Have Lloyds TSB Platinum winter sports cover? Read on...................

A snowHead

Mine's actually Natwest not Lloyds TSB. I've never had to pay to upgrade, but I do pay for the bank account (it also includes mobile phone insurance, extended warranty for purchases, car breakdown cover and a few other bits and bobs). As far as I can see it's for trips of up to 31 days including wintersports, so Natwest account holders need not panic...

Unless Natwest/RBS go bankrupt of course...

A snowHead

Holidayloverxx wrote:

"BCjohnny, I've just got it! Wintersport is included on the platinum account, isn;t it. I have to pay £50 to upgrade with the gold policy hence I have a start and end date (I've got the renewal notice in my hand with the dates on it)"

I don't think winter sports is automatically included on the Platinum account - you can opt for either winter sports or full family cover as 'standard' .We opted for full family cover as 'standard' on our platinum account and upgrade each year paying an extra £50.00 for the winter sports cover. We are issued an upgrade schedule with essentially the same details as holidayloverxx quoted above but obv relevent to a platinum account i.e.

"Period of Insurance (Excluding Upgrades0): The period commencing on the date when you opened a new Gold service account.... please note that the period of insurance relating to your upgrades will be different and are detailed below.....Winter Sports Start Date 13th January 2008 End Date 12th January 2009.... is operative for a maximum of 17 days in the period of insurance shown in the schedule"

I rang Lloyds TSB and I have to say a very helpful person advised me that the dates on the upgrade schedule were indeed the period of insurance specifically relevent to our winter sports cover and we were covered for 17 days within those dates.

Therefore, I think I'm right in assuming that the problem BCJohnny has highlighted do not occur with a platinum account if winter sports cover is taken out as an upgrade.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

loatie, I checked the list of benefits onluine and it said included. I wonder if it changed since you opened your account? can;t check it at the mo as the page isn't opening

EDIT: now checked and as others have said, you can choose family OR winter sports

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Interesting thread, thanks! Have just checked my policy (comes with HSBC Plus Account) and it states 'cover for winter sports trips is limited to a maximum of 21 days in any consecutive 12-month period'. Call me thick - but what does that mean exactly? Do I have the same problem with a rolling year?

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BCjohnny, we were with Lloyds Insurance through our Platinum account too, which was 'supposedly' cheap, but actually it wasn't really any cheaper by the time we'd upgraded to winter sports. Anyway, my son had an accident in France whilst on a Uni trip and we had major communication problems which effectively made my sons stay in hospital even longer. This together with the limited amount of days skiing you get and no cover for Off-piste (unless with a guide) prompted us to cancel and re-insure with Direct Travel.

EDIT

and another thing . . . they would not stump up for his lost goggles, which he had lost during the accident (he had concussion ! . . so didn't know what had happened or the fact that he'd lost them ) Anyway, apparently you are meant to report missing items to the police . . . yeah right, he had one day left of his holiday, there was no way he was going to spend that down the police station.

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Insurance company makes love to customer in the back bottom - dog bites man... rolling eyes

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BCJohnny. I also have the Lloyds platinum cover. As I am not married but the policy states my partner is covered I asked to have her name specifically mentioned on the policy. Consequently I get sent an actual policy certificate with a start and end date on, as the start end date is Septemeber I manage to get 17 days cover for the duration of the policy, every year I contact LLoydstsb again to ask for a copy of policy with the GF's name on.

After all it is free

mossimus, welcome to snowHead

Ok, here goes, as I understand it, but please confirm any of this first with L/TSB (good luck)...............

Platinum policy only.

With this account you can EITHER take Family cover OR Wintersports cover (for you and your "partner") free of charge, as an account holder.

If you choose Winter sports cover it "rolls" from year to year with no effective start or end date REGARDLESS of any dates you have on the schedule, and entitles you to "17 days [cover] in any 12 month period", as worded on the "Upgrade Schedule" in front of me. See earlier posts as to what that may mean as L/TSB, despite their assurances, HAVE NOT got back to me to confirm.

If you choose Family Cover, then take out Winter Sports cover as an extension of the policy, ie pay for it, then you do have an effective start and end date (as per your policy) because you paid for it as a SEPERATE ENTITY.

