Anyone have a contact number for 1Cover travel insurance??

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duckDecoy

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#320015 26-Jun-2025 11:41

We are having some problems getting a medical bill paid by our travel insurance company 1Cover and would like to ring them directly as they have stopped replying to our emails and we are starting to get seriously hounded by a medical hospital in USA for payment.

Their website doesn't seem to have anything other than an emergency number, and claims to have an online chat but I cannot find it anywhere. Does anyone know of a way to contact them other than messaging/emailing them? They used to reply to our emails but haven't done so lately.

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#3387171 26-Jun-2025 11:49

Their CHAT feature appears when I accessed their web site .... yellow rectangle at bottom-right of page.

Asteros

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#3387173 26-Jun-2025 11:54

I would call the Emergency number and if they won't help then ask to be transferred. You could also call the Emergency Au direct dial (+) 61 2 8776 3010

The FAQ states to call the Emergency number if:

You are receiving medical treatment in the United State of America (regardless of the cost).

duckDecoy

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#3387175 26-Jun-2025 11:59

Rickles:

Their CHAT feature appears when I accessed their web site .... yellow rectangle at bottom-right of page.

FFS - it does NOT show up on my firefox browser, but does on MS Edge! Thanks! Lets see how we go with that.

Eva888

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#3387215 26-Jun-2025 15:44

@duckDecoy Do share your claim experience with us. It’s always good to hear what an insurance company is like for comparison in an emergency and when claiming.

timmmay

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#3387216 26-Jun-2025 16:00

@Eva888 Southern Cross has been good for claims for us. We had a small claim once for a doctors visit while in Thailand. We had a larger claim a few years back when our flight back from Fiji was delayed due to a hurricane. They covered the extra hotel time, the flight replacement, transfers, the cost of a couple of things we couldn't use in NZ I think like child care, can't remember the cost but maybe $3K or $4K. Zero problems, easy to contact, easy to claim.

Eva888

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#3387293 26-Jun-2025 19:29

Good to know. I had a quote from Southern Cross a year ago that was a few hundred more than Cover More so I went with the latter. Maybe it’s worth the extra cost then if they come to the party with not much drama.

You hear horror stories of insurance refusing cover because you forgot to tell them you had a dizzy spell and ingrown toenail ten years ago that you omitted to tell them.

eracode

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#3387318 26-Jun-2025 21:10

Some years ago, Mrs Code badly broke her wrist when she slipped on ice in Canada. She had 23 hours in hospital, an x-ray, a cast, simple pain relief medication and the hospital bill was over NZD12,000.

We had travel insurance with Southern Cross and they decided that we should return to NZ for her to have the necessary surgery - metal plate and screws etc - back in Auckland. SC covered the short-notice flight home (which they arranged for us) and all the Canadian medical bills including misc pharmacy prescription costs. The surgery was done within the NZ public health service.

SC were absolutely brilliant to deal with.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

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Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

NPCtom

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#3388165 29-Jun-2025 23:14

Also had a good experience with Southern Cross.

Fractured collarbone in the middle of rural Vietnam. SX through Asia Assistance managed to organise a medical evacuation from the middle of nowhere back to a hospital in Hanoi for treatment. Paid for accomodation and flights back to NZ.

Phone calls to the 0800 number were very expensive though lol.

Dulouz

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#3388204 30-Jun-2025 09:51

Eva888:

@duckDecoy Do share your claim experience with us. It’s always good to hear what an insurance company is like for comparison in an emergency and when claiming.

Yes - please do! - I've used these guys many times but never had cause to make a claim.

Amanon

duckDecoy

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#3388568 1-Jul-2025 10:58

For those who were interested in our claim process with 1Cover.

We had 2 visits to 2 different medical facilities while traveling in the US across Sept-Oct 2024. We still have not finalised our claims (its July 2025).

Overall my experience has been:

