Holiday Annual Insurance

peterbl3

I have been onto my travel insurance company to whom I paid £488 for myself and my wife asking for a refund or extension to my annual policy which does not run out until 5/10/20. due to the lockdown and travel restrictions we do not see a way of using this.
 When I asked I was told they do not give refunds or cancellations due to the present circumstances and pointed me to the 14day cooldown period that applies, why can they not give me an extension that covers this period of lockdown.
I can get an extension on my annual car parking because they have closed the carparks in the parks. 

See attached conversation:-

I’m very sorry due to the virus we are experiencing a high chat volume can you hold?	03:23 PM
Mr Peter blackledge Policy...:	If I am not allowed to leave home or travel due to gov reg's, surely you can put my policy on hold or return monies for cover not used since march up to end 5/10/20./	03:26 PM
Danielle:	do you have a annual policy or is it a single trip?	03:28 PM
Mr Peter blackledge Policy...:	Annual policy, No.18188607/1	03:29 PM
Mr Peter blackledge Policy...:	This covers me and wife.	03:29 PM
Danielle:	I’m afraid we cannot offer any type of refund on policies when they are outside the 14 days cooling off period, as per the terms and conditions of the policy	03:30 PM
Mr Peter blackledge Policy...:	But we are not able to travel at all due to all holidays cancelled and flights not availiable planes grounded	03:32 PM
Danielle:	I understand and i am sorry and hopefully we will all be able to get moving again shortly.	03:34 PM
Mr Peter blackledge Policy...:	what does it cost me IF we cancel policy?	03:37 PM
Danielle:	We cant give out refunds i can note the policy to say you dont want it but we cant cancel and refund im really sorry.	03:40 PM
Mr Peter blackledge Policy...:	You had better let it run on to the end, but do not want auto renewal to take effect, thankyou.	03:44 PM
Danielle:	Ok ill opt you out.	03:44 PM
Danielle:	Ive opted you out is there anything else i can help with?	03:45 PM
Mr Peter blackledge Policy...:	So that is opted out of Auto renewal only for the both of us, but I will be asking further about monies back due to lockdown, thankyou.	03:49 PM
Danielle:	Yes i have opted out of the auto renewal.	03:49 PM
Danielle:	Is there anything else i can help with?	03:50 PM
Mr Peter blackledge Policy...:	Could you e-mail me a copy of this conversation please.	03:51 PM
Mr Peter blackledge Policy...:	Thankyou DANIELLE.	03:54 PM
Danielle:	of course ill send it now

Browntoa

It's a 12 month policy , the terms obviously say no refunds or extension

Aylesbury_Duck

As above. It's also nothing like a parking season ticket.  They are covering you at their risk for 12 months. The car park owner is doing nothing of the sort. 

Thrugelmir

Your renewal premium maybe greatly increased. 

blindman

Browntoa said:

It's a 12 month policy , the terms obviously say no refunds or extension

Come on B, these are unusual times. The Insurers should finally realise that.
BTW
Did not see this then?

blindman

Aylesbury_Duck said:

As above. It's also nothing like a parking season ticket.  They are covering you at their risk for 12 months. The car park owner is doing nothing of the sort. 

No it is not ,
BUT the Insurers are being ignorant\greedy\ here as its blindingly obvious to anyone with an average IQ that TRAVEL is unlikely to be possible for about the next 12 months +
So the insurers should be reasonable.

[Deleted User]

blindman said:

No it is not , 

BUT the Insurers are being ignorant\greedy\ here as its blindingly obvious to anyone with an average IQ that TRAVEL is unlikely to be possible for about the next 12 months +
So the insurers should be reasonable.

It is a toughie because when you take out an annual travel policy there is no restriction for how many trips you make.   Some people may only make one trip, for whatever reason, others may make dozens.  Swings and roundabouts?   Do the people who only make one trip then have a reasonable claim for a refund?    Yes, I know what you are saying about exceptional times but if that was what was agreed to when purchasing then I guess it stands, unless the insurers want to extend unusual goodwill gestures (coughs)   

If you had a trip planned when you took out the insurance Peter and it was cancelled due to Coronavirus restrictions, so you haven't been able to use it yet then you could maybe appeal to their better nature?   (but what is to say you won't get away before October anyway?)    I know it seems harsh but if everyone claimed back insurance premiums for 'possible' missed opportunities, can you imagine the cost when you are ready to rebook?

pj27559

Here is my recent experience with Virgin Money Insurance, annual insurance taken out in Decemher 2019, I would normally travel May Bank Holiday and August / September.

Due to the current circumstances I have not been able to travel during May and do not intend to travel for the next few months at very least. I contacted the insurer asking about cancellation options to which they said no refunds were applicable as the policy was over 6 months old, even though the company had ceased Covid19 claims in March and would not entertain claims that were for travel against FCO advice.

As such I had effectively "lost" a good few months cover through no fault of my own. On top of this it took the company a full 2 months to come to this decision, an unreasonable period of time, in my view. I responded to their email immediately stating that I was unhappy and why, indicating that I had effectively bought insurance in good faith which was now unusable for a number of months through no fault of my own.

However, probably the most important element of that email is that I located and Cc-ed the email address of the CEO of the company. Less than a week later I received a phone call from customer services telling me that a team leader had reviewed my case and that the original advice was incorrect, and that a partial refund could be made.

If I had accepted the initial brush off and if I didn't involve the CEO this would not have happened. Many insurance companies are looking to reject any claim at the moment and yet isn't insurance supposed to cover unexpected circumstances impacting your ability to travel? My advice to anybody unhappy with the response of a company is to escalate it, locate the highest authority you can and make them aware of what is making you unhappy. You may be surprised by the outcome.

Frankly if my claim is to be rejected I would at least like it to be rejected by the highest authority in the company.