Hi Rachel,
A couple of months ago I took out insurance for a New Zealand trip.
One or two things that influenced my decision was firstly;
I wanted to avoid insurance provided by a third agency - for example the High Street 'names' that offer insurance, the rationale being if I had to make a claim I wanted to do it with the company I bought the cover from in the first place - not get the 'Oh, we are only the sellers, you have to contact the insurers yourself', response.
Secondly, I found most of the glowing reports in reviews were actually about the ease of buying the insurance, few reviews mentioned how good the companies were in the event of paying out. I wasn't bothered about how friendly the web-sites were supposed to be, I wanted some indication of how good the companies were in the event of a claim.
Lastly I wanted to avoid a lot of health questions that put me in danger of accidentally omitting details and thus invalidating a possible claim.
I wasn't to keen on the comparison sites either.
In the end, I settled for the company whose logo was a telephone on wheels.
They do not give a web quote on Cancer related insurance but I found the telephone process very straightforward and they didn't require a commitment on the spot but gave me a couple of days to decide, before ringing me back.
I just had to answer 'Yes or No' type questions, for example 'Was I on hormone treatment?'
I had the choice of whether to include my present condition or to take insurance excluding PCa
Surprisingly, they offered an annual insurance (excluding USA, Canada, or the Caribbean) for little more than the three week trip to NZ.
In the end, I decided to include my present condition - although I was confident it wouldn't affect my holiday, I didn't want to face the argument if the insurers wanted to claim that whatever health problem I had, it was connected to my excluded condition. I also opted for the annual insurance, , it would save a repeat purchase for subsequent holidays this year
Fortunately, I didn't have to claim whilst away but I have dealt with the company re car insurance in the past and found them ok.
The most basic piece of advice to anyone would be to not rely on the 'free' insurance that comes with some bank accounts UNLESS you go carefully over the small print to see what is excluded.
Not "Why Me?" but "Why Not Me"? |
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No problem , glad it was useful . Enjoy your holidays all :-)
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Rachel
If you type "insurance" into the search box you will find about six conversations with details of members insurance companies.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Chris
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Hi Rachel,
A couple of months ago I took out insurance for a New Zealand trip.
One or two things that influenced my decision was firstly;
I wanted to avoid insurance provided by a third agency - for example the High Street 'names' that offer insurance, the rationale being if I had to make a claim I wanted to do it with the company I bought the cover from in the first place - not get the 'Oh, we are only the sellers, you have to contact the insurers yourself', response.
Secondly, I found most of the glowing reports in reviews were actually about the ease of buying the insurance, few reviews mentioned how good the companies were in the event of paying out. I wasn't bothered about how friendly the web-sites were supposed to be, I wanted some indication of how good the companies were in the event of a claim.
Lastly I wanted to avoid a lot of health questions that put me in danger of accidentally omitting details and thus invalidating a possible claim.
I wasn't to keen on the comparison sites either.
In the end, I settled for the company whose logo was a telephone on wheels.
They do not give a web quote on Cancer related insurance but I found the telephone process very straightforward and they didn't require a commitment on the spot but gave me a couple of days to decide, before ringing me back.
I just had to answer 'Yes or No' type questions, for example 'Was I on hormone treatment?'
I had the choice of whether to include my present condition or to take insurance excluding PCa
Surprisingly, they offered an annual insurance (excluding USA, Canada, or the Caribbean) for little more than the three week trip to NZ.
In the end, I decided to include my present condition - although I was confident it wouldn't affect my holiday, I didn't want to face the argument if the insurers wanted to claim that whatever health problem I had, it was connected to my excluded condition. I also opted for the annual insurance, , it would save a repeat purchase for subsequent holidays this year
Fortunately, I didn't have to claim whilst away but I have dealt with the company re car insurance in the past and found them ok.
The most basic piece of advice to anyone would be to not rely on the 'free' insurance that comes with some bank accounts UNLESS you go carefully over the small print to see what is excluded.
