Off on a trip to Madeira next month and looking at travel insurance. Bike is covered on the House so its just for me.

I’ve always used Dogtag in the past on recommendations but never had to claim. However, last year a mate came a cropper in Andorra and bust his shoulder. We got him to the road then he had a trip to A&E in an ambulance, was given an X-ray, Dr report, arm sling, pain killers and I think that was about it. He was with Dogtag and by the time he’d have paid out all the excess’s ( there seemed to be one for everything, as opposed to a single excess payment for the whole claim) he would only have been about £20 better off. think his bills were £300 ish, so rather than jump through all their hoops he just coughed up.

So who’ve you used and claimed off and how painless (no pun intended) was it. Obviously, none of us plan on using/claiming off the insurance, but you never know. I guess if was a proper full on hospital stay, maybe surgery and repatriation it’s be a different kettle of fish.

Cheers
Carlos

(tick)

I use snowcard but haven’t had to claim

I always used Dogtags when I was going snowboarding holidays with my mates. However, I found out that I was paying around 5 times what they were for a weeks holiday insurance with snowsports cover. Eventually, I just started doing what they did, I went onto Compare the Meerkat and picked something from there.

….When I had my accident…I was covered by Dr24hr Cover or something like that. It cost £18 as I remember and was the ‘Silver’ cover option out of Bronze-Silver-Gold.

I believe that most of my treatment was covered by my EU medical card, but the translator, private nurse, transfer to a less terrifyingly dirty, private hospital and private air ambulance home a week later were all covered by Dr24hr cover. I didn’t pay a penny, still not sure how that worked out and still go into a cold sweat whenever I go online to get holiday insurance now, in case someone goes…”Hang on a minute, we’ve been looking for you”

I think you just take your chances, just like the insurance companies do when they gamble on you not costing them a small fortune. Now, when I go my skiing holidays (the word snowboard is now frowned upon in the Beagleboy household), I just stick with a mid-price, middle option insurance cover, keep my fingers crossed and never, ever believe an instructor again when he says, “..but this is a really easy trick.”

I used Yellow Jersey and claimed. Also in Andorra which does make it more complicated due to the non EU status, as the insurance company wont pay the hospital direct. You have to claim back afterwards.

Mine was about £230 I believe and got about £160 back. Though we got a bus into town, no ambulance. So maybe that is a separate excess category? Yellow Jersey were helpful throughout though.

I used Dogtag and had to claim cancellation because of injury, no excess, but a bit of a pain to deal with.

I’ve got standard cover now with my bank account, I use Worlds Nomads for MTB Injury cover, hospital costs and repatriation etc. I’ve claimed with them in the past for non-injury stuff and they were very good, they’re usually 60% cheaper than Snow Card / Dogtag etc.

So depending on price I would be interested in an MTB specific annual insurance that covers loss of earning, bike theft as well as medical insurance abroad (say 1 trip a year europe for a Morzine mincer/non-racer).

Anyone no of such a thing?

We have ours through Yellow Jersey. Not had to claim but know someone who had to claim whilst in South America and they were first class in sorting it.

You could try MPI Brokers. I normally use them for Skiing, however last year I used them for a bike trip to the Alps and they were a lot cheaper than most other places. They have cycle specific insurance. I called to make sure it covered lift accessed riding and they said it did. Would probably be worth getting that in writing via email though (now looking back on it)

A mate of mine has had a couple if claims through snowcard and has had no issues at all. They looked after him very well both times. I’ve stopped using dog tag after they changed their terms so that you had to use a public hospital if there was one within a certain radius and went with pedal cover instead. Not had to claim as yet (touch wood) but they were quite cheap.

Cheers couple of alternatives to look at