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Travel Insurance - who do you recommend?



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 6th, 2003, 06:48 PM
Ian Lloyd
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Default Travel Insurance - who do you recommend?

We've been given a leaflet by STA Travel, and their Mid-level policy (I
don't recall what it's called) seems pretty good - but at £275 is quite
pricey. However, as I'm going to be travelling with a laptop - and these can
have a habit of going walkies - I want to be sure I'm covered for
replacement of it.

Who did you get your insurance with?

And if you made a claim, how much of a pain where they?

  #3  
Old October 7th, 2003, 12:08 PM
Jason
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Default Travel Insurance - who do you recommend?

On Mon, 06 Oct 2003 23:24:04 +0000, Raffi Balmanoukian wrote:

Poms and Aussies have reciprocal arrangements. Give it a miss. Insurers
bet than nothing bad is going to happen - you bet it will.


I think this is really poor advice. Yes, there is a reciprocal arrangement
on Medicare, but it doesn't cover anywhere near what normal holiday
insurance does. The ambulance isn't covered. Being choppered out on a
Barrier reef liveaboard or from a remote outback location could prove very
expensive. As could having to re-arrange your flights because you're ill.
Or having to use an air ambulance to get home. Do you really want to sit
in hospital on the other side of the world from all your family?

Not to mention the cover on possessions.

One of my friends had to have an appendix operation in Argentina whilst
backpacking. The operation was botched. Her insurance company flew her and
her partner by air ambulance to a decent hospital in Brazil. Then they
flew them home to the UK when she was well enough to travel.

So I think having decent insurance is worth it.

Jason

--
http://www.scuba-addict.co.uk/ for Aussie diving reports including
the wrecks of the SS Yongala, Lady Bowen and the HMAS Swan

  #5  
Old October 7th, 2003, 01:04 PM
Raffi Balmanoukian
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Default Travel Insurance - who do you recommend?

in article , Jason at
wrote on 10/7/03 8:08 AM:

On Mon, 06 Oct 2003 23:24:04 +0000, Raffi Balmanoukian wrote:

Poms and Aussies have reciprocal arrangements. Give it a miss. Insurers
bet than nothing bad is going to happen - you bet it will.


I think this is really poor advice. Yes, there is a reciprocal arrangement
on Medicare, but it doesn't cover anywhere near what normal holiday
insurance does. The ambulance isn't covered. Being choppered out on a
Barrier reef liveaboard or from a remote outback location could prove very
expensive.


It's also not covered under very many travel policies - anything in the
least adventurous (diving, sometimes even hiking) is often (not always)
excluded.

Insurers spend fortunes on actuaries to figure out the likelihood of things
happening, and factor it into premiums, with a margin for overhead and for
profit. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the odds are in their
favour.

That's not to say if something goes wrong you might have a catastrophe on
your hands, financially and otherwise. Insure against what will be
disasterous if it happens, forget the little stuff. So what if you need a
$50 doctor's consult? Pay for it. If you can't, you shouldn't be
traveling.



As could having to re-arrange your flights because you're ill.
Or having to use an air ambulance to get home. Do you really want to sit
in hospital on the other side of the world from all your family?


Who cares? If you can't fly back you probably won't be in any condition to
deal with family anyway.



Not to mention the cover on possessions.


Often covered under homeowner's/tenant's packages anyway, and in some places
hardly worth the hassle.

I put international cover on my camera equipment, etc. when I went to South
Africa (my homeowner's policy only covered it in Canada/USA). The premium
would choke a horse. I canceled it the moment I got the bill.

Also, to make a claim, you will need a police report, etc. etc. and for
less-than-catastrophic stuff it's not worth while once you go through the
paperwork, lose your claims-free discount, etc.

I was just mugged of my expensive digital camera and wallet in (daylight,
downtown) Asuncion, Paraguay. It wasn't worth putting in the claim, after I
cancelled my cards, got on ebay for a replacement camera, etc. All told,
after several years of travel, it was just time, and just a cost of
traveling (the irony is, without the various do-dads, the camera will be
essentially worthless to the thieves).

In short? Medicare will take care of the horrific stuff, the rest probably
isn't covered under all but the most expensive travel policies, and
statistically you'll be just fine, Jack. Think twice.

  #6  
Old October 7th, 2003, 01:30 PM
Jason
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Default Travel Insurance - who do you recommend?

On Tue, 07 Oct 2003 12:04:56 +0000, Raffi Balmanoukian wrote:

In short? Medicare will take care of the horrific stuff, the rest
probably isn't covered under all but the most expensive travel policies,
and statistically you'll be just fine, Jack. Think twice.


