Outbackers Travel Insurance - www.outbackerinsurance.com

My friend and I chose Outbacker as our insurance provider for a trip round SE Asia for 3 months. As a travel specialist we read through the activities covered etc, and were satisfied. However we never expected that their 'Emergency Medical Helpline' would ring through for over ten minutes before someone in a call centre picked up to 'log the accident' so that someone during UK office hours would think about responding....

My friend was in a motorbike accident in Vietnam and doctors were pressing to operate on a badly broken knee after we had gone through X-Rays and CT scans. They kept coming back to ask if we had got through to our insurance company so the translator could speak with them. When we finally received an EMAIL response a day later, we kept being ignored and asked to send paperwork, which we did with haste but still had to keep chasing on the phone; they either wouldn't pick up or would tell us whoever was dealing with the claim was away from their desks and would get back to us.

Bare in mind this might have been a much more serious medical emergency. Anybody's medical emergency; yours, your mothers, your fathers, your son or daughter's. The woman on the phone when we did speak to her was VERY rude and unsympathetic. In the end (3 days later in the hospital) we gave up and booked immediate return flights to the UK for medical attention there. In the end, the small print ruled out any repatriation of medical costs as riding a motorbike (even pillion) is not at all covered unless you've done a CBT in your home country, so we were at loss there and accepted that, and were lucky that Asia is very cheap.

However, Outbackers despite months of communication afterward, did not even entertain reimbursing any of the return travel costs.

I will never use Outbackers again.

Also - please people DON'T post gleaming reviews for insurance companies when you've not actually had to or deal with them. Yes, the booking process was simple but isn't everything when it takes a couple of clicks on your lunch break! That is how star ratings become misleading! Let's look out for each other.

AVOID When making a medical emergency claim abroad they want you to call them first then they will tell you what hospital to go to. I could have died in the process of calling them if I did. But when I was stuck in the hospital needing serious medical attention they told me to leave and go to a thia public hospital 45 mins away!! Are you serious!! And they only cover outpatient 500£ on the top cover. The 15million I bought was a hoax. Claims Team think they are doctors when then have NO idea what you are going through. If you think they are great for the price then good luck!! when your dying in hospital waiting for them to confirm the will pay, They will tell you go to a thia public hospital after they call you back after 3 hours. Lucky the staff at hospital treated me with out me having money or insurance confirming a pay out. They made my life hell and I hope no one goes through them because when you need medical help (most important over any insurance) they will penny pinch and tell you go else where. Even tho I have a blood pressure over 200 and collapsed. What a joke of a company! Surely if you was unconscious like me you need a doctor and not penny punch for you insurance provider. If you think they great just wait!

The old saying. You get what you pay for comes to mind!!

I found the Outbacker customer service to be greatly improved on what others reported three years ago. I had detailed questions about policy wording and the cover for non-standard activities, and had all of these resolved within a week (multiple back and forth of emails and clarification from the underwriters - I'm thorough).

[If anyone is interested, you can get cover for work as a chef and as a backstage crew member in a theatre, only excluding Personal Accident and Personal Liability cover, provided it's not "manual labour" - not hard to avoid by their definition. NOT ALL WORKING HOLIDAY COVER DOES THIS. If yours says 'Restaurant Work', for example, ASK if this includes kitchen.]

I'm happy with the extent of their other cover since I am travelling to Australia/New Zealand, pretty safe places with well equipped public services. The price is good for these places, I suppose because I'm not subsidising private care in riskier destinations (see other review). IF YOU'RE TRAVELLING SOMEWHERE WITH POOR PUBLIC SERVICES, YOU NEED A PREMIUM INSURER who has said that private care will be funded - Outbackers policy wording says that this is not the case (or at least it is phrased in a way that gives them wriggle room).

I am happy that I have a good policy with them given my trip, my destination, and the customer service I have received. Compared to what else is out there at the same price, it's a great policy (others at this price won't cover private either). But it is not right for every traveller or every trip, and I haven't tested claiming, so four stars.

Platinum Policy Worldwide excluding USA, Canada and the Caribbean

My son bought this insurance, he was backpacking through South America. He purchased a Platinum Policy his medical Insurance was worth 10million pounds. It had really good reviews.

