Chamonix Insurance- surprised by the BMC

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At the risk of repeating a topic often discussed on here... I was quite surprised at the price of BMC insurance. Rock level of cover doesn't quite suit us given we intend to do a day or so of easy alpine climbing and Rock specifically excludes snow and ice. But the next level of cover up is overkill in the extreme.

Before I go with Austrian Alpine Club, anyone have any other alternatives worth trying?

3
 tjdodd 24 Jun 2019
In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

Covered loads in last month on here. Search insurance on the forums. Simple answer is you get what you pay for and covering through BMC also supports their other work.

2
In reply to tjdodd:

Thanks. I had seen that thread but struggled to dig it out. BMC it is.

 neilh 25 Jun 2019
In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

I have just had the same. I needed annual worldwide cover with rock climbing only ( USA trips). I was stunned at the price difference.It was for my wife and I around £700.

I took the opposite view and went elsewhere. Having said this my wife works in insurance and can read policy wordings backwards ( so understood all the restrictions which are aimed at mountaineering activites)and knew the insurers involved and their credit ratings etc.Not something the normal person would get involved with.

I did ask the BMC about the price differences and it is just down to higher prices because of claims outside Europe. I understand that.

If the difference had of been £100 or so for both of us then would have stayed with BMC. The price gap is too big to be ignored.Contractually and insurer rating wise there was no major issue.

1
In reply to neilh:

Who did you end up going with? Sadly I haven't the knowhow to shop around quite so comprehensively!

 DaveHK 27 Jun 2019
In reply to tjdodd:

> Simple answer is you get what you pay for

Even at that they seem expensive.

> and covering through BMC also supports their other work.

Is that really how it works? If I want to support their other work I'd rather do that through membership / other routes not a surcharge on my insurance.

Obviously it depends a bit on exactly what you're doing but as Neilh say's they seem to be massively over the odds now compared to other insurers and I'm not willing to pay the premium for the supposedly better service.

1
 Ramon Marin 27 Jun 2019
In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

Nowadays my go to option is Insure and go (dangerous sport policy) and Austrian club. That will get you covered for most things. Though mostly I just do Austrian Club alone, covers all you need, rescue, medical and repartition 

 neilh 27 Jun 2019
In reply to DaveHK:

Hang on. It depends on what you are looking to do. 

For example if I had wanted European based cover then BMC would have been better.

 neilh 27 Jun 2019
In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

I would prefer not to make any recommendations as we did not need cover for mountaineering for example. 

 Frank R. 27 Jun 2019
In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

I assume you are talking about the AAC premium cover? Because (and it had been discussed here as well) the basic - included in the membership - cover is mostly just rescue and liability, not much of medical, that being usually covered by the EHIC card (except those pesky private hospitals right in the middle of most of the interesting alpine spots that you might end up in if you get unlucky and the heli can't take you to a public one because of weather or such). I try always to support my local (I am not in the UK though) association, but there are some other alpine clubs memberships with interesting insurance options open to foreigners, including the DAV and possibly others. 

Post edited at 19:51
 DaveHK 27 Jun 2019
In reply to neilh:

> Hang on. It depends on what you are looking to do. 

> For example if I had wanted European based cover then BMC would have been better.

Yes, that's why I wrote 'Obviously it depends a bit on exactly what you're doing'

 tehmarks 27 Jun 2019
In reply to Frank R.:

> cover is mostly just rescue and liability, not much of medical, that being usually covered by the EHIC card (except those pesky private hospitals right in the middle of most of the interesting alpine spots that you might end up in if you get unlucky and the heli can't take you to a public one because of weather or such).

In France - or at least in one particular private hospital in France - that isn't correct. The hospital in Sallanches is private, and the EHIC card and AAC insurance covered my recent five figure medical bill between them. I believe that the EHIC card covers 80% of your medical bill there. I obviously can't say whether that applies universally across all private hospitals in France though.

 Frank R. 28 Jun 2019
In reply to tehmarks:

The AAC does have some medical cover, which might have been enough...

 tehmarks 28 Jun 2019
In reply to Frank R.:

I can tell you exactly how it was broken down (though not the exact figures): the EHIC card covered 80% of the bill, and the AAC insurance policy picked up the remaining 20% (which was substantially less than 10000€). I know this because I had the fun of trying to get a photo of my EHIC card, which was still in the UK, sent to me.

Post edited at 08:32
 Frank R. 28 Jun 2019
In reply to tehmarks:

I guess it depends on the country, in France IIRC there are several levels of doctors even within the state (EHIC covered) system, your 20% not from the EHIC could have been either just the normal patient surcharge per day that is even for locals, or it might have been a private hospital that is still inside the state system, but only partly. Probably worth checking the NHS advice on different countries, anyway:

https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/healthcare-abroad/healthcare-when-travelli...

I am still a member of the AAC and renew every year, since it's essentially "free" after a week or so because of the hut cost savings (which you would get from the reciprocity add-on with BMC). For trips outside the EHIC and higher elevations, I can also get a 500 000€ medical coverage premium for 54€ for a month trip (although the rescue costs are I think still capped at 25 000€, which could be a bit limiting in some circumstances), and from what I heard (fortunately never had the "opportunity" to check myself!), the alpine rescue services just see the card and are happy. Still, glad that everything worked out for you

Post edited at 17:25

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