Beware the complicated conditions of card travel insurance

[MEL_Traveller]

These are half baked policies not worth much at all.

I'd need to see evidence of that assertion. The policies can be as good, if not better, than others costing many hundreds of dollars more, and all for 'free' provided you meet the for eligibility.

I have had several contacts with the ANZ policy providers (I think it was Zurich before QBE?) and they have provided advice tailored for my travel patterns.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I guess insurance is different to suit different travel requirements. I'm like serfty in as far as I do not rely on CC insurances and find that the annual TID (Australia) policy seems to fit me well. That is many short duration trips, sometimes with family, sometimes without, nearly always paid, very occasionally on points and with included car excess insurance (which in itself pays for the policy).

I also rarely use, but really like to have, the TID "Tripwise" app which has all my policy conditions at my fingertips, worldwide when needed (including all the emergency assist numbers).

Mind you, I haven't had to make a claim with them yet, but that will change next week when I claim for a Europcar excess after a minor carpark incident which resulted in a $500 or so damage bill from Europcar even although I wasn't in the wrong and supplied the details of the person who was :evil:. It's Europcar being lazy I suspect and deciding it's just easier to draw against my CC rather than chase the party at fault. I actually don't mind, as it's a good way for me to ascertain TID values without risking cattle stations!

(EDIT: It also gave me further insight into Europcar values......or lack thereof)

 

[coco50]

I always used to do the CC travel insurance thing until I retired. Then, with some time to spare I read the T&C of one policy I had taken out. There was so much wiggle room for the insurer, you would be lucky to get a cup of coffee depending on the circumstances.

I must confess (touch wood) that I have never needed to use travel insurance, but now, even though I use a CC that offers travel insurance, I pay for a policy up front through my travel agent. If I did more travelling, I would take out an annual policy.

 

[CaptBob]

I use Amex platinum for all flights. The 2,000,000 coverage is adequate. I needed a 50,000. emergency evacuation cover for a boat trip in the antarctic and the card covered it. My impending problem is my age. At age 80, 13 months from now I am off the grid with Amex. Do any members know of a card that will cover someone in my age group ?? I May drop the card ( Cost $500 per year ) and spend the money on real coverage. I put a fair bit of money on the card, go around the world at least once a year, and travel to New Zealand on a regular basis. What are your thoughts.??? Its a great subject to review at this time for me.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I use Amex platinum for all flights. The 2,000,000 coverage is adequate. I needed a 50,000. emergency evacuation cover for a boat trip in the antarctic and the card covered it. My impending problem is my age. At age 80, 13 months from now I am off the grid with Amex. Do any members know of a card that will cover someone in my age group ?? I May drop the card ( Cost $500 per year ) and spend the money on real coverage. I put a fair bit of money on the card, go around the world at least once a year, and travel to New Zealand on a regular basis. What are your thoughts.??? Its a great subject to review at this time for me.

I'm not sure if there are any credit cards that will cover 80+ years... ANZ ends at 80.

There was discussion in another thread however, 80+ doesn't necessarily mean 'expensive'. There were some quotes for 5 week round the world holidays with coverage starting as little as $300 or so.

 

[gapyear]

A recent planned trip to Japan was cancelled 3 dayspre-departure as my wife's mother died unexpectedly (aged 94). My wife has AmericanExpress Platinum Charge Card insurance, handled by ACE Insurance. The claim wasrejected as "Cover does not extendto any loss arising from: "cancellation due to the death, AccidentalInjury, Sickness or Disease of any Close Relative who is more than eighty (80)years of age". (Age discrimination??) It's my fault for not readingthe terms more closely, but whether one's mother is 80, 85 or 94 years old, their deathstill has the same impact. I can find no other travel insurance policy that hasan age barrier cut off that. My travel insurance is with Medibank Private andeven they are taking a long time to respond and questioning the age factor. Mylesson from all this is never trust good insurance cover to credit card basedinsurance and even high profile insurers are difficult to deal with.

 

[justin23]

I've recently had to reroute some of my next trip. I had a week in Tunisia planned, but decided to avoid right now while the situation there is uncertain as to whether the local government can maintain security over further direct attacks at tourists. Given i'm still going to Jordan (right next to a warzone), my friend was more concerned about Tunisia, mostly due to the fact that the attack was directed at tourists. So we started the process of changing flights etc. I called the insurance company thinking i might get something, but alas no, as soon as terrorism is involved the policy becomes absolutely useless, regardless of where you go or if there was any risk or terrorism before hand. This was with cover-more, so I've blacklisted using them ever again. But TID has similar clauses as did the other two I checked at the time. I'm not surprised by this at all, I'm fully aware of insurance having clauses to get out of things that may cost them a lot of money.

