Options... but only for the perfectly healthy (Options Travel Insurance)

Member Name: NCG1

Product:	Options Travel Insurance
Date:	06/06/02 (432 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Easy to use website

Disadvantages: No cover for any pre-existing medical conditions, No cover for over 65s

Listening to bad muzak isn't my idea of fun, but paying over the odds for travel insurance is even worse. So, after a quick look on dooyoo, I spent some of yesterday evening discovering quite how bad music can be when played too loud down a crackly phone line - that is to say, I phoned around travel insurance companies for quotes.

Options - as recommended on this site - came out the cheapest by about £10. The average quote for two people in their twenties going to Europe for a week (including baggage cover) was about £30, whilst the Options cover came out around £20. This is a good differential, and I was all prepared to buy from them.

BUT... I have asthma. Not very bad - never been hospitalised - but I take medicine every day for it. I didn't imagine it would be a problem because the other three travel insurance companies that I'd called all covered it, after asking some fairly detailed questions, and didn't even charge extra.

Having got an internet quote from Options (the site is easy to use and I highly recommend it - also they put a phone number on in case you have queries, which is more than most internet travel insurance sites manage to do) I thought I'd just better phone and check that they'd cover the asthma. One reason their website is so easy is because it doesn't ask for any medical information, so I thought it would be best to make sure.

And it was a good thing I did. They would insure me - but only for conditions other than asthma. Which is ridiculous, as the last thing I would want to do is gasp out my credit card details before getting any treatment, if by some random chance I did have a bad asthma attack. And this isn't just my particular medical history, this is their policy on *any* pre-existing medical condition.

So I would not recommend Options for anyone who is not perfectly healthy in every way, and with no history of any illnesses/ operations etc. However, i
f you are lucky enough to not have visited your GP for years (and to be under 65), then this is a good bet for cheap travel insurance.

DETAILS IF YOU WANT THEM

These are the groups that Options DO NOT cover. The conditions of the policy are:

Everyone in your party is under 65 years of age at the date of departure.

Everyone in your party, or any person who your travel depends on:
- does not suffer from a medical condition or any illness related to a medical condition which you or they knew about.
- is not on a hospital waiting list.
- is not travelling against medical advice.
- is not travelling to receive medical advice or treatment.
- has not been given a terminal diagnosis.

Everyone in your party must live in the United Kingdom or Channel Islands, and has not spent more then six months abroad during the last year.

All your trips must commence and end in the United Kingdom or Channel Islands.

The cover is for the whole duration of the trip or trips.

No one will take part in any sports or activites that will involve a high risk of being injured.

The sole purpose of the trip is not to take part on a cruise.

Summary: