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A morning on the phone help with travel insurance!

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User
Posted 10 Jan 2022 at 13:03

After a morning of fruitless telephone conversations trying to get travel insurance.  I finally found a company who didn’t say  “no we can’t quote you” !  I thought I’d share some information here in case it helps anyone else.  
MoneyHelper 0800 1387777 is a free advice service that brings together three government backed financial guidance providers The Money Advice Service, Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise.  They gave me the details and numbers of different Specialist Insurance Companies and also the number for the British Insurance Broker Association BIBA 0370 9501790.  I rang BIBA and it was so nice to talk to someone who just took general details of my husbands condition and put me through to All Clear Travel Insurance who were able to give me a quote.  It was expensive but the advisor was really helpful and told me to wait till after the next scan because if the SABR treatment shrinks the tumour then she’ll be able to give me a much lower quote.  So at least now I know I can get cover.  I was getting a bit fed up, as having a holiday to look forward to helps so much with dealing with the whole cancer situation for both of us.

 

User
Posted 10 Jan 2022 at 13:03

After a morning of fruitless telephone conversations trying to get travel insurance.  I finally found a company who didn’t say  “no we can’t quote you” !  I thought I’d share some information here in case it helps anyone else.  
MoneyHelper 0800 1387777 is a free advice service that brings together three government backed financial guidance providers The Money Advice Service, Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise.  They gave me the details and numbers of different Specialist Insurance Companies and also the number for the British Insurance Broker Association BIBA 0370 9501790.  I rang BIBA and it was so nice to talk to someone who just took general details of my husbands condition and put me through to All Clear Travel Insurance who were able to give me a quote.  It was expensive but the advisor was really helpful and told me to wait till after the next scan because if the SABR treatment shrinks the tumour then she’ll be able to give me a much lower quote.  So at least now I know I can get cover.  I was getting a bit fed up, as having a holiday to look forward to helps so much with dealing with the whole cancer situation for both of us.

 

User
Posted 11 Jan 2022 at 08:15
Got to say it's much more challenging and expensive to get Travel insurance for stage 4 metastatic PCA than it was pre pandemic.

Many of these firms treat us like lepers unfortunately.

User
Posted 11 Jan 2022 at 12:29

Originally Posted by: Online Community Member

Interesting that the pandemic has affected it!  Cancer and Covid started the same time for us so we have no prior experience.  To me it doesn’t seem the insurance companies have much to be concerned about happening even with stage 4, it’s not like it’s going to suddenly kill you when you go to Europe for a couple of weeks!

 

No but the insurers aren't covering themselves for instant death abroad. They are hedging their bets against:-

- going into retention and needing hospital treatment / catheterisation

- falling and breaking a bone that may have been weakened by bone mets or hormone treatment

- falling or having an accident linked to side effects of the treatment (e.g. fatigue or breathlessness if on HT, infection / high temperature if on chemo)

- having to cancel or postpone the holiday due to unforeseen changes in appointments, treatment or as a result of progression

- having to cancel the holiday because the patient died before they got there

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User
Posted 11 Jan 2022 at 20:37

I opened a nationwide flex plus account.  I pay £13 per month and get family travel insurance for that.  I have to update them on my prostate cancer and then I pay a supplement.  I've never paid more than £150 per annum as a supplement.  I was pT3b and Gleason 9.  My supplementary payment went down once I had finished hormone therapy.  Might be worth looking into.  

User
Posted 12 Jan 2022 at 16:10
I have just got a policy with all clear - it was a reasonable price for annual cover

Carpe Diem 

User
Posted 13 Jan 2022 at 18:56
Poor advice - hopefully no one will follow your lead! Lying to an insurer is pointless and you may as well just not bother getting insured.

If someone lies or misleads their insurer and then gets found out, not only will any payout not be met but the insurance is cancelled and you then have to disclose to all your other insurers that you gave had insurance cancelled. Result - things like home snd car insurance are either impossible to secure or the price rockets.

I have a friend in this situation currently and what seemed a small issue is now snowballing.

In terms of whether something is worth paying for, each person will take their own view, won't they? When we took John's mum for her final trip to Australia the insurance was over £4k - far more than her first class flights were costing! She qas ill and our view was that 4k was worth every penny to give us peace of mind.

I don’t think you can make such a sweeping statement about policies costing less than £200. Some men will have full cover for less than that, others will pay more.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

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User
Posted 11 Jan 2022 at 08:15
Got to say it's much more challenging and expensive to get Travel insurance for stage 4 metastatic PCA than it was pre pandemic.

Many of these firms treat us like lepers unfortunately.

User
Posted 11 Jan 2022 at 10:06

Interesting that the pandemic has affected it!  Cancer and Covid started the same time for us so we have no prior experience.  To me it doesn’t seem the insurance companies have much to be concerned about happening even with stage 4, it’s not like it’s going to suddenly kill you when you go to Europe for a couple of weeks!