I've got an annual policy. The maximum trip length is 60 days, but you can
take as many trips as you like in a year. It covers me for all medical to
a maximum of £5,000,000, including air ambulance home, and diving to the
limit of my certification, which is 90m. Plus there £2500 personal
effects, £25,000 legal expenses and the same personal accident. It also
covers me for £250 of car hire excess waiver.

It cost under £100. Peanuts.

It's also with the same company the air ambulanced my friend home from
Brazil.

Jason

--
http://www.scuba-addict.co.uk/ for Aussie diving reports including
Stradbroke Island, Terrigal, Jervis Bay and Portsea

  #7  
Old October 7th, 2003, 02:17 PM
Frank Slootweg
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Default Travel Insurance - who do you recommend?

Raffi Balmanoukian a wrote:
[deleted]
In short? Medicare will take care of the horrific stuff, the rest probably
isn't covered under all but the most expensive travel policies, and
statistically you'll be just fine, Jack. Think twice.


Well, my travel+cancellation insurance is AUD$ 130 per person (all
year, worldwide coverage, maximum 60 days per trip). I would not call
that "the most expensive travel policy" and it *did* cover all the
helicopter/ambulance/plane rides and driver (to drive our car home (1000
km), etc. for our Austrian (not Australian) hiking accident. Total cost
some AUD$ 50-60 *thousand* (including work-related stuff, some 70-80K).
Yes, I could survive such a bill, but I wouldn't call it "statistically
you'll be just fine" by a long stretch.

I.e. do *not* think about the plain (direct) medical stuff, *that* is
probably covered by other insurance, but look at the 'indirect' stuff,
which, as shown above, can be very, very expensive.

OTOH, I agree that one should look carefully at what you insure and
that you don't have unneccessary or/and double insurance.
  #8  
Old October 8th, 2003, 10:46 AM
Ed Barron
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Default Travel Insurance - who do you recommend?

On 07 Oct 2003 13:17:49 GMT, Frank Slootweg
wrote:

Raffi Balmanoukian a wrote:
[deleted]
In short? Medicare will take care of the horrific stuff, the rest probably
isn't covered under all but the most expensive travel policies, and
statistically you'll be just fine, Jack. Think twice.


Well, my travel+cancellation insurance is AUD$ 130 per person (all
year, worldwide coverage, maximum 60 days per trip). I would not call
that "the most expensive travel policy" and it *did* cover all the
helicopter/ambulance/plane rides and driver (to drive our car home (1000
km), etc. for our Austrian (not Australian) hiking accident. Total cost
some AUD$ 50-60 *thousand* (including work-related stuff, some 70-80K).
Yes, I could survive such a bill, but I wouldn't call it "statistically
you'll be just fine" by a long stretch.

I.e. do *not* think about the plain (direct) medical stuff, *that* is
probably covered by other insurance, but look at the 'indirect' stuff,
which, as shown above, can be very, very expensive.

OTOH, I agree that one should look carefully at what you insure and
that you don't have unneccessary or/and double insurance.


That sounds to be very good. What company offers this cover?

Regards,

Ed Barron
  #9  
Old October 8th, 2003, 12:47 PM
Frank Slootweg
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Default Travel Insurance - who do you recommend?

Ed Barron wrote:
On 07 Oct 2003 13:17:49 GMT, Frank Slootweg
wrote:

[deleted]
Well, my travel+cancellation insurance is AUD$ 130 per person (all
year, worldwide coverage, maximum 60 days per trip). I would not call
that "the most expensive travel policy" and it *did* cover all the
helicopter/ambulance/plane rides and driver (to drive our car home (1000
km), etc. for our Austrian (not Australian) hiking accident. Total cost
some AUD$ 50-60 *thousand* (including work-related stuff, some 70-80K).
Yes, I could survive such a bill, but I wouldn't call it "statistically
you'll be just fine" by a long stretch.

I.e. do *not* think about the plain (direct) medical stuff, *that* is
probably covered by other insurance, but look at the 'indirect' stuff,
which, as shown above, can be very, very expensive.

OTOH, I agree that one should look carefully at what you insure and
that you don't have unneccessary or/and double insurance.


That sounds to be very good. What company offers this cover?


It is a Dutch company, Interpolis. They are associated with our bank,
Rabo bank. AFAIK, Rabo bank has branches in Oz (AFAICT, you're living in
Oz).

To be Frank :-), the cancellation coverage has a maximum, EUR 1500
(about AUD$ 2500) per person per trip, so for the two of us that is AUD$
5000. Of course our trips to/in Oz are more expensive than that and the
payout would be relative to the maximum, i.e. if our trip costs for
example AUD$ 10000 and we would have cancellation fees of for example
AUD$ 4000, the payout would only be AUD$ 2000 ((5000/10000) * 4000). But
to come back to Raffi's point, *that* is an amount I can live with.
 




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