M&S Travel Insurance

Groundhog22

Hello - I have marks and spencer premium card for which I pay £15 a month. One of the perks is free travel insurance. Because of pre existing health conditions I cannot make use of this - I have tried and was refused. I asked M&S why then should I have to continue to pay £15 per month as I am paying for a product I can never use (think PPI). They have recently brought out a current account and I note the fee per month is £20 or £15 if you do not want or aren't eligible for the travel insurance. So why can't they do the same for the card. They said I could take advantage of the other perks associated with the travel insurance like cancellation and curtailment or lost luggage. That makes no sense at all!! They also said I possible could get cover for everything other than my medical condition - well as my med condition is chrons disease and affects my whole body I could never take a chance of going without insurance and it would be unreasonable of them to expect me to!
What do you think - anyone had similar thoughts/experience?
Thank you.

jacques_chirac

You are paying for a bundled package of 'benefits' - you cannot pick and choose which you wish to pay for. They are correct, you can still use the cancellation, lost luggage etc provisions.

I don't see the problem - if you don't want the package take your business elsewhere or downgrade to a fee free card.

daveyjp

If M&S sold you the card with free insurance as an incentive and they didn't do a screening before getting you to sign they may be on dodgy ground for mis selling. Santander tried it with me and if I hadn't mentioned pre existing conditions I know it wouldn't have been covered.

The focus is now on pacakaged bank accounts and some banks are simply refunding the charges paid when insurance cover doesn't cover pre existing conditions. Its cheaper than formal investigations.

If you were never advised of implications of medical conditions when taking out the policy I would send a formal complaint to M&S.

Goldiegirl

daveyjp wrote: »

If M&S sold you the card with free insurance as an incentive and they didn't do a screening before getting you to sign they may be on dodgy ground for mis selling. Santander tried it with me and if I hadn't mentioned pre existing conditions I know it wouldn't have been covered.

The focus is now on pacakaged bank accounts and some banks are simply refunding the charges paid when insurance cover doesn't cover pre existing conditions. Its cheaper than formal investigations.

If you were never advised of implications of medical conditions when taking out the policy I would send a formal complaint to M&S.

I don't think the card was sold with free insurance.

I'm also in the Premium Club.

How it works is, you have a M&S, credit card with no free insurance or anything. Then, IF YOU WISH TO, you can join the premium club for a fee of £15 per month. There are a range of benefits in the premium club, such as the travel insurance, free coffee vouchers, various money off vouchers through the year, additional M&S points on expenditure and member days in store.

For us, the travel insurance makes it worth while, and the other things are nice to have.

But I wouldn't pay £15.00 just for the things that are nice to have.

All the OP needs to do is cancel their Premium Club membership, if they feel it's not worth having.

They can still have the M&S credit card, and can get travel Insurance elsewhere if required