Travel insurance
Hi
We last toured through France to Spain in 2014 and i can't remember how or who i had travel insurance with. Looking on compare sites they all assume you're flying and only go up to 45 days , while we need 49 to 56 days. Is there any insurers out there that do this either through the club or elsewhere.
Also in 2014 we had a fairfx preloaded mastercard and found that fuel pumps and tolls did not accept it. Is there any better alternative.
Many thanks
Comments
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Click Insurance at the top of this page.
Get a proper credit or debit card from a bank if you want to use automated fuel pumps.
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Are you meaning travel insurance as in personal travel insurance or breakdown or both? For the best part of thirty years we have been using Red Pennant.
David
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Hi Zorg
Atlas Direct
Been using these people for the last ten years or so and you just decide what cover you need and how many days you require and it gives you the price for your stay. Good travel cover at the best price I have found.
atlasdirect.co.uk
Phil
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Open a Flex plus account with Nationwide and you'll get Personal Travel insurance and breakdown as part of the benefits. You'll also be able to use their cards for paying for petrol and withdrawing money abroad. If you keep axsmall amount in the account (I think its £2500) then the interest recieved each month will nearly offset the monthly cost. There are other benefits to the account.
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Another vote for Nationwide FlexPlus account. Up to £2500 earns interest. There is a £10 charge but you get worldwide travel insurance, breakdown cover that includes, our motorhome when we investigated. There is also additional benefits to this account including mobile phone insurance, idenity theft assistance and something else
They happily increased the number of days away, for a fee, but it lasts for 12 months. They offer a Flex account that it free and includes European travel insurance providing you pay in £750 per month. Please check my figures 
. Both will give you debit and credit cards - not sure about fees for using basic Flex account, but FlexPlus commission free debit for withdrawing cash and commission free credit card payments.0 -
Whether supposedly "free" building society is the best option really depends on the health and age of the people concerned. It seems that even if you have relatively modest declarable conditions they load the extra premium. My last attempt at using the free insurance with Nationwide was going to cost me £250 extra and that was before I tried to extend the period beyond 31 days. Likewise you have to check carefully with the breakdown side of the insurance whether it will take your size of outfit, quite often there is a limit of 7metres. Not suggesting you should not investigate all the suggestions but just be sure it meets with your requirements. I know Red Pennant is not inexpensive but we find it the best value for us and it is usually much more comprehensive.
Regarding the pre-paid cards the issue with them not being accepting is, I think, something to do with automatic authorisation. Because it's difficult to check how much remains on the card. Far better to use a credit card. Have a look at the Halifax Clarity Card.
David
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Whether supposedly "free" building society
David - Both my post and Bakers2 post quite clearly state that the account is chargeable so I don't know why you've included "supposedly free" in your post.
The charge works out at roughly £40 per year net. My Green Flag cover cost nearly £100, my saving on Red Pennant for last years 2 trips to Europe would have cost in the region of £400 and my wife would have faced an additional £25 for travel insurance when she went on holiday to Italy with her mother. The Nationwide covered her trip as part and parcel of their overall cover at no additional cost. I had to pay £68 to cover my medical conditions but again this is annual and worldwide cover.So up to now that would be a saving in the region of just over £400, not to mention the additional cover for identity theft etc.
I am more than happy paying the small charge for my "supposedly free" account.
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Wherenext
I was talking about the travel insurance element being free rather than what you pay for having such an account. European travel insurance is an extra benefit of our Nationwide Flex Account without paying a monthly fee. However once they take into account our joint medical conditions the additional charge to cover those conditions is over £250. This would also be the case had we upgraded our Flex Account to the next level. The point I am making is that everyone has to check their individual circumstances before deciding whether a Bank/Building Society or more specialised, like RP, is the better option. When people ask for advice on here we generally have no idea of their personal circumstances so they need a range of advice which hopefully will lead to them making the best decision, would you not agree?
David
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We have in the past used RP, they are good but expensive.
Last year we used Greenflag European Plus for breakdown 12mths for £100. Medical cover was Nationwide European, we uped it from 31 days cover to 66 days gor £58 this lasted for 12mths as well so as many trips as you like.
