Hi Martin, I’ll ask my bank in the UK. Good advice about what is covered. I’ll make sure I go through everything with a fine tooth comb. Thanks a lot.
Thanks Tracey for the link. Unfortunately my basic French Mastercard would not give me the level of cover that I am looking for.
The cover though is next to useless, we go to the US a lot and wouldn’t dream of having anything less than $10 million of health cover.
Agreed for the US and their outlandish casualty claims and health costs the cover would never suffice.
The point I was making is that the same level of assurance is available for free, for french residents using their bankcards as for uk residents using their uk visa and mastercards.
However if someone has pre existing health conditions or needs a more specialised cover they will need to look elsewhere and of course pay for the pleasure.
That is the amount of medical cover I am looking at Timothy. When you hear that my friend over there pays 2,600.00 USD a MONTH insurance for her and two adult lads! Also, has a 3,000 USD deductible.
That’s not been our experience Tracey, our Lloyds Platinum account gave us free worldwide travel insurance, we did pay a monthly fee but then we have to pay 10 euros a month just to have a bank card here.
Platinum and other cards here will have similar if not the same offers. Do not think the UK is alone in offering this service. They are often underwritten by the same insurers and re-insurers. ( I was a re-insurance technician in Brighton)
You dont have to. I negotiated and got my CA down to 4 euros a month and there are also online and other banks where the cards are free without monthly charges.
Worth comparing (scroll down)
Hi Maureen
I asked Fabien, but it seems from his advice to me that travel insurance levels of cover are not as high in France, and cover can be more than twice as expensive. I note that the majority of travel insurance policies available on French sites cover medical expenses up to a maximum of about 200 000 € (or 300 000 € in the US, Canada).
In particular, since I am planning to go to the USA this year, I wanted insurance that covered up to at least the recommendations in Which "“at least £2m of medical cover for Europe and £5m worldwide”.
In the end I took out cover for not much more than my previous UK insurance with Staysure, because they offer:
Expat Travel Insurance For Brits living in France, Spain or Portugal / Pre-existing medical condition cover / Up to €10m medical emergency & repatriation / Up to €5,000 cancellation cover. https://www.staysure.com/
I have not had to make a claim, so have no idea how reliable they are, but they are owned by a major corporation in the EU, and have a reasonable score on Trustpilot. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.staysure.co.uk
I checked with a range of UK companies, but they generally would not cover people not resident in the UK. (In the past I used a specialist broker in London called Campbell Irvine Ltd for a world wide travel insurance. I would now check recent reviews of their services before committing.)
Some have recommended the premium bank cards, such as Visa Premier, from french banks, which generally cover travel and assistance. However again I have found that (a) the levels are much lower than the Which recommendations, and (b) each bank negotiates its own deal with Visa, so it takes a lot of research to find a good deal.
Others have recommended europesure, globelink and chapka.
I hope this helps, best wishes, John
Hi John, plenty of good advice and I do appreciate it. Also, some other companies to research. Thanks a lot.