 Poster: A snowHead
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I get travel insurance for a ski trip. Then there's the insurance when you hire the skis, then the insurance for the
ski pass. Hire a car and pay for insurance. Go to pick it up and I'm told either put down a hefty deposit or take out
more insurance. What should I pay to who? Do I really need all this insurance?
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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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No - you can choose to self insure for many things. Lets face it in the long run on average you will lose with insurance or insurers wouldn't stay in business. Some elements such as European hire car excess insurance are highway robbery.
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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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I just have basic travel insurance with winter sports cover, an annual policy. At the moment my medical cover is restricted due to health issues so I stick to the EU and EHIC card. Other than that, no special other insurance...
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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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matt23, probably not. Insurers need to make money, so they charge you more than the risk alone justifies; if the risk is 100 to 1, they'll charge you 1/50 of the value (or whatever). The chances are, therefore, that in the long run you'll pay more in premiums than you'll claim. For that reason, I try to insure only those risks which I can't coveniently afford to carry myself or which for some other resason I don't want to carry. I usually take the maximum excess on any insurance, since it's usually disproportionately expensive to insure it. I can't see the point in insuring hired skis (unless you can get a very good deal); in the unlikely event that you lose or break them, paying for them won't kill you (not: my travel insurance doesn't cover hired skis, althoough it would cover my own skis). Same for the pass; if you lose it, you can afford to buy another one.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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NO and its illegal to claim twice so why insure twice?
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| queen bodecia wrote: |
| At the moment my medical cover is restricted due to health issues so I stick to the EU and EHIC card. Other than that, no special other insurance... |
If you go skiing, especially in Austria and Switzerland, I warmly suggest you to get some other kind of insurance. EU medical card doesn't cover much more then aspirin for toothache (my wife works in Finnish embassy and their suggestion for anyone traveling abroad is to get any other travel insurance then just EU card). In Austria, and especially in Switzerland, favorite way of transportation of injured skiers is helicopter. And first question, before helicopter crew will even start to get ready is, who is going to pay for this. With EU card, your bank account will be empty before chopper will be half way to hospital.
Personally I have (on top of obligatory FIS insurance) yearly insurance from Generali, which covers SaR (if I remember right somewhere up to 30.000eur), medical assistance, lost luggage, cancellation of travel etc. all over world. I have no idea for UK, but at least in Slovenia we have at least 5 similar companies offering this, and at least Generali, Coris, and Elvia are international companies, so I'm pretty sure you can get them in UK too. And nicest thing is, that yearly worldwide insurance is less then 100eur. Of course I hope I will never need their services, but...
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primoz, my travel insurance does include piste rescue and transport to hospital in the event of an accident. However, I can't get full medical cover on travel insurance at the moment due to my cancer history. Well, I can but it would cost more than the actual holiday. So stuck with EHIC for now...
Thanks for the advice though. I hope to be a normal member of society again who can access a full range of financial services one day...
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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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primoz, there are probably hundreds of companies offering such insrance in UK (or at least, broking it; probably all insured by a small number of actual insurers). The problem is that if you are in a high risk group (as queen bodecia seems to be), they're not interested in insuring you, understandably enough.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Mon 6-04-09 18:15; edited 1 time in total
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Sorry misunderstanding then 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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If you have your own skis then the cost of replacing them is hopefully not too high and so self-insuring is probably best. However with hire skis you are risking £600-£700 if they get nicked (regardless how crappy they are and how cheap they were to hire) and given the incentive for hire shops to nick their own skis you are arguably more likely to suffer theft if you hire.
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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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truffaut, are hire shop skis better than your average privately owned ski, or is it just that they charge a ridiculous price for replacements?
I've skied for about 35 weeks on hire skis (why am I still crap?) and I've never lost a pair. (I've now guaranteed that I'll get mine nicked next week.)
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richmond, I've never lost a pair, but have known several who've had hire skis stolen and the replacement cost was as much as the rest of the holiday put together. Was particularly conscious when I took my kids this year that if we didn't find our skis where we had left them at lunch I would be looking at a £2k bill (for three pairs of skis whose combined secondhand value was probably about £100).
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You know it makes sense.
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You insure not against theft of the hire skis - which would be a good self-insurance risk. But against being ripped off by the hire shop. Same goes for damage to the skis.
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FAQ
We have never needed additional insurance when hiring a car, all we needed was bundled in the hire package. All we have ever taken out is the holiday insurance, a little bit of care of any gear and some common sense 
