Recommended travel insurance 2023-2025

We've just had an unrequested flier from "Avanti Travel Insurance" some through the door - it looks like they are the same "stable" as Staysure, who I have not tried this year yet. Has anyone found them helpful?

Meanwhile I ought to try the Albert and Eddie before it gets too late ...

I've used staysure for India holiday march next year. But have found better for European insurance

I don't know what your condition is, but having been insured with Staysure for several years they refused to cover me following my prostate cancer recurrence treatment earlier this year. 

Albert and Eddie came up with an excellent quote for annual worldwide cover once I had finished trearment and I'd recommend you try them.

Derek.

Thanks for the information. 

Thanks for the feedback.

Hi Derek, I'm just waiting for a letter saying that I'm fit to travel and then I can start ringing around. I have advanced PC and am being treated  with targeted combination therapy. Basically I'm looking for European policy so I'll certainly given them a call. My complication is hat I have blood pressure problems but I'm under treatment without any problems over many year. Thanks for the feedback.

I hope you can get covered once you have fit to travel confirmation.

If you have difficulty obtaining an annual policy (if that's what you want) it is often possible to get single trip cover instead - although if you're planning multi trips it's unfortunately more expensive in the end.

Derek.

Having just (re) arranged cover for 12 months, at twice the price I paid the same company on 99% the same medical conditions (as far as I can see) a fortnight ago, I wonder if anyone has had a similar experience? I now suspect it isn't rare, and something similar happened with PECs a few years back.

All companies mentioned here are well known names that do provide PEC cover where many companies won't.

(No names, as this is all in line with the T&C BUT) a day after I had bought annual cover for just over £400 covering quite a lot of medical conditions including (treated and signed off) prostate cancer and (checkups only) lymphplasmacitic lymphoma (which they listed as MGUS on the declaration list). 24 hours afterwards my mister had a blood in stool incident, which he took to his doctor. I went back to the insurers (travel being less than 3 weeks off, we were not expecting results before we left.) The lady listened kindly, and then told me that none of his PECs would be covered, but we could come back next week and ask again if we had a clear result. AS the medical cover was the important thing, I cancelled the policy while I could still get a refund. (On balance I now think this was unwise, but I am even now not sure).

The test results came through negative - within 48 hours. I went back to the insurer asking if we could re instate the policy. They said no, do try again soon if you want another screening. [BTW I understand they would have completely re screened him (both of us?) even if we hadn't cancelled.]

Upshot: when I applied again, with only that one (resolved) condition different, we were accepted at something over twice the price. (£880 approx). Which we sadly took up. I don't know if this rocketing price was our punishment for cancelling previously, or a consequence of another 2 weeks passing. The policy start date was the same!  (I meant to call them on Monday, but things at home hit the fan - builders, funerals, all the usual ...) so didn't until today.

I knew I would pay more, but was foolish enough to be surprised when it doubled. (We also didn't choose one of the add-ons this time).

Is this what people find? I had an experience years ago when something similar happened (with another, welol known, insurer that I have never gone back to) who shunted us over to an identical but more expensive policy and then, when the results came, said we couldn't have a refund on the original purchase "as we should have asked at the time." Well, in this event I did " ask at the time" and don't think I benefited by it :D  [On the other hand, the present company does appear to have processed the refund promptly.]

We had another (more expensive) quote that we hadn't taken up, and when I ran this past them, they also said that he would have to be completely re-screened before they would consider us.

Other point of interest: I declared the same things each time, but on the first quote my mister's condition was defined as MGUS - BY THEM - even though I believe told them it was lymphplasmacitic lymphoma - but this time we told the agent the same thing, but it then appeared as LPL under three headings - I wonder if that made the difference. It's been in the family long enough for us to know that this is the same condition (and both are Waldenstrom's.) and that some companies recognise one version of the name, and some another. The "other quoter" could not find LPL on their list, and today's did not have that form on their list initially when he read it out.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had a similar experience with trying to "add a condition" while it's still under investigation, or just been treated by other companies.

Well I was quoted £1,300 for three weeks in Spain. We have our own place out there so we don't have any hotel bills to worry about. Yes, I have other issues but cancer all of which were covered previously. One company who advertises on TV decided they couldn't cover me and I'm just about picking myself up from the despondency caused by that high quote. To be honest if somebody quoted me £800 for a policy limited to Europe on an annual basis, the way I feel at the moment, I'd snatch their hand off. In reality I'm not in bad shape for my age and feel that if an insurer was to be fair enough to give me a chance that the risk I pose is actually very low indeed. But, so far, when I talk to these companies all they do is react to a form and not consider looking at the individual at all. Hey ho, I'm starting to think of not having medical insurance and seeing if I can find somebody who will take up insuring the repatriation risk alone and taking the risk that I won't need medical attention while we're away. 

Hi Lankyexile I totally get that. (The fact they doubled our price in 2 weeks was what really got to me.)  I guess that partly your higher price is due to being in Spain as that is one of the exclusions from the "European" cover. (There are others.)

Their information is at times self-contradictory (of course, where it matters most).

I don't like to think what will happen if we try to convert for the USA.  We're just dealing with this end of the year first. They will never tailor their policies to fit your individual circumstances. I had a phone conversation with a loss adjuster in that field many years ago, and she politely made it entirely clear that the industry works by algorithms and averages, to control their own costs. Only the rich get really tailoed policies, and that's because they can afford to pay more than we can dream of :D

The only thing I do know is that Spain has a bad reputation for shunting people off to the nearest private hospital whether they like it or not, and exploiting any insurance to its limit, which is why insurers don't like them. And of course GHICs don't work in private hospitals.

Good luck!