 Poster: A snowHead
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Right I've done some searches on here and not quite found what I am looking for...
Basically it's as per the headline - I'm in the market for annual, world-wide travel insurance. My current policy has expired and as they haven't bothered to send me a renewal I thought I might look elsewhere plus I actually read through the small print on a flight delay last summer and noticed that I wasn't covered for off-piste..
So what I want are your recommendations on who to go with. Plus as I'm into such "extreme sports" as erm.. competive dinghy sailing, and windsurfing I need a decent policy that aren't going to rule these out. Some of the bucket shop brigades are a bit to cheep to cover these extremer activities.
Hopefully don't have to pay more than £100 but want the piece of mind and not £5 off..
thanks
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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bertie bassett, I use the Ski Club policy, a bit cheaper cos I'm a member but worth you checking out.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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ACE pretty good
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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bertie bassett,
I use Dogtag - if you're into extreme sports it's excellent, designed for that purpose. Saying that, I haven't ever had to claim on it though!
http://www.dogtag.co.uk/
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Post office has this (guided off piste) for £100
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| beanie1 wrote: |
bertie bassett,
I use Dogtag - if you're into extreme sports it's excellent, designed for that purpose. Saying that, I haven't ever had to claim on it though!
http://www.dogtag.co.uk/ |
Note this on the Dogtag site:
| Quote: |
| If you are going out of bounds or outwith marked areas of the resort, you must only do so with a fully qualified local guide. |
Maybe someone with the full policy can investigate this further?
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Just renewed my Insureandgo policy for the 4th year. They were very good last year when I had to make a claim. Worldwide annual cover, inc off-piste etc is £130 for the two us for the top 'black' policy from which we got a 5% renewal discount.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Join the British Mountaineering Council - their insurance is excellent and very good value....
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I use Insure & Go or Fogg
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| bertie bassett wrote: |
Right I've done some searches on here and not quite found what I am looking for...
Basically it's as per the headline - I'm in the market for annual, world-wide travel insurance. My current policy has expired and as they haven't bothered to send me a renewal I thought I might look elsewhere plus I actually read through the small print on a flight delay last summer and noticed that I wasn't covered for off-piste..
So what I want are your recommendations on who to go with. Plus as I'm into such "extreme sports" as erm.. competive dinghy sailing, and windsurfing I need a decent policy that aren't going to rule these out. Some of the bucket shop brigades are a bit to cheep to cover these extremer activities.
Hopefully don't have to pay more than £100 but want the piece of mind and not £5 off..
thanks |
P.J. Hayman...cover you for just about anything it would seem (they cover me for speed skiing).
http://www.pjhayman.com/
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| spyderjon wrote: |
| Just renewed my Insureandgo policy for the 4th year. They were very good last year when I had to make a claim. Worldwide annual cover, inc off-piste etc is £130 for the two us for the top 'black' policy from which we got a 5% renewal discount. |
Just checked the Black policy document. Off piste skiing is covered so long as the resort says it is a safe area and "cross country" skiing only with a guide. So no climbing from the top of the lifts a few meters to access that nice powder field.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Elizabeth B wrote: |
| I use Insure & Go or Fogg |
Fogg, underwritten by CNA who only cover you when the avy risk is 1 or 2.
I don't want to havea big go at these people but three of the insurance companies mentioned above seem to be averse to off-piste skiing and ski touring and I could envisage big fights getting them to pay out in the event of doubt. Now you may only ski off-piste when the risk is 1 or 2 and I would say that you are very sensible to do so and the policies mentioned: Fogg, Dogtag, I&G are appropriate.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I have just got off the phone with 'www.click4quote.com', whose policy lists an exception of 'off piste skiing where an avalanche warning is in place'. I explained to them that there is always an avalanche warning in place, and the guy, after checking with his supervisor, explained that I wouldn't be covered under any level of avalanche warning.
This is, in effect, saying that they don't cover off piste skiing at all, but in a rather dishonest way. I am now looking around to see if I can find another policy that will cover me, as an instructor, for race training. Maybe the guy on the phone got it wrong, so I think I'll write them an email first.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Just had another look, and the line above says that they do cover off piste. Think the guy on the phone definitely got it wrong!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I've had the SCGB insurance for the last few years. They have always seemed to get things together for those looking for coverage of more 'interesting' skiing. The basic policy covers race training and amateur one-off races (i.e. not allowing for racing within leagues, or for reward), 'unrestricted' off-piste (i.e. with no stated requirements for guides or avalanche warning limits), ski touring (but not ski mountaineering - still unsure of the difference here) - including where ropes are used for safety purposes. It also covers hiking (but not use of specialised mountaineering equipment) up to 5000m. For an additional premium, more racing, ski mountaineering etc may be covered.
After a few years of well publicised problems with their selection of insurers and claims mgmt companies, they've now moved (this year) to P.J.Hayman with Fortis as the underwriters - I believe the same people as used by the BMC. I've not yet had anything worth claiming for yet though.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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davidof, responding to your post of a few days ago - I use dogtag and the full 2007 policy details are here. Page 30 has the wintersports details, and cannot find anything anywhere about needing a guide off-piste/out of bounds. If you have something more authorative I would be really interested as I rely on this cover!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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davidof, Ah ha found it on their site... but what I cannot understand is how this relates to what it says in the policy!... I will have to e mail them and find out...
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| stoatsbrother wrote: |
| davidof, responding to your post of a few days ago - I use dogtag and the full 2007 policy details are here. Page 30 has the wintersports details, and cannot find anything anywhere about needing a guide off-piste/out of bounds. If you have something more authorative I would be really interested as I rely on this cover! |
The quote I gave came from their website for annual wintersports cover:
http://www.dogtag.co.uk/about/faqs#q29
they also mention that skiing under certain avalanche conditions may invalidate your cover.
They don't repeat this in your policy. They do mention about not exposing yourself to "peril" though.
So it sounds like the website is incorrect.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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davidof, I have e mailed them asking for clarification. I suspect that they would argue that skiing outside the area is "touring" which is palpably rubbish. In North America, there is a trend to have back-country gates from lift served terrain wher runs come back into the resort. No way is this touring. I have said that I will post their clarification here and on the ski club forum.
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Has anyone got any experience with "Snowcard"? They seem to provide cover for off piste & "backcountry" skiing...
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| davidof wrote: |
| beanie1 wrote: |
bertie bassett,
I use Dogtag - if you're into extreme sports it's excellent, designed for that purpose. Saying that, I haven't ever had to claim on it though!
http://www.dogtag.co.uk/ |
Note this on the Dogtag site:
| Quote: |
| If you are going out of bounds or outwith marked areas of the resort, you must only do so with a fully qualified local guide. |
Maybe someone with the full policy can investigate this further? |
Hmm interesting.. I hadn't spotted that when I signed up with them. Still I guess under distance selling directive I can still cancel if it doesn't deliver what I want by next thursday. I was keen to take their 2K for luggage/property..as by the time you quote for replacement for board, boots, bindings, trousers, jackets, goggles, gloves, then various fleeces etc, you're well over the puny few hundred quid on the other policieis..
I think i'm probably ok on that basis - I tend only to do "close to piste" (yes that's still off piste) rather than 30 minute hikes up couloirs to get my turns. I was also concerned in st.anton that if I had an issue on the itineraires that I wouldn't be covered under my old policy, but I'm sure I would be with Dogtag as that's clearly 'in-bounds'. It does sound a bit like US type language which is not so clearly defined in Europe...
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bertie bassett, done all the research and BMC is the best overall as it's also fully customisable beyond the standard conditions (which are excellent), eg. special equipment can be added, it'll go to the underwriters for a costing but from my conversations with them you can't get better coverage. OK, it's not 'cheap' but you do know what you're getting . . . peace of mind.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I use snowcard. The levels of insurance is modular. I chose a leel which allowed for skiing off-piste without a guide (though there are caveats, of course) but not for ski touring, since I did not think I would be fit enough for that this year.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Masque, I agree their conditions look great, but I didn't have any luck with the BMC in terms of getting a customised quote.
I wanted to increase the cancellation/curtailment cover amount but although the underwriters said they would do it if BMC asked them, BMC unfortunately declined to do so when I spoke to them (fair enough, their choice).
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Feedback from DogTag - I thought a helpful and considered response.
"As you know from comments made on various forums, the definition of "off
piste" varies, causes much debate and is considered to be a grey area.
It causes much debate here too - we know what we mean by off piste when
we go skiing (on either side of the Atlantic) but conveying that in a
legal wording acceptable to underwriters isn't so straightforward. The
intention of our wording is really to differentiate between "off piste"
and "way off piste" but we'll be revisiting it now as, clearly, it isn't
perfect. The spirit of it is that established off piste ski routes
accessed via a resort's lift system would be considered OK (and we'd
recommend taking a guide but not be insistant about it provided you're
acting responsibly and not putting yourself in harms way, ignoring
avalanche warnings etc). Off piste areas within the ski area boundary,
crossing between pistes also OK.
Access to terrain via helicopter would be covered if you have our Sport+
level.
Access to non-lift served terrain using ski mountaineering equipment
would require our Extreme level of cover.
I'll be looking hard at the wording over the next week and, once signed
off by underwriters, it'll be changed."
So I am reassured about what I have been upto for now! I would recommend that people look closely at their policies and see exactly where off-piste ends and ski-touring starts if they do not have cover for the latter...
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