The "free" insurance "rolls", the paid for has a start and end date. Subtle, but massive, difference, if you need to claim.

"Lesser" L/TSB policies (Gold) all require WS cover to be paid for, IIRC, so these, again, have a start and end date as per the policy.

Like I say, please confirm with L/TSB, as this is only my understanding. 'Cause no-ones talking.

Don't bother letting me know the outcome as I have now taken out seperate cover, and will be closing my L/TSB Platinum account later this month.

John.

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You know it makes sense.

Anyone know if any of these premium bank accounts cover for unaccompanied off piste skiing, or do they all require you to be accompanied by a guide/instructor?

I have Lloyds premium and, as stated above, it only covers off-piste with an instructor or guide, so pretty worthless to me. I'm sure years ago (before they moved over to AXA) unaccompanied off-piste was covered as I enquired about this.

Oh, Hi everyone, my first post Very Happy

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Westy, welcome to snowHeads

I'm pretty sure most of these insurance covers supplied by banks probably limit cover to on-piste or off-piste with instructors/guides. When I had LTSB plantinum I had the choice to have family cover or switch to personal cover with a wider range of insurance coverage that included off-piste. That may well have changed now though.

A snowHead

Following the above I was a little concerned about my canada trip next week.

Obviously this is just my experience, you are all advised to check seperately. Just been on the phone to Lloyds, acording to them as my policy was restated in Septemeber 08 anything before then is irrelevant, I voiced my concerns with the rolling 12 month thing and was told no it resets on the renewal date. As a result of this i am now going to take it I am covered.

A snowHead

I do love a good old fashioned bump, but seems to make sense to keep discussion on topic for when others search on titles....

So given the demise of MPI I'm looking for insurance, Lloyds platinum is £22.50 a month covers ski touring, winter walking with crampons, says “ Off-piste must be within the resort boundaries and following local ski patrol guideline”

Which is my age old bug bear around OP within Europe and WTF is a resort boundary!

Anyone else had this clarified at all?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@kitenski, I had a phone conversation with skicover about their wording to the same effect and they said "don't take the micky and you'll be fine". We in truth di have a chat and he said it's basinvally saying "stick to the area shown on thel ift maps"

however, it being a phone conversation I now realise it's not really worth the paper it wasn't written on. In my case i'm not going to go back country or anything so it's not such an issue

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@kitenski, there's a similar discussion somewhere else on here at the minute, possibly the Chavanette thread. I don't think there is any official confirmation and no one is aware of it being tested, my preferred definition is something that's list accessible...

It's probably the kind of thing you could ask for a definition of from the insurer, via text chat or the like. I've previously asked for copies of a chat to be emailed and they usually provide it with little resistance. Of course whether you get a meaningful response is a different matter

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I will take the time to read all this but...

January 1st 2017, my sis didn't wake up. Gone. I was booked diy on the 5th for a week.
February 2018, unpacked in Meribel, other sis called 3:30 am to tell me my brother had died.
Two in 14 months.

Lloyds paid the lot both times without a question about 'my bad luck', nothing.

I have taken extra insurance when staying past the 30 days, no point in getting in a fight after an accident. I tend not to be a fraudster either. I'm happy at the mo with the cover and service. Speak as you find, innit.

After all it is free

@Dave of the Marmottes, the AAC looks interesting but they don't cover stuff like Charliegolf mentions I assume, so still need "normal" holiday insurance!

@BCjohnny,

Now read it all...

First: it's not AXA any more, it's Allianz.
Also, the wording from inside my online account:

"A maximum 31 days cover is provided for winter sports for each person covered in any calendar year"

I'm willing to be corrected, but I take 'calendar year' to mean 0001 I Jan to 2359 31 Dec.

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Blimey! Just read the dates lol Embarassed

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@kitenski, This is an endless discussion here. If you want proper off piste rescue cover (why risk semantics or rely of what someone on a helpdesk said on the phone) then AAC or BMC or similar specialist cover. If AAC you will need "normal" travel insurance to cover bags going missing, getting appendicitis etc but that is a lot cheaper than some of the specialist mountaineering cover like BMC. Note the €10,000 health cover on the AAC is only a supplementary cover in case (for example) there is a local private clinic that isnt covered by your normal health insurance (in the case of the UK GHIC)

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@munich_irish, yes thx, aac and something like this or nationwide sent the best solution.

