Travel Insurance - Help please?

Insurancemug

I booked a short trip to Spain then discovered that my annual travel policy ran out on 11/08 but I was not due to travel home until 12/08. When I tried to renew, they wanted an extra £70 so I went online and found a more competitive deal with a different company so renewed with them. Unfortunately, I fell ill on 11/08 and was admitted to hospital in the early hours of 12/08 but now both companies have refused to pay out as they say I should have had insurance in place 24 hrs before I left and 24 hrs after my return date. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and if I had known this I would have started my second insurance policy 1 week earlier! As we missed our return flights home we have had to pay out approx £700 in additional flights and accommodation plus today I received an email from the private Spanish hospital looking for just under 1700 euros payable within 10 days. As I have written to both insurance companies asking them to look again at my claim and they have up to 8 weeks to respond, is there any way I can delay the payment to the hospital without incurring further charges? Any advice would be very welcome!!

Quentin

Unless their policy definitions are unique regarding this neither insurer will be paying out.

rs65

When did you travel out and what date did you buy the new policy?

Insurancemug

We traveled out on 08/08 and new policy was bought 29/07

Insurancemug

To clarify, although new policy was bought on 29/07 it did not come in to effect until 12/08 so I was under the impression that I was insured continuously throughout this period because the first policy ended at midnight on 11/08

magpiecottage

Leaving aside the actual issue of the hospital bill, which I believe has been addressed elsewhere, I suggest you complain to both companies and, if neither gives a satisfactory response, you take both to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Having said this a separate issue from paying the hospital bill, any distress, inconvenience and out of pocket expenses (including interest on any loan taken out to meet the bill) should be included in your complaints.

Quentin

magpiecottage wrote: »

Leaving aside the actual issue of the hospital bill, which I believe has been addressed elsewhere, I suggest you complain to both companies and, if neither gives a satisfactory response, you take both to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Having said this a separate issue from paying the hospital bill, any distress, inconvenience and out of pocket expenses (including interest on any loan taken out to meet the bill) should be included in your complaints.

You are ignoring the condition that is (usually) universal in uk travel insurance policies:

Cover cannot start after you have left the United Kingdom

As already advised, the OP should check their policy to see if the wording is different to all the rest before getting their hopes up of a complaint escalated to the FOS will succeed and get them compensation!

vaio

another vote for complain & FOS.

You were continuously insured so it just comes down to how the claim is paid, my money is on the company that covered you when you took ill paying but they might split it between them.

If it was a spanish state hospital then the UK gov will pay, you need to send the bill to somewhere up north (Newcastle?), if it was a private hospital then it's down to the insurers.

If you have the cash then you could pay it, if not then contact the hospital and tell them you've passed it on to your insurer, I'm sure overseas hospitals as used to waiting weeks/months for insurers to pay so that should give you time to sort it out.

Quentin's point about cover not being able to start after you've left the UK is designed to stop people taking out insurance after they have had an accident/taken ill abroad, this is obviously not the case here and so I'd be amazed if the FOS allowed the insurers to rely on that term to avoid paying in your case

dacouch

vaio wrote: »

another vote for complain & FOS.

You were continuously insured so it just comes down to how the claim is paid, my money is on the company that covered you when you took ill paying but they might split it between them.

If it was a spanish state hospital then the UK gov will pay, you need to send the bill to somewhere up north (Newcastle?), if it was a private hospital then it's down to the insurers.

If you have the cash then you could pay it, if not then contact the hospital and tell them you've passed it on to your insurer, I'm sure overseas hospitals as used to waiting weeks/months for insurers to pay so that should give you time to sort it out.

Quentin's point about cover not being able to start after you've left the UK is designed to stop people taking out insurance after they have had an accident/taken ill abroad, this is obviously not the case here and so I'd be amazed if the FOS allowed the insurers to rely on that term to avoid paying in your case

The reason an appeal is doomed to fail is the both policies will have a definition of a "trip" that would be covered and it in effect says it must start and end within the UK.

Here is Direct Lines

"Start and end dates
The following information applies to all sections apart from sections C (Personal money) and F
(Cancelling a journey).
• When you are travelling either in the UK or abroad (to the geographical region shown on the
policy schedule), cover starts from when you leave your home to start your journey and ends
when you have completed that journey and returned home.
Both your departure and return dates must fall within the period of insurance for cover to apply
to the whole of your journey"

http://www.directline.com/content/dam/dlg/Direct-Line/Products/Travel-insurance/Product-pages/PDF/dl-travel-annual-policy-document.pdf

It's standard for an Insurer to place a similar wording into a policy as otherwise people could take out cover for say seven days for a four week policy and benefit for protection of cancellation without paying a premium to reflect the risk. It also avoids situations such as the OP has got themselves into.

It's worth appealing to the Ombudsman but based on the information provided it's highly unlikely to succeed.

rs65

It would be interesting to see an ombudsman's ruling on this. The OP has not intended anything underhand here.

Had he renewed with the first insurer, cover would probably have continued to apply so it seems unfair that a consumer is prevented from changing insurer at renewal date if a holiday spans that date.

vaio

rs65 wrote: »

It would be interesting to see an ombudsman's ruling on this. The OP has not intended anything underhand here.

Had he renewed with the first insurer, cover would probably have continued to apply so it seems unfair that a consumer is prevented from changing insurer at renewal date if a holiday spans that date.

That's why I'd put money on a complaint/FOS succeeding

Also, given that a renewed annual policy is actually a new policy then the strict wording would also prevent a claim if you renewed during a holiday which would be both unfair & nonsensical which is what the FOS is designed to guard against