Not "Why Me?" but "Why Not Me"? |
User
There is no need to avoid naming insurance companies on here and as Chris says, there are plenty of previous discussion threads on this. There are a handful of companies who specialise in cover for people with cancer - they are named on the McMillan website and include insureandgo - this is who we use. They were happy to cover John to climb Kilimanjaro in between his RP and RT; we paid an additional premium of around £20 to get cover with the PCa included.
Some people will advise to get insurance with the cancer excluded on the basis that this is cheaper and Prostate cancer is unlikely to cause some massive crisis in the space of a week away. But I think this is false economy, when you go back over old stories on here or with people I know, the most common reason for having to claim on the travel insurance is because a holiday has had to be cancelled before it starts due to changed treatment plans etc.
My father in law used his free insurance from HSBC and they were willing to cover him for his PCa, heart failure and lymphoma - he went camping to France for a month and died 4 weeks later. My dad is covered by Directline but with PCa excluded.
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
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I used to use insureandgo but changed to Halifax as i got it with my new account and even though I dont have mets it is covered for them
Bri
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Explorer Travel did us a good deal.
It was cheaper than some of the big names and just meant we had to fill in the online form. I needed reassurance that I was reading the cover correctly so telephoned them and they were very helpful.
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Failing to declare the cancer when asked is not a good idea, but some companies will let you exclude the cancer from cover, which might be a reasonable option. We got a reasonable
price this way using Staysure Insurance. Like your parents, we went to the Canaries, where EU health cover applies, so it's not as risky as a non-EU trip. I can say that having a holiday at that point (after diagnosis, before chemo) was enormously beneficial to us both
Marje
Edited by member 15 Jan 2015 at 20:34
| Reason: Not specified
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I think where you are on your cancer journey is an important consideration. If a man is at an early stage and there is no pressing need for treatment or has had treatment and is pretty stable, many will carry their own risk, and omit cover for PCa. I did this. However, at an advanced stage where treatment is imminent, there is a stronger argument for getting PCa covered, more especially if there is a long period between taking out insurance and actually going on holiday, as Lyn said. The cost of treatment abroad or being specially flown back to the UK for it can be very high. General health is also a consideration as insurers certainly look carefully at any undeclared PCa that might have some remote connection with another condition that is prompting a claim.
Barry |
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Thank you so much everyone for your comments and advice. I am now on the case to find the cheapest insurance for them.
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It's all relative Rachel, you will need to be sure that the cheapest insurance still gives you the cover you need. My three men have been lucky and found good cover for very little or no cost. On the other hand, the last time we took my mother in law to Australia before she died, it cost £4500 to get her insured for a month. A lot of money but she had high blood pressure, cancer, dementia, diabetes, had recently had her gall bladder removed and new knees added .... there was so much that could go wrong we felt the £4500 was worth paying!
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
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Just a note for anyone looking at this subject, I have a packaged account with nat west (advantage gold) with free insurance. I am going to the states next month and called to see what was covered. They asked a load of yes/no questions , the most relevant 1) do you have cancer or heart problems (yes), 2) are you terminal ( I am not although I have mets as terminal by definition is when you have run out of treatment options ie months not years), 3) are you on HT (yes), 4) are you taking drugs for your treatment(yes). On the back of that lot and at 50 years old with no more detail required I had to pay £90 for a years worldwide cover including prostAte cancer, good value and peace of mind. Kev
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Shop around, be honest with your insurance company and declare everything, if something happens and you need repatriation or medical care the costs rocket and soon make the cost of travel insurance look like small cheese, plus if you cant fend for yourself through illness etc and someone else has to do the arrangements for you, why run the risk of not having good coverage !
finally check they have a 24/7 freephone UK based helpline which you can use if overseas
I got worldwide annual coverage with M&S I'm happy with my policy, £400 for the two of us
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Staysure works for me.
flexi
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I have similar to Kev (Irun) but my account is with the Halifax...worldwide annual holiday insurance...RAC cover...Mobile cover etc
I would recommend people who are struggling to get cover apart from the extortionately high premium ones to look at what the banks and Building societies offer
Bri
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I had an account with a Bank that provided free travel insurance but found that cover was only provided up to a certain age (lower than mine). I believe some other Banks and Insurance companies also operate such a restriction so anyone contemplating availing themselves of such free cover should check age does not disqualify them.
