I know there’s another BMC insurance thread running now, but at nearly 3000 views there has been no comment from the BMC, so i thought I’d start this one in the BMC Forum to see if they had any comments on my just becoming an ex-customer!
We’ve used BMC insurance for many years, and take out an annual policy for either European or Worldwide cover depending on whether we’re planning a trip to the States in the next year or not. Last year our European cover cost us £156 as a couple, and had we gone for Worldwide cover it would have been £224. The cover was everything we would have wanted, with a 90 day trip limit, and no overall limit on the number of trip days in the year.
For the coming year, we’re planning a 2 month trip to the States, and 2 x 2 month trips to France & Spain (yes, I know it’s a lot, but hey ....what else is the point of being retired?). That would have been covered no problem with the annual policy last year, but with the recent changes to their policy conditions, the quote for the coming year came to £894 – a 400% increase. This is due to the 45 day trip limit, 90 day total, the States now being a “super-category” above Worldwide and cover for a couple being increased from 1.45 times single cover to 1.8 times!
The quote from Snowcard for exactly the cover we want (rock-climbing, worldwide) came to £356 – not much more than a third of the BMC, so we’ve just bought a policy from them, to take over from when our BMC policy expires.
A couple of things I found interesting in the last thread, where Dave Turnbull of the BMC was explaining the changes-
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http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=442717 )
- he said the change was forced by Fortis withdrawing from the BMC scheme. - The Snowcard scheme is underwritten by Ageas Insurance, which has the same registered company number, and address as Fortis so I assume it’s the successor company. Why the BMC cover isn’t being provided by them I’ve no idea.
- he said the 45 day trip limit was imposed by the new underwriters, and was a “norm in the travel insurance sector”..Doesn’t seem to be with Snowcard, where the Annual policy quite happily allows you to choose 45, 60 or 90 day trip limits! And no ridiculous 90 day total limit either.
Apologies for the long post, but it might be useful for others shopping for insurance.
Cheers
Andy
