Traveler assistance: “A basic bank card holder may think he is covered, but he is not,” warns the president of Europ Assistance France

Europ Assistance is number two in personal assistance in terms of activity on the European continent. The field concerns assistance to travelers, but also to people in the field of healthcare, home, automotive and concierge services.

Europ Assistance is a French company founded in 1963. French President Nicolas Sinz will publish his annual holiday barometer on Tuesday, May 28, drawn up by the Ipsos Institute in 21 countries, including France. With just over a month to go before the start of the summer holidays, he is reminding French people that it is important to know their insurance levels and assistance coverage before they go.

franceinfo: What are the most important trends you observe at the end of the school year?

Nicolas Sinz: We see different trends. Especially in France, the French are more happy than ever that they can go on holiday and are looking forward to the coming summer period. They will leave, and at a high level compared to previous years. Their biggest concern, on the other hand, concerns the budget: 2,100 euros for an average of 2.2 weeks of holiday. This is below the European average.

And so they will leave for less time than the rest of Europe, and they will leave closer to home. Are they the champions of local tourism?

Yes, budgetary restrictions and pressure on purchasing power certainly play a role in this choice. We can also be proud of our country’s cultural, heritage and geographical assets. There is a lot to do in France, so the French express this choice much more strongly in local tourism than among our European colleagues.

They go more to seasonal rentals, such as Airbnb, than other Europeans, who opt for hotels slightly more often. How does this change for your core business?

Our challenge is to ensure that the French have a better understanding of their insurance or assistance coverage, and that they can adapt their coverage to their project. There is no single answer. Depending on your situation and your project, sometimes you can be covered, sometimes not.

Sometimes we don’t ask for coverage even though we are covered?

Yes, indeed, and that is why we try to provide a lot of explanation and education on the different covers. The French may not know it, but it is a source of French pride, the profession of assistant was invented in 1963. A date linked to the beginning of tourism and travel. So we are at the origin of this profession. And in the travel industry, there are two main areas of coverage. There is travel insurance: that is, before departure with a cancellation guarantee due to illness or unforeseen accidents. And then there are guarantees of assistance during the trip: their role consists of covering medical costs and repatriation if necessary.

Now that we are fairly independent, with mobile phones and internet access, have you noticed that people covered by Europ Assistance do not necessarily have the reflex to take advantage of this help?

Many customers are covered by Europ Assistance.

“One in two bank card holders in France is covered by Europ Assistance.”

Nicholas Sinz

at Franceinfo

This is one of the French peculiarities that French banks offer as part of their bank card: insurance or assistance guarantees, with variable coverage depending on the type of bank card the customer has.

What risk do we run as customers if we don’t know what coverage we have access to?

I will take two concrete examples. A basic entry-level bank card holder may think they are covered by travel insurance, but they are not. On a premium card, this is covered by insurance and assistance, which will work in the vast majority of situations. But if his travel plan goes to the United States, for example, the ceiling and the guarantee on medical costs may be insufficient compared to the healthcare costs in the United States. So you have to figure out what the journey is, the destination and the people who will come with you.

Today you have developed quite an impressive range of services. Is this a request from your customers or have you diversified your service offering for economic reasons?

For about twenty years, we have seen a growing concern and need among French people for support at home, in the areas of health issues, personal services and support for the elderly. So it is these new needs that we are trying to capture.

There is also digital identity protection. Does this also meet the customer’s needs here?

Yes, digital identity protection concerns the cyber risk applied to individual customers. We export the know-how, which we have developed in the United States, where awareness of this risk is very present, to France, where this awareness is emerging. And we think we can respond in a very concrete way to the concerns of the French about the protection of their digital identity.

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