Holiday Insurance. Heres why it pays NOT to insure.

Letsby_Avenue

I took out a holiday insurance policy just before our holiday which was described has having personal effects cover for £1500. I bought the policy because it would cover my Canon 7d camera about £1350 new.

On holiday, disaster struck and my camera ends up in the swimming pool. No problem I thought, its insured but I will have to pay the policy excess of £100.

I make a claim. The insurer now says the policy is not £1500 personal effects, its actually £150. Why?. The £1500 quoted is the total amount claimable on this policy and individual items each have a claim limit of £150. That means I will only get £150 for my £1350 camera.

The insurer also said that before they will pay the claim, I will have to get an estimate for the repairs to the camera, which I did. I got a bill for £186 and the prognosis was the camera is not repairable due to liquid ingestation inside the camera.

The insurer has now said they do not pay for the cost of getting the estimate. This now means I had to pay £186 to claim £150 from an insurance policy.

It gets worse, as the insurance company is paying out for the camera, the my camera itself has become the property of the insurance company

The result?

> Im £36 out of pocket

> I now dont even have my Canon 7d camera, let alone a dead Canon 7d camera - which I could have sold as faulty on eBay. Even the empty box and the chargers on their own could have been sold separately.

> Over 2 hours 5 minutes on hold on an 0844 number I have a further bill of £10.50 inc. VAT to pay. (7p a minute).


All because I did the wrong thing and took out holiday insurance

It would have been cheaper for me to sell the camera as scrap online and just buy a new camera.

Unless anyone thinks I have some recourse, I thought I would share this lovely little gem with you all. :beer:

Grumpelstiltskin

Did you read the terms and conditions of the policy in full before you took it out ?

I'm sure it would say max. for any item £150 and if it did you have only yourself to blame not the company.

mcfisco

I'm afraid most policies have a single item limit, not many are over £350

I always panic a bit when I take my bike away on cycling trips abroad that it'll get damaged by the baggage handlers etc. at £5K to totally replace it would be a big hit


Just to add, I now have M&S home insurance, which gives me cover for my belongings away from home with a single [unspecified] item limit of £4K

Do you not have any similar household cover LA?

Bob_the_Saver

Holiday Insurance. Heres why it DOES pay to insure

http://travelmag.co.uk/?p=1481

Gloomendoom

On Ebay now...

390428103182

You'll need to be quick. They are going like hot cakes.

Incapuppy

Letsby_Avenue wrote: »

All because I did the wrong thing and [STRIKE]took out[/STRIKE] didn't bother to read the smallprint on my holiday insurance

Fixed it for you!

budgetflyer

Iv been reimbursed nearly £1600 in the last 3 years for valid (+ genuine btw) claims on travel insurance.

You really have to read the fine print for limits, exclusions and special conditions though

photome

OP have you checked your household policy?

You have found out the hard way that it pays to read the small print especially if you need an expensive item covered

Letsby_Avenue

Incapuppy wrote: »

Fixed it for you!

Nopes, it was correct as I originally posted it.

Because if I had not insured at all, I would still have my camera, and I would not be £186 + £10.50-odd plus the original premiums out of pocket.

I find is bizarre that by insuring my holiday, it left me considerably worse off than I would have been by not insuring at all.

Letsby_Avenue

photome wrote: »

OP have you checked your household policy?

Yes, but a claim goes into an insurance claims database and affects all our future insurance premiums.

To be honest it is cleaper for me to swallow my losses and go buy a brand new Canon 7d. - Which I am about to do.

photome

Letsby_Avenue wrote: »

Yes, but a claim goes into an insurance claims database and affects all our future insurance premiums.

To be honest it is cleaper for me to swallow my losses and go buy a brand new Canon 7d. - Which I am about to do.

So are you saying you could have claimed £1500 on your household insurance? If so you would have been better off,your premiums would not have gone up by £1500 maybe not at all if you had protected no claims

I also think youi are missing the point, you didnt take out the correct insurance for single item cover but you were still covered for lots of other eventualities all be it you didnt claim