Platinum vs HSBC Premier travel insurance

[DK]

Is there a consensus which insurance is better, both in benefits and customer service (hassle free claims)?

I had a ton of problems with amex platinum, which is actually Chubb insurance. Supposedly they have a reputation of being excellent in the US but I had to take them to the ombudsman 2 times to get my claims settled here.

[BP]

This would make a good article. Platinum vs HSBC Prem vs some packaged bank accounts (VM, Natwest etc..)

[JDB]

DK wrote:

Is there a consensus which insurance is better, both in benefits and customer service (hassle free claims)?

I had a ton of problems with amex platinum, which is actually Chubb insurance. Supposedly they have a reputation of being excellent in the US but I had to take them to the ombudsman 2 times to get my claims settled here.

There isn’t really going to be any ‘consensus’ on this as insurance depends on each person or family’s needs. The two policies each have good bits and bad bits but on balance I would say HSBC is marginally better although it doesn’t offer car hire excess insurance (although in some countries, those policies should be used with care anyway). Both policies have low level cover for valuables and paltry single item cover, expecting that to be covered elsewhere. Reported claims experience is very varied.

Amex Plat is good for the postponement cover, but very weak on travel inconvenience/unexpected costs and some sections being tied to Plat card use is messy. The policy is also very badly worded, so difficult to understand. Another big weakness for many is that some of the most common pre-existing conditions are excluded.

HSBC isn’t conditional on any card use (it comes with the bank account rather than card anyway), covers big pre-existing conditions, has a clearer policy document and good cover for travel inconvenience/unexpected costs.

[JDB]

BP wrote:

This would make a good article. Platinum vs HSBC Prem vs some packaged bank accounts (VM, Natwest etc..)

It’s not really possible to do an article on this as it strays into the realms of financial advice, but more particularly because a policy that’s good for one person’s circumstances may be useless for another family’s circumstances or travel pattern and seemingly small T&Cs risk getting ignored even if highly relevant to some. Insurance matters, and it’s not too difficult to do ones own research to make sure a policy meets your needs.

The policies and wordings change quite regularly so whatever is written gets quite quickly outdated. There’s quite a lot going on in the market with Nationwide potentially taking over VM to which some were already fleeing because of NW’s impending changes re Avios. Many had moved to Nationwide during covid as Amex Plat turned out to be rather useless.

[Professor Calculus]

Hi Great article .

I have both, did have have small claim with AMEX last year( £600 ) and they were excellent however I was not sure who to claim with first in the event of a claim.

Would it be shared ? (which seems messy )

[Skywalker]

Amex Platinum insurance useless for me due to pre-existing conditions, so HSBC Premier is currently better for me. However, Platinum does insure my immediate family whose bodies are in better condition than my own!

I guess which is deemed ‘better’ very much depends on your circumstances, travel patterns, activities undertaken etc.

In terms of service, I sometimes find that insurance companies are very friendly until it is time to make a hefty claim and then the mood and tone swiftly changes 🙂

[RS]

From personal experience, HSBC Premier is very good in my opinion. We did a medical claim (fairly substantial) last year which was caused by scuba diving and HSBC paid without much hassle at all as well as paying for 2 more weeks in the same hotel (which was quite expensive) for the whole family (not just the affected person) as well as organising business class medical repatriation flights with a doctor back to the UK for the whole family without any problems.
PS bit specific but HSBC actually outsource medical repatriation to a company called CEGA who were a bit of a handful to deal with at first but were helpful in the end