Eoropean Health Insurance Card

[Infidel]

My daughter had to renew her ehic card for a trip in a couple of months, so being 17 and impulsive she googled it and clicked on the first site,and a second, and then asked me can I get it cheaper than £9.95.
Perplexed I had a look and the top two sites both charge you for something that is free.
She is young and still naive but I wonder how many people have payed? they must get a lot of hits if it's till top of the page.

 

[roughcaster]

My daughter had to renew her ehic card for a trip in a couple of months, so being 17 and impulsive she googled it and clicked on the first site,and a second, and then asked me can I get it cheaper than £9.95.
Perplexed I had a look and the top two sites both charge you for something that is free.
She is young and still naive but I wonder how many people have payed? they must get a lot of hits if it's till top of the page.

Typical!!! anything with the word "European" in the title's gotta be a rip off!!

 

[joe-90]

It's no-doubt a paid advert.

 

[Infidel]

Typical!!! anything with the word "European" in the title's gotta be a rip off!!

It entitles you to free healthcare in the EU and is issued free via the NHS, you want to pay Insurance go ahead.

 

[seldonbilly]

The letter from the Pension Service advising about the changes to the EHIC card provider also mentions that Travel insurance is advisable because the EHIC card does not cover everything,the EHIC isnt much value anyway. unlike us stupid brits who give out very expensive healthcare to anyone for free no matter where they are from, if you need any help elsewhere in europe you usually have to pay for it then take weeks to claim the money back from the NHS when you get home.

 

[cmother1]

There's a whole industry grown up of fast-buck merchants acting as middle-men for services from government - usually without government's knowledge or permission.
Typically a website will ask you to enter personal details for the service/card/whatever and charge you a fee. What you then receive is the application form for the service/card/whatever pre-printed with the details you entered. You still have to send the form to the appropriate government agency along with photos, fee (if appropriate) and anything else that's needed.
The real trick is that 'value add' services like this aren't strictly illegal if the appropriate fine print is present on the site, but it's certainly questionable whether these sites should be using logos of government departments.
To be safe always go through www.direct.gov.uk

 

[plugwash]

mmm, on some laptop screens it's difficult to see the background that google uses to mark "sponsered links", you can still see that the entries are formatted slightly different from real search results if you look carefully though.