travel insurance

Does your bank include free travel insurance with your bank account? I have a couple of pre-existing medical conditions for which I am symptom and medication free, bar annual health checks and my Nationwide bank travel insurance was happy to cover me for no extra cost. DH with high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes pays a £90 supplement.

No, I would like an annual policy as I like to travel. I used to have it via the bank but no longer. Do I have to have travel insurance?

Yes. Unless you are a millionaire. Medical treatment aboard, especially in the US, can be extremely expensive as can repatriation, especially if you need an air ambulance.
In a freak accident, 20 years ago,whilst in the Dominican Republic, I broke my leg in four places. Two operations, four seats on return plane for me to lie down and a limo to get me from the airport home was £10,000. That didn't include various incidentals like taxis, phone calls etc..
My dear old Mum had a heart attack while on holiday with me on Corfu. Chief doc at local clinic and heart specialist visited hotel every day. All paid for by insurance company.
If you can't afford the insurance premiums, DON'T GO. You may regret it.
I have a couple of medical conditions, neither serious, but have been quoted £700 for two weeks. Going on comparison sites I found a decent policy for £186. Shop around.

Yes you have to have insurance. If you are ill or in an accident then you are stuffed if you don't have travel insurance. If you need to be repatriated back to the UK, the only this will happen is either you have travel insurance to cover the cost or you have a vast amount of money to pay for it yourself.

I have a son with crohns disease, so I know all about pre existing conditions. You need to check out comparison sites, making sure you say you have pre existing conditions and go to that site. Once you find an insurer, phone them and tell them what you illness are to be doubly sure that you will be covered.

A lot will depend on the nature of your illness and whether you have had any hospital admissions in the past two years.

As Silversurf says, if you can't afford the insurance then don't go. It isn't worth the risk!

We shopped around. Saga was expensive and some others came quite near. We plumped for Sainsbury's in the end. But as other people have said it does depend on your medical condition.

We both have pre existing conditions last year we were quoted £800 for two weeks in Europe so we holiday end in this country (don't like being ripped off ) this year we got reasonable quote from asda

I had open heart surgery 9 months ago and three months ago obtained medical travel insurance from holidaysafe.co.uk. I paid £220 for a whole year's insurance. They were recommended by Which? I'm certainly very pleased as I expected to pay much more.

Try EHIC top up insurance if you're going to Europe.

If you go on Martin's Money Savings Expert website - they have a good list of cheapest and best available.

Try a comparison website like this one for example:
medicaltravelcompared.co.uk. I've used it several times. I tend to pick the cheapest quote from a company that I've heard of, rather than just the overall cheapest quote, which has been with Admiral recently.

I have just renewed mine and got £154 for annual insurance,both of us high bp.with age uk ,we are early 60s.
Had been with saga ten years but wanted £254 this year,ridiculous
This is for Europe tho.
If you need USA cover it was over £350 and the world except USA slightly cheaper

Insure@holidayrisk gave me an excellent price for an annual travel insurance within Europe. My bank in the first instance said they couldn't insure me then after a review they quoted an astronomical price which I turned down. I have several existing medical conditions which I would always inform all holiday insurance companies. I would never ever travel without insurance. Be aware most insurance companies ask if you're going on a cruise as I believe this will cost extra.
I fought a battle with my banks insurance company AXA who's underwriters said a visit to hospital for an ECG was classed as a hospital visit which bumped up costs. I challenged them with support from the Scottish legal system and help from my MSP and they overturned their original decision. This visit was classified the same as an X-ray. What a carry on however I was given a small remuneration from my bank for the inconvenience they put me through. I'm now fully insured all the year round which makes me feel confident should I take ill abroad.

I can thoroughly recommend Nationwide. We have annual insurance with no surcharge for high cholesterol, BP and statins, just a small one for being over 75. It was well tested last year when DH had a fall and was in a Tunisian hospital for 4 days. Nationwide handled the claim speedily and with no quibbles - we were very impressed.

WE no longer go abroad - OH not well enough and the insurance for us both was of the wall, even after shopping around. I do not bother with insurance for the cost of cottages that we rent, as the insurance is costlier than the rental and we are within the NHS.

The only good reason for travel insurance is because of health treatments abroad - were we ever to go abroad again I would not hesitate to take out insurance.

Never go without insurance. We have had close friends (young and foolish) in dire straights abroad, one lost a leg as doctors in Vietnam would not treat him until money came through, after a funding page was set up and his parents got a loan, he was air lifted to UK by which time, amputation was only option.

Another young friend was airlifted home at enormous cost to die here among family.

Go to Money supermarket and find their travel insurance medical conditions section. I've got cholesterol and high blood pressure and I can usually get a week in Europe for less than £20 and I'm 70

We went to Thailand late last year and both husband and I have medical conditions and we used Age Uk which do not worry about age or illnesses as long as you don't have a terminal condition they will insure you, also had an additional policy to guarantee no excesses the total for 17 days was £210 hope this helps

We bought a world-wide policy for a year, much cheaper than for a trip. Both have 'controlled' high BP. A few hundred for a year for two people worldwide is not bad. Sandye's quote seems high, maybe she can do better with the suggested sites here!

Air fares are so low, that I look at this as a balancing of travel costs. When flying to the US was higher, those were the days of lower insurance for our age group, etc. Now it comes out the same almost with the lower air fare and current insurance quotes.

Just my 2p... but then I lived in the US where I paid hundreds of pounds a month for health care. If I was still there I'd be paying thousands. And with that mind-fart in the white house retracting Obamacare, we would have been in deep do-do.

Well in Portugal and many other EU countries you will be cared for very well with
your EHIC card. ( whilst we are part of the EU) But repatriation would be the problem. Do some credit cards offer insurance if you use them to pay for your holidays? I remember a friend was repatriated from Goa after a nasty accident all paid for by the credit card country.

At those prices many people must travel in Europe without it but US, Australia and other places no way.

Yes, Ajanela, Portugal was wonderful, just came back! We were cautioned that we needed travel insurance if we went to Spain because of their 'issues'. But I took a the annual trip policy anyways as we are going to the US in autumn, so are covered now till next June for any trips. When I cost it out, it is decent value for money.

Most companies increase the premium when you attain age 70, my husband and I live in Cyprus and have an annual policy that covers us anywhere in the world, when David reached 70 the premium went up so we shopped around and found a similar policy for much less with a local company, the funny thing was when the paperwork arrived, the head office was in Billericay, Essex. We would not travel without insurance it gives you peace of mind and you never know what may happen

As a reminder if anyone is having any form of medical investigation whether minor or major all travel insurances become invalid.

I brought this question up last year when I was quoted £3,000 for a trip to the States (I had had cancer 3 yrs previously)I shopped around and the lowest I could find was £1,100, this was to cover me for 7 weeks to visit my daughter, twice the price of the tickets. I've just been again and for 4 weeks it cost £635, I don't include baggage cover or cancellation cover to keep cost down to that level.

just to add I am 80 yrs old with a few other minor ailments too, but I'll keep going to see my daughter and family as long as I can despite the cost !!!