I didn't think i'd have to pay anything out of my own pocket and the insurer and medical facility would sort it out themselves, but we had to pay 2kUSD at one of the facilities and got out by the skin of our teeth from the 15k USD other facility. Perhaps that is normal and nothing to do with 1Cover. We are trying to claim this 2kUSD back.
I had assumed the insurance would deal with the medical facility directly rather than me having to get receipts and treatment details and turn them in, but perhaps that is my mistake. What have other people experienced? Without going into details getting medical records from the US when in NZ proved to a complete and utter nightmare and took months and months. Some more info below for those interested**
One of the facilities could not contact and/or find details about our insurance despite being given their phone number and policy number. Not sure if that is a 1Cover problem or a facility problem. If it is an insurer problem then this was a BIG DEAL for us, it was a 15k USD (!) bill and they were very very VERY reluctant to let us leave without paying it.
Because of the delays in getting the paperwork some back and forth between 1Cover and us took time, I cannot complain about that. If they ask for something and it takes weeks for the US to get it to us there's nothing 1Cover can do. Although I'd have much preferred for 1Cover to deal with them direct.
Where we started to have annoying issues was the email communication slowing down and eventually grinding to a halt. Our claim portal said they were waiting on us but emails to them about what exactly it was went unanswered. And they DONT HAVE A CUSTOMER NUMBER TO CALL. Eventually we discovered the online chat does exist if you don't use Firefox (thanks @Rickles) and they told us what the outstanding issues were. The online chat had a strong feeling of trying to get off it as quickly as possible.
Neither of the issues holding up the claims were actually outstanding and should not have been holding up the claim.
1. One was asking for a receipt for the 2kUSD we paid at the first facility. They didn't give us a receipt they simply gave us an invoice showing the total bill with a line subtracting the amount already paid. We also sent in the requested bank statement confirming it. Not sure what else they could possibly gain by asking for a receipt that the facility didn't generate. And as above we don't have an email from the asking for the receipt, we discovered it via the online chat.
2. The other was for claiming tickets to DisneyLand that we cannot supply proof for because Disney support will not send out confirmation of ticket purchases or receipts (their support is something else, you contact them and they basically send you a blunt reply saying they wont help you with anything or any issues you have - goodbye lol). But we have emails we sent to 1Cover explaining this and saying to remove it the Disney ticket from the claim. Originally this was going to be used to offset the excess, $600 tickets less the $200 excess would give us a refund of $400. But with that piece of the claim dropped they now needed the $200 excess paid. But never actually asked us for it, and it was holding up the claim.

So i'd say a mix of an experience. Maybe its normal to have to handle the paperwork explicitly rather than having the insurance just deal with it all directly and that's just a me problem. We weren't stoked that the 2nd facility couldn't find our insurance, but unsure where the fault there lies. But we're not particularly happy that our claim sort of entered a limbo state of them wanting more info but not actually telling us what it is. And they don't have a customer contact number to call anyone which could have sped things up and we wouldn't have had unanswered emails.

Would I use them again? First I'd like to hear other peoples experiences to see whether this was just a run of the mill way overseas insurance is handled, and then I think i'll make my decision.

** The facilities didn't give us any printed details and told us we could access and download everything using an online portal ....... a portal that bans anyone from logging into it if you are not sited in the USA (wft?). VPN didn't work so back and forth with the medical facility trying to firstly get access to the portal and after that failed trying to get the required paperwork emailed to us, which was akin to a Monty Python skit. You'd send an email and 5 days later they'd tell you to use the portal, you'd reply and say it doesn't work and 5 days later they'd tell you to use the portal, rinse and repeat, until eventually they'd send you something like a non itemised receipt to which you'd say thanks but i need more to which they'd say "use the portal". Any calls made we were simply given the standard line to send them an email (or use the portal). This went on for months and months (I kid you not). It was like nobody was actually taking the time to read them properly.

Eva888

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#3388601 1-Jul-2025 12:15

Reading this is enough to put me totally off One Cover. The fact that you can’t speak to a person to help sort an out of ordinary problem is a fail to me.

Going from others above, Southern Cross though more expensive is well worth the extra.

eracode

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#3388674 1-Jul-2025 15:01

@duckDecoy With our experience in Canada (mentioned above) the hospital let us leave without paying - which now seems surprising looking back. The only out-of-pocket we paid were third-party pharmacy costs. They knew we had travel insurance but they only had our word for that.

The hospital sent us the final bill soon after arrived home and I sent it to SC - who handled the whole thing and paid the hospital directly. And reimbursed the pharmacy costs.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

Rikkitic

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#3388680 1-Jul-2025 15:34

Anyone who advertises as loudly as One Cover damn well better have a 24 hour help line answered by a human. No-one should have to go through what you endured.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

qwertee

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#3389112 2-Jul-2025 16:07

@duckDecoy

Thanks for the post.

This is timely as I am looking at travel insurance at the moment.
Have been with Southern Cross for my past travels but never needed to claim.
I was looking AA, SC and also Tower.

Now I know one to avoid definitely.

yitz

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#3389115 2-Jul-2025 16:23

Fine print from their TV commercials show this:

1Cover NZ Ltd, Company No. 1588084, FSP472306 (a NZ company) arranges this insurance as an Appointed Representative of Coffre-Fort Pty Ltd, ABN 66 125 358 518, AFS License No. 472457. Before making a decision, please consider the Policy Wording available at 1Cover.co.nz. This travel insurance is underwritten by HDI Global Specialty SE - New Zealand.

https://www.youtube.com/@1coverCoNz/videos

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