Holidaysafe Front page of Times newspaper 20 Nov

uk1

Anyone reading the forum who has ongoing travel cover, might want to read the small print of their policy to check whether the underlying cover is actually provided through TIF Group. A simple search has turned up loads ..... all underwritten through TIF Group ....



CHECK YOURS!


for example .....



Unite Union
https://www.unitetravelinsurance.com/about-us/


Union Insurance Services
https://www.uitravelinsurance.com/contact-us/


Alpha Travel
https://www.alphatravelinsurance.co.uk/about-us/


Ski Club Insurance
https://www.skiclubinsurance.co.uk/


National Education Union
https://www.atl.org.uk/new-and-improved-atl-travel-insurance


Puffin Insurance
https://puffininsurance.com/



Postcard Travel Services
https://www.postcardtravelinsurance.co.uk/our-insurers/


Dogtag
https://www.dogtag.co.uk/cover/


Insurancewith
https://www.insurancewith.com/single-trip-travel-insurance/


Getgoing
https://www.getgoinginsurance.co.uk/terms-and-conditions


Now I Can Travel
http://www.nowicantravel.co.uk/policy_wording/


Covered To Go
https://www.covered2go.co.uk/travel-insurance/why-covered2go/our-insurer


Outbacker Insurance
https://www.outbackerinsurance.com/backpacker-travel-insurance.php?src=ga&gc=travel%20insurance&pos=4t3


Motorcycle Action Group
http://www.mag-uk.org/en/joinmag/a6510


InsuranceFair
https://www.insurancefair.co.uk/terms-conditions/


Daily Mail Travel (Mail Finance)

https://www.mailtravel.co.uk/ideas/holidays-europe/new-over-50s-travel-insurance



Down Under Insurance
https://www.duinsure.com/information


Villa Plus Travel Insurance
https://www.villaplus.com/extras/travel-insurance


Cancellation Plan

https://www.cancellationplan.co.uk/faqs.aspx


Go Walkabout
https://www.go-walkabout.co.uk/wordings/Pet%20Emigration%20Key%20Facts%202017.pdf


Blue Bear
https://bluebear.protectif.co.uk/#!/


Insure 2 Travel
https://www.insure2travel.co.uk/Docs/TIP-Policy-2018-Bronze.pdf


etc etc

Mark_Bedford

From TIF Group reviews on TrustPilot
I run a motorcycle touring company in…
I run a motorcycle touring company in Europe and morocco. Last week a client of mine unfortunately had an accident and broke his leg while touring morocco. Once we got our client safely to a local hospital I was given the task of getting in touch with his travel insurance company. His insurance was with MAG a motorcycle group who sell TIF travel policies.
After spending hours on the phone talking to different TIF call center operators I realized that they are trained to do everything but actually help.
Our client need surgery for his broken leg and considering the conditions of the local hospital he decided he needed to either go to the nearest private hospital or fly home to the Uk for the operation.
After sending TIF a medical report and an accident report and a copy of the clients driving license, their only response was to ask if the client was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. Not once did they contact my client directly or the hospital he was in .
Finally it was left to myself and the clients family to arrange for him to travel back to the uk .
Thankfully the clients condition was not life threatening but that would of been of no concern of TIF insurance.
If are taking out Travel insurance please check who are the company that are the real insurancer and please avoid TIF you would be surprised who they trade as

uk1

It seems to me having read a fair amount over the last week or so that TIF group directly and indirectly through rebadging arrangements specialise in collecting higher than average premiums by offering cover to higher risk insurance customers eg over 65s, pre-existing medial conditions, winter sports, bikers etc etc where when potential customers shop around, particularly through comparison sites they eventually land on a comparison that favours a TIF policy with one of it’s various branding disguises.

Then through the various review sites the 90%+ customers who have purchased a TIF policy rate the premium and ease of purchase highly. They are extremely good at the front-end in offering lower rates and ease of premium calculation and collection. It is only a small precentage of all customers that will need to make a claim and it is only a percentage of those that will encounter the problems we read about. This means that they “appear” ingeneral terms to rate well because those angry customers normally represent a very small number of customers oveall.

What TIF then appear to do is manage the small pr]ercentage of those dissatisfied customers that emerge on sites like this to provide bad feedback well, until this last week or so. The way they do this is to have some staff that post good comments on review sites as exposed by The Times, but also more importantly have social media people handling bad feedback on places like Revoo, Trust Pilot and this site on a one to one basis. They do this to cultivate the illusion of normaility and “good service”.

My conclusion is that this feels like a company designed to maximise higher than average insurance travel premium collection by offering competitively priced higher risk cover, doing it’s best to avoid claims and handle noisier customers who might risk the apple cart by direct and rapid intervention.

What now happens seems to me almost inevitable. The Web always now insures that this type of “scam” is eventually exposed. So premium income will obviously start to reduce rapidly. Overhaeads and bank accountclearance will accelerate default. It is difficult to see a positive outcome of this for customers. `in an ideally regulated society the best solution would be for direct intervention by perhaps FCA. What will happen isntead is that existing customers will have to wait until they actually default and fail, and in the interim will have to pay for “duplicate insurance`” elsewhere.

uk1

This all has a bad feel about it.

