Can anybody help me? My husband had cancer last year, he successfully completed treatment and has been having monthly check ups since. He has now decided he would like to book a holiday but does not know how to go about obtaining travel cover.

It depends on the type of cancer, you really need to shop around.
You can get a quote here; http://www.insurecancer.com/Get%20a%20Quote.htm , and here; http://www.freedominsure.co.uk/
Ask his consultant/specialist nurse for recommendations. If he is really well he can just take ordinary insurance and disclose his pre-existing condition and he will be covered for everything else apart from his condition/cancer.
Some insurances have a really high excess and a lower premium and others a higher premium with a lower excess.
If he's thinking of several holidays per year, consider annual insurance, it saves going through all the red tape again.
Marks and Spencer and the Post Office may also be an option

Robby

To get full cover will be expensive but its worth it for peace of mind hopefully his specialistis OK with him travelling abroad, Try ALL CLEAR

thanks guys i will try your suggestions

Might be also worth having a look here; http://www.ehicplus.com/
It works in conjunction with an EHIC card, but any treatmentment must be in a state-run hospital. You can get an EHIC card from your Post Office, info here; https://www.ehic.org.uk/InternetRes/home.do

Robby

Merged to existing topic that contains a wealth of information on insurance.

Mark

My friend rang me today to say she rang a well known insurance company regarding buying travel cover and she was told she need not buy it until a day before she goes on holiday in May!Her husband has had health problems lately and she did buy the insurance today.
I have annual insurance and would not dream of booking a holiday without it.
She is going with Thomas Cook and booked on line.When I booked with TC last year in a shop they wanted to know who my insurance company was and rang me 2 days later to ask for the policy number.
I want to warn people who may take the advice my friend was given.

Always buy on booking holiday. We get annual insurance.

I've got annual insurance, have had for a few years now, for free.
But it makes sense to get insurance as soon as you book, it's got to be paid and the sooner you take it out the longer you are covered, it costs the same. There are some good cheap companies out there now, so there is no need to pay over the odds with T.O's or T.A's etc.

Robby

the main reason for taking out the insurance when you book is the cover you get if you have to cancel.
Say you book 1st Jan for a holiday in August. If you have an accident or an illness which starts 2nd Jan and you can't go away then you'll be covered for cancellation and will get money back. Obviously if you have no insurance, you won't!
Also if you have an illness before you get insurance you need to declare it to the insurance company!

I was shocked when she told me and I feel so strongly about the advice she was given that I think I will phone them tomorrow.
My husband has an annual policy with the same company but mine is free with my bank.
The same friends are going on a cruise with Thomson in September costing £3,000 and they have not got insurance for that holiday yet.

So what do they do if they have to cancel? With all these companies going bust, it is even more important to sort insurance out at the time of booking.

but mine is free with my bank.

And me, free with the Alliance and Leicester, free joint annual insurance for a joint account. You need to transfer £500 per month to keep it alive, but I use it to save for the annual ISA's. It's something I rarely think about now and just take for granted, I've must have had this for over 5 years now and is worth looking at. The last time I looked it only covered European holidays, although once it was worldwide, but it suits my needs.
Alliance and Leicester for my hols insurance and Natwest for my hols spends, it makes sense - to me anyway.

Robby

Same as you Robby,We use Nationwide for our holiday money and A&L for our main bank account.
You can upgrade to Worldwide if you transfer to the account where you pay £10 a month.
If our friends have to cancel their cruise they would only lose there deposit at the moment.They are going with 2 other couples and none of them have insurance yet!

well if it's booked on a 'LOW' deposit they may find if they cancel they'll have to pay the FULL deposit!

I have a pre-existing condition which many insurers won't even cover, but those that will cover it apply an excessive extra premium. I have had an annual worldwide policy with the Nationwide Travel Insurance for years, but they have change to Liverpool Victoria this year and the premium rocketed to £198 from around £120.

I tried umpteen companies today both online and by phone and had quotes up to £280. However I called Direct Travel Insurance and they have covered us for £122.50 and that include Scheduled Airline Failure which was only £2.50 extra. The extra premium for my condition was only £21 whereas one company wanted £116 extra.

Their single article limit is only £250. I have had a quick scan of the policy, but will be reading it thoroughly when it arrives. I was very relieved as I thought we were going to be stuck paying around £200.

luci

Regarding free insurance cover, my friend has one of these and when I got him to check the details he found that it had to be accompanied by an EHIC . He had been travelling for years without this thinking rather smuggly that he was saving a small fortune over the years when in fact he probably had little or maybe no cover at all. I would urge you to check your individual details as there are probably a few conditions which may well invalidate your cover such as pre existing medical . these conditions are also likely to change annually in the harsher economic climate. My wife has a minor ailment which means it has to be declared and we never get the online prices as we always have to phone, her condition is neither life threatening nor would she require medical treatment whilst abroad but if you don`t declare it they would have a get out clause should something else occur.

You have to declare any known medical conditions. But you can usually then decide for yourself whether you want to pay the added premium to cover that condition. If you decide not to, then you're still covered for everything else, just not that condition.

Hi.

I'm sorting out travel insurance and was considering taking out an annual policy this year. There are some online for £20 or so that claim to cover you for millions of pounds, however having looked at the details they seem to have quite a large excess for many claims e.g. £150 for any personal items, cancellation expenses etc. I then looked at some more expensive ones and they weren't much better (if at all).

Also, a lot of them don't seem to include airline failure, which is probably the thing that worries most people these days.

Are there any affordable policies that actually offer decent cover? Either annual or single trip? This is basically for holidays to the Euozone inc. Turkey.

Cheers.