User
Posted 11 Jan 2022 at 12:29

Originally Posted by: Online Community Member

Interesting that the pandemic has affected it!  Cancer and Covid started the same time for us so we have no prior experience.  To me it doesn’t seem the insurance companies have much to be concerned about happening even with stage 4, it’s not like it’s going to suddenly kill you when you go to Europe for a couple of weeks!

 

No but the insurers aren't covering themselves for instant death abroad. They are hedging their bets against:-

- going into retention and needing hospital treatment / catheterisation

- falling and breaking a bone that may have been weakened by bone mets or hormone treatment

- falling or having an accident linked to side effects of the treatment (e.g. fatigue or breathlessness if on HT, infection / high temperature if on chemo)

- having to cancel or postpone the holiday due to unforeseen changes in appointments, treatment or as a result of progression

- having to cancel the holiday because the patient died before they got there

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User
Posted 11 Jan 2022 at 14:26

Woah ! That’s lots of things that can go wrong ! I stand corrected.  Possibly wish I hadn’t asked ! 
I think I was finding it tricky to get my head around the high price because my husband seems so well (so far !!) 

User
Posted 11 Jan 2022 at 20:37

I opened a nationwide flex plus account.  I pay £13 per month and get family travel insurance for that.  I have to update them on my prostate cancer and then I pay a supplement.  I've never paid more than £150 per annum as a supplement.  I was pT3b and Gleason 9.  My supplementary payment went down once I had finished hormone therapy.  Might be worth looking into.  

User
Posted 11 Jan 2022 at 21:19
Thanks Ulsterman ! I’ll look into that.
User
Posted 11 Jan 2022 at 23:10
Ulsterman ,We too had flex plus insurance until I tried to renew it today only to be told they have a new system and none of our original details were on there ,even though been covered for many years with them .we had to reapply and it came up that they would no longer cover Gary , his symptoms haven’t changed but their acceptance had.

I did write a thread on this earlier today but it seems to have got lost somewhere.

User
Posted 12 Jan 2022 at 16:10
I have just got a policy with all clear - it was a reasonable price for annual cover

Carpe Diem 

User
Posted 12 Jan 2022 at 19:52

That's interesting, Merrivale.  If nationwide flex plus will no longer cover me, I'm closing my account.  No point in paying £13 per month.

User
Posted 13 Jan 2022 at 18:07
I’ve come out with nothing over last six months and basically just lied about my health. Stupid maybe but just done staycation cruises instead. I wanted to book a 7 night Spain and Portugal cruise that cost £1k and the cheapest insurance was £2k. Seriously !!!!

Yes I’m T4 and have been for 7 years but essentially I’m totally fine and my Onco says I’m safe to travel ……

I want to get on a long cruise abroad asap as my time is definitely limited but I’m just scared of getting quickly ill and leaving my wife bankrupt. Not good. To anyone paying like £200 per year , I’d say you’re simply not covered

User
Posted 13 Jan 2022 at 18:56
Poor advice - hopefully no one will follow your lead! Lying to an insurer is pointless and you may as well just not bother getting insured.

If someone lies or misleads their insurer and then gets found out, not only will any payout not be met but the insurance is cancelled and you then have to disclose to all your other insurers that you gave had insurance cancelled. Result - things like home snd car insurance are either impossible to secure or the price rockets.

I have a friend in this situation currently and what seemed a small issue is now snowballing.

In terms of whether something is worth paying for, each person will take their own view, won't they? When we took John's mum for her final trip to Australia the insurance was over £4k - far more than her first class flights were costing! She qas ill and our view was that 4k was worth every penny to give us peace of mind.

I don’t think you can make such a sweeping statement about policies costing less than £200. Some men will have full cover for less than that, others will pay more.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User
Posted 13 Jan 2022 at 21:43
Aaaa I only lied cos was never gonna be out of UK waters. As stated wouldn’t take the risk abroad.

As for sweeping statement so many people take yearly insurance , fail to update their insurers on present circumstances , and so essentially aren’t insured anyway come to the crunch. I paid critical illness cover for like 15 years only to have it rejected because I hadn’t informed them of health and medication updates to their liking. Legalised fraud 😆

User
Posted 14 Jan 2022 at 00:44
All fair points CJ!
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User
Posted 14 Jan 2022 at 01:45

"Legalised fraud" I agree with Chris on this. I only have the minimum insurance the law requires i.e. motor insurance, and building because the mortgage company requires it. Everything else I take on my own risk.

Insurance companies make profit by collecting premiums, not by paying claims.

Dave

User
Posted 14 Jan 2022 at 14:53
Quick update ,Gary’s insurance wasn’t renewed because of his lymph node involvement,even though they have for the past 6 yrs .
 
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