Travel insurance claim rejected because insurance is bought after booking the travel

Karweni

I just called nationwide to claim for cancellation of my travel due to death of sister in law. The first refusal reason was because I opened the account after I booked the travel. I couldn't understand why that is a reason, so I asked her to tell me where in the policy it says that I have to book the travel after getting the insurance. Then she mumbled about, looking for the wording in the policy, couldn't find it, then proceeded to say that it was known condition (sister in law was diagnosed in May this year), so they can not cover. 

I said I want her to send me where in the policy it says that. She said she'll email me with reason of why the claim is rejected.

My questions:
1. Is that correct that you have to buy travel insurance before you book any travel? 
2. If I buy another travel insurance now, all the travel plans I have book will not be covered?
3. Do you have to tell them all the existing medical conditions of all your families and relatives when you are booking travel insurance? How many people in your family is included in that?

This is the first time I am buying annual travel insurance, and I thought getting it covered by getting nationwide flexplus account is a good idea. Sounds like it's the opposite. 

Question no 4: Do you have recommendation of which travel insurance is less hassle?

Thanks
T

marcia_

Karweni said:

I just called nationwide to claim for cancellation of my travel due to death of sister in law. The first refusal reason was because I opened the account after I booked the travel. I couldn't understand why that is a reason, so I asked her to tell me where in the policy it says that I have to book the travel after getting the insurance. Then she mumbled about, looking for the wording in the policy, couldn't find it, then proceeded to say that it was known condition (sister in law was diagnosed in May this year), so they can not cover. 

I said I want her to send me where in the policy it says that. She said she'll email me with reason of why the claim is rejected.

My questions:
1. Is that correct that you have to buy travel insurance before you book any travel? 
2. If I buy another travel insurance now, all the travel plans I have book will not be covered?
3. Do you have to tell them all the existing medical conditions of all your families and relatives when you are booking travel insurance? How many people in your family is included in that?

This is the first time I am buying annual travel insurance, and I thought getting it covered by getting nationwide flexplus account is a good idea. Sounds like it's the opposite. 

Question no 4: Do you have recommendation of which travel insurance is less hassle?

Thanks
T

 Yes you need to declare all medical conditions and they will decide if they will cover you and how much more it will cost. It usually costs more if you have medical conditions. 

Karweni

So how many people included in that declaration? Everyone in the immediate family, parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, nephews, nieces? If you have a large family, that could be an enormous amount of information. Do you keep track of every single member of your family and relative's health condition? 

DullGreyGuy

Karweni said:

1. Is that correct that you have to buy travel insurance before you book any travel? 
2. If I buy another travel insurance now, all the travel plans I have book will not be covered?
3. Do you have to tell them all the existing medical conditions of all your families and relatives when you are booking travel insurance? How many people in your family is included in that?

1. No but... you didnt buy insurance by the sounds of it but signed up for a current account that includes insurance as part of a package.  Packaged insurance does more commonly have non-standard terms and it is possible the policy does state the account must have been open beforehand... by parallel the packaged insurance with higher tier AmEx cards explicitly state the holiday must have been paid for with that card therefore by default meaning you must have the card before booking the holiday.

2. Dont really understand what you are trying to get at... if you buy an independent annual travel policy then future travel will be covered but obviously not the holiday you've already lost

3. This is the problem, to have cover you need to declare all pre-existing conditions and the insurer will decide if they will cover it and if they want an extra premium for doing so or not. All insurers will ask about pre-existing conditions of travellers covered by the policy. In principle they could also ask about non-travelling relatives but to date I am yet to find a single policy that does and so if your non-travelling parent has a pre-existing heart condition it cannot be declared and so cannot be covered, if they get run over you'd be covered for cancelling the holiday but if they have a heart attack you wouldnt. 

eddddy

Karweni said:

So how many people included in that declaration? Everyone in the immediate family, parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, nephews, nieces? If you have a large family, that could be an enormous amount of information. Do you keep track of every single member of your family and relative's health condition? 

The default situation is likely to be as follows:

If a family member has an existing medical condition at the time you arrange the insurance, the policy won't pay out if you cancel, as a result of that family member dying from that existing medical condition.

I'd have thought that seems reasonable.



It may be that the family member was keeping their medical condition secret from you - but the family member needs to bear in mind that their decision to keep it secret might result in people canceling holidays and losing money.

It's difficult for insurance companies to make an exception, because the family member kept their condition a secret. Whenever a family member died from a pre-existing condition, any policyholder could simply claim that the family member had kept the condition secret from them.

elsien

If it’s the flex plus account, it is clearly explained in their specific exclusions section: 

4. Ill-health of close relatives, colleagues and travelling companions

Any claim for cancelling or cutting short your trip due to the illness or injury of a close relative, a colleague or travelling companion if you were aware of one or more of the scenarios listed below in the 12 months leading up to you becoming an insured person, or the date when you booked your trip whichever is later:

• They have a medical condition that has resulted in inpatient treatment or being on a waiting list for hospital treatment.

• They have been given a cancer diagnosis.

• They have been given a terminal prognosis.