Travel insurance

Fat Cant

I booked a holiday to lanzarote on the 14th Dec for family with intention of getting my own insurance, departure date 6th jan.
On the 1st jan my elderly father went into hospital with gout nothing to serious. On the 2nd Jan I booked travel insurance with vhi multitrip. On the 5th Jan the day before we were to go he was rushed into ICU with heart failure and nearly died so I had to cancel my holiday.
Will I be covered for this holiday?
Holiday cost me €2000.

whomitconcerns

If it was unrelated to the treatment that you knew about before booking the insurance it should be fine. Ie if it wasn't a foreseeable risk at the time.

But ultimately only your insurance company can tell you.

Good luck

irishrover99

I'm afraid if they can link the gout to the heart failure in anyway or your Father has a long history of medical issues, i'd say they will not pay you as you bought the insurance after your Father got ill with the gout.

Two years ago i booked flights to Thailand for me,wife and kids and i always usually buy the insurance straight away but this time i put it off for a week.
In the next few days my mother got ill from the oul cigarettes and ended up in a come for nearly two months. In the next few days i bought insurance and spent the next two months contemplating to go or not.
She was out of the coma by the time i ended up going and all the hospital staff told me to go as they seen i needed a break from looking after my old parents,work and kids.
They told me my mother was still not out of the woods yet but was recovering and would at least be fine till for a few months.

I was in Thailand 3 days and they said she was dying and 2 days later she passed away.
I had to book new flights home and the insurance company never gave me a cent back.
They said i had bought the insurance after my mam got sick.

I'm now heading to Thailand again next month and my dad is in a nursing home so i've had to buy two policies as my dad had some illness history as well.
One from lastminute.com which just gives me a voucher worth 90% of the value back,no questions asked incase anything happened to my dad and then a normal policy with 123.ie for me and family while away.

Hopefully you have better look than i did.

coylemj

irishrover99 wrote: »

I'm afraid if they can link the gout to the heart failure in anyway or your Father has a long history of medical issues, i'd say they will not pay you as you bought the insurance after your Father got ill with the gout.

+1 we can accept the OP's claim that he intended to buy insurance but the optics are not good. Took out insurance the day after his dad went into hospital and just four days before he was due to travel. Given their propensity to weasel out of claims, this is a gift-wrapped case for them to refuse.

irishrover99

coylemj wrote: »

+1 we can accept the OP's claim that he intended to buy insurance but the optics are not good. Took out insurance the day after his dad went into hospital and just four days before he was due to travel. Given their propensity to weasel out of claims, this is a gift-wrapped case for them to refuse.

I agree and before they refuse you they make you get letters from the hospital and medical history from the GP. I actually felt a bit embarrassed explaining why I needed them. It was kinda like, your Mam has died so is money important, but unfortunately the CC company doesn't let you off with 2000 Euro due to a family death.

They asked me for so many things I actually think they just wished I gave up before they refused me.

Having benefited from having to use travel insurance before when I was away on holiday, I'll never make the mistake of not buying it as soon as I book anything