HolidaySafe Travel Insurance - Your Feedback

Holidaysafe_Representative

tortoisebob wrote: »

I would be extremely careful when considering HolidaySafe as your travel insurance.

This summer my friend was traveling solo in Thailand where she unfortunately broke her leg. She had cover from HolidaySafe and contacted them to report the accident, things went downhill from there.
Firstly, she was required to send an x-ray of her broken limb (fair enough), after doing so she was told it would be reviewed by HolidaySafe's medical staff. After 2 days of lying in a hotel room alone with a broken leg, she had still not been contacted so she rang HolidaySafe. She was informed by them that it could take up to 3 weeks for the medical staff to review the case (a fact they failed to mention upon confirmation of reciept of the x-rays).
Subsequently, she spent the next 2 weeks trying to get any help (or confirmation of what expenses she could claim) from the insurer whilst alone in Thailand. After a futile telephone conversation with the companies Medical Director (who "no longer practices medicine") she decided to book an earlier flight home. The insurance then refused to pay for her repatriation.

The prices may look good when you're booking online, but the whole idia of insurance is that it pays off when the worst happens. In this case that did not happen.
This experience coupled with other negative reviews I have read online about HolidaySafe have led me to believe that the company is not to be trusted as an insurer. My advise would be to pay a little more and go with a reputable company.

Happy Travels,

Tortoisebob

Dear ‘Tortoisebob’, my name is Amber Howard and I am the Brand Manager for Holidaysafe.

Firstly I would like to apologise that you feel dissatisfied with the service your friend received from the Emergency Assistance team (EAF), this is not the kind of customer service we strive to provide at Holidaysafe.

EAF are appointed by our Underwriters,Travel Insurance Facilities, so I will be speaking to them to investigate this case. I have been informed that EAF have recently hired more Doctors and Operations staff, to increase their team and ensure that they can offer betterand quicker customer service going forward. However, I will still be speakingto them regarding this post.

If you or your friend would like to make an official complaint, the process is outlined on the last page of her policy wording.

If you would like to discuss this further, please feel free to email me directly at [EMAIL="Holidaysafe@infinityinsurance.co.uk"]Holidaysafe@infinityinsurance.co.uk[/EMAIL].

Kind regards, Amber.

Holidaysafe_Representative

Barneysmum wrote: »

I bought cover for our two week holiday in Greece this summer including additional cover for my husband's high blood pressure and my high chlorestoral which wasn't too bad.

As we were delayed In Greece because of airline failure on the return leg for almost 30 hours though, I made a claim for delayed departure thinking it would be fairly straight forward for that length of time. It still took two months, an email and two chasing telephone calls - where I was assured (1) I would hear by the end of the week (I didn't), and (2) a cheque had been issued that day (well, it didn't arrive for another couple of weeks. The cheque was for £40 - stupid me, I missed the 'up to' and just looked at the final figure! Hardly worth the hassle!

I agree with tony London IFA that it seems a bit amateurish - the claims office was only open until 1.30 pm on week days. I do think they need to up their game if they are to be taken seriously. I did not expect to have a chase a straightforward claim like this.

Dear ‘Barneysmum’, my name is Amber Howard and I am the Brand Manager for Holidaysafe.

Firstly I would like to apologise that you feel dissatisfied with the service you received from Travel Claims Facilities (TCF).

TCF endeavours to provide a high standard ofs ervice, however there are times in the year when they experience high volumes of claims and occasionally this will lengthen the time it takes to respond to you. TCF are open 9am – 5pm Monday – Friday, and they have recently extended their team to try to provide better customer service.

If you would like to make an official complaint about your experience, the process is clearly outlined on the last page of your policy wording.

Kind regards, Amber.

Holidaysafe_Representative

walterswift wrote: »

Do not buy travel insurance from Holiday Safe they are anything but.

Their medical team basically abandoned me and my partner after he suffered serious brain injury in Spain. I had to pay £13500.00 for an air ambulance to fly us back. Their “aviation expert” Doctor based here in the UK took 6 days to look at his medical records( 2 pages long) seems to be unregistered with the GMC.

To literally add insult toinjury when we got back on the 06.10.13 they had sent in my partners name a claim form dated the 23.09.13 while my partner was still in a coma in Spain with parts of his skull stored in a freezer, incompetent really isn’t the word………..

This company is dangerous if you have bought a policy from them recently ask for a refund you have 14 daysto get your money back.

Thank you for your post with regards to this tragic case. We are aware of, and fully sympathise with, the distress that this has caused the family and friends of the insured.

You have chosen to make your views known via the press and open forums. You are perfectly entitled to do this, and we respect your right to do so, but it does limit our ability to respond because much of the information involved is confidential. There is a formalised complaints process laid out in the terms and conditions of all of our policies, which offers means for people who are in any way dissatisfied with the services provided to be able to lay out the reasons for this, and receive a comprehensive and detailed response - which we understand that you have already initiated.

