Travel insurance

Hi ZanderW 

I'm not a member of this group, but your subject of 'travel insurance' caught my eye.

Unfortunately, it can be more difficult to find travel insurance when you've had a cancer diagnosis so can I recommend that you join us over in the travel insurance group where you'll find recommendations from others who have been successful. Once you've joined look for the thread called 'recommended travel insurance' as this is where the majority of recommendations are. These recommendations are for 'complete' insurance but you might find some names amongst them that you haven't tried to see if they'll provide what you want.

It has been recommended in the past to phone the insurance companies rather than try and do online quotes as often at the end of the online quote it will tell you to phone the company and you'll then have to go through all the information again. Also, sometimes the broker can refer to the underwriters to see if they would provide cover when an online quote might just give you a straight refusal. 

x

My partner uses Staysure it’s very expensive but the cheapest we could find 

Hi Zander W

We don't have the issue with AF (I am on Decapeptyl) and have no issued with it (apart from new boobs, hot flushes etc etc....). My wife has also had diabetic problems and is on insulin. 

As you can see by my avatar we visit Turkey quite often and this is outside Europe for most insurance companies. We have our insurance with All Clear and used our local broker to sort it out as after a few days filling in proposal forms and then being told to ring the Company we had had enough - we left it to our broker. 

If you want to know more just ask - good luck with the quest for insurance and with your husband's PC.

Kind Regards - Brian.

So sorry to hear about this with the bank communication is very difficult these days and when we have so many different forms of communication to use you would have thought they could have communicated with you one way or another.  Just as an example, I have a date for my second cataract operation on 27th of this month.  I had my first operation on 9th December.  Less than a week before I went into hospital on the 9th I had a registration document sent to me from the hospital via e mail.  I had been to this hospital twice before since I have been living at my present address - just 5 years, so they should have had all my details.  They had my new address, my old telephone number and the address of a GP surgery no- where near me and in a place I had never even been to.  My wife's name was not on there as next of kin and a few other mistakes - which apart from changing my own name and address and the dates of the operation and the consultant meant I had to fill in the form all over again.  I completed the form with the amendments and e mailed the form back worried that with the Royal Mail strikes it would not get there before my operation.  Two days before my operation I telephoned and asked if they had had my e mailed form.  No, they couldn't find it so the lady I spoke to gave me her e mail address and I sent it to her noting the amendments made and asking her to ensure that these amendments were made on my records.  When I went for my operation I took a copy of the form with me and handed it in to the reception and the ward clerk asking both to ensure that these amendements were made.  You've guessed it I am sure?  Last week I had the registration documents through for my second cataract operation at the end of this month - and nothing had been changed on the form other than they had changed the name of the GP surgery - but it was still wrong and still in that place many miles away where I have never even been.  So again we go through the whole saga.  Thankfully they give you letters to take back to the GP surgery with you and don't post them!

Back to the subject now.  I have never had a problem with getting insurance with Prostate Cancer or with Atrial Fibrillation - I now have permanent AFib  We always had cover through Lloyds Bank with our bank account - which was at a cut price and when  new diagnoses came up or were under investigation we usually had to pay an extra charge until these were resolved or under treatment.  Neither of these two diseases were excluded. Usually the people we spoke to were knowledgeable or they had the right information on their computer screens in front of them to ask the right questions.  I think the most I paid extra was about £60.  We went to the USA skiing every year and again to visit our grandchildren in Florida and to South Africa to visit my brother and his family.  Thankfully we never had to make a claim on our insurance.  Unfortunately, since the pandemic  Lloyds have suspended its insurance through this particular bank account so we have to shop around. I think Covid itself has also made insurance more expensive as risks like cancelled flights and holidays and cover for Covid and isolation have cost and still probably do still cost a lot to insure.  I have got a quote for £288 for a month in South Africa recently but couldn't go because my cataract operations came up during the time we were going to go. The problems always seem to be when you are in the process of diagnosis and decision making regarding treatment paths.  Of course insurance also goes up as you get older.  I have a big birthday coming up this year so look forward to seeing the insurance quotes then.

Thanks everyone for your replies.  Everyone I speak to, and contributors to this site seem to have different experiences.  I think it very much depends on which operator you get on the phone.  Some seem to go the extra mile and try to find out if things are possible, and some just say 'the computer says no'

The results of my hours on the phone have proved that it is not possible to insure part of you with one company and part with another!  In the end I had to take out a relatively cheap travel insurance for my husband with Payingtomuch.com.  We have kept our Barclays insurance, and would use that to claim for lost luggage, broken legs etc. or anything that doesn't involve his heart (?).  Fingers crossed we don't have to claim as I'm sure it wouldn't be straightforward.

Freefaller, I can feel your frustration with communications, we have had similar problems.  The trouble is is dents your faith in the whole system.

Yes exactly.  Thankfully my wife accompanies me for my appointments so if there are any problems she would be on hand to give details or contact GP if necessary but it is concerning and you wonder how other elderly people like me who are on their own would fare.  I am 80 in October and do find I can't always find my way through things like forms and jargon  as easily as I used to or shall we say as confidently and its getting easier to bamboozle me - especially as I am hard of hearing - even with two hearing aids. Thank goodness my wife is in my corner as quite often I do see some of these things as a fight with the service that should be working for me but usually is working for those who run it and not it's customers.

Hi I had same problem with travel insurance for my husband last year and eventually heard on this forum about Insurancewith who I found to be excellent, their questionnaire was not one size fits all, if you see what I mean, and was tailored to my husband, I had a look online and thought price too good to be true so phoned them and the lady seemed to really understand his condition so we took out a yearly policy, they are worth a try.