Travel Insurance refusing to payout

shaun_from_Africa

squirrelsey wrote: »

Does anyone have any experience dealing with credit suisse? If i have no choice but to pay for the medical cost then fair be it. However they are demanding payment now and I am not in a position to afford it at the minute.

I know it’s not much but can I claim a refund on the policy? As technically they have sold me something that is not valid.

They may well have sold you a policy that was not valid, but they didn't know that it wasn't valid when selling it as they only had the information that you provided to go on.

If you can't afford to pay the debt at the moment, your best bet would be to reply to the payment demand explaining your situation and offer to pay in instalments over the next few months.
This would be far better for you than ending up being taken to court and getting a CCJ issued.

visidigi

squirrelsey wrote: »

Thanks for the advice guys.

The annoying thing is that I did read through the T&Cs but somehow missed that the bit about having to still be in the UK (I was too busy checking that they would cover me for any accidents caused when skiing) but I do feel that they should have made it more clear.

I was already a few weeks into the new policy when the accident happened so it should be obvious that I wasn’t trying to con them.

Does anyone have any experience dealing with credit suisse? If i have no choice but to pay for the medical cost then fair be it. However they are demanding payment now and I am not in a position to afford it at the minute.

I know it’s not much but can I claim a refund on the policy? As technically they have sold me something that is not valid.

The policy is totally valid. There is nothing wrong with the policy itself.

Your needs were not compatible with the policy and given you were not sold the policy, but chose the policy (on the basis of cost no less) then you are to blame for the situation, not the insurance provider, therefore no, you wouldn't be entitled to a policy refund.

paddyrg

On the plus side, it's $2000, not $50000 which a more serious accident easily could be in the US.

bod1467

You seem to have skipped over a question raised earlier ... when taking out the new policy did you make them aware that you were already overseas?

vaio

might be worth having a read of http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...disclosure.htm

see if you can make an argument that you did take reasonable care either by the need to be in the uk at inception not being suitably prominent or better still, if you did tell them.

As far as a refund goes, as long as the misrepresentation wasn't deliberate or reckless then you should get a refund

squirrelsey

bod1467 wrote: »

You seem to have skipped over a question raised earlier ... when taking out the new policy did you make them aware that you were already overseas?

I bought the new policy online (I wished to avoid doing it over the phone as I figured the phone call would cost a small fortune - oh the irony!). So I was never asked the whether I was overseas or not.

vaio wrote: »

might be worth having a read of http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...disclosure.htm

see if you can make an argument that you did take reasonable care either by the need to be in the uk at inception not being suitably prominent or better still, if you did tell them.

As far as a refund goes, as long as the misrepresentation wasn't deliberate or reckless then you should get a refund

This is really interesting thanks for that. What course of action would you suggest? Writing them a stern letter quoting the financial ombudsman?

Regarding the debt with Credit Suisse, I assume they have to take me to court before I can be issued with a CCJ? So as long as I inform them I plan to pay in installments I should be ok?

bod1467

CCJ - the clue is in the name, County Court Judgement. And you only get one (that affects your credit rating) if you were taken to court, lost, and then failed to pay the judgement within the stipulated time.

michael1983l

Can you get a CCJ for a debt from overseas? I don't think a debt owed in the USA can be pursued in a British court.

I have taken this view as the OP said that the Insurance company choose not to pay on the grounds that he mentioned. So I am assuming it is the medical facility pursuing you from the USA. Is this correct?

vaio

squirrelsey wrote: »

I bought the new policy online (I wished to avoid doing it over the phone as I figured the phone call would cost a small fortune - oh the irony!). So I was never asked the whether I was overseas or not.



This is really interesting thanks for that. What course of action would you suggest? Writing them a stern letter quoting the financial ombudsman?

Regarding the debt with Credit Suisse, I assume they have to take me to court before I can be issued with a CCJ? So as long as I inform them I plan to pay in installments I should be ok?

The FOS enforces "fairness" rather than "strict" T&C so, as above, if you can make a case that you took reasonable care in your application then the insurer will have to pay. I suspect this will hinge on how prominent the need to be in the UK when the policy was taken out was during the buying process.

The mechanism is you need to complain to the insurer in the first instance, when they give you their final decision then you can refer to the FOS.

FOS is free to you but, assuming the case passes the initial paperwork cull, the insurer has to pay a fee (I think about £500) so on a claim of $2k (£1200) you are in with half a chance that the insurer will just pay on pragmatic grounds.

squirrelsey

Hi guys,

I know I’ve not updated here for a while, so I thought I would update everyone with the latest developments.

I followed the advice from vaio above and wrote a letter to the insurer GreatCover. My argument focused on the requirement to being in the UK not being made prominent enough.

Unfortunately GreatCover rejected my claim stating the following "you had to tick a box to confirm you had not already departed on your trip in order to proceed with this policy and you would not have been able to take the policy out without ticking the box”. They also stated this is there final decision.

So I decided to visit the GreatCover site and check that this is the case. It is true that if you purchase travel insurance direct through the GreatCover website you have to tick the checkbox described above. However, I came to the GreatCover site via Confused.com. Coming via this route there is no checkbox to tick that covers the need to be in the UK when taking out the policy.

As GreatCover have said their decision is final, my only option now is to complain to the financial ombudsman. Having come this far, I think it’s worth a shot! Thanks everybody for the help so far!