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Name: American Express Insurance
Quote Rating: 3.0 out of 5 No. of Reviews: 6

As a worldwide financial lender, the move for American Express into travel insurance seems only logical - the move into home and car insurances maybe not so much. Amex's travel insurance is certainly far clearer than most insurers with only three types of insurance available. Single trip for individuals and families wishing to travel on a single trip up to 93 days for business and/or leisure including cover for medical treatment, baggage loss or damage and cancellations whilst travelling in the UK, Europe or Worldwide. AmericanExpress's travel insurance policies can be taken out by anyone up to the age of 70 with that increasing to 79 for some parts of the world. There are also three types of annual cover - essential, select and prestige - with varying age limits, monetary cover limits and parts of the world that it insures. Lastly there is gap cover for individuals or families wishing to stay abroad for longer periods of time with plans for 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 or 24 months that can be bought on a Worldwide or European basis allowing a 14 day stop off back in the UK if need to. Having just the three plans lends simplicity to the quote process and you can add extras that other firms would tend to offer as specialist cover packages such as winter sports for those who require cover for both on and off piste skiing, ski equipment and piste closure or more dangerous sports activities such as bungee jumping, rock climbing and white-water canoeing. Other options include golf cover for equipment, loss of green fees due to illness or injury and (wait for it) even the cost of buying the round of drinks after shooting a hole-in-one. Discounts from American Expres are available but for some reason, they are very secretive as to how much you can save. You can get a discount if you hold a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) and there is an extra discount for buying online.

Unlike the Amex Travel Insurance which is underwritten by one of their own companies, AmericanExpress home and motor insurance offerings are passed off to a third party. This sort of arrangement always makes it difficult to gauge the type of service you will receive. They will search through their panel of insurers to find you a competitive quote with each policy coming with home emergency assistance 24 / 7 / 365 and family legal protection. You also get 5% off for buying online. Their price comparison table for cover against other insurers shows some impressive savings averaging around the ?200 mark. For car insurance Amercian Express quote a panel of 20 insurers that they search to get you the best deal with all providing courtesy cars and up to 70% no claims discount. The savings table on this page do not put American xpress cover in any particularly amazing light with an average saving of only ?26 against the better known insurers. We are disappointed to see Amex opting to simply resell products rather than provide them themselves, better cover is always had when a financial institution provides such themselves which is why RBS companies such as Churchill and Direct Line are so popular. But watch this space, this might simply be them testing the waters. We are surprised at the continued popularity of this product considering the branding and the downturn in America's popularity amongst the UK media recently. Obviously a testament to their products and services as many other exports from America aren't doing so well.

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Your Comments on American Express:

18/09/2009 Cover seemed reasonable and comprehensive. £90 for our family of 3 to go to Disneyworld. Documents came through quickly. Sorry, never had to claim so can't offer any opinions on that and it's probably the most important thing.

14/10/2008 Although they are a little bit more expensive, it is more than worth it for the cover and service they provide. Their winter sports cover means that we are covered to ski off piste, which isn't always the case with other insurance companies that I looked at.

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