Barry |
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Hi Everyone
I had not been able to get annual travel insurance for tony for a long time and been paying extortinate amounts to get him covered (£500 for a coach holiday to Italy last year) I went through benenden health last September and got annual cover for both of us for £1300. sounds a lot I know but tony has chronic kidney disease, has had a stroke , high blood pressure gout, and has had a few blackouts. he is also over 70 and is gleason 9 t3b. this covers for everywhere apart from the caribean and the usa. I didn't used to bother to get insurance for prostate cancer (he was diagnose over 9 years ago) but since his other health problems I do and even then I only used to cover him and use my one that comes with my bank but at that price for a year I cobered myself as well . ps off to mauritious at end of month. worth looking at if you are struggling for cover.
barbara
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This is good to know - I haven't seen anyone mention Benenden here before. Have a wonderful trip x
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
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My Dad has recently had the same problem with travel insurance and tried lots of companies but none of the quotes were reasonable , the cheapest was £560 for a week in Europe.
Insurancewith.com was recommended to us by a friend and we can't recommend them highly enough. It was set up by a lady who had breast cancer and found it impossible to get travel insurance .
The quotation service is all online and they ask a huge amount of questions about your condition , diagnosis , treatment and latest psa etc.
My parents took out a worldwide annual policy for £190 ( mum has high blood pressure & dad was diagnosed sept 2013 Gleason 9 t3 - has had radiotherapy , Bracchytherapy and now on enzalutimide ( due to lymph node spread but no spread to bone) current Psa is 9.6.
I don't normally post on here but just wanted to put it out there to help others. p.s before someone asks I don't work there !
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Thanks that's good to know as we would like to book a holiday once me DH has fully recovered we will definatey be using this!!
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Thanks for the recommendation. The online form although detailed and relevant to my condition was easy to complete. A sensible premium too.
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I should co-co, had a quote elswhere 2500.00, went on tinternet on their site 207.00pounds
run long and prosper
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Sm117, thank you for that info. I just did a quote with Insurancewith.com and they are by far the cheapest with all medical problems covered. I was getting extortionate quotes from other companies.
Cheers, Alan
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No problem , glad it was useful . Enjoy your holidays all :-)
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Many thanks Crescent.
That is Direct Line.
I have metastatic prostate cancer - spread into the bones. But luckily I was put on to the Stampede Trial and received chemotherapy immediately after diagnosis. So six years down the road from diagnosis I am still leading a normal life and giving myself at least four years more to live.
My wife and I are skipping over to New York for Christmas and we need travel insurance. The Macmillan cancer nurse at Mayday Hospital in Croydon had told me that you can get travel insurance with pre-existing medical conditions specifically excluded.
The best quote I could get if I concealed my medical condition was £70. If I declared my condition, some companies simply declined to quote. Another quoted something ridiculous like £340 if they included my condition. InsuranceWith.com quoted a more reasonable £205.
But at last I found Crescent's message and tried Direct Line. I went through their online system and they quoted £171 for travellers without pre-existing conditions. But the system declined to quote when I said I had a condition.
However I phoned Direct Line and they were willing to exclude my condition from cover and quoted the same price as online. Success!
Edited by member 15 Dec 2016 at 15:50
| Reason: Not specified
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See the thread - holiday insurance again by brianisaac
Look towards the end
I've just got annual family travel insurance with a Nationwide. I opened a Flex a Plus account. Pay £10 per month. Then I have to pay a £100.80 per annum to cover prostate cancer.
I know we are all at different levels of diagnosis, but they might be worth calling.
Walter