Traveling to France

Hi,
My husband and I are planning to travel to France and wanted to get travel insurance. As an American citizen who has not yet resided in the UK for 6 months, I do not have the option of purchasing traveling insurance for myself. What are the alternatives?

Thank you

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Hi khamisa! 

I have seen World Nomads recommended for non standard situations.

 http://www.worldnomads.co.uk/?gclid=CK_9m8vvxtECFW8B0wodKRYH5Q

I have travel insurance through my bank.  Are you in the UK on a visa over 6 months?  If so, I would have thought you'd be considered a resident for insurance purposes and not had an issue obtaining insurance.  Moneysupermarket.co.uk can be good for comparing different policies as well.

Yeah i am here on the settlement visa through spouse. I contacted a couple of insurance provider's such as insure and go. They suggested i need to have lived in the u.k for a minimum of 6 months before they would cover.

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Be careful to read the small print!  Policies can vary widely, with some covering virtually nothing.  Price has little to do with it. 

Another option would be to contact a broker.  I would be very surprised if you can't find somebody to take your money

I too would be surprised if you couldn't find a provider.  And check with your bank.  That could be a quick, simple solution.  And you can sort something longer-term when you are back.

What about the European Health Insurance Card?  If you can get one of those, do it.  I've got one. 

I usually buy travel insurance, especially if I am going to kite buggy on the beach.  If you aren't planning anything especially dangerous and the cost is very high, I wouldn't worry if I didn't buy it.  France is no more dangerous than the UK.

Oh, hey khamisa10 - you finally got your visa and were able to move over?

Apologies for not replying to your last message on Tapatalk - I'm overseas at the moment with no WiFi access (only an ethernet connection), so I couldn't get on the app to reply. The only reason I knew you'd sent a message was because I got an email alert.

Thanks everyone.. Yeah I'll contact the bank and see if they have anything suitable.. And the European health card not registered for that yet, will i automatically be covered?
No problem ksand24 you were a great help lol i thought my massages were not getting sent


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Try one of those compare websites and make phone calls to the providers if you need to. Your bank only sells their own insurance and, if it says you have to be resident for 6 months then it isn't applicable.

I ran into this when we first moved back and had to shop around when gong on a skiing holiday. For all other European holidays we used the EIHC card.

What about the European Health Insurance Card?  If you can get one of those, do it.  I've got one. 

I usually buy travel insurance, especially if I am going to kite buggy on the beach.  If you aren't planning anything especially dangerous and the cost is very high, I wouldn't worry if I didn't buy it.  France is no more dangerous than the UK.

For all other European holidays we used the EIHC card.

  The UK EHIC won't cover everything as it isn't the same as private insurance. Don't think that you will get NHS cover in another country via the UK's EHIC.

When I last looked, for France the UK site says that a French ambulance is billed if the doctor says that the ambulance wasn't needed. The UK won't pay that bill.

In some EEA countries, the relatives have to carry out the basic care while on a ward. The UK won't pay for a nurse. Some EEA countries require a patient contribution and you will pay that, not the UK. Some countries give treatment at a reduced cost, and the UK won't pay that.

Nor will the UK pay to get that holder back to the UK. There are often money raising activities to pay for getting someone back to the UK on an air ambulance as they didn't take out private insurance. That happened to someone in an office I used to work in.

There are warnings on the forums for countries too, like Spain. Taxis drivers like to take tourists to the American hospitals there instead of the Spanish hospitals and they aren't covered and the health bills are massive.

I never leave the UK without full private insurance. I'm not going to risk it with just an EHIC.

Some policies say they will cover what an EHIC won't, which means you have to take the EHIC as well as the private policy.

Advice from the UK government and the NHS is that the EHIC is not an alternative to travel insurance because it does not cover the costs of private healthcare or services that are not part of the state healthcare system, nor does it cover the cost of mountain rescue in ski resorts or being brought back to the UK.

When weighing up whether to risk not buying travel insurance, remember that each country's healthcare system is different, so your EHIC might not cover everything you would expect free on the NHS. For example, some state-run hospitals in Europe have privately-operated ambulance services, so you would pay for this.


"Some European health systems expect you to pay your bill upfront and claim a refund using your EHIC."

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2010/sep/11/travel-insurance-european-holiday

I guess we dodged a bullet in Sweden when I fell off a bike and broke my wrist, took a taxi to the hospital and received all my healthcare courtesy of the EIHC.

I guess we dodged a bullet in Sweden when I fell off a bike and broke my wrist, took a taxi to the hospital and received all my healthcare courtesy of the EIHC.

Traveling with just an EHIC, is your risk to take.

We used Lloyd's travel insurance and we'd only been in the UK for five months when we traveled back to the US. My son ended up in the PICU with a chest infection while we were there and it covered EVERYTHING. They even ended up paying us money in the end (there was a per diem for hospital stays that was higher than our deductible). Highly recommended.