Red Pennant
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Metheven No, we don't have a dog - just wife and self. Red Pennant may 'cover all needs', and now at a price. If the C&CC cover enough needs, and satisfactorily, that's fine by me.
Deleted User User I will be looking at C&CC for the future. The CAMC no longer represents for me an organisation towards which I should feel any loyalty. If C&CC are capable of offering good cover cheaper, then CAMC should be looking to compete in the interests of their members.
iansoady I have an account with Nationwide. Just been on their website, and they say that they are lowering the age for age upgrades from 75 to 70. So, in our 80's, we have no chance.
It seems that insurers are generally making things difficult for anyone over 80, or even less. And coming at a time when the government have raised retirement age because people are living longer.
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We also have this account, moved to it from the Flex account because of the extra benefits. With the 'Flex' account the free holiday cover is for Europe only but can be at a small cost extended to include worldwide.
Like you I wish it gave you the option on the Flex+ account to just select Europe cover as it would be cheaper to extend.
WN, you had me a bit worried there as we go for over 60 days and thought we did have cover, so we've just checked out the breakdown cover for Europe the policy document section 2, page 4, states " trip not exceeding 180 days in any 12 mths period.
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It does seem age is becoming a problem, what happened to age discrimination! Up to now we have always found Red Pennant hard to beat despite its seemingly high price. We have the option of "free" (nothing of the sort of course!) European cover with Nationwide but it just does not work out. So if I have it right its about £150 to have the plus cover. When we last got a quote they wanted another £250 to cover our medical conditions. You then have to pay more to extend beyond 31 days and if they are reducing the age then that might count us out altogether. It seems that that the cost of insurance could actually start to prevent older people going abroad?
David
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For me at the moment RP meets my needs at an affordable cost, just did a quote online and came in at £306 motoring, personal plus pet for 67 days.
Unless I missed it the other club does not do an online quote, so will have to telephone to compare.
In the past we have tried the banking extras you can get with a monthly fee but it had limitations for us.
Sorry 'Le Touriste', mixed you up with someone else regarding a pet. It does seem that reaching a certain age severely adds £££££ to your cover after doing a few online quotes with RP with differing ages.
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WN, you had me a bit worried there as we go for over 60 days and thought we did have cover, so we've just checked out the breakdown cover for Europe the policy document section 2, page 4, states " trip not exceeding 180 days in any 12 mths period.
My apologies Tammy. I have absolutely no idea why I said that as I know it's as you stated.Temporary (hopefully) memory malfunction. My apologies for the confusion.
With regard to the age limit please note that we added MIL as additional when she and Mrs WN went to Portugal in July last year. Now she had no medical problems at the time and for an 8 day holiday it cost about £100. She was 85 y.o. They then went to Madeira in December and the additional cost for this week long holiday was just £20 (!!!!). So the Nationwide extended their age limit for her and also did the same in the previous 2 years. It may well be that if you already hold an account with them that they may be prepared to cover you if you are over 70.
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I suppose you could say the same for the under 25s, I read somewhere that the risks increase (for different reasons) for under 25s and over 65s. The under 25s pay huge premiums due to their risk ratings.
The other factor is individual needs so no single insurance quote is going to suit all.
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"What happened to age discrimination?" Good point.
"It seems that the cost of insurance could actually start to prevent older people going abroad". I would bet that trend has probably already started.
Where insurance is concerned, I think insurers and underwriters have been having everything their own way for far too long. Some form of government intervention seems overdue (not the same bods dealing with Brexit). How insurers can substantially cut their premiums to undercut another insurer is evidence enough of extortionate quotes. Last year I changed my car mid-policy VW Touran to VW Caravelle, and was insured through the CAMC. Renewal quote was an eyewatering £1707. Went on the comparison sites and got same protection for £744 with Admiral.
If a builder charged £1707 for work and another valued it at £744, BBC Watchdog would have a ball! Why don't they hammer car insurers?
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My apologies Tammy. I have absolutely no idea why I said that as I know it's as you stated.Temporary (hopefully) memory malfunction. My apologies for the confusion.
No apologies needed WN, I'm glad that you had a malfunction as it would have seriously have bu@@eredour plans for the end of the year. Hoping to go for 80 days, that's if Brexit doesn't throw a spanner in the works.
