Insurance for UK citizens

[amias]

Greetings. My husband and I live in the US and have cruised several times. My parents hope to join us on a January cruise from Fort Lauderdale but insurance is an issue. We know we can get them HAL insurance which will cover the cruise but does anyone know of a company that offers all inclusive coverage (flights, interim couple of days in FLL and cruise). Insuremytrip.com can't help. Parents are 80 and 82.

 

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[cruiseco]

Greetings. My husband and I live in the US and have cruised several times. My parents hope to join us on a January cruise from Fort Lauderdale but insurance is an issue. We know we can get them HAL insurance which will cover the cruise but does anyone know of a company that offers all inclusive coverage (flights, interim couple of days in FLL and cruise). Insuremytrip.com can't help. Parents are 80 and 82.

 

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

If you're looking for US-style plans squaremouth.com carries plans from iTravelInsured that are available to residents of any country.

 

http://www.travelinsurancecenter.com also has a couple of plans for non-US residents.

 

If you want UK-style plans there's hundreds of sources -- just Google it.

[CruisinGerman]

While some of the U.S. sites will sell medical coverage to a resident of any country, it is not possible to buy true travel insurance (cancellation, interruption, etc.) on the U.S. sites.

 

For insurance appropriate to a UK resident, the best site out there is www.moneysupermarket.com.

 

Click on travel insurance. You have a choice of practically every single travel insurer operating in the UK and you can even filter through some very particular situations (finding insurance for very high age groups, pre-existing conditions, etc.).

 

Let us know what you find.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

[cruiseco]

While some of the U.S. sites will sell medical coverage to a resident of any country, it is not possible to buy true travel insurance (cancellation, interruption, etc.) on the U.S. sites.

 

Sure they can. That's why I posted those links to the sites that offer plans to residents of any country that include trip cancellation and interruption.

[Jade13]

Sure they can. That's why I posted those links to the sites that offer plans to residents of any country that include trip cancellation and interruption.

 

Those policies are really expensive! I just entered the info for our next cruise but put in "UK" and they start at $600.00 ($4,000 insured with our ages), when a policy we are going to use as a US resident will be approx. $250.00. Forgot that the amount we will be insuring will be more than that. I did not check, but these must have primary insurance coverage.

[patseacruiser]

It's funny that this just came up since my insurance rep called me yesterday and said that you can buy US travel insurance and it will waive the pre-existing conditions as long as purchased within the 10 days of initial deposit.

[CruisinGerman]

Just because a U.S. insurance portal that is geared towards U.S. residents has one policy (USA-ASSIST) that will take a non-U.S. resident, doesn't mean that this policy is the right choice.

 

A UK-EU resident can do much better on the insurance search engines made for us, not the Americans, such as the one I posted for UK residents.

 

The policies are far less costly and are specifically aimed at the needs of the UK resident, are protected by the UK Financial Services Authority, etc.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

[amias]

Many thanks for the responses. CruisinGerman is correct - the policies which originate in the US are prohibitively expensive, and many of them did not, in fact, cover UK residents.

 

Thanks for the moneymarket.com link which looks to be a possibilty.Your help is appreciated!

[cruiseco]

Those policies are really expensive! I just entered the info for our next cruise but put in "UK" and they start at $600.00 ($4,000 insured with our ages), when a policy we are going to use as a US resident will be approx. $250.00. Forgot that the amount we will be insuring will be more than that. I did not check, but these must have primary insurance coverage.

 

They tend to be more expensive because of their high overhead costs. Can you imagine the extra costs of insuring a traveler from Myanmar going to Kazahkstan? Every conversation, either by phone or email/mail might involve translators.

 

Plus, for the iTravelInsured plans listed on squaremouth.com, iTi allows the selling agent to set the commission they're going to collect (and thus the price the client will pay) at just about any level they want. Squaremouth is certainly not bashful about setting their commission. But those same plans can be found elsewhere on the web at prices much more in line with the other plans you see out there.

[jkelec]

i know this may be too late for the above travel party but may help other people in the future i have just purchased insurance for my mum with a few pre exsisting conditions and was cheaper to purchase a yearly package which has come in at £ 210 for the year including the medical screening

this is with a company called insure and go .com they email you all the docs and all so send you hard copies in the post if you req and all so offer the service of automatic renewal if you want

hope this helps anybody

[amias]

Thanks JKELEC - not too late at all - the cruise is in January. I will look into the company and pass the info on to my parents. They had purchased annual trip insurance previously when they were going to Spain, Turkey etc. several times a year. They are now both over 80 and they really want the peace of mind to have coverage for the entire trip, bot pre and post cruise, and the cruise itself.

 

I appreciate your help - cheers!