Hi, I had a chat with an insurance broker who recommended Avanex to me as being the cheapest provider in Switzerland and I wondered if anyone had any bad or good experiences with them as i've heard very little about this provider.

I had arranged a meeting with Helsana but the guy did'nt even show up, what a waste of time ! Not even a phone call to apologise for being absent. They obviously value their customers highly !

Cheers

You mean for health insurance? So far I am not too impressed. I sent ten bills, they treat 2 bills at a time so I am still waiting for another two letters about the refund...

Hi there, no experience with either companies, just want to point you in the direction of this good lady.

http://www.englishforum.ch/members/610-jenny.html

She will seek out the best/cheapest cover for you,for you, in your area, free of charge, catering to your needs....

She has just helped me with my change over and she did all the donkey work; it was painless,smooth and best of all, I will getter much better cover, for significantly less Franks per month .

As well, she is a really nice lady,,,,I know this , cos apart from the couple of emails we've exchanged, we've spoken on the phone as well (she called me just to confirm things), so I completely, without reserve, refer her to you )

Ros

Yes for health insurance.

This health insurance specialist suggested that I pay 200 CHF per month for a 2500 CHF deductible package from Avenex. Which means that I pay upto 2500 CHF for the medical costs but nothing beyond that.

To be honest i've never had to pay very much on the rare visit to the Swiss doctor and my health is good.

He claims that this is the cheapest package available. There is something about these so-called consultants that I don't fully trust, thus my post.

It's a basic with 2 supplementary packages.

Can you communicate with Avenex in English ?

Cheers

Avanex are pretty slow. I reckon they had a lot of applications to deal with since they are by far the cheapest. We waited about a month for our application to be processed. And then two policies arrived at the same time??? and of them had the wrong deductible. Pretty messy if you ask me...

I have been dealing with Atupri and i found them great. I havent had to do a claim, so i dont know how they deal with them... but in regards to service i found them excellent. They even phoned me to advise i didnt have to pay the accident cover as my boss was doing this and to make sure the bill was correct. I also didnt have to pay from when i entered Switz as i had a EU health insurance card, all they asked for was a photocopy of this. So far ive been really happy with their service, but like i said, i havent had to make a claim so far. (touch wood) hehehe

nope, all good for me so far...but i think i have been sending in the application pretty early when they came on the market. took me 1week to get things sorted.
and with insurance in was for me that my old german one would have covered all for 3 months until i had to find one in zurich. so there was no hassle for me. with refunds from avanex i had no probs so far. took not more then 5 workdays to get things sorted.payed back. but it was only one for my glasses about 1200CHF.

Similarly, someone else advised me to join Avanex as a reasonable health insurance company. I had to wait for the guy who had never showed up and eventually had him on the phone two weeks later. Then I became a member after filling up online forms and they backdated my premiums from the date I registered in Gemeinde, extra CHF900 cover for the months I wasn't insured (good for them not for me). I pay CHF215 per month but find their responses quite sluggish. Like any insurance company their are more interested in people who want to join but not in those who have already joined There are plenty of them (like slugs after rain) and one can find comparison on: www.comparis.ch

I have avanex and I was able to communicate in english, also I was able to get all documentation in English and german, and the guy that assitanted me helped me go through different options that best suited my lifestyle and needs.

I was also able to chose where we met up. They also then called me to check that I had gotten all the documentation in the mail, that I needed and if I needed any more help with anything.

Anyone have any recent experience with Avanex?

Had a consultant visit me this evening and he suggested Avanex.

been with Sympany for the last 5 years and have yet to reach the 2,000 excess I have on my policy, so really don't have any experience of using them.

When signed up with Avanex in 2008. We tried for almost 4 months to get them to send our insurance cards and other information. We finally gave up trying, cancelled and changed to Swica. So far, they are fine. They generate lots and lots of paper, however, maybe that's the same with all of these insurance companies?

Regards,
Dan

We've been with Avanex since last year and are so far quite happy with them. Hubby said yes, they are the cheapest but they also just went up 30sfr (as all companies went up this year). We've also gotten our claims dealt with pretty quickly. I guess we'll see how they handle the birth of our baby this month.

We've been with them for over 5 years now and are perfectly happy. We've never had a problem getting bills paid and I've had two pregnancies with them and again everything was taken care of promptly.

Two years now with them and been no issues. Not always able to get someone on the phone right away for english, but they will get someone to call back. Pretty simple process but I haven't had anything really complicated to deal with.

Any bad experiences using Medgate through Avanex ?

This is the phoneline you have to call first to receive medical advice or a doctor's address, in order to have a significant monthly reduction.

I use Medgate with a different insurer, and have had no problems.

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

The cost of Avanex compared to Sympany is very similar ... Avanex is CHF117 per year more than Sympany.

Will check out Swica to see what their is.

The thing is I've never really had to "use" health insurance. Just took it out to be "legal" but have never reached the CHF2,000 excess, so never will got to know is Sympany is good or not ... I guess there are a lot of people in similar situation.

The 2013 Sympany offer is CHF4257 for the year ... how does this compare?
The break down is:
basis (KVG) 328.40 / month
Eidgenossische Beitrage -2.95 /month
allgemeiner zusatz (VVG) 21.50/month
hospita (VVG) 6.30/month
protect (VVG) 1.50/month
Total pro Monat 354.75/month

Hallo guys

it is not possible to give 1 answer to your questions because the heath insurance as a lot variable as

- Age
- Canton
- smoker / no smoker
- Insurance model
- Franchise
- etc.