I understood the difference as BritS's parents are resident in the UK and having an extended "holiday" to CH which doubles as doing BritS a favour by looking after his house. It's not the same as leaving the UK to live in CH.
Ours does. It gives unlimited coverage for accident and repatriation and up to a million francs for medical expenses overseas in case if illness and hospitalisation.
You just have to make sure to choose the right options and not just the basic travel insurance.
There is a maximum age limit for some of the coverage which may be an issue in BritS’s case if one of them is over 80.
Indeed. They were resident in Cyprus for 20 years and sold up recently with the intent to move back to Glasgow.
They are in Glasgow at present house hunting, whilst staying with a relative, but that is only a short term solution...guests/fish/stink and all that They would stay registered at the relative's place in Glasgow whilst "holidaying" with us.
It only does that ON TOP of your normal Swiss Health/accident Insurance- not cover from scratch. Your normal Health/accident insurance would pay up to double estimated Swiss cost, the holiday insurance would pick up the rest. At least that is what about a dozen insurances have explained to us, and Bon à Savoir Health magazine too. Believe me, we have been looking for 10 years now. But if anyone can tell us otherwise with actual links, I would be the most grateful ever, for sure.
Their relatives address is not their official residence where they are registered to vote, pay tax, etc. That is the point. Just be careful. They need a repatriation address which is their official residence (eg registered, paying tax, council tax, bills etc).
Well yes it does but for Swiss residents that’s what we need isn’t it? Why would it be any different?
I assume BritS will be looking for UK travel insurance for his parents as that’s where they are based so what is covered by Swiss travel insurance is irrelevant.
So far it seems to have done the trick, even as far as opening accounts. They have a notarised (I think) letter from the relative confirming they are living there. We shall see, I presume it is not an insurmountable issue.
Their needs are fairly specific I would say - they have viewed a good few places so far, but they aren't really ticking all the boxes.
It's not a huge effort for one of them to fly back for a few days if somewhere looks promising, but equally, Winter/Xmas period isn't really the busiest time in the real estate market, so they are unlikely to miss out on much.
There are of course also the non-financial benefits of living somewhere a bit nicer than Glasgow (!) and more importantly getting time with grandkids.
I was replying to your post re your Swiss Insurance cover, and Island Monkey's.
It is relevant in as much as Holiday insurance is based on residency. The people concerned in this post are not resident here, and possibly not fully in UK either.
Yes, friends of mine crossed back to Folkestone on the Eurotunnel in July, they were picked up by the French customs who said that they were over the 90 days - they explained that they were mainly in Switzerland not France (not realising that Schengen applies to both) and were told that this time they would be allowed to return to the UK but if they did it again they would be banned for a period of time and would be fined.
They are both nearly 80 years old and were advised to get the Schengen app where you enter all your dates of travel in and it calculates how many days you can stay.
They had cruised and didn't realise that the days of the cruise as it was in the Med count as well.
We went to UK mid December last year, on our UK passports. But as Macron made things difficult for those returning to other countries in transit through France, when we returned to CH in January- we used our Swiss passports.
When we went to UK again in June, we asked the British Immigration guy if the system seemed to indicate that we had been in UK all that time, as we didn't 'sign out' with our UK passports. He laughed and said 'no, our systems are not THAT sophisticated'.
They could probable stay in the Schengen Area as tourists for up to 90 days, under normal circumstances - meaning they are permanently resident else where and have sufficient funds.
However since the are not permanently resident else where that may impact the decision if they are checked.
Not at all. In the UK, travel insurance covers all medical costs, in CH it covers what is over double estimated cost. Very different. Both you and Island Monkey were talking about your own insurance in CH, which is not relevant to OP.
Of course it is not relevant to OP either, but they might be interested to know that retirees from UK are exempt from Swiss Insurance under S1 provisions- but it then leaves them without any available Holiday Insurance for travelling, as there is NO suitable insurance product that exists in Switzerland, and that they can't get UK travel Insurance either, even if they have a property and official address there, and voting rights- as they are not resident. As said, just for interest only (in case anyone is interested).
I have Swiss holiday insurance that pays the health care above Swiss health insurance costs and covers repatriation and covid related costs. Allianz travel.
U.K. travel insurance is normally cheaper than Swiss.
I have REGA which will arrange and/or provide repatriation to Switzerland from anywhere, and will cover any costs that my insurance won’t. Costs f40 a year.
Yes, we have that too, Fabulous value for money. BUT it will not cover medical costs for hospitalisation abroad, and will not automatically come and get you. They will do so only if they consider that the care you are getting abroad is not appropriate. It does NOT replace accident/health insurance- but is a very worthwhile add on.
So if OP's parents join Rega, go abroad and have to get repatriated to CH- the cost of treatment abroad before repatriation (and as said, this is not automatic, only if they deem necessary and their decision/call), and not the cost of medical care in CH once repatriated.