This prompted me to check the nationwide flex plus travel cover. They are more generous, covering any number of trips as long as the trip is not longer than 31 days.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Re the ‘rolling window’ I wonder if this isn’t actually a cunning actuarial strategy for a policy that’s wrapped-into something like a bank account i.e. where there’s no option to cancel. Because if you crunch the probability numbers, your risk of a payout is significantly reduced by making it a rolling window (like the Schengen 90 days in 180 rule), rather than a calendar year or fixed date. My take is this is more likely a clever actuarial ploy that makes the cover very cheap as an add-on to a bank account.

If it was a stand-alone policy, no one would renew, because while in the first year of a new cover, the 17 days is only counted from the first day of cover, in subsequent years it runs from 364 days preceding the claim. So you’d just let the insurance lapse, and then take out a new policy from scratch.

But as it’s wrapped into a bank account, then the actuaries will calculate that the risk is much less, as unlike a new policy (or one based on a calendar year or fixed date) the window for excluding cover is much greater. So on day 2 of the roll-over, instead of a 1-day window, you have a 365-day window across which to sum up the 17 days maximum.

I must say that I’m always somewhat concerned when people say they have winter sports cover included in a bank account or similar, but haven’t gone through the Ts&Cs thoroughly. Because it seems to me that to get cover that would otherwise usually cost you much more must often mean there’s some tweak like this embedded in the policy, or some other cost-saving element that’s not obvious.

A snowHead

@koru, nationwide have a total limit for winter sports of 31 days a year.

@LaForet, I’ve been looking at all these accounts recently I don’t recall any mentioning a rolling window, which ones are you referring to?

A snowHead

I was referring to the policy from the OP at the beginning of the thread. Where they found that the cover they were getting for free from their bank account effectively used a 365 day rolling window for calculating the maximum number of days covered in ‘a year’. Unlike a standard independent policy, most of which run the ‘maximum days’ counter from the start date of the policy or the renewal date if a renewal, or just the calendar year. The key point being that what apparently looked OK if you used a calendar year or fixed date was definitively not OK if you used the 365-day rolling window. So for policies which are wrapped-into something else, like a bank account, it’s important to thoroughly check the Ts&Cs even more that is the case generally with any insurance.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

These dates are a real PITA, I get 31 days winter sports (no offpiste or extreme)in my bank's £12.50 a month annual worldwide policy(Plus £30 for pre existing conditions)

That is 31 activity days in any calendar year, max trip length for winter sports is 17 days. Which means with rest/weather days off I can get 2 two week trips and the PSB.

And yes I do count my days activity.

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Another example of needing to make sure you know exactly what is covered is with the Monzo Max account packaged travel insurance.
It actually defines the ski season in Northern and Southern Hemisphere and says travel outside those dates will not be covered (for winter sports).
The N Hemisphere dates given are after 1st Nov and before 31st March, so unless I am missing something any April trip has no winter sports cover, perhaps not even 31st March. That is certainly a definition I have not seen before.

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@toyah807, good spot. Only covering wintersports up to 31st March isn't much use for anyone on the EOSB for example....

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@Alastair Pink, indeed. I could name plenty of European resorts I would expect to be open beyond that date.
Southern Hemisphere season is given as 'after 1st May and before 30th September'. Others might be able to say whether that would be more reasonable or still exclude some recognised ski dates.

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I'll just point out that when MrsHD broke her wrist ice skating in Sestriere Yorkshire Bank were excellent!
She spent 4 days in a private hospital in Turin and the cover was great, the hospital took the wee wee buth thats another story.

After all it is free

"Gonna get me a proper policy when I cancel my account."

You might want to consider switching your bank account for £150-200 rather than just closing it.
A number of banks have cash offers running at pres so if one is suitable then the old one gets auto shut down.
MSE will have all the info.

Help!!

Have Lloyds TSB Platinum winter sports cover? Read on...................

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