Many people I know were shocked, that for example if a tourist was involved in the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney and had travel insurance, they'd have got nothing with most of them, mostly because it was declared a terrorist incident.

I did look at the CC insurance on my Woolworths CC. Similar clause regarding cancellation cover. Less obvious if you'd already commenced travel and is also limited to 30 days maximum. Good for a week in Fiji or SE Asia, but not much more IMO.

In the end It cost a lot to change the AMM-TUN and TUN-CMN leg of my trip. I've ended up with AMM-FRA-SOF and SOF-DOH-CMN which is a long way round to get to Casablanca with a week in Bulgaria. The good bit is I got a cheap Business class fair on Qatar air, admittedly on aircraft with their older business class seat, but better than a cramped economy seat for a long overnight flight and connection (by comparison Iberia and BA were more expensive for economy than the Qatar business class fare). I also learnt a bit about changes to airfares, I kind of assumed a change like Amman to Athens or Cyprus would be cheap, but they were $900 vs the $300 to go to Frankfurt!

I think we all know the moral of the story though, read the PDS first!

 

[randomtraveller]

I am planning on utilising the ANZ Black Card insurance for a forthcoming trip. It is one of the few credit cards insurances that will insure you for pre-existing conditions at a minimal cost. As we are flying return business class flights using points I queried whether the points were insured and was advised they are. I have in writing that we are insured from the date I booked the flights (Sept 2014 for departure in Aug 2015) until our return in mid November 2015. Obviously if we did cancel it would have to be for reasons covered by the insurance.

A few years ago while on an extended (8 months) trip which included the US I was using AMEX platinum charge card insurance but it only lasted for 6 months. I investigated a lot of travel insurances for the additional 2 months and none of them would insure us for those two months as we were already away and they required a forward and return flight to Australia in that period. The Amex insurers were Ace Insurance and they allowed us to extend the insurance for a further 2 months for a fee. In those two months my husband was diagnosed with triple pneumonia a day into a 2-week US cruise and was also suspected of having a pulmonary embolism and we spent a day having investigations at a hospital in the US Virgin Islands (negative for the embolism thankfully). My husband was unable to visit any of the ports on the cruise as he was so sick and we put in a claim for all the medical expenses and the cost of the cruise and were reimbursed. I found the main thing is you have to notify the insurance company as soon as practicable that you have a problem and they are very helpful.

A word of caution with regard to credit card insurance and Australian cruises - they are not recognised as international travel as you haven't left the country and so are not covered however the cruise lines recommend international travel insurance as Medicare and Australian private health insurers are not valid on the ships and the medical charges can be very high, especially if an air evacuation is required. There is no way round it - you have to pay for international travel insurance in that case.

 

[jvanes]

I have free travel insurance through Zurich with a Commonwealth Platinum card. When I had to cancel a plane and cruise trip at the last minute due to illness they refunded everything with only a $150 excess promptly, even the flight up to Sydney to get the plane to Canada, even though their conditions stated there was no refund for fares within Australia. I was so happy with their service that I have never worried about taking out travel insurance for my overseas trips since..

 

[Masonic Phantom]

I use Amex platinum for all flights. The 2,000,000 coverage is adequate. I needed a 50,000. emergency evacuation cover for a boat trip in the antarctic and the card covered it. My impending problem is my age. At age 80, 13 months from now I am off the grid with Amex. Do any members know of a card that will cover someone in my age group ?? I May drop the card ( Cost $500 per year ) and spend the money on real coverage. I put a fair bit of money on the card, go around the world at least once a year, and travel to New Zealand on a regular basis. What are your thoughts.??? Its a great subject to review at this time for me.

CaptBob, May I ask which Amex Plat card are you speaking of? as there are several.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I had a week in Tunisia planned, but decided to avoid right now while the situation there is uncertain as to whether the local government can maintain security over further direct attacks at tourists. ..... I called the insurance company thinking i might get something, but alas no, as soon as terrorism is involved the policy becomes absolutely useless,

Was terrorism involved? Surely you simply needed to change the trip for other reasons??

Just because a country has had a terrorist related incident, insurance shouldn't be voided unless that terrorism was directly involved in the claim. Otherwise all insurance for travel to the USA would be void!

 

[busissi]

For many years we relied on Amex Platinum for travel insurance. However after my husband's mild illness we are no longer covered. Not just him but me as a fellow traveller. Be very wary, the conditions have changed for the worse over the last few years and actually finding and understand the exact details not always easy. And we worked in the insurance industry for many years so beware!

