Columbus Direct Insurance UK (Reviews)

ColumbusDirect is a leading travel insurance specialist selling direct to the public with a quick, efficient and hassle-free service. The Columbus Executive plan for commercial customers adds additional protection against Business related difficulties such as medical expenses, cancellations, personal baggage, business equipment such as laptops and PDAs, sports equipments (yeah, yeah, in other words "golf clubs"!), money, documents and you're covered for personal liability too. You also get membership to their airport VIP lounge access programme called Priority Pass covering 450 airport VIP lounges in over 80 countries giving you freedom for you and your travelling companions to escape long queues and crowded departure lounges.

They offer single trip travel insurance, annual holiday insurance, business travel plus specialist packages such as insuring backpackers, skiing trips, adventure holidays and individuals over 64. They can even offer cover to insure people that have been turned down elsewhere due to pre-existing medical conditions. Your documents will be emailed to you instantly after you apply for cover with hard copy paper versions arriving in the post a short time after. As with all insurers we write about, you really need to have a good look at the small print. For example, you need to know whether you are covered for injuries not just to yourself, but that you might inflict on other people. If in doubt always ask, if you know you are going to be involved in a particular activity ensure that you get clear information regarding what is and is not covered for such. Some things that you may expect to be covered such as car accidents and breakdowns may also not be included and you may have to take out separate cover for those. Although "holiday" insurance gives the impression that everything on your actual vacation is covered, you might be surprised. For full information on what Columbus Direct Travel Insurance offers with their policies check out their website at www.columbusdirect.com (www.columbusdirect.co.uk redirect there as well) or give them a call.

A tentative step into the home insurance arena sees Columbus offering to broker deals between the 10 top insurers. Standard savings with the usual occasional discounts such as for combined buildings and contents cover with up to ?1.5m buildings cover, ?300,000 contents cover and the obligatory 24hr emergency claims line possible. All with a money back guarantee if you find a cheaper quote elsewhere - though you have to find such and request the refund within 48 hours of purchasing a policy through them, much less than the 7-14 days most insurers give you. Although, with all the online price checkers these days such would seem to be a hollow offer anyway as if you didn't bother checking them against other policies before buying, you are unlikely to compare them with other policies after buying. †

07/10/2008 The website gives the impression that they only do travel insurance, but tucked away in a menu at the top, I found the option for home insurance. They offer up to 20% off for combined buildings and contents insurance, but I only wanted contents so that was no use to me. Plus they wanted to know the name of my mortgage provider and my account number, which I think is excessive just to get a quote. At the end of the process, it turns out that Columbus just gets quotes from other providers: I would have preferred to know this at the start. But they did get me a very low quote, so I might buy through them anyway.

23/06/2008 Quote was quick and easy. Gave the options of having extra packages added on for watersports etc. Gave a really cheap option which didn't cover you for cancellation although the rest of the cover wasn't that great either, e.g. only 300 baggage cover and no cover for cash and valuables. If you wanted that kind of cover the price rose quite steeply, but then offered quite good coverage. Wasn't loads of info either on the full policy wording until the end, only a brief summary of inclusions. Will be trying elsewhere I think.