Is GoFundMe the new travel insurance?

@thegeneralist – yeah I agree, I didn’t word my orignal message very well. In the past I have made the incorrect assumption that my annual cover included cycling (mainly road) – but going forward I would take out separate insurance specific to that trip and those activities. In the past I have done a lot of cycling trips abroad that I honestly had just presumed were in the sports and hazardous activity cover.

Also had a message to advise me to read the reviews regarding Tripsure….they don’t look particularly good at paying out when people have made a claim. We have a trip booked in May/June and another in August so I think I will also take out another annual policy from somewhere else….

My annual policy is through my RBS bank account. Used it last year when daughter was ill on a ski trip. It paid for her (non emergency) medical care, the cost of her ski school, lift pass and gear hire, as well as some of mine for the days I had to look after her. No quibble and lots of over the phone reassurance and offers of additional support such as translation services, medical advice line etc.

I used it a few years ago when I had my wallet and phone stolen in Granada, again it was faultless. Policy includes all dependents under age of 18 or in full time education. Covers diving to 35m, snow sports, road cycling and a decent range of hazardous sports without bolt on.

We travel a lot, annual policy is part of the benefits we get for our £15 per month account fee, also include European breakdown cover, mobile phone insurance and a few other benefits. Worth every single penny.

I’ve always got specific insurance when I’ve been  abroad in the past doing outdoors stuff. Can’t remember where from or  how much, but it was for solo backpacking in Norway and Greenland and rock climbing in Verdon years back and to make sure I had rescue cover.

Tbh other times I’ve been abroad on l ‘normal’ holidays with family I’d not considered it, probably as any holiday abroad is such a rare occurrence it probably didn’t cross my mind. These being Oz (work) and Portugal (once)  and France (many times).

I do know a couple of people who’ve had mares abroad with accidents from random incidents on ‘normal’ holidays one with a seriously broken leg/hip in the US from an innocuous trip, and I think it was bad enough to sort even with insurance.

I guess if I renew my passport and go away again I’ll be more aware or we’d end up being a go fund me case if anything happened.

Just be aware that most if not all the Holiday Insurance Providers who cover MTB  are underwritten by a couple of insurance providers who use Claims Management Companies to handle any claims.

If it goes badly wrong on the mountain (helicopter recovery) make sure you follow the policy procedures in the right order or it could be costly.

Ours uses CSA who were a complete waste of time. They tried every way possible to wangle out of the claim

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.csal.co.uk

Having just received a bill for a helicopter recovery (just under £9K if anyone is wondering) that’s not the kind of thing I want to hear right now….luckily we’re not with CSA

***so I think I will also take out another annual policy from somewhere else….***

Be careful with that – I’d suggest you cancel the crap policy and take out a new one, otherwise you may end up with both insurers saying the other insurer is liable (you’d be asked if any other insurance is in place upon making a claim).

“Killed instantly. £25k to bring his body home. I politely declined to donate.”

Well, you definitely showed him…

@bentandbroken

If you don’t mind me asking who’s your insurer and who underwrites them and who do they out source to for managing the claims as we have found it hard to find one that doesn’t use CSA

We got sorted in the end and the underwriters agreed that CSA were wrong. We used the FCA Consumer Duty Regs that came into force last year to show that the policy wording could not be adhered to. They couldn’t, wouldn’t,  help with anything to do with a personal injury claim against anyone abroad. The Claims Management Companies are working on behalf of the Insurers to limit the liability of any claim.

I think if I died overseas I’d probably like to get a local cremation and posted home (or if anyone came over I could come back in their hand luggage…..)

bentandbroken Full Member
Having just received a bill for a helicopter recovery

username checks out 🤔

@zilog6128 – Account was created while I was recovering from an (incredibly slow, mellow, benign on a ‘slight slope’) MTB crash and had multiple broken bones. The bent bit comes from the fact that my back is genetically ‘all over the show’

@Tracey – that’s for the PMs for now as the repatriation is ongoing and I don’t know how the rest is going to pan out…. Will ping some details later today

OK . Good look with it all and the recovery.

After 9 months Kevin is just back on the bike. Physically and mentally I don’t think he will ever be the same.

@bentandbroken

@Tracey

Just wanted to wish you both all the best with the current challenges you are going through. I’m guessing Kevin is your oh Tracey? Best wishes for his gradual recovery.

Yes he is. Thanks for that. It’s really appreciated.

@Tracey You have a PM

Or mountain rescue. I don’t think helicopters come cheap!  If you can’t drag your shattered leg off the mountain yourself, or you are unconscious and your mates won’t carry you down as your neck seems to be at a funny angle, that could financially ruin you

Actually they are free in principle bar in a small amount in some alpine resorts  You got caught by private companies who are virtually scammers

Some silly has just put himself in the position of negating his travel insurance. Decided tombstoning off some rock in the Canary islands(Tenerife)  was a good plan.

Until he overshot the mark and landed on the rocks instead.

Survived fortunately, but with smashed legs and feet, and probably spinal too.

https://www.canarianweekly.com/posts/Holidaymaker-seriously-injured-in-one-of-Tenerife-s-most-dangerous-rock-pools

Jesus wept.

Isn’t tombstoning when you jump off one cliff/rock into the water?

Someone should have told him the second part is the critical bit

^^ That video make me physically cringe.

I pay something like £15/mo for a travel pack from my bank which is worldwide permanent travel insurance for the whole family and breakdown cover (for cars…).  It’s not a lot more than breakdown cover on its own.  Also includes a few other things I forget what.  I like fixed monthly costs.

I pay something like £15/mo for a travel pack from my bank which is worldwide permanent travel insurance for the whole family and breakdown cover (for cars…).