I've been onto NW insurance (UK insurance) as our policy was due to run out while on the cruise, we have renewed it but without the 80 day extension for now.
They were quoting £198 for 80 days including medical issues. I challenged the medical bit as we have never paid a penny before for them and nothing has changed. Last year we paid £80 for the 80 day cover.
They have removed the charge for the medical now however when I spoke to them today, it seems its to do with OH's shoulder, last year is was just an 'injury' while this year its now 'post operation' which it would seem incurs a charge anyway the advice was wait until after the 12mth period has passed since surgery, then add the 80 days extension. As this will be the end of March and we don't go away until the 5th May I will leave it until the end of April to do that.
Insurance is becoming very expensive in every form, for some I guess it will have a knock on effect for more than just holidays.
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Eventually markets will tend to influence prices if there is a downturn. If you think of the Cruise market where a fair proportion of customers tend to be older, certainly true of some cruise companies compared to others. If they see their market share decrease because people can't get insurance then I am sure they will do something about it. The problem for the likes of the CMC is that I expect the market is not that large, so room for manoeuvre is limited.
David
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It will only get worse after Brexit, currently we are all covered with EHIC so long as you take your card so insurers are not having to pay for some medical emergencies etc. however once that finishes I can only see insurers bumping up costs for everyone to cover.
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That may have been the case years ago DK but the cruises I've been on (12) have had a very mixed age group, with the young ones now taking over at certain times of the year. You would be amazed at how many families cruise now.
The cruising industry has changed dramatically in the 22 years since we started.
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I don't believe that there has been a significant increase in the number of claims by elderly caravan/motorhome campers to warrant a jump from £239 to £644 for similar cover. Apart from the odd unfortunate need to claim, the older members are of necessity reasonably fit to continue their pastime. Do we have any idea of the percentage of members who are over 70, or over 80? And where claims are made, how do these rate as a percentage of all the claims? Has the percentage of older members significantly increased in recent years? And it isn't just the older members who will ultimately suffer. If the insurers manage to squeeze out members aged 80, or even 70, or over, in order to maintain their profit growth the younger members will be charged higher premiums to make up the shortfall.
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If as posted earlier that the club have changed their underwriters,for what reason?and it has caused the big increase in "older" members who go "over there" it looks like they may not have really given the thought required when looking for "more income?"and have shot themselves in the foot,
again
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Have already done that - except Saga - and the killing point was either a 30-day maximum single trip (already booked for 44 nights), or constraints by separate carriers. For example, we will be returning via Portsmouth and going onward to Morn Hill for 4 nights. In the event of repatriation, car and caravan would have to be left on public highway as RAC are not permitted to drive onto CAMC sites (RAC advice to me), and AA cover unacceptably expensive. The ramifications of being dropped on a public highway (lay-by?) put that idea out of the question and, if Mayday were available to close this gap, what sort of delays could occur? The ferry lands at 6:20 pm with approx 30 mile run to Morn Hill, which already makes arrival before 8 o'clock close, depending on traffic conditions. Don't think late arrival of tow truck with a disabled car and caravan would be very much appreciated.
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LT, while I sympathise with the problems you are finding about travel insurance for someone of your age (and my age) but I don't want you to worry unecessarily.
Most mechanical breakdowns will be dealt while you are overseas. With most breakdown insurances you and your caravan will be taken to a nearby campsite, your car to a garage, and you will get a small runabout hire car for a few days till the repair is done.
Repatriation of car and caravan on a truck is really very rare. If it comes to that most insurance companies will get you personally back home by some practical means, and then your car and caravan will follow later - it might be a week later, and with some companies it might have to wait till they fill a double decker transporter. So in that event forget arriving on a flat bed truck across the Channel for four days at Morn Hill - that's one thing which won't happen.
But I do hope you get some insurance sorted out at a fair price because I need your advice with it - I am well past my own sell by date. Good wishes.
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RAC are not permitted to drive onto CAMC sites
I admit to finding that difficult to believe. I can only think of two reasons for that. Either RAC will not permit drivers to do so or CC won't permit them. Both seem unlikely given that I have seen RAC recovery vehicles on site more than once in the last few years
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Same here, plus AA and various others.
We were once delivered to our pitch by a breakdown truck with our caravan attached. Car was then unloaded onto the pitch. Next day they returned and loaded the car up again to go to be fixed.