At the end of last year we changed our Nationwide from Flex to Flex plus, we know have 12mths Worldwide cover up to 31 days, will up it nearer the time of deparure when we kmow how long we will be away, I font think it will be that much more. We also get European breakdown cover, this foes cover our motor home, also any car either of us is travelling in. There are other benifits to like 3% interest on £2500 on a monthly basis, free cash withdrawals is another. We also have a Nationwide CC which gives us cashback.
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You pay your money and make your own choice of cover, me personally would always use RP, at the end of the day until you need to use the cover its then you can judge their value for money, a friend had his sorento gear box pack up down the med, his cover was through his bank they would not bring his car back or supply a suitable replacment, they removed it to a local garage and had to pay e5000 for a replacment box and was a week late back to work, 2y later the same happened to me, my car was brought back to the uk and suitable replacment tow car was supplied and I continued with my holiday, for me RP every time.
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I understood David perfectly as we have had a similar experience.
As long standing Nationwide customers, we looked into the "free" insurance, but if you are over a certain age (which apparently I am) and if you have any pre-existing conditions, which we do, then they really hammer you on the premium.
Yes, the add-ons are free, but only if you are young enough and fit enough.
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I also used RP for many years but it got too expensive mainly due to the size of my motorhome. I have had "free" worldwide travel insurance via my bank account for years which I have used for other types of holiday and on the two claims I have made I have had no problem. One was a cruise cancellation and one was for treatment to an injury. Currently the cover is for 45 days. I now use this for all my holidays and cover my motorhome breakdown via the C&CC annual Arrival policy with the added option of European cover. Total cost £182p.a. for as many trips as we like.
peedee
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I'm with Nationwide. £50 to extend to 66 days. £115 for medical. Total £165. For this you get BOTH UK and European breakdown and recovery. A lot less than the £500 with RP and £90 for CC May Day. Two main differences which I can live with, firstly you can't be towed off muddy fields in the UK and secondly only £800 car hire abroad against £2000/£4000 with RP.
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Another Flexplus customer here. After interest (assuming £2,500 kept in the account) it costs less than £40 / year - easily worth it just for the breakdown insurance. The limit on caravan length is 8 metres including A frame (ie shipping length) which covers most if not all legal UK vans (the 7 metre limit on many policies is, I believe, a misinterpretation of C&U regs). The non-UK portion of the insurance (provided by Britannia, who are excellent) covers any vehicle driven by either of us (it's a joint account).
We also get free mobile phone insurance and extended warranty on items we've purchased so even without travel insurance it's a superb deal.
WRT travel insurance, we're 68 and 72 next birthdays, have a small variety of medical conditions and this costs us an extra £96 per year - which I consider good value.
I appreciate David's points but all in all I've never been tempted by RP which I consider grossly overpriced. I've made the calculation elsewhere but over the years we've saved over £2,000 by not using it, which would pay for a little inconvenience if the worst happens.
But everyone has different requirements.
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I have been doing a few sums on how the two compare for me. It seems to me that if I were to subscribe to Nationwide Flex Plus my holiday insurance would work out at £420, I have included in that the known extra costs of declarable medical conditions and the extra cost of extending the policy to 66 days plus the £120 a year fee to upgrade. (I have ignored the need to keep £2500 in the account to gain the extra interest as its unlikely we would do that and it's Margaret's account not mine!) To buy Red Pennant for 122 days (as many trips as you want) would cost £350 (plus the £90 a year for Mayday which would be included in the Nationwide figure above) so it seems to be only costing me £20 more to have a completely joined up insurance which is one phone call away rather than having to deal with different organisations if I find myself in dire circumstances. OK RP is more expensive but for me in my personal circumstances it is a minimal extra cost and I don't have to spend an hour on the phone going through two sets of medical conditions and worrying whether I have forgotten some essential information that might void the policy. Red Pennant have a simple medical questionnaire that is completed in minutes.
David
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Kjell, I am now into the third stage of life and have a long standing medical condition which costs me £68 a year to extend Nationwide but twice that amount with RP. Plus my travel insurance is worldwide and not just for caravanning. In addition I added my MIL onto the policy for her holiday with my wife in July. She(MIL) is 84 next month and it cost me £28.
I agree it differs for everyone but there are alternqtives out there if people look and all I was doing was giving the OP another choice. Up to him/her whether they take it.
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