What’s the details of the cover like?

I looked into it and it really was poor cover, with odd stipulations such as cycling only in marked bike lanes (so no road or trails) etc

Thoughts on this….?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/25/british-climber-nepali-guide-feared-dead-mount-everest-summit

I have to admit to being surprised that he didn’t have insurance to cover this.

Maybe it’s too risky to insure or a rescue is too dangerous? Can you even fly helicopters at that height?

Maybe I’m just too miserable and scared, but absolutely nothing about climbing Everest sounds fun or rewarding. Nose to tail with other foreigners for a selfie at the top, and possibly stepping over dead people to get there. I’d rather climb a much smaller mountain 10 times.

I thought it was generally too dangerous to attempt a rescue in the death zone.

I have to admit to being surprised that he didn’t have insurance to cover this.

plenty of people earlier in the thread thick enough prepared to travel abroad without SAR/repatriation cover so doesn’t surprise me at all 🤷‍♂️

quick google shows there definitely are insurance companies willing to insure for recovery above base camp altitude, no idea what the cost is though. They literally say on their page

Our maxim is, if you can’t afford travel insurance, you can’t afford to travel.

which is fair enough I think

as an aside I recall reading the Nepalese are getting a bit cheesed off with rich westerners littering their sacred mountain with their corpses 😬

One of the sad insurance stories was on the news recently. Insurance didn’t pay out as the trip hadn’t started in the uk as specified. I think she was already abroad or something on the start of a multi country trip but they had taken insurance.
There are so many things to look out for.
Can we have links to the decent insurance companies pls.
I’ve been using my bank one, not cheap monthly but I bet it’s rubbish.

No retail UK travel insurance will cover you if your trip didn’t start in the UK. (some corporate policies will).

Bank ones are not necessarily rubbish.

Mine is free with HSBC and is provided by Aviva. It’s very generous.

Nationwide is now Aviva as well

Out of curiosity I google HSBC travel insurance. It does look quite good.

A big list of health conditions automatically covered.   Looks like cycle touring would be covered with no helmet requirement.  The  exclusions related to cycing is “cycle racing”  and “Mountain biking – other than trails graded as easy or moderate”

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/content/dam/hsbc/gb/pdf/insurance/hsbc-premier-worldwide-travel-ins-policy-wording.pdf

Thoughts on this….?

To me it feels pretty foolhardy. The risk of it being you are real. And the financial outcome and decision making after it turns out it is you is all on your relatives. At the very minimum you need to have had a conversation with your relatives before you go either saying ‘ this is access to my bank account and funds to pay for this’ or ‘if the worst happens I do not want you spending money on what is effectively a lost cause – I’m going to be dead’.

Bigger picture, I always wondered if I’d have liked to have done some bigger mountains – Himalayan but maybe not Everest. Everest itself now looks like a total shit show I’d not want to be associated with – the scandalous amounts of rubbish, the commercialism and the queuing. Only a complete bellend would want being dragged up it as a bragging right to their city boy mates these days. But bellends are not in short supply amongst that ilk.

Bigger picture, I stayed for a couple of weeks at around 4000m and then trekked up to 5000m for work last year and from a health perspective hated the experience. Until you’ve done it it’s hard to understand but the headaches and the total exhaustion doing day to day things was just deeply deeply unpleasant and not something I’d voluntarily do again. The idea of going to 7000m and beyond doesn’t bear thinking about, though we all react differently. Unless you are very lucky it’s just a very unpleasant experience just being there.

No retail UK travel insurance will cover you if your trip didn’t start in the UK. (some corporate policies will).

i need to check this out. My daughter is covered under our family annual policy and is going off to camp America for 6 weeks. This is covered by their policy. She is then self travelling for 4 weeks after that in the States. So I guess this means the that the part covered under our policy is starting outside of the UK.

Looks like I need to make a phone call, and probably cough up more ££s

Everest itself now looks like a total shit show I’d not want to be associated with – the scandalous amounts of rubbish, the commercialism and the queuing. Only a complete bellend would want being dragged up it as a bragging right to their city boy mates these days.

Oh beautiful. That’s actually what I wanted to say, but didn’t. Especially this bit:

Only a complete bellend would want being dragged up it as a bragging right to their city boy mates these days.

No retail UK travel insurance will cover you if your trip didn’t start in the UK. (some corporate policies will).

I don’t think this is true. World Nomads will:

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/travel-insurance-for-a-mtb-holiday-not-starting-in-the-uk/

The whole travel insurance assessment of risk seems totally bonkers, so it’s not surprising people get caught out

We have travel insurance included with our home insurance. We checked the policy before we last travelled and it covers skiing and snowboarding (on-piste) but excludes cycling….  So I’m not covered pedalling along s traffic free, segregated bike path, bet am nailing a black run having never been skiing before on my life!!

Bonkers.

Doesn’t negate the OPs point though!

Killed instantly. £25k to bring his body home. I politely declined to donate.

Wow. I’m sure his family are grateful for your generosity in teaching them a valuable lesson.

And again – a woman with known medical complaints hasn’t declared them, is going to end up with a big bill, and the family are asking people to help.

Well, a lot of people with ‘liver disease’ spend quite a bit of their lives not necessarily in the best condition to make wise choices……

A good friend and his lad got helicoptered off the Matterhorn, they were above the Solvay hut when a weather front came in.

Won’t tell me how much it cost him.

a woman with known medical complaints hasn’t declared them, is going to end up with a big bill

lies about medical condition (sorry, makes “error”) in order to save money on insurance – but that invalidates said insurance so surely cheaper just to not bother in the first place 🤔😂