Premium travel insurance pre-existing medical condition

Feedback & Ideas
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My current insurer, Staysure, “let’s” me pay about £10pa extra to acknowledge my innocuous pre-existing medical condition that ~15% Caucasians have but which I happen to know about (and not because it’s ever been an issue). You can bet that if I didn’t pay it, they’d find a way to make any issue I had sound like it had ‘arisen directly or indirectly from’ it. Or just sod’s law, it really would be the thing that was an issue.

Current policy ends soon, and I’d be happy to switch to Monzo Premium for some of the other perks.

But let’s be honest, it’s the travel insurance alone that makes it £15pcm. Plus goes some way, but personally I think it’s steep at £5pcm, (just not as steep as £15pcm for Premium with unusable travel insurance) and you also lose airport lounge access, metal card, 0.5%, 4 free cash deposits, and £200 fee-free overseas withdrawal.

So, my feedback is I’d like either Premium to be £15pcm* (small-print: Axa may charge a supplemental fee for any notified pre-existing medical conditions), or the whole thing to be more piecemeal; I don’t care about phone insurance, for example.

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Neither of these will happen unfortunately for you.

If you can’t already pay extra for pre-existing conditions then Monzo would need to swap insurers. Not going to happen.

They won’t do it split it apart either. They need people to pay for things they don’t need/use so that it covers it for the people that do.

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I haven’t checked but I would assume Axa do allow it if you get a quote directly, just not in the one-size-fits-all policy Monzo is using. I did say in OP “small-print: Axa may charge a supplemental fee […]”, I clearly wasn’t suggesting Monzo switch providers.

True, of course. I suppose my point is that the value is so dominated by the travel insurance, that having that be unusable for so many people will surely really limit Premium sales.

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I’m not sure how unusable it really is for those with pre-existing conditions.

Firstly, it’s only the medical part of the insurance which is affected. The other provisions have some value on their own.

Secondly, it’s only claims arising from those conditions which is excluded. So someone taking medication for arthritis, could still claim for an ear infection, for example.

I agree that for some people whose pre-existing condition could be reasonably expected might result in a claim, then this policy is not for them.

I rather liked Nationwide’s approach to this. If you’ve had two different prescriptions in the last 12 months, there’s no additional premium, any more than two, you have to pay extra.

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That’s true, but does any provider offer medical cover only? (Other than a global private medical cover from e.g. Bupa I suppose.) If you get that elsewhere and it comes with the rest too, then getting it again with Monzo Premium doesn’t have much if any value.

Personally if you could get medical only I’d be happy with that alone, the rest of it I’d put in the same category as phone insurance - unlikely to need it and affordable if I do, so doesn’t need insuring.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to rely on that personally, the insurer’s incentivised to find a way of ‘directly or indirectly’ linking the two; I won’t try and contrive an example for arthritis and an ear infection, but you can imagine it’s easily possible (however unreasonable) for many things, and they don’t even have to justify it unless you bother to sue them for breach of contract or whatever, they can just reject the claim knowing most people won’t bother (or be able to afford) to do anything but accept it.

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Very true. In those cases you’d be trusting Monzo (or their chosen insurer) to not be like that.

The basic thrust of my argument, I suppose, is that it entirely depends on what sort of pre-existing condition you have as to whether this will be a suitable policy for you (from hay fever to heart failure for example), and that implying it isn’t suitable for people with pre-existing conditions is too wide ranging.

And to counter my own argument somewhat, I’ll bet some people pay for it, rely on the insurance, and never even realise it doesn’t cover them for their pre-existing condition.

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I made a similar point when Monzo launched Premium.

The travel insurance is worth very little if you are not young and healthy.

A large percentage of the population suffer from conditions such as asthma, blood pressure, diabetes which can be ‘linked’ to any number of new medical conditions.

You could compare it to a policy by someone like Lloyds/TSB who cover such ‘common’ conditions as standard with the travel insurance they bundle with their bank accounts.

And you really don’t want to be overseas, suffer a serious mishap and then find your insurance doesn’t cover you…

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Or young and healthy (as I am) but aware of a genetic defect causing a predisposition toward something, or something that might be of concern/consideration to a doctor in the event of something else happening, etc. (I mean, call that ‘unhealthy’ if you want, but in my case it’s something fairly prevalent, (most just don’t know they have it) not medicated, never caused an issue, etc.)

Covering winter sports is no good if they can claim ‘you lost your breath as a result of your asthma leading you to lose your balance and collide with someone else causing your broken leg’.

And whether or not you’re covered for a big medical bill in a foreign land is quite a lot to hang on ‘trusting Monzo (or their chosen insurer) to not be like that’, however much you might think ‘oh come on I’m sure they wouldn’t blame a broken leg on asthma’; is it really worth the risk?

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I obviously understand if you don’t want to say, but what is the medical condition? If 15% of Caucasians have it that is an awful lot of people!

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Not OP but I and around 1% of people in the UK population suffer from epilepsy (source).

My multi-trip travel insurance with Coverwise (a member of the AXA Assistance Group) is £47.55 for a whole year, equivalent to ~£4 a month. That covers me for my declared medical condition. This also proves that AXA supports declared medical conditions.

As far as I’m concerned the ball is firmly in Monzo’s court to pass on support for medical conditions to us. As it stands, neither Premium nor Plus are worth it for me no matter how often the app keeps shoving ads for them in my face. I’d be tempted by Premium if declared medical conditions were supported by the travel insurance. Until then I’ll just gradually grow more annoyed with the endless ads until I move my banking elsewhere.

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