Just tried to renew my European Insurance Card (previously E111) on line.  Sadly, the message is that on-line renewals cannot be processed at present.  Two phone numbers are given - 0845 606 2030 and +44 191 212 7500.  I tried the latter (did not prefix it with 141) and I received the message that if I was calling from the UK I was using an unofficial number and should call using the 0845 number as I may find it more expensive calling the "unofficial" number.

I'd like to know where this information comes from.

Site seems to be OK today. Beware of spurious EHIC sites. Unfortunately there are a lot of spurious sites, some of which come higher up the google rankings than the official site. Many of these sites charge for something that is free. I suspect you have been looking at one of the spurious sites. There is rampant "domain squatting" with abuse of "ehic" in domain names. The NHS seems powerless to do anything about it.

The official site is here:
http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/Pages/About.aspx

Kiwi_g wrote on Oct 14^th, 2009 at 3:13pm:

Just tried to renew my European Insurance Card (previously E111) on line.  Sadly, the message is that on-line renewals cannot be processed at present.  Two phone numbers are given - 0845 606 2030 and +44 191 212 7500.  I tried the latter (did not prefix it with 141) and I received the message that if I was calling from the UK I was using an unofficial number and should call using the 0845 number as I may find it more expensive calling the "unofficial" number. I'd like to know where this information comes from.

Two quick points to make:

The 141 prefix does not withhold the "location data" that may be used to identify the source of the call - this does NOT include all the digits of the full number. It simply enables calls to be routed (or handled) according to the geographic area one is calling from.

For some callers, e.g. those on BT call plans outside the time when inclusive calls are in effect, calls to 01/02/03 numbers are indeed more expensive than 0845 (and now all 0844) numbers. "In general" the reverse is true.

allegro wrote on Oct 15^th, 2009 at 7:03am:

Site seems to be OK today. Beware of spurious EHIC sites. Unfortunately there are a lot of spurious sites, some of which come higher up the google rankings than the official site. Many of these sites charge for something that is free. I suspect you have been looking at one of the spurious sites. There is rampant "domain squatting" with abuse of "ehic" in domain names. The NHS seems powerless to do anything about it. The official site is here: http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/Pages/About.aspx

I would echo what has been said. I very nearly fell for a scam whilst sorting out my teenage son's Card. It is totally free so don't fall for those sites who want you to pay upwards of £10.

The above comments also apply to the new Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) for getting into America. You can get it free via the American embassy web site   http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/niv/esta.html  but like the E111 card there are some sites that will try and charge you, so be warned

The web site I was using was http://www.ehic.uk.com  I spoke to someone on 14 October and my renewed card arrived yesterday, 17 October.  I did not pay anything.  I accept the comments about spurious sites and would never have used a site requiring me to pay for a free service.  I'm wondering if there was any risk about stealing my identity.  The only unknown details I provided was the pin number on the old card.  All the other details could have been found on the companies house web site - DOB, address etc.

Anyone not sure about all this, the best way to get to the official site is to go here

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/Pages/About.aspx

At the bottom of the article there is a link (where it says 'renew or apply for your free EHIC now') to get you started.

That will take you to the official site and has been previously stated there is no charge for this card.

The card is valid for five years.

Hope this helps. ;)

Kiwi_g wrote on Oct 18^th, 2009 at 8:20am:

The web site I was using was http://www.ehic.uk.com

The options are clearly explained on this web page - http://www.ehic.uk.com/index-2.html.

Imap (UK) offers a checking service to avoid wasting time with an invalid submission. The charge for this is £9.95.

The page does offer a (not exactly prominent) link to the official site, but fails to mention that there is no charge for the application.

As with other similar cases, the so-called rip-off operators do generally offer what could be described as an additional service for which they are entitled to charge. As with most scams, there is some sort of defence or pretence of legitimacy.

I had to renew our cards urgently just before we went away in August as I hadn't realised they had expired.  I had the same message from the website that it couldn't accept online renewals (the problem is obviously ongoing!) so I rang the geo number and had no problems whatsoever getting through and speaking to someone very helpful who gave me a geo no to use while away if we had a problem as the cards wouldn't arrive in time, there was no query about the number I had used to call them.