UKC

UKC have been offering Travel Insurance in association with Snowcard for a couple of months now. If you have used the service we would be very interested to get your feedback, positive or negative.

We are interested in anything you might have to say but here are a few specific questions:

Did you enter the Snowcard site via the UKC page at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/insurance.html

Did you find the booking form easy to use at https://secure1.merchantservices.net/snowcard/pages/d_cuk_arrival.asp

How did Snowcard compare to other insurance services you have used.


Many Thanks,

UKC

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

I did investigate it for a recent European trip but didn't find it very user-friendly, couldn't get to talk to a person on the phone easily, found the medical restrictions/procedures a bit more daunting than with the BMC, which I usually use, and overall found the BMC's policy cheaper, easier to understand and easier to set up/use with just a phone call and a credit card - so I stuck with them.

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

Again I only considered using the snowcard for an alpine trip, but the BMC were cheaper. The website was reasonably straight forward to use.

It isn't easy finding out how much each of different cover options, etc. will cost. You have reenter all the information to recalculate the premium which is very annoying.


Hope this helps,

mehmet

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC: have to use the bmc as snowcard only covers uk residents

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

Tried to book today, and it stalled three times at registration................

Still not there yet

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

How does it compare? I've booked with them because I didn't want to have to join the BMC just to get insurance, and the foundry insurance have gone out of business.

They're more expensive than the BMC.
The website is pretty good, but having to refill the form is a large scale pain in the ****.
The other factor is the font-size and descriptions of the cover levels is not particularly clear, in terms of spotting the differences between B,C, and D levels.

In reply to richardh:
Irritating as for some unexplained reason, they won't insure you if your trip does not begin and end in the UK (even if you are a UK resident/national). Needless to say this is not made clear at the outset, and you have to trawl through yards of smallprint for the crucial sentence.

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

I've just taken out cover with Snowcard but only for Option C - i.e. not including the personal belongings & valuables cover. This is because my home contents insurance with the AA gives me far more cover (at least twice as much), and on a worldwide basis, with the exception that sports equipment is not insured "while you are using it".

At first glance this exception looks like a showstopper but, thinking about it, I'm more worried about losing the stuff that I'm not using - like getting stuff nicked from the car while I'm staying overnight at a hut. As I understand it, Snowcard do not cover you for this.

Also, there's only a certain amount of gear you can carry with you at any one time plus, if I got avalanched or something, losing my rucksack would probably be the least of my worries.

Snowcard conceded to me that they are mainly focused on the rescue and medical aspects of insurance which makes plenty of sense to me. Since I need home contents insurance anyway, this seemed to be the best way to go.

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:
Hi Andy

Booked from the link on this site and finished the whole process in five minutes. Everything was clear and informative, and the price was fine for the cover I requested.
The documents arrived in 48 hours, and seem to cover everything. However, you can only tell how good an insurance company is when you want to make a claim. Hopefully I won't have to test this out, but I'll let you know if I do...

Dom

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

A few people on this thread have mentioned that the BMC were cheaper than Snowcard. I don't understand this since, going through the respective on-line quotes, they seem to be a lot more expensive.

Could anyone offer a specific example of the BMC being cheaper than Snowcard for comparable cover ?

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC: Looked into snowcard, but as we are away for nine months we had to choose the long trip option which doesn't cover alpine climbing, so is useless to us, and is only marginally cheaper than the bmc for what seems to me to be much poorer cover.

In reply to Nigel Mackwood:

easily,
t
ry a sport trip to europe, say 10 days? and you want baggage and cancellation cover, so on snowcard, category 2, Cover D, ten days comes out 26 quid.

BMC equivalent comes out at 21 quid. If you want to do a multipitch route the difference is even greater with snowcard at 38 quid, that's quite a difference

In reply to richardh:

looked at the wrong line on the BMC page, 28, for the first, but the multipitch difference still stands.

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC: Checked it out but BMC was £5 cheaper - that was for 2 weeks rock climbing - cat C

In reply to Nigel Mackwood:

Thanks everyone for the posting.

Regarding the cost, I think Snowcard are a lot cheaper in many instances. Here’s what Jonathan Lagoe - UK had to say about it on a previous thread:

“The saving depends entirely on what cover options you want. Snowcard gives you a lot of flexibility on what you want covered. BMC package more things together and in a different way - so you take your choice.

I saved about £100+ on a worldwide annual mountaineering/trekking policy. I don't want possessions cover (obligatory on BMC last time I looked) and cancellation cover (ditto). I'm going to ski, but only for a week at the most.

My possessions are already covered on my household insurance, I'm quite happy to risk cancellation on a cost/benefit analysis.

What I really want from mountaineering insurance is to know that I will get carted off if I have an accident anywhere in the world, and have medical costs and repatriation covered in a bombproof way.

