Please tell me your positive outcome stories of travel insurance claims for treatment abroad

[LayaM]

I went on a winter break in December (Europe), fell on ice and broke my wrist. Was seen in a local clinic and paid out nearly £1000 for treatment. I have put a claim in and am waiting for the outcome.

I can't see any reason why it wouldn't be paid, I actually had full winter sports insurance although the injury wasn't sports related, just a stupid accident. And with a travel rep's help I got all the evidence there. But all you ever read about is the claims that fail. Has anyone had a successful claim in similar circumstances? I'd love some reassurance!

Did you use your GHIC or was it a private clinic? Have you notified your insurer?

I’m with Monzo, they’re excellent and paid a claim last year in a couple of days. Who are you with? Not all insurance companies are good

It was a private clinic as we were in a rural area over 3 hours from the nearest hospital that could treat me. Also if I'm honest I was in a great deal of shock and pain (and had my child with me, and no other adult) so it didn't occur to me to use it.

Yes, notified insurance on the day (actually tried to get through prior to treatment but no one answered) and have made a claim now, awaiting outcome.

We had a claim paid out, but in the small print it says we had to use our GHIC card for any treatment in Europe. Which we did, but they eventually paid the other expenses.
They tried very hard to deny claim and prove my DP was drunk. They were not, luckily blood tests proved it.
I meet a few families in the hospital whos claims were denied becuase of drinking accidents. One family had to pay £20k for a private ambulance to bring thier teenager home.

My sons both had treatment abroad but we didn’t pay anything. The clinic contacted the insurers and they paid it. It was only a few hundred pounds though. Once we showed proof of insurance the clinic were happy to treat them. Did you tell the clinic you had insurance?

We have travel insurance through our HSBC current account, and the time we claimed we got the full Thunderbirds treatment, and out of pocket costs back in our account less than 12 hours after we submitted the form. They were superlative.

@LayaM "But all you ever read about is the claims that fail...."

.... because the millions of claims that go through without a hitch are not newsworthy. In the same way that you only ever read about "Holidays from Hell" and don't ever read about the millions of enjoyable holidays that people have.

Well it's fair to say this thread hasn't provided the reassurance I'm looking for so far 😭 It happened mid morning so hopefully they won't try to claim I was drunk at least!

Yes I did tell them I had insurance, they didn't offer to liaise with them but they did give me additional detailed reports to send to insurance setting out what had happened and the treatment 🤷🏻‍♀️

I fractured my elbow in Turkey, contacted the insurance while at the hospital (after the hotel had arranged an ambulance to get me there) I was insured through Barclays, and like a PP above it was the most straight forward claim. They extended my overdraft on the phone to pay for the treatment, told me to get an invoice showing both £ and Turkish Lira, when i arrived home the claim for was already in the post, pre filled with all the information from the call just needed my signature. Within a week I was reimbursed and all back to normal.

I got cellulitis on holiday in the Caymans. Ambulance to hospital, 2 lots of IV antibiotics and some prescription meds to bring home. It was about $1000 I think. Insurance paid pretty quickly after we submitted the claim.

We had the receipts from the hospital and I think had to email them for the full medical report, but other than that it was super straight forward.

I have but I did inform them prior to treatment and they told me which hospital to use

It was almost 20 years ago but I got back $6000 in America, ambulance and one night stay for heat stroke. Can’t remember the providers.

In my case the hospital billed my insurance, I only had to pay the excess which they gave me 3 months to pay which I was impressed by. My dh has claimed on his several times (travelling for work a lot it’s more likely) and they have never refused despite it being his fault (forgetting prescription, breaking glasses, leaving passport on plane, all things which were on him!)

I have insurance through my Co-op bank account, Aviva. Our daughter had an accident and was taken to hospital, this was in Egypt on Xmas Eve. I contacted the insurance company who completely took over all payments directly to the hospital, all we had to do was pay the excess.

Our daughter had many scans and stayed overnight with me in a bed at the side of her. The insurance reassured us that if we needed to extend our stay they would cover the hotel costs, they were absolutely amazing 🤗

The issue you’re likely to have is that you went to a private clinic - many companies won’t cover private treatment in Europe unless it’s pre-authorised by them or it’s life-threatening and you have no other choice. I’m not sure a broken arm would be covered unfortunately but it’s possible.

About 15yrs ago I perforated my ear drum scuba diving in Egypt. It was only about £150 for the hotel Dr and antibiotics- that was paid out without any hassle.

About 8yrs ago in a ski resort in Italy. Walking in ski boots. Someone's ski fell over, DH went to grab it to stop it hitting a window. The window was floor to ceiling and his ski boot hit the window and cracked it. Long story short, we checked the insurance and because DH had consumed 1 beer and some other clause (can't recall now) we paid the £800 ourselves. We queried the cost and saw the glazier quote. Hard to say if it was inflated, but the resort was several hours drive from the nearest large town and it was a very large window.

Claim paid no problem for us! Including overnight hospital stays, prescriptions, even taxis used as part of the event

My late husband has a brain tumour. It had been stable for 4 years and we planned to go to Madeira. 1 month before the holiday the thing started growing again far more rapidly.
We cancelled and got everything back.

We had to claim in Menorca when our dd slipped and split her head. The doctor the hotel called sent us to a clinic as it needed stitches.
The insurance covered all the costs involved and very promptly.