Travel Insurance

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Lizard1977

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#93741 28-Nov-2011 18:09

My wife and I are travelling to the UK next June (with 2-day stopovers in Dubai on the way out, and Sydney on the way back), with my father-in-law, and we're in the process of booking the major flights. Our travel agent has recommended their travel insurance supplier, Allianz Global, and given us a quote. My father-in-law, who is 74 and has some medical issues, has looked into other providers for a different quote, and got one from TravelSure through Flight Centre.

I've spent a bit of time comparing the policies of the two, but it quickly gets confusing when they use different terms, or the level of coverage is slightly different for different things. So I did the rational thing and consulted Consumer magazine. They had an article from June 2010 which compared a lot of different travel insurers for different "profiles." It didn't seem to tell me much, other than one insurer is much like another. But it did suggest that Gold credit cards often offer travel insurance which is worth looking at.

I'm looking from advice from the knowledgeable Geekzone folk about the best way to proceed. Has anyone had any horror stories with either Allianz (House of Travel) or TravelSure (Flight Centre) or using credit card-supplied travel insurance? What pitfalls should I be looking for? Which way would you go?

Cheers

Lizard

freitasm

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#551138 28-Nov-2011 18:22

Look at your credit card terms. You can only use credit card travel insurance when you buy the flights with it, and in some case you have to pay accommodation as well.

I use State Insurance... Only had to use it once, when missed my flight to New Zealand and had spend an extra day in San Francisco. Claimed motel, meals and transport, paid up quite quickly.

billgates

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#551140 28-Nov-2011 18:26

If you have a gold or platinum credit card and pay atleast 50% of cost of plane tickets (most allow 50% with only some wanting you to pay 100% of ticket price) with that card, your bank will cover you with no issues. The policy will be clearly be outlined on their website. Another travel insurance company worth looking at is Southern Cross. You can easily get a quote online. I pay for my plane tickets with my credit card and get 90 day free travel insurance with just as good policies from the likes of travel agents offer.

Do whatever you want to do man.

sbiddle

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#551146 28-Nov-2011 18:37

The only thing to be aware of using credit card insurance is that it probably won't cover all 3 people. If you've got two different insurance companies and something happens you might things get a little complex, whereas dealing with a single company would be a lot easier.

Dunnersfella

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#551156 28-Nov-2011 18:56

Try 1Cover.co.nz.
I saw a bus-back advertising them today... I have nothing else to add re: quality of service, but a quick glance seems to offer competitive pricing.

NonprayingMantis

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#551158 28-Nov-2011 19:00

the CC insurance often won't automatically cover people with unusualcircumstances e.g.pregnant, old age etc.

since one person is 74 you would need to check with your CC company about whethercoverage automatically applies

gzt

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#551168 28-Nov-2011 19:39

I use southern cross solely on the basis they are nz based therefore I could send someone round to rant at them if something went really wrong with the service.

Never needed to claim tho. Discount if you are with them already.

TinyTim

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#551179 28-Nov-2011 20:52

For those using credit card travel insurance, my bank recommends that you call your credit card insurance provider before you travel, just to make sure you are covered for your trip. Don't want to get caught out by some loop hole!

For work travel I use Online Travel Insurance because they do business travel. But I've never claimed for anything and for holiday travel I wouldn't know if they're better than anyone else.

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mckenndk

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#551191 28-Nov-2011 21:07

I would recommend southern cross travel insurence, they cover my nana who is in her late 70s to travel to aussie and she has diabeties and a few other issues.
They have a list of pre existing medical conditionsthey cover without needed to notify them.

My travel agent was trying to get me a policy through them but due to the issues of covering hearing aids I went back to southern cross as they did not require pages of documents to show what they were worth.

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kingjj

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#551309 29-Nov-2011 09:59

Get a quote from 1cover and than get FlightCentre to price beat it. My partner is an ex-travel agent and would talk your ear off about the problems with CC insurance cover, TravelSure (she advises me) provides the best cover (although I'm sure she is biased).

Lizard1977

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#551321 29-Nov-2011 10:15

Yeah, looking at the CC insurance, it might be a bit problematic. I had a look at 1 Cover and they seem to be the same company as House of Travel (Allianz), just $50 pp cheaper.

John2010

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#551322 29-Nov-2011 10:17

If you have a business (and don't want to rely on CC cover) try your insurance broker, due to the low level of fraud from business travellers cover under your business may be the cheapest if going to be away for more than just a few weeks.

Talkiet

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#551327 29-Nov-2011 10:27

As a quick heads up (It won't affect most people though) - there is no travel insurance company in NZ prepared to cover an expensive camera setup when travelling. Unfortunately if you want to travel with lots of expensive camera gear, the only way I have found to cover it is to purchase multiple overlapping policies. Sucks - but I haven't found a better way.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

floydbloke

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#551340 29-Nov-2011 10:54

The OP doesn't state whether they'll be renting a car, but certainly another gotcha with (at least my) CC travel insurance is that they will only cover excess on rental cars if you have taken up all insurances offered by the rental car company. Usually the rental car company will offer an excess waiver at an additional charge (about $30 or so a day here in NZ). Someone like Southern Cross includes the excess waiver as standard without that condition and may well work out cheaper than $30 a day, or take the risk of a multi-thousand $$ excess.

I queried this with the CC provider and the CSR agreed that their 'excess cover' does indeed defeat the purpose somewhat. He went on to mention that a traveller may be renting from a one-man-band type firm that doesn't offer an excess-waiver in which case you would be covered by the CC insurance.

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Lizard1977

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#551438 29-Nov-2011 13:20

We will likely be renting a car for part of the trip. Looking at the 1 Cover policy briefly, it covers the Rental Car excess up to about $5000. 1 Cover even mention on their FAQ that the daily fee some car companies charge to reduce/remove the excess can be skipped if the travel insurance policy has Rental Excess cover.