We also had the Volvo Assist van come on a different site to repair the car.
How could a recovery vehicle rescue a car on a site without coming onto the site?
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“RAC are not permitted to drive onto CAMC sites”
Well, they did for us with no issues at all.
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I am sure I read somewhere recently that the EHIC is outside of the EU, run by the EEA which run a bunch of commercial treaties and will not be affected by Brexit.
BillC
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LeTouriste, we had Saga breakdown cover and insurance when we owned the MH, I'm pretty sure we were not held to 31 days as our trips to europe are usually 2 - 3 months in length.
Breakdown trucks on club sites - we've been recovered to White Water site, no problem, then they came back the next day again to take vehicle to garage, again no problem.
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Only repeating what RAC agent told me during my enquiries. We all know that the operators of such services can get it wrong but, in the absence of knowledge to the contrary, I played it safe and believed him. If the Brexit situation doesn't make it too difficult to head for France next year, I will use the tips and my findings to circumvent using Red Pennant.
I would mention that the RAC agent had referred to "using C&CC equipment". I have no idea what he meant by that, or if it was because the recovery vehicle would have been working for the C&CC - he did say something about a £20 surcharge payable to the C&CC. The whole thing became too confusing in the end, so we swallowed the pill and went with Red Pennant.
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Firstly apologies for the delay in catching up with this thread. I have spoken to my colleagues on the Red Pennant team, and if I can start by clarifying that the underwriters of the Red Pennant Overseas Holiday Insurance have not changed. As of 1 January 2019 Arrow Underwriting Services Limited became Alpha Underwriting Limited. Arrow was the underwriting agents for Astrenska Insurance Limited and Alpha continue to be Underwriting agents for Astrenska Insurance Limited.
The increase in premium for any personal aspect of the Red Pennant Insurance is as a result of a performance review completed by the underwriting agents and Astrenska. The increase in premium is not to drive the profit of the Insurers or to deter members from taking the cover, but a necessity to ensure that the level of premiums collected accurately reflects insurance costs.
For Motoring only policies and for the majority of members who use the “Personal” element of the insurance we have been able to maintain the level of premiums charged with only slight amendments for a number of consecutive years, even reducing the premium in some instances. Unfortunately for members aged 80 and above that use a “Personal” element of cover the insurers have enforced increases to the premiums.
It is true that following a review of the costs associated to claims a suggestion was to only sell the “Personal” aspect of Red Pennant Insurance to members that were under 80. We are aware that other providers apply this restriction but this was not a direction we wanted to take.
We understand a lot of our members wish to continue touring in Europe well into their 80’s and beyond and we wanted to ensure we could continue to offer a product that would allow you to do so. Unfortunately this did mean having to increase the premium to appropriately cover the risk.
We believe we remain competitive within the market and will continue to be able to offer these products with the high levels of member focused service and care when you need us, delivered directly from the Club’s Head Quarters. Of course we would always encourage members to look around but when doing so ensure you check the benefits and levels of cover on offer are right for your needs and travel plans.
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Hi Rowena,
Given that response, I think The Club should get out there and find other insurers and offer more than one product, because Red Pennant is becoming too expensive for most members to swallow.
My dissatisfaction with RP is the penalty for the length of my van. Because my van is 6mm over 8m I have to pay an extra £227. The other club, who also use Astrenska don’t make that charge.
When I challenged this last year, I was told it was because the breakdown companies have to use a bigger breakdown truck for my size of van. I then asked RAC Europe, one of the biggest operators in Europe (not always in the name of RAC) about this and they told me that was rubbish because they only have one size of truck.
I am 71 yrs old and the quote I received this year was £688! That is for multi-trip and 66 days per trip. A ridiculous price for insurance.
BillC
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iansoady I have an account with Nationwide. Just been on their website, and they say that they are lowering the age for age upgrades from 75 to 70. So, in our 80's, we have no chance.
LT - I meant to issue a slight correction on this. Nationwide have reduced the age upgrade but this just means that they will ask for an additional payment beyond 70 not that they will exclude over 70s. Each request to be treated ln its own merits.
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Not true I'm afraid.
If some sort of deal is reached before we leave then EHIC will continue until December 2020, when they hope to have something new in place. If no deal then no further cover after 29th.March 2019 unless EU and UK reach an agreement to extend it. Indications are that they want to but nothing officially agreed yet.
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