 

[Corespec]

I would rather purchase a comprehensive travel insurance policy direct form a travel insurance provider. Luckily for me still only a few hundred dollars a year for piece of mind.

Having a few years ago carried out a review of the credit card "free" travel insurance and all the other policies I could find, I considered that the "free" insurance did not give me the level of cover which I considered was necessary and have since always opted for picking up a policy direct from a travel insurance provider. For the amount of money involved, I have always considered this a very worthwhile option, whilst in the back of my mind the "free" insurance was there as a maybe backup if all else failed. However, if you are going to use the "free" policies, you must be sure to read the conditions before doing anything in terms of bookings. Travel insurance is often the last thing to be done, and you may well find that you don't comply with the requirements once all your bookings have been made.

Fortunately, I have never had the need to try out any of the policies on offer, but I have certainly heard some horror stories about the lack of service that some of them provide when called upon to provide service.

Back of mind has always been the adage "if you can't afford the travel insurance, then you can't afford to travel".

 

[Anna]

after my husband's mild illness we are no longer covered. Not just him but me as a fellow traveller.

I can understand not being covered for anything related to the pre existing medical condition, such as medical expenses or cancellation due to that condition. But why would you not be covered for lost luggage, flight delays and other things not related to the pre existing condition? Seems a bit rough to me if they refuse to insure you full stop, for anything.

 

[dajop]

A recent planned trip to Japan was cancelled 3 dayspre-departure as my wife's mother died unexpectedly (aged 94). My wife has AmericanExpress Platinum Charge Card insurance, handled by ACE Insurance. The claim wasrejected as "Cover does not extendto any loss arising from: "cancellation due to the death, AccidentalInjury, Sickness or Disease of any Close Relative who is more than eighty (80)years of age". (Age discrimination??) It's my fault for not readingthe terms more closely, but whether one's mother is 80, 85 or 94 years old, their deathstill has the same impact. I can find no other travel insurance policy that hasan age barrier cut off that. My travel insurance is with Medibank Private andeven they are taking a long time to respond and questioning the age factor. Mylesson from all this is never trust good insurance cover to credit card basedinsurance and even high profile insurers are difficult to deal with.

I actually had the opposite experience, albeit a decade ago. My partner's grandmother died (aged late 80s) whilst we were in Canada on holidays (we were living in Melbourne at the time). My partner, covered by CC insurance, was able to make the journey back for the funeral as that particular card cover had no exclusions for >80. Yet I had a commercial policy (as mine was extension of work trip paid for by work, not personal card which meant no CC insurance), which excluded cover if person was >80. I even found out my companies TI policy covered extensions to work travel for personal reasons, but also had >80 exclusion. But this sort of cover, even if it doesn't come with an age limit, can be of limited use, as often people at that age die due to pre-existing medical condition which will often exclude cover. In this case my partner was OK as the death was not due to pre-existing medical condition.

Thankfully, these days we are in a secure enough financial position (and have enough FF points) that we don't worry about most aspects of travel insurance. My main concern is getting the major medical/medical evacuation insurance right. Without huge amounts of prepaid expenses, the other bells and whistles don't seem so important. If however faced with a significant car hire excess, there is a company I use to reduce that, with a very small premium.

 

[JohnM]

I've recently had to reroute some of my next trip. I had a week in Tunisia planned, but decided to avoid right now while the situation there is uncertain as to whether the local government can maintain security over further direct attacks at tourists.

Slightly OT, but I often wonder whether a very good time to go to somewhere like that is after a terrorist attack (lightning not striking twice sort of thing). I imagine tourism-centric service providers would be going out of their way to provide good service and value as they see the prospects of their livelihoods evaporating.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Slightly OT, but I often wonder whether a very good time to go to somewhere like that is after a terrorist attack (lightning not striking twice sort of thing). I imagine tourism-centric service providers would be going out of their way to provide good service and value as they see the prospects of their livelihoods evaporating.

To burst your theory, I can quote a number of incidences of lightning striking the same place twice!

 

[pearler47]

My experience with ANZ Platinum has been good. I had a cancellation a few years ago, due to a medical emergency the night before my outbound flight. They were good. I now have a pre-existing condition, but they have covered me two times after I pay $75 for the assessment. I had to argue a little last time. I am about to go again. My understanding is that you must have a return fare to qualify. Apart from that, you can travel around in your nominated areas. I looked at an Amex card a couple of years ago; their insurance would not cover pre-existing conditions at all.

 

[CaptBob]

It has the term " Reserve " on the side of it.

 

[mpkenz]

Be careful with this, many Insurance policys specify that if you have another form of coverage, they will not cover you. Each could deny your claim on the basis the other provides coverage.