We do welcome feedback, both good and bad, as it offers us the opportunity to grow as a company, but trust that you understand that due to the Data Protection Act and the compliance procedures imposed upon the financial services industry, we cannot discuss these matters via unprotected online forums.

This case is currently being investigated as a matter of urgency. Please continue to email us directly for a more formalised response.

Kind regards, Amber.

Pauld_3

I have used Holiday safe for the past few years due to an existing medical condition and I have just had to make a claim, on my premier multi trip insurance. Two weeks before we were due to fly to Australia when my wife broke her wrist. The hospital eventually said we should not travel 3 days before we were due to go. I sent the claim forms in about 5 days later (in order to pull all the data together and get back some refundable parts). The claim went in and 15 days later I had a full refund (3k) less the £60 excess for each person paid directly into the bank. Only complaint was they did not acknowledge my claim, but that was sorted via email.
:j

AJ_EQ

After spending so long looking for travel insurance, specifically reviews, for my 6 month SEA trip and I ended up going for the backpacker plus from Holidaysafe.

Once I received the documents and fine print and gave it a good look over. There were a couple of issues with the fine print not matching up with the proposed summary. For me the policy summary stated £0 excess when claiming for money lost/stolen. In the fine print (policy wording), an excess was mentioned in regard to any money claims. I emailed customer service who confirmed the policy wording was incorrect and that they were "currently updating it" and that I wouldn't have to pay any excess if I was claiming for this. If I needed to claim at a later stage and there were any issues, I was told to quote this email.

After sorting out extra activities/sports and clarifying their cover (i.e. bouldering, DH mountain biking), which was covered for a little extra, I decided to go with the policy and it was still such good value.

As it happened I ended up making a claim for just over £100 of cash in my wallet, which got stolen on the ferry from Bali to Lombok. I filed a police report, got a copy of my bank statement, filled out holidaysafe's claim form and sent all of those documents to them.

As expected the process took around a month but I received my money back from the claim with no questions or issues. So all in all I am pleased I went with these guys and have used them since for a MTB holiday as they were dead cheap.

The only thing I'd say (and this really goes for any insurance policy), read the policy wording (fine print) and ensure everything matches up with the summary, also confirm the definition of any sporting activities (i.e. climbing doesn't cover bouldering or deep water soloing) and hopefully you won't have any problems claiming if you provide the correct documents and follow the correct procedure.

mayfair1985

Ahhh that's nice. Two new users within a week of each other, both signing up to the forum to specifically write a good review for Holidaysafe (and no other posts), about two very different claims that were both, by all accounts, incredibly successful.

DISNEYRAISY

While in Salou with my family I had to get an emergency passport for my son and my out of pocket expenses were up to £300 but Holiday Safe would not cover me and it makes you wonder what you pay all the money for. They even quoted in their letter that "the main purpose of travel insurance is and alway has been to provide cover for unexpected medical costs" why does the policy state it will cover other things! They then had the audacity to send me a renewal quote. I will never use or recommend this company to anyone and I would suggest you take it off your recommendations also!

Quentin

Although pointlessly telling you the "main purpose" of travel insurance is mainly for medical costs, that is just their opinion, and won't hold any water if the policy actually did cover costs associated with getting lost/stolen/etc passports replaced.

If that is covered, then raise a formal complaint about their decision to reject your claim, and if unhappy with their reply escalate to the FOS.

If it's not covered you have no gripe over them rejecting the claim, just about the pompous way they did it!

Holidaysafe_Representative

Dear Disneyraisy,

My name is Amber Howard and I am the Brand Manager for Holidaysafe. Firstly I would like to apologise that you feel you have reason to complain, we take customer feedback very seriously and I would like to investigate your case further. We cannot discuss individual claims in an open forum, however if you could send your details to [EMAIL="Holidaysafe@infinityinsurance.co.uk"]Holidaysafe@infinityinsurance.co.uk[/EMAIL] we will investigate the circumstances of your claim and respond to you accordingly.

Kind regards, Amber.

JohnnyBaloney_2

I thought I would highlight one point for the benefit of others.

I have HS Premier annual multi-trip cover and was on a self organized trip to France when my wallet was stolen. Having no cash and no debit card I had to cut my trip short (you will see this phrase a lot on insurance policy documents everywhere). I had to reschedule my return flight at pretty much the cost of a new ticket and spent a couple of nights at the airport because the flights were fully booked.

I did not recover anything as the cover did not extend to cover curtailment as a result of a theft and so they were unable to consider the additional travel expenses and subsistence costs under claim.


So if you want to be protected against such eventuality, which I would think is not uncommon, Holiday Safe does not provide such cover.