Can anyone advise me of any website where I can buy travel insurance? I am going on holiday to U.K. Next week and I am starting and ending my journey in France. I reside in France as well.
Hi George…
I just Googled “assurance de voyage” and, even if it isn’t quite correct French… it pulled up lots of possibilities… Axa and Allianz among so very many others…
Have a look-see…
As an alternative, have you checked with your bank to see what travel insurance coverage you get if you buy your travel tickets with your debit card ?
Bon voyage, Robert.
We always use Worldwide Insure an online UK insurance company that specialises in travel insurance for non-UK residents.
Try talking to the people who do your house insurance.
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I would try COLUMBUS DIRECT…
used them in the past, they were quite competitive
and terms & conditions cover French residents etc etc also
http://international.columbusdirect.com/?countryOfResidence=&sourceCode=TESINT&responseCode=
I usually try to use a UK insurance company/broker - the small print is bad enough in English let alone French - but there are usually several problems. Age (coming up to 70), resident in France, pre-existing medical conditions (nothing serious but ongoing tablets), and I usually holiday by motorcycle. The Columbus and Worldwide recommendations above fail on the last point straight away, excluding cover for any motorcycle over 125cc: my own is 1200cc and rental bikes I’ve used in South America and Thailand have been at least 650cc. The Axa link took me through a devis application but the final button just took me to a blank page! The outfit I’ve used the last few times is Citybond Suretravel (www.citybond.co.uk) who clear all the four hurdles menioned above at a reasonable cost. We’ve only had to make one small claim £50 outside the excess but the claims process went smoothly. This may be a bit OTT for George’s original enquiry but may be of assistance to anyone travelling a bit further afield (or by motorcycle).
I would never buy travel insurance again to be honest. I had done, for years, but I find that they go back on their word on what they claim to cover as soon as you try to ask for help.
I had one that “provides funds to buy emergency items and clothing in the event of baggage loss or delay”… My bags were delayed at Port Vila airport, and I had to spend five days in Vanuatu dressed in winter gear (having just left New Zealand), had no towel, no insect repellent, no light clothing, no pyjamas, nothing other than the clothes I stood in ,and a small bag containing a book, my wallet and my passport. the insurance company said “your bag will arrive, so we’re not covering anything, take it up with the airline”…
When my bag DID finally arrive, certain items were missing. A pretty expensive camera, a pretty expensive hunting knife, and other camping gear. I thought "ok, the insurance company can finally help with this. No, they refused "the items wer not stolen from your person, nor were they in a locked room at the time of theft. Not covered.
On another trip, my camera was stolen… insurance guy tried to convince me that it was “just lost”, and therefore not covered… I had to go to the police, file a complaint, send them the report, and then they asked for “poof that I had made the trip to Australia”… they wanted the ticket stubs of my flights. Of course I didn’t keep them, and had to throw my claim up in the air.
cut to two years ago when I had travel insurance for a trip to the Us and had my wallet stolen. This time I ended up in hospital, because I’d been mugged for it, and with the hospital report, the police report and everything detailed, I was confident that the insurance company would stick to their policy and "forward funds to cover costs in the event of the loss or theft of credit cards and/or cash. No go. Not even the hospital fees. “Should have threw your wallet at them and ran away”… and as for assistance with money “We can put you in contact with your embassy or family”… I took insurance so that I wouldn’t have to call my mother to ask for her to fly me home after being attacked in the subway.
From that point on, I’ve never got insurance. If your hotel double books, the company will tell you to take it up with them. If you fall down a flight of stairs, they’ll pull out sme clause about you not holding the handrail.
So based on your own experiences are you advising people not to buy travel insurance?
It’s strange, when people mention travel insurance I always think of health care not possessions.
With me it’s all 3… health, car, possessions…in no particular order…
Try Staysure for expats, everything is in English and it covers those resident in France. We’ve never had to claim but it appears to work.
Does anyone have an Insurance company who deal with over 75. None of the 3 mentioned another do.
Thanks to all for their help. In the end I chose Staysure because the prices from the french insurance companies just for a single trip were around 130/40 Euros! With Staysure I got a very good policy for the whole family for a single trip of 2 weeks for 24 GBP.
Hello,
The first place I would look, to find good recommendations for travel insurance is BootsnAll.
Here’s the link: http://www.bootsnall.com/travel-insurance/global-insurance-benefits-insurance.html
I like this organization. Odd name, and yet it has info for expats as well as for other types of travelers. I’ve followed this org for over 10 years, and feel they are reliable for good solid information. I am finally starting to use their info as I’m starting my research for becoming an expat.
I hope this is helpful!
Hi,
Welp, I wonder if this might shed any light:
http://www.bootsnall.com/travel-insurance/
It’s a link to travel insurance information provided by a company called WorldNomads. You can choose “travel medical insurance” or “trip protection insurance.”
Bootsnall is a great resource in my opinion, and it is the organization that provides the link to this company’s offerings for travel insurance. Disclaimer: It’s my first time so I can’t speak to it at this point but will post my experience after my trip is completed, as I’ll be purchasing from them.
I hope this is useful.
We have used Staysure for an annual policy for the last three years during which time my wife has had various medical problems and we have had to make two separate claims - one for having to cancel a holiday and the other for repatriation from the UK plus various ancillary costs. They have been extremely efficient and helpful and have paid up without any problems (rather to my surprise!).
I can’t advise another person how to live, everyone’s own choice, and all for good reason. just sharing my own grain of salt, and as for myself… based on my experience of that and also other issues (No help for falling ill in a foreign country, non cover of fees for injuries incurred on a ski trip and dive trip on seperate occasions, with seperate companies), i would never again buy “travel” insurance. I have bumped up my health insurance and my other insurance policies, and so, “travel” should no longer be a term I even consider when not in my own home.
Seems to me that each person decides just what they want to be covered for…
Important to check out possibility of existing cover with Bank, Credit Cards, House Insurance, Medical Insurance, Car Insurance… etc etc…
and then, if something is NOT covered they have the option of taking out something extra to suit… if they wish to.
Always important to read the small print and to be aware what telephone numbers to ring and what to do… if the worst does happen while abroad…
We are off to the USA for 4 weeks, and I tried asking the insurance broker who handles our car and household insurance, as well as our mutuelle health insurance, for something to increase medical cover.
We have a Premier account with HSBC In France, and have quite good travel cover with that, but you hear such horror stories about the costs of medical care in the US, and we are both retired.
Insurer came back with €150,000 medical cover, which we did not feel was enough, so asked if more possible - the answer being that it was not.
Search online revealed CHAPKA ASSURANCES, who offered a policy called Cap Assistance 24h/24. Prices extremely reasonable, and available to anyone living in Europe and registered for state health care in the country they reside.
A few easy online questions later, we paid €189 for two folks travelling for 25 days, with €500,000 medical cover, and repatriation cover. Just the ticket!
Very impressed with the site and ease of use, clear links to explain the policy, and instant download of all the insurance documents and certificates in French, English and Spanish for both of us. We even know how much we can spend on a coffin!
To top it all, the policy is actually with Allianz, who is our insurer! So, strongly recommend you look at this site. Policies for backpackers, folks going abroad to work for a while, annual policies and single trip.