He fell off his cycle and unconscious was rushed to hospital. He called me once he came to he had facial injuries and a broken collarbone and needed surgery. He needed his Insurance policy details. I called the insurance company to inform them they said they would call him. He called me back to say they had told him to go to the public hospital, I contacted the Insurance company again and was told the public hospital was amazing and he would get amazing treatment there. I couldn't find it on the internet but was going to tell my son to go there. Until the Foreign Office who had visited my son called to reassure me that my son was In good hands and in their opinion the public hospital are not suitable for my sons treatment. Everything in the public hospital would have to be paid upfront everything was outsourced including drugs. The family of the patients took over feeding and care. As my son was traveling on his own who would be helping him. I was told a young boy who needed treatment the week before was not accepted for treatment for three days and had to go to a cash machine in pain just to withdraw money to pay for his treatment as debit or credit cards where not accepted. My son already had treatment from the clinic and was scheduled to go to theatre to pin his collarbone to clean the tarmac and grit and have plastic surgery to his face that evening so I made a decision to go ahead. It took the insurance company three days to tell me they would not pay for his treatment after many calls to their call centre leaving lots of messages, asking for someone to contact me from the insurance company . My son was injured on Monday was in hospital for four days and home on the Saturday all done without any help from Outbackers. His claim was $10000 US after 6 weeks of putting in the claim we are still waiting to hear . This company are happy to take your money but obviously when you need them they are absent. The

Hi there, I just wanted to take a moment to share and detail the ordeal I had with Outbackers Insurance. So I am about to go traveling in a week now, and I have been spending a lot of time prior to this looking and researching for the perfect insurance, probably just like you now. Outbackers seems like the best one, they were certainly one of the more expensive ones but I struggled to find a bad review with regards to making a claim. However there were not that many reviews to go by. So I took a whole afternoon to go through their policy booklet word for word to insure there were no hidden loopholes that you only hear too much of. After reading through the policy booklet I had a few questions to ask them.

So this is where it went down hill. When answering the phone there was no introduction, which if that had been the only thing then I really would not have cared. However it seemed to me that when I was asking question with regards to the policy booklet, not only did they answer them in a demeaning way they also could not provide me with the correct answer. In fact they cut me short and stated that it was on the website and that my website is the same as yours they are all the same and they can not stay on the phone to me. Baring in mind I had only been on the phone for all of about 4 minuets. To my horror I explained that this was no way to treat a customer who was about to buy a policy. And well Outbackers didnt seemed too bothered by that.

And well it just got worse from there. I wrote an email of complaint detailing the call that I had, and they assured me that it would not happen again and that it was not a true reflection of Outbackers customer service as a whole. Outbackers ended their email asking were all my questions answered. At this point I was hopeful. However when Outbackers tried to answer my question again, they pointed me in the wrong direction again. I then explained that this was the wrong thing and this is exactly what happened within the telephone call. To be completely honest I really could not have written it any clearer.

I personally wanted to know what the premium would be if I removed Section A 'Canceling your trip' off of the cover, which is detailed in the policy booklet and stated next to one of those beloved * that this will give a reduced premium if removed. However Outbackers only showed incompetency in reading not only my email but also there own policy booklet as they explained that Category A Additional Activities could not be removed.

Correct me if I am wrong but Section A Canceling your trip is completely different to Category A Additional Activities.

Due to this confusion on something that was suppose to be a simple question, to anyone who had read the policy booklet (which you would have hoped that that was the first thing all Outbackers employees had to do). It was quickly escalated into a terrible email tennis match where upon I learnt that Outbackers gave false information within their policy booklet because as stated within you could remove section A canceling your trip... once the employee of Outbackers finally got round to reading there own policy booklet. Outbackers then informed me that this was not actually true and you could not remove this section of the policy. Thus not providing you with a reduced premium.

So after all that I then got a better understanding Outbackers employees, whilst this might not be true for the whole of Outbackers. It is certainly worrying to have not only one of their employees treat you like a disposable customer but when going to complain about this issue another one of their employees treat you the same way, especially after assuring you that it will not happen again.

All of which could have been prevent if the original employee had given just 30 seconds more for me to explain to them that they were pointing me the wrong direction. Cause once again it appeared that I had a better understanding of Outbackers website and policy booklet then there own employees. Which does look incredibly good for an insurance company if you ask me.

Thank you for your time, and good luck finding the right insurance company i am sure there is one out there :)