Refund rights for Single Trip Travel Insurance when trip not possible

Hippocrocoduckadacadil

I booked a single trip travel policy for my 85 year old mother to cover a trip we were planning for this Christmas - not sure if I'm allowed to name the company?
The cost of the policy was over £280 for a single trip of 19 days covering a drive from UK through France to Spain, where we were going to stay as a family until early January as I fully declared her health conditions.
Since the Spanish Government have changed the regulations on entry to Spain to only allow double vaccinated non-resident people in, we find ourselves unable to travel as my son falls into the 12-15 year old category and therefore will not be permitted entry as he has only had 1 vaccination at this point.
I have contacted the company in question and they say they will only refund if it was within the 14 day cooling off period - it's just passed that date. Their customer line is only open Monday to Friday 9-5, as I found out when I tried contacting them at the weekend so I have only had a response to my email this morning. All they are prepared to offer is a reschedule to the dates of the policy, however we do not know if this will ever be possible as we had planned this trip specifically for Christmas and school holidays and my work schedule incorporating. The alternative is....No Refund. Whilst I wouldnt mind losing £30 or £40 or an admin fee on this, it does seem rather extortionate to only give a credit note bearing in mind that the cover only commences in 10 days time!
Any thoughts or ideas? 
 

[Deleted User]

There's no rights to a refund. Cover started from when you bought the policy, so you've benefited from being insured since purchase.

Presumably your policy doesn't cover you for the situation you're in? If not, agreeing to shift the cover to a new trip is a very generous offer - grab it with both hands.

eskbanker

Hippocrocoduckadacadil said:

the cover only commences in 10 days time

Travel insurance policies typically don't just cover the period of the trip itself but the period between booking/insuring and the departure date, e.g. to cover cancellation, etc, so in many cases (not necessarily this one) the policy will reimburse your costs resulting from needing to abandon the trip in advance, i.e. you've technically already had some benefit from the policy.

The offer to reschedule may be as good as you'll get, so you should consider it, as it's unlikely that there's any obligation for them to refund - what do the Ts & Cs say?

Sandtree

Hippocrocoduckadacadil said:

Whilst I wouldnt mind losing £30 or £40 or an admin fee on this, it does seem rather extortionate to only give a credit note bearing in mind that the cover only commences in 10 days time!
Any thoughts or ideas? 
 

Cover started the day you bought it.

If your Mother had a trip/fall yesterday breaking her hip the insurance would pay out for cancelling the trip for you all

Hippocrocoduckadacadil

Thanks for the explanation - it does make sense, even if it's really galling as we have insurance already for the cancellation of the trip through the rest of the family travelling frequently together on an annual policy. I bought it for the travel part, not the pre-travel, although I guess the insurers wouldnt have known that. Whatever, it's beyond our control but we're apparently not covered for that as we were going to stay in our own property and have only prepaid for the ferry, which can be rescheduled.
I did have a brief thought about claiming a refund on my credit card, however suppose that isn't really for these circumstances....  

[Deleted User]

If you got a chargeback through the card, it would either be reversed or they would chase you again for the money. It's a lot of stress for no benefit.

eskbanker

Hippocrocoduckadacadil said:

I did have a brief thought about claiming a refund on my credit card, however suppose that isn't really for these circumstances....  

Correct, claiming under section 75 or chargeback is only applicable to a breach of contract (or similar) by the merchant.

Hippocrocoduckadacadil

Thanks for all your comments and advice on this - obviously dont particularly like the answers but do understand it. Will have to attempt to reschedule and hope all is well by the time we can travel. Obviously if anyone can think of an alternative approach to this, please let me know.