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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? |
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Travel Insurance - who do you recommend?
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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 |
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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. |
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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 |
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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. |
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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
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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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