It seems to me having read a fair amount over the last week or so that TIF group directly and indirectly through rebadging arrangements specialise in collecting higher than average premiums by offering cover to higher risk insurance customers eg over 65s, pre-existing medial conditions, winter sports, bikers etc etc where when potential customers shop around, particularly through comparison sites they eventually land on a comparison that favours a TIF policy with one of it’s various branding disguises.

Then through the various review sites the 90%+ customers who have purchased a TIF policy rate the premium and ease of purchase highly. They are extremely good at the front-end in offering lower rates and ease of premium calculation and collection. It is only a small precentage of all customers that will need to make a claim and it is only a percentage of those that will encounter the problems we read about. This means that they “appear” ingeneral terms to rate well because those angry customers normally represent a very small number of customers oveall.

What TIF then appear to do is manage the small pr]ercentage of those dissatisfied customers that emerge on sites like this to provide bad feedback well, until this last week or so. The way they do this is to have some staff that post good comments on review sites as exposed by The Times, but also more importantly have social media people handling bad feedback on places like Revoo, Trust Pilot and this site on a one to one basis. They do this to cultivate the illusion of normaility and “good service”.

My conclusion is that this feels like a company designed to maximise higher than average insurance travel premium collection by offering competitively priced higher risk cover, doing it’s best to avoid claims and handle noisier customers who might risk the apple cart by direct and rapid intervention. It feels to me lime it has all the components of a perfect scam. Maximising income, actions designed to reduce payout and adverse publicity handling.

What now happens seems to me almost inevitable. The Web always now insures that this type of “scam” is eventually exposed. So premium income will obviously start to reduce rapidly. Overheads and bank account clearance will accelerate a psossible default. It is difficult to see a positive outcome of this for customers. In an ideally regulated society the best solution would be for direct intervention by perhaps the FCA. What will happen instead is that existing customers will have to wait until they actually default and fail, and in the interim will have to pay for “duplicate insurance`” elsewhere.

csgohan4

You get what you pay for generally. Buy cheap insurance, don't expect the best or good service

uk1

csgohan4 wrote: »

You get what you pay for generally. Buy cheap insurance, don't expect the best or good service

Yes, you seemed desperate to pursue that point with your question to me in the other thread, which is why I ignored it, but it is an ill-informed comment about this particular situation.

This company through it’s various identities has been identified in the press as representing more than half the market and therefore is more a market-price setter. There were therefore both cheaper and more expensive offers but this appeared to offer - before the latest publicity - the closest cover required.

It’s easy to make cheap clever comments with the benefits of more and better information that’s been provided by hindsight but it really isn’t particularly relevant to this situation. The cover in my case was expensive and I didn’t choose the cheapest quote.

dacouch

uk1 wrote: »

Then through the various review sites the 90%+ customers who have purchased a TIF policy rate the premium and ease of purchase highly. They are extremely good at the front-end in offering lower rates and ease of premium calculation and collection. It is only a small precentage of all customers that will need to make a claim and it is only a percentage of those that will encounter the problems we read about. This means that they “appear” ingeneral terms to rate well because those angry customers normally represent a very small number of customers oveall.

When you understand how review sites work it us easier to understand.

They make their money via some companies opting to pay them rather than use the free version.

Paid membership allows a retailer to query bad reviews, the website may then ask for proof of the reviewers purchase or may ask for it to be edited if they feel the review is unfair. This can have the effect of disuading reviewers to spend the time following it up.

The main way to generate large amounts of positive reviews is to prompt a buyer to leave a review at the time of purchase. On an intangible purchase such as Insurance eg you don't realise whether it's any good unless you claim it means people tend to leave very positive reviews in these circumstances. This is because they have just bought a policy, the website did it's job and made purchase simple and the customer is happy as they purchased the cheapest policy they could find.

When you know how reviews work, you will notice the difference between the companies who pay the review sites and those that just rely on the free version

uk1

dacouch wrote: »

When you understand how review sites work it us easier to understand.

They make their money via some companies opting to pay them rather than use the free version.

Paid membership allows a retailer to query bad reviews, the website may then ask for proof of the reviewers purchase or may ask for it to be edited if they feel the review is unfair. This can have the effect of disuading reviewers to spend the time following it up.

The main way to generate large amounts of positive reviews is to prompt a buyer to leave a review at the time of purchase. On an intangible purchase such as Insurance eg you don't realise whether it's any good unless you claim it means people tend to leave very positive reviews in these circumstances. This is because they have just bought a policy, the website did it's job and made purchase simple and the customer is happy as they purchased the cheapest policy they could find.

When you know how reviews work, you will notice the difference between the companies who pay the review sites and those that just rely on the free version

You continue in making erroneous and baseless presumptions. You have also simply repeated some of my own comments.

Firstly I do know how reviews and review sites work. Secondly I also looked at direct sale companies.