.

I believe Nationwide's travel insurance is administered/managed by Aviva! Not the cheapest insurance firm, but often come out pretty well in rankings of claims handling etc.

We have ours through NatWest. Only claimed once and it was seamless. Have AA cover with the same account and used that the other day for the first ever time - again brilliant.

I have never written a review for anything at all, good or bad, on TrustPilot. I wouldn’t rely on them to this extent.

We went through AXA travel insurance when we'd booked a trip to Switzerland. I ended up in hospital a week before hand, and the Dr advised me not to travel as I hadn't got a diagnosis. They were amazing, I had a phone call once I'd submitted the claim form online and it was all paid out without any quibbles. I was very impressed. We had the money in the bank in under 2 weeks of claiming.

We have our travel through our bank. When my husband had a nasty accident overseas last year, we had immediate support from the insurance company which turned out to be Aviva. They covered everything for both his hospital stay and all our extended hotel and travel costs. Excellent experience .

Also with Lloyds via my platinum account, I have pre existing conditions and the cost to upgrade for them to be covered is really reasonable, I also pay for the excess waver yearly (£10 up front rather then the excess per claim).

I've claimed on the policy twice a couple of years apart, both times it was a fairly quick process and full amounts covered both times.

I found out by bitter experience OP that there are two aspects to insurance help or claim. One is claiming expenses after the event, but more important when you have an actual crisis abroad is the "assistance" you are meant to get. I am still quite traumatised years later after my DM had a bad accident in Spain and was in (an absolutely excellent) hospital there. Her travel insurance farmed out medical assistance to a appalling company that I make sure now any travel insurance I buy does not use. They piled stress upon stress, lie upon lie (really outright terrible lies and deception) while we already stressed to breaking point. They were also totally inefficient and for a week could not locate the hospital, even told me that I was lying that my mother was in hospital as there was no such place (!) and I was making it all up. They were absolutely dreadful and I realised later that they had done nothing to help us that we could not have done ourselves much easier and better. There were many promises to phone that never ever materialised, lies, and almost worst of all telling the hospital doctors that we wanted our mother to come home before she was fit to do so. They pressurised the hospital by misleading them about our wishes, into discharging her (cheaper for them, though she was in an excellent state hospital where her rehabilitation had started and the care was first class). On return here she suffered neglect in hospital, was put at risk of infection and there was no mobilisation programme as had started in Spain. Her recovery was put back massively and she suffered a lot because of that. This "assistance" company (initials F A) were beyond awful Sadly although I avoid any travel insurance that uses them, I don't know how to choose a better one. Just beware of this one.🍀

We use stature as both DH and I have our existing conditions. Been with them for 4-5 years and never had a problem claiming with them. They have been super efficient and paid out very quickly when we had to return home early door to an arson attack when my car was burnt out at home. They also paid out for a lost case/clothing and missed port on a cruise.

Stay sure not stature

As a family we’ve claimed on a few different policies and never had an issue being paid out. I’ve also never left a review for any company so suspect all the bad reviews are from disgruntled people. As the saying goes, people are quick to give bad reviews less so good ones.
My policy is via my bank account with HSBC, I am not sure if they sell it to new customers anymore.
I have claimed for my parents twice though on ad hoc policies they have found on comparison sites. I unfortunately can’t remember which ones they were.
I think as long as you are 100% accurate with the information you give them, and you read and fully understand what cover you are buying then you should be fine.
My DB had an issue with his not paying out because he hadn’t updated them with a hospital admission for his asthma and had an asthma attach aboard.

It's just not true that people only leave a review to complain. I've now looked at quite a few insurance companies on Trustpilot. They have loads of reviews, and the huge majority are very positive reviews. But almost all the reviews about making a claim are very negative.

Yes, I've just spoken to an insurer and they won't cover for any pre-existing conditions if you're waiting for any kind of medical investigation - even a minor test result. But they are happy to cover for everything else.

Yes, they will always want to talk to you about the reasons for any tests or surgery and will decide on a case by case basis. So, I guess if you are waiting for a hip replacement, for example, they just won't cover anything to do with that, but they will cover everything else. However, if you are waiting for investigations for seizures, unexplained neurological symptoms, for example, they might well refuse to insure you at all, given that it could be anything and potentially very serious.