Having been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer, travel insurance premiums have shot through the roof and getting multi-trip travel insurance is almost is impossible. A single trip policy to the Philippines is £600+!!! That is until I spoke with my banking provider, Nationwide Building Society! I knew that I got free UK and European multi-trip travel insurance with my Flexaccount but Nationwide will upgrade that to Worldwide (except USA and a few other countries) cover for just £20 per annum! I then asked them to quote me based on my medical conditions. All they required was another £100 per annum! So a Nationwide multi-trip policy is just one-fifth the cost of the cheapest single-trip policy available elsewhere! Admittedly, it is quite a basic cover but will pay medical expenses, which is what I am looking for. You can pay extra for things like business cover, wedding cover, winter sports, golf and even for longer trips abroad (31 days only in the standard policy) I am not sure how much these extras cost though. If you are in the market for a packaged current account you could choose Nationwide's Flexplus account - that includes Wordwide travel insurance as standard (every country) and is a really top-notch policy, including business cover, winter cover, winter sports, golf etc. Again, if you need a longer trip than 31 days you can pay extra (not sure how much) The Flexplus current account costs £10/month and, in addition to the worldwide travel insurance, it also includes UK and European car breakdown cover, worldwide mobile phone insurance, 12 month extended warranty on appliances, 3% interest rate on balances up to £5,000, identity theft and emergency card assistance and commission-free cash withdrawals overseas. With a Flexplus current account I would just need to pay an extra £100 to cover my medical conditions on top of the £120/year charge for the current account itself. I cannot even get multi-trip travel insurance from other insurance providers! The other great thing is that Nationwide offer their policy up to the age of 75 at no extra cost. Only after the age of 75 do they start to up the premiums. Just one thing to be aware of in the Flexplus account are the overdraft charges! They are astronomical, so you probably don't want to use it for everyday banking. I will probably keep my Flexaccount for everyday banking and use the Flexplus as a savings account in the UK and as a current account for trips overseas, given the commission-free Flexplus debit card that comes with it. I have recently bought quite a few items following my house being flooded and the extended warranty with the Flexplus account will even apply to them, even though I did not have a Flexplus account when I purchased them, but they were purchased on a Nationwide Credit Card.
i'm with nationwide. i got a travel insurance quote to go to philippines in 2015--for an extended stay..with my med conditions recorded. cant remember the premium--but it was a fraction of other online quotes. i never went--so didnt buy it.
