Insurance help!

[TheDoris]

Advice needed please! My partner and I are heading around Western and Eastern Europe for the next year BUT we need to sort insurance out! We've been looking at backpackers insurance on top of the van insurance but it seems really expensive.... any ideas please????

 

[n brown]

how did people manage before insurance?did they just stay at home?

 

[Channa]

Just be careful you don't take out two insurances that cover the same thi.thing

Insurances have quite often non contributory clauses which means if you are covered on an insurance elsewhere then cover ceases...if two companies have the same clause in effect you have no insurance At all....a weird concept to explain .but its how it works
Channa

 

[vwalan]

yes i think most did . i was only a child when my family were off to europe in the 60,s .we could hardly see 5 other english vans in the winter. ever border was hassle . i can remember once 13 of us in a mini bus (3 families )we kids used to crouch down and move around as the border police were counting . took ages sometimes . no insurance for health or breakdown definately no tow home . border insurance to be bought every where. if you had tooth ache dad had to pay .if you fell over off to the chemist etc. good job my mum did a bit of nursing . my uncle was a mechanic . uncle billy was a brill electrician .i supose that was the good old days . park where ever . everyone was glad to see you. sometimes wish it was like it now.
not so good with tents but when we had campers luxury of a vw . i also remember bedford ca vans . think the worse was a commer kept boiling up going up ther mountains in switzerland . i got covered in boiling water as the rad was under the front of the cab.that got me extra icecream mmmm.
but health insurance . hee hee that would be nice.

 

[sp2 boy]

Perhaps it was not a legal requirement? All things said insurance in Europe appears to cost the policy holders less than the UK equivalent, well that's the impression I get talking to a Portuguese cousin of mine.

 

[ivecotrucker]

What sort(s) of insurance are you thinking of ?.

Health is covered by EHIC for major emergencies; for anything minor visit a pharmacist - they offer a far greater advisory/partial diagnostic service than here in the UK, though you'll have to pay cash for any medicines (can sometimes be cheaper than here).

For vehicle insurance the problem is getting a year's foreign going cover, though some brokers will arrange this (try MCIA or the CC). Your UK home insurance won't be valid for a long abscence. You'll still need compulsory vehicle cover at the border if venturing further east - we travelled in Bosnia & Republika Srpska some 8 years ago, no UK insurer would look at it but the weekly/fortnightly rate at the border wasn't too exhorbitant.

 

[John H]

What sort(s) of insurance are you thinking of ?.

Health is covered by EHIC for major emergencies; for anything minor visit a pharmacist - they offer a far greater advisory/partial diagnostic service than here in the UK, though you'll have to pay cash for any medicines (can sometimes be cheaper than here).

For vehicle insurance the problem is getting a year's foreign going cover, though some brokers will arrange this (try MCIA or the CC). Your UK home insurance won't be valid for a long abscence. You'll still need compulsory vehicle cover at the border if venturing further east - we travelled in Bosnia & Republika Srpska some 8 years ago, no UK insurer would look at it but the weekly/fortnightly rate at the border wasn't too exhorbitant.

Just to add that if you are a pensioner, prescription medicines may be free (they are in Spain, for example) but I agree with you about the EHIC - it is the only health cover we use in the EU. Outside the EU we usually insure with "Insure and Go" - the best rates we have found and have never had a problem.

I would recommend Safeguard because they offer 12 months cover with full breakdown recovery in the EU. They will also add other countries for short periods - including Bosnia. I am wary of taking out insurance at the border because you can never tell what cover you are getting unless you can read the language.