That's what I've got for £112 a year with Snowcard. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks like £214 plus membership costs on the BMC scheme”

Source http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=82355&v=1#1107008

In reply to Mehmet Karatay:
There are lots of things that could be improved on the Snowcard. I think its fair to say that its moderately functional right now, but could be a lot better.

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

All booked up now - good news/bad news.
Initially booked the family (2+2) through the BMC. I'm a member, the rest of the family aren't, so the BMC website initially accepted the booking and then they phoned back the next day and said we all had to join, which made it too expensive. Back to Snowcard, to find that the web site was now working properly (see above). All booked (£13 more than BMC), and docs arrived by post two days later. Only peculiar thing is that there seems to be a bit of sensitivity in the system, in that it lost a letter off my name and changed the main activity to something different. Nothing of any import though.

In reply to nniff:

Thanks for taking the time to explain that - all good info.

Cheers,

Andy

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

Used Snowcard earlier this year:

I made a total mess of the dates on the application web page, but sadly only realised after buying the cover and printing out the details.

I rang the enquiry number to throw myself on their mercy - and was sorted out straight away. Not even any piss-taking.

As said above, the proof of the pudding is in the claim - which happily I haven't had to do yet.

Nick

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

How do I benefit from using UKC's link?

I use Snowcard regularly and earlier this year took out their Apline Mountaineering cover (Level 4) Independant Traveller (B) for Europe which costs £85 annually. If I use the UKC link, it also costs £85.

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

Looking at teletext this morning and noticed that most insurance companies do not cover you if the airline or hotel goes bust. I checked on the Snowcard conditions and found this;
EXCLUSIONS.
the tour operator or anyone you have made travel or accommodation arrangements with failing to provide the arrangements.

AND
claims caused by the tour operator, or any other provider of transport and accommodation, who stops trading

Perhaps people should be aware of this, they could end up paying to get home if they are not ATOL covered.

In reply to sutty:

It's very unlikely that anything will cover you for this.

I speak from experience, and having succesfully taken an airline to court (on advice that it was easier than trying to beat the insurance company). Names of parties concerned supplied on request

In reply to John Corteen:

There are no price savings by using UKClimbing instead of going direct to the Snowcard site. The UKClimbing pages on the Snowcard site have been slightly modified to make booking a bit easier and we are hoping that this can be improved in the future based on feedback like we have in this thread. Additionally, the sidebar and banner links do make the insurance just one click away instead of a bookmark or a remembered address but ultimately, it is up to you, the end product is the same.

Obviously we would prefer that you booked through us and by doing so you would be helping to support the site.

Alan

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC: found them to be a lot cheaper than BMC and get cover for caving for not extortionate amounts. agree with everyone else about working out the options/prices on their website and having to re-enter all data a pain.

KC

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:
Used Snowcard for Alpine cover this Summer - cheaper than BMC for what I wanted (Pay for that helicopter!)
Website is a little odd and unclear, probably a legacy of their ski cover background. Could be made easier for dimwits like me. Paperwork arrived promptly, and they were very accommodating for my mate who was just recovering from a broken leg, he got cover with minimal hassle too.

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

I haven't tried the website, but I've always been put off Snowcard because of all the options - I could never manage to work out if I was buying adequate cover or not, whilst it was very clear with the BMC. But as you (or was it someone else?) say, you take your choice.

In reply to Carolyn:

Took out snowcard for trip away in March. Person running it came on here and had some comments about insurance so scans these forums.
I mailed him about paperwork not arriving in the post and he emailed it by return with all cover and a PDF of the cover we had. Seemed very efficient, hope we do not have to find out how efficient with claims, but others seem happy with the service or it would not have been going so long.

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

I've used snowcard a couple of times and had no problems.
I checked prices else where & they seemed cheaper, as i'm not a member of the bmc. I chose it as it covers lead climbing, skiing, and canyoning. I have 12month cover now.

One thing missing from all the replies I've read is..

HAS ANYONE MADE A CLAIM AGAINST THIER SNOWCARD COVER?

If so how straight forward was it & how long did it take to sort out, and where you happy over all?

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

Yes

Yep, simple to follow

Booking was fine. No claim made so I can't comment further.

In reply to Andy Hyslop - UKC:

I've been looking at both Snowcard and the BMC for just over a month's Yosemite cover. Overall the BMC seems to come out about £15 cheaper but the thing i noticed (and I may well be reading it wrong) is that the Snowcard site offers £25,000 personal accident cover but under the ** bit it says a maximum of £5,000 for activity levels 2-6 (and rock climbing is levels 2 and 3). This is in contrast to the BMC offering £25,000 regardless.

I admit again that I may well be missing something but it would good to know if this is the case.