We are going to Jersey this week. Nothing is going to stop me. I was going to go uninsured. Regular readers will remember that earlier in the year Sharon and I were going to escape to Barcelona until we found out that my travel insurance would cost more than the 4 days in Barcelona would. Several companies refused to cover me and at that time I didn't have a terminal prognosis. We decided to go to Cardiff instead, it's got sea, culture, a castle, mountains and everything else Barcelona has.
Just for a laugh, and because I am curious, I started looking for travel insurance for 7 days in Jersey. I answered all the questions honestly on about 15 different specialist insurer websites following links from Macmillan and Cancer Research UK. More than half immediately threw up a response of cover not available. Those that did produce a quote ranged from £1900 to £2500. None of them listed Jersey or The Channel Islands as a specific region, so being reasonably good at geography I went for European cover.
Whilst laying in bed this morning deciding if it was going to be a good day or not, my mobile rang. It was Sophie from Insurance Choice, who had refused to cover me online yesterday evening. She thought she might be able to help. She started talking about cover and it became obvious she didn't know of my terminal prognosis, so I told her. She went quiet, said she was sorry to hear that and then said "I think we have a company who will cover you, what is the best quote you have had so far?". I told her £1900, she said she would have a look round and if she could significantly reduce that she would ring me back.
About 20 minutes later she rang back, she thought she could get cover for around £200, she needed to check some details of destinations and health, which she did and said she would ring me back. She rang back with a quote of £43. I said "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". She agreed and then explained why it is so cheap. The insurer she had found who will cover me considers The Channel Islands to be in the UK, so to them, this is domestic travel insurance, all the online quotes would have been giving me European cover. She has emailed me the policy and I have looked through it, emailed it to Sharon and she has had a look and it all looks good. Waiting for Sophie to ring me back so I can give her my credit card details.
So, once again the insurance industry confounds me. Cost reduced from £1900 to £43 with a few phone calls and some clarification. Lots of effort put in by a brokers sales person to sell me something ridiculously cheap compared to my first quote.
I think today is going to be a good day.
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