Rock God

Booked my travel insurance with Barclays over a week ago online. Filled out there form and paid by credit card. They sent me confirmation of my payment, my policy and my policy details. Then TODAY, less than 48 hours before we get on the plane, they call and tell me that they have to CANCEL my policy as they DON'T COVER ONE WAY TRAVEL!! What's more they could not offer ANY assistance to me in finding alternative insurance!! SO BE WARNED. Don't get your insurance from Barclays. In fact, I urge you to boycott them altogether. I have been a good customer for 15 years and they would not issue me a reference letter to presents to banks in Canada to aid me in getting a Canadian bank account. God, I can't wait to get to Canada... Oh well, i'll be there in 48 hours!!

poll72000

We just chanced it and had no insurance for the first 3 months until the MSP kicked in. We are a family of 5 and had no problems. If you need to go to the doctors for anything they charge about $45 per visit plus your prescriptions if needed. You can also go to a walk in clinic for minor injuries at about $70 a visit.
Good luck with the move.

Phil

H143

Bit risky wasn't it?! What if someone had been hit by a car or got appendicitis or something? I know someone who didn't have insurance and he ended up owing the US health service half a million dollars! I know another guy who's ended up selling his car and other stuff to pay his hospital bills.

Tip of the day: Always get insurance!

dougee

The problem is that the majority of UK travel insurance will only cover you if the journey starts and ends in the UK.

We booked ours through http://www.duinsure.com/ and paid only 22 pounds for the three of us for the first 5 days before or health insurance kicked in.

H143

I booked my insurance with the British Mountaineering Club (because I need long term winter sports cover but actually they have a good price even if you don't do winter sports) and they didn't ask to see a flight back to the UK or anything. Didn't even mention it.

kt0157

I have insurance with them. It's good, but it only covers you if you are a UK resident. Once you emigrate to Canada, it's not valid. And it's no good thinking "how do they know?" because if you get hit by a car and facing $500,000 in medical bills they do rather have an incentive to check out where you live, no?

K.

kt0157

Now there was your first mistake.

Everything I have ever done with Barclays has been tainted by the whiff of excrement.

My company banked with them and one day we had £4M of cash to put on deposit with them, but their rates were lower by 0.2% than the RBS. So we asked them to match those rates (0.2% of £4M is quite a chunk of cash). They said "no" so we said "if you don't match, we'll take our money elsewhere" and they said (I swear to God this is a direct quote) "That's OK, we've already got lots of money".

We moved our cash.

K.

Biiiiink

Ditto what they said

Apparently the UK Post Office does one-way emigrants insurance, a few people on the lifestyle forum have used it... although I can't see anything about it on their website.

If it does still exist, I assume it'd just be the journey itself that's covered, not any medical expenses/losses once you arrive in the country and become a non UK-resident.

scollis

Take out Blue Cross within 5 days of arrival is probably your best bet

Regards
Sonia

1066

Don't worry about opening a Canadian bank account .. it is easy. You may have more of a problem getting a credit card, though. Judging from past posts, even having a letter of introduction from a UK bank doesn't seem to help much.

H143

Good point. I'm still a UK resident right now so it's worked for me. Guess I'll have to look for something else when/if I get PR.

Alberta_Rose

My advice FWIW is be brave and just come, and if you need 3 months insurance before the provincial thing kicks in then arrange it here.

pennyhp

Did they know that you would be landing in Canada as a resident and no longer a UK resident?

Penny

dougee

Yes they did and the web site states that the insurance is suitable for people who are emigrating.

pennyhp

Thanks for the reply

They look like a really good bet for insurance as they actually go up to the 3 months until our provincial health care would start.

Penny