The Fake EHIC Card Scam

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has been forced into taking action against websites who are charging consumers for a service that they can actually obtain free of charge through the NHS website.

What is the European health Insurance Card?

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme is a scheme that allows EU citizens to obtain medical care free of charge or in some cases at a local rate if they are visiting other countries that take part in the scheme.

UK residents are entitled to medical treatment when on holiday or visiting another EU country, as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Only treatment that you would be able to get under the state scheme for that country is covered, and you need to be able to show your EHIC to be able to get the treatment. It’s not the same as travel insurance though, so the general advice is that even if you have an EHIC, you still need to take out a good travel insurance policy to cover you for all medical eventualities.

What Did the Misleading EHIC Websites Do?

Although it’s free to apply for an EHIC if you use the NHS website, the websites in question decided to set themselves up as official handlers of applications, so that they could charge consumers for simply forwarding the applications through to the NHS. They didn’t make it obvious that the service was usually free of charge, and although they didn’t directly break any laws, the OFT still decided that the way they were going about their business had been calculated into misleading people into making applications through them when they could have used the NHS site for nothing.

There were four websites involved in the OFT clampdown, typically these companies were charging around £10 to process an EHIC application, without making it clear that they were not official EHIC sites. The four sites that the OFT took action against were mainly found to be misleading because they copied the EHIC brand, making it look as though they were actually an official site; used an official sounding URL that people could easily have mistaken for the real thing; didn’t make it clear anywhere on their site that the services they were providing were unofficial.

What Action Has the OFT Taken?

Three of the websites under the OFT spotlight have agreed that they will not use misleading selling practices in the future. These websites are

• ehic.org
• thejwsgroup.com/ehicservice and
• ehic.uk.com.

The fourth website, ehiconline.com has been suspended.

Heather Clayton, Senior Director of the OFT's Consumer Group, said that while it wasn’t actually unlawful to charge consumers for a reviewing and forwarding service, anyone who offers such a service has to be very clear about the product or service they are offering, and not attempt to trick consumers into spending money to get services they don’t need or want.

She added that anyone who wanted to apply for an EHIC or for other government-funded services should check carefully to make sure that they are using an official government website.

How to Apply for an EHIC

If you want to apply for an EHIC free of charge, go to the official NHS website, where you will be able to download the forms and/or apply online. You will need to have the NHS or National Insurance Number, Surname/Family Name, Forenames and Date of Birth of each person you are applying for a card for.

Alternatively, you can apply for your EHIC by calling 0845 606 2030.

If you are a non-EEA national you will need to apply by post as you’ll need to provide documentation to support your application. You can pick up an application form from the Post Office.