Debenhams Travel Insurance - Beware

[Bal]

Originally Posted by Bee happy

I am concerned after reading this post as we have a annual Debenhams policy that rolls over every year. It's due for renewal again next month I'm concerned if I cancel and somewhere else it would affect next year's holiday as it's already booked or will a new insurance policy cover it ?
Anyone know what post office insurance is like ? My Mum has just taken out a annual insurance with them ?

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Post Office ranges from 2 star (Super Economy) and 5 star (Premier)

My understanding is that you are covered for any pending trips by travel insurance. You don't need it when it's booked. However of course you need the insurance prior to the incident that you are claiming for.

[Miss_Shell]

This is making me want to triple check out insurance now. Ours is with Flexicover defaqto 4 star

[Bee happy]

Originally Posted by Bal

Post Office ranges from 2 star (Super Economy) and 5 star (Premier)

My understanding is that you are covered for any pending trips by travel insurance. You don't need it when it's booked. However of course you need the insurance prior to the incident that you are claiming for.

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Thanks for the advice,so ideally I should be looking for a insurance with a 5 star rating ?

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by Gelatoni

What a nightmare! I've always thought if anything happens you ring the insurers and they pay/sort everything. Clearly I was wrong!

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It depends on your insurers. Mine is with CEGA through Barclays, all I had to pay when my DH went into hospital last year was a $750 deposit in the ER whilst we got the insurance documents sorted. I only paid that rather than our $50 excess because we'd moved from CentraCare to Celebration Hospital and the documents weren't faxed over quickly enough.

Our final bill was $35,000 - no way I was paying that!

(That nightmare was exactly this time last year!)

[Bee happy]

How do you find out how many star ratings insurance policy's have,some show it some don't ?

Update - i cancelled my Debenhams insurance and have bought a 5 star policy with Insurefor.com it was also a lot cheaper for similar cover.

[Miss_Shell]

Originally Posted by Bee happy

How do you find out how many star ratings insurance policy's have,some show it some don't ?

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Go onto defaqtos website:
defaqto

[Katyd246]

Wow I think we've been really lucky so far then.

We had insurance with Staysure for our holiday in May. My mum has underlying illnesses and was hospitalised for 4 nights. We took her to Dr Philips hospital on Turkey Lake road. We haven't paid anything yet. We had to keep the insurance company updated and ask permission before some heart tests but they were lovely and even rang us every few days after she was discharged to make sure we were ok.

The only concern we have is we haven't had any kind of confirmation that we don't owe anything or what the final bill was even though we've been home for 3 months fingers crossed they never charge us anything.

We also have to hope we can get insurance for next year too

[Bal]

Originally Posted by Bee happy

Thanks for the advice,so ideally I should be looking for a insurance with a 5 star rating ?

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I'm not going to go as far as say less than 5 star is no good, but probably out of laziness that's what I go for. The website makes clear the criteria for each level and lower ratings might be adequate for your situation. Also it's not to say 5 star is perfect either. It doesn't for example cover customer service, it's just the actual cover rating.

[k100dmk]

Originally Posted by chrisxal

A few years ago I did some training for a call centre called CEGA, they took all the calls for travel insurance claims for all the insurance companies and i had to listen into calls and give feedback to their training dept. I asked several of the operators which is the best travel insurance to have and all said Marks and Spencer. I have used M&S insurance ever since.

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marks and spencer like many other companies (lloyds travel insurance etc) isn't actually marks and spencer it's just axa repackaged and sold by them for which they get a cut. Axa have been mine families insurers for many years and they have been fantastic from covering full holidays that had to be cancelled due to my father being taken ill (they paid within 4 days) to cover 100k plus of hospital expenses for my grandma when she had a stroke in florida and even down to adding on existing medical cover for my dad after his stroke they were very reasonable.

With some insurance policies you will be required to call them and ask about where to go, if you dont there is a chance you will have to pay it out and claim it back. I wouldn't expect many to be able to cover and half serous hospital stay and then claim it back, 5 days for my grandma (no surgery or anything) cost a little over 120k and that was almost 20 years ago.

[fredflintstone]

Not been on for an update but to make matters worse their infant son also needed to go to a doctors so additional cost.
She needed ultrasounds for suspected gall bladder problems and the nearest ER would not give a quote but she managed to fnd somewhere else to do them. Debenhams insurance was less than useless and not helpful at giving advise on where to go. Basically it is your problem your expense and make a claim when you get back and we may pay some of it if not pre-exsisting.

As Tom above said most would struggle if a big bill in hospital. I could not handle a large hospital bill and my SIL is unable to handle a bill in the thousand plus. The costs so far would have ruined their honeymoon if we were not with them. They do not have lots of extra cash or credit card limits.

My mother had a broken hip before and all medical bills were covered and flights directly so I was shocked by th Debenhams help line response. So cold and uncaring.

So as others have said check the terms of your agreement and do not assume a well respected brand such as Debenhams means you are protected. With them if the worst comes to the worst you may need a credit line of upto $10 Million (the policy limit) if anything happens as you seem to have to cover all costs in the US.

IMHO : YOU NEED TO ENSURE YOU CHOSE ANOTHER SUPPLIER AND NOT DEBENHAMS.