Travel insurance - 4 months and still no pay out

Martin_o03

Hello all,

I took at travel insurance with CEGA Group for a holiday in October. I fell ill on holiday and it cost me over £600. I made my claim in November and have submitted all the relevant documents. It has now been 3 months and I've heard nothing. I called them and they said there is a backlog and it could take another 3 months.... 6 months for a claim?!

Does anyone have any experience of using this company? I certainly won't be in the future. 

Is there any time limit by which claims should be dealt with? Do you think it's worth me putting a complaint in?

Thank you 

TELLIT01

Many companies are experiencing staff shortages and are unable to comply either with legally required timescales for resolution, or their own claimed timescales.  Changin insurer won't guarantee better service should you need to claim in the future.  You can put in a complaint, but if they have such a massive backlog on claims processing I suspect they will have an equally large backlog on complaint handling.

Annemos

Yes I have also noticed what TELLIT01 says. It seems to be across the board. 

Looking at the Trustpilot reviews for the Claims Handlers and Travel Insurance Companies....... the reviews and sometimes the company replies, say that there is a problem with the volume of work. 

For example, one currently writes this to negative reviews about slower claim handling:  


We are aware that some customers may be encountering delays in respect to the handling of their travel claim and we apologise if you have been affected.  We have seen a higher than anticipated number of customers claiming which has had an impact on our service levels, and we are very sorry there has been a delay in reviewing your recent claim.

We have put in place additional measures and added more resource to restore the service to the higher standard our customers are accustomed to.  We’d like to thank you for your patience and the kindness shown towards our colleagues who are working hard to assist you despite these setbacks.



What I find worrying, some reviews are appearing like this next one. In fact it is so worrying, that it is starting to make me feel nervous about travelling and whether I want to travel. If this was a big bill in a foreign country, one could be wiped out financially?

I know the claim might be denied eventually and the customer would be liable anyway. (E.g. if pre-existing conditions had not been declared. The Claims Handlers need to check that out with the GP etc.) But the stress caused by any time delay for the Claims Handlers to come to that conclusion does not help things. (One would hope they might have a filtering mechanism to prioritise more expensive claims, but some claimants are even having problems getting their claim logged.) 

Sent all paperwork and info for a brief hospital stay while in France in June. Still not replied or dealt with claim. Now received summons from hospital for non payment of medical treatment.  (Dec 2022)


Also this one ongoing for weeks before this follow-up review. 

2 months after last review, claim still outstanding. Still being harassed for $44,000 outstanding emergency medical bills despite full travel insurance.