Nationwide 'free' travel insurance is not so free

de_cachondeo

In August Nationwide told me I was now entitled to free travel insurance with my Flex Account. Great, I thought. In September, while on holiday I had my phone stolen.

I sent off my claim on 19th October and they still haven't processed it (today is 25th November). Since first reporting the claim I have had to make 3 phone calls to an 0845 number and am just about to have to make another to chase them again.

I suspect it's not cheap for me to be calling this number and I suspect the insurance company are making money from it. Here are the reasons why I suspect a bit of a scam:

1. They waited for me to call and chase them up before they started dealing with my claim. I had posted it to them a month before but it was only when I phoned that anything started to happen.

2. The assistants on the phone say they don't know how it costs per minute to call the number (0845 246 1692)

3. Every time I phone I have to listen to a long message (about whether my Flex account is eligible for the insurance, etc etc) and can't start selecting options to get through to anyone until I've listened to it. (I have the option numbers written down, but they won't let me select them immediately).

4. They called me but only let it ring for about 2 or 3 seconds before hanging up and not leaving a message, meaning I now have to call them back again.

I'm interested to see how much I will have spent on all these calls when I get my phone bill.

Norfolk_Jim

0845 isn't a premium number and is even included on some calling plans so I doubt it is really making that much for them

0845 numbers are charged at local rate, which is 3.4p peak rate, 1.7p evening & 0.6p on weekends. This is the same rate as many callers pay for landline calls

Chorlie

If you search on:

http://www.saynoto0870.com/numbersearch.php

You'll find a couple of 0800 numbers that you can use.