Having a chronic illness can really bump the price up for travel insurance, especially if you have any complications. Thankfully as of writing this, I have no complications with my diabetes, so filling in the insurance forms online is fairly stress free.
This is my longest stretch of a journey, so I was curious as to how much travel insurance would cost me for this 4 month trip- I did what I always do, a three-step system I follow to try and get the best deal. I always look for something with around £10 million for medical, £3000 for cancellation, and an excess of £100ish. I dunno why, but that's what always feels comfortable for me!
These sites are great for comparing hundreds of companies at once, I always use two: gocompare.com, and comparethemarket.com (bonus if you buy for the 2 for 1 cinema tickets for a year lol). GoCompare best quote was £151.51 for my requirements, and Compare the market was £141.28 (they did have a quote for £120, which was medical expenses of 7.5 million) So, here the clear winner so far is Compare The Market!
Someone suggested them to me before for insurance, so I was curious at what the cost would be, hoping it would be something reasonable since it's a diabetic charity picking the insurance companies. Unfortunately, the cheapest they could offer me £322 and that was for 5 million medical expenses, so on this occasion, Diabetes UK was off my list.
Once you have chosen your insurance company, give them a call, and bargain. I usually state I am choosing between two different companies at this time, to see if they can do me a better deal, and in my case I had a success! I got £20 off my insurance, meaning it came to a total of £121.28. YAY! :D This works out £32 a month and I think I can live with that!
When I am choosing an insurance policy, I always check the Defaqto . If you don't know what this is...it’s basically an independent researcher of financial products. I like to go with something 3 star and above & in this case my insurance was a 4 star rating
Now I can travel with peace of mind that I am fully covered on my trip with my type one diabetes….PHEW!
What insurance companies do you use?
*** This article is a part of our series: "Preparing for South America - The Checklist" <-- Check out this checklist here. ***
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