Update: Don’t pay for your European health card – it’s free!

I don’t understand why people visit obviously commercial web sites for obtaining an EHIC or other public sector services like passports. Unlike other countries’ top level domains, the UK’s .uk top level domain is divided into several sub-domains, e.g. .co.uk for private sector companies, .org.uk for non-commercial organisations, .nhs.uk for the NHS and .gov.uk for other public sector. The UK domain name system thereby makes it immediately obvious whether a web site is commercial or public sector. Therefore why do people visit the copycat web sites which are on obviously commercial .co.uk or .com domains? These rogue traders are simply cashing in on many people’s blatant stupidity. Caveat emptor.

I understand the EHIC card does not entitle you to free healthcare in Europe, and not necessarily low cost. You are entitled only to healthcare on the same terms as the residents of the country you are in when you need treatment. France, apparently, requires you to contribute 20% towards the cost of hospital treatment. So insurance is still advisable.

I would add Driving Test to the list of things you can arrange for nothing rather than using a parasitic agency.

Responding to NFH, I think the reason why so many people go to commercial websites is that there is a general belief that doing anything directly with the government is time-consuming, inefficient and prone to error, and that paying money to an unofficial agency will cut through the red tape and get a better result faster. In fact, the GOV.UK websites are extremely easy to use and work very well. [I have tried to keep the letters HMRC out of my head while writing this but most of their problems are at Key Stage 1 – “answering the telephone”.]

It all boils down to that too many people have more money than sense in a lot of things.

Some time ago now (my EHIC expires in 2018, it does not say when issued) I fell for a copycat site which did not tell me I would be paying for the Card at the end of the Transaction. When it came up £25 to pay, I was surprised as I thought it was free, but mildly panicked, I did. This was before I had heard about copycat sites.

Add US VISA waiver ESTA to the list. I knew what I was looking for but it took 4 sites before I identified the true US Embassy site where the cost is $14.

Urgent: Excuse me, please can someone help or point in right direction? We are trying to trace a travel insurance policy and this is the closest forum I could find. My cousin’s son fell off a cliff in Ibiza almost two weeks ago. He has an EHIC card. However, his injuries were so severe he was transferred to a private hospital. He has been put into an induced coma and had surgery to his brain to relief the pressure plus undergone surgery on Monday to place two pins in his neck vertebrae. The family are so distraught as we cannot locate his travel insurance. He travelled to Bali in April and traced holiday insurance for one trip £73.90 through the post office, so we think he must have taken out travel insurance with someone for this trip. Does anyone know how we could trace this. As I said, my cousin’s son is in an induced coma and phone is blocked so we cannot check this or have any access. It was only by luck that my cousin went through bank account to trace the post office insurance purchased in April. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for reading.