Unethical Co-op Everyday Extra Packaged Travel Insurance. No longer fit for purpose...

w0z

From June 26th 2024 Co-op Everyday Extra is removing cover for "End-supplier failure" (insolvency) i.e.when any travel or accomodation or service provider become insolvent and fails to provide what you've booked and/or paid for, even if you've already booked your post-June 26th holiday prior to June 26th.
Notwithstanding that the ethical and decent thing to do would have been to allow existing customers a long moratorium before invoking this change (at least 8 months to cover Xmas up to the new year),  no mention is made in the letter of what the "valid reasons" for these changes are, but in any event Co-op would no doubt claim that any reason(s) they decide are valid will therefore de-facto, be valid, even if spurious or circumventable. (The price of bananas increased so we're dropping that cover).
Book a flight and the airline folds? Tough luck you're not covered so you could find your holiday cancelled or worse still find yourself stranded with huge costs to return home.
Booked a hotel which you've paid for and which folds? Tough luck. 
Applies to hotels, holiday parks, excursions, any paid travel supplier, etc.
(Details in redacted letter shown below)

Presumably? you would get some cover for the insolvent party payment if you paid for that by credit card but even if that is the case it isn't a viable alternative.
I'm somewhat unclear at this stage what would happen due to the knock-on effect of unavoidable extra charges incurred with the parties who are not insolvent but are affected when another part of your holiday booking is insolvent, but looking at the wording I'm guessing any knock-on costs incurred due to insolvency of a provider of one part of your holiday would not be covered.
This means it is no longer comparable as an alternative to Nationwide's Flex cover.
I would not choose to take a policy which had such an omission but unfortunately I changed from Nationwide to Co-op not very long ago. I shall be changing back assuming Nationwide don't follow suit. I hope not.
Co-op the ethical bank? If that's ethical then I'm a banana.

Stuart_W

I am not an insurance expert, but would insolvency be covered anyway? The clause about "cover elsewhere" would apply if the holiday was paid by credit/debit card wouldn't it (it explicitly mentions this in the terms) or if the booking is ABTA or ATOL protected? The Nationwide policy, which is with Aviva, also refers to excluding claims "covered elsewhere".

 Someone more knowledgeable with insurance may know. 

Easyjet77

I also have recently been informed that my annual travel policy with Avanti, will no longer cover "end supplier failure" , from June. 
      I was planning to open NW flex plus, or similar, but will need to study in detail terms of any prospective future policy.
       I don't use credit cards, any chance of recovery of monies will be very difficult. Regards 

tacpot12

Insurers are possibly missing a trick here - surely End-supplier failure could be added as a "Platinum" level service above their usual levels of cover? It's a pity that Avanti are not covering it after June as I have used them quite a bit for their cover of existing medical conditions. 

I agree that the Co-op Bank are unethical. I worked for them for five years and saw from the inside that their ethical stance was just window dressing/marketing hype. 

flaneurs_lobster

Not sure what the issue is here. Co-op are changing the T&Cs of a product to which you are a party. They say that you can end the agreement, presumably by down-grading or closing your account at no cost.

Judging if this is unethical depends on your personal code of ethics - sounds like a standard business decision to me.

DullGreyGuy

Easyjet77 said:

I also have recently been informed that my annual travel policy with Avanti, will no longer cover "end supplier failure" , from June. 
      I was planning to open NW flex plus, or similar, but will need to study in detail terms of any prospective future policy.
       I don't use credit cards, any chance of recovery of monies will be very difficult. Regards 

You'd be equally covered by paying by debit card as its a valid reason for a chargeback, the clock for which starts ticking on when the service was due to be performed.

Similarly a package holiday would be protected. 

Really the only time you'd need insurance is if you are booking the elements separately and for some reason paid by bank transfer rather than debit/credit card. 

Easyjet77

DullGreyGuy said:

Easyjet77 said:

I also have recently been informed that my annual travel policy with Avanti, will no longer cover "end supplier failure" , from June. 
      I was planning to open NW flex plus, or similar, but will need to study in detail terms of any prospective future policy.
       I don't use credit cards, any chance of recovery of monies will be very difficult. Regards 

You'd be equally covered by paying by debit card as its a valid reason for a chargeback, the clock for which starts ticking on when the service was due to be performed.

Similarly a package holiday would be protected. 

Really the only time you'd need insurance is if you are booking the elements separately and for some reason paid by bank transfer rather than debit/credit card. 

I'm sorry but I do not understand your statement " Really the only time you'd  need insurance etc etc ". I need insurance everytime I travel. Medical cover etc etc. I naively expected  to recover from insurance, if a company went out of business after payment and I lost  flights,hotel,whatever.

Ergates

This is an Axa supplied insurance policy and it is Axa that have changed the policy details.

How is this an "ethical" issue for Coop at all?

flaneurs_lobster

Easyjet77 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Easyjet77 said:

I also have recently been informed that my annual travel policy with Avanti, will no longer cover "end supplier failure" , from June. 
      I was planning to open NW flex plus, or similar, but will need to study in detail terms of any prospective future policy.
       I don't use credit cards, any chance of recovery of monies will be very difficult. Regards 

You'd be equally covered by paying by debit card as its a valid reason for a chargeback, the clock for which starts ticking on when the service was due to be performed.

Similarly a package holiday would be protected. 

Really the only time you'd need insurance is if you are booking the elements separately and for some reason paid by bank transfer rather than debit/credit card. 

I'm sorry but I do not understand your statement " Really the only time you'd  need insurance etc etc ". I need insurance everytime I travel. Medical cover etc etc. I naively expected  to recover from insurance, if a company went out of business after payment and I lost  flights,hotel,whatever.

I'm sure @DullGreyGuy will answer for themself but here I think they mean insurance cover specifically for "End-supplier failure" as per OP.

Don't think anyone is suggesting that travel insurance is not a very good idea (if not essential).

born_again

w0z said:

Presumably? you would get some cover for the insolvent party payment if you paid for that by credit card but even if that is the case it isn't a viable alternative.
I'm somewhat unclear at this stage what would happen due to the knock-on effect of unavoidable extra charges incurred with the parties who are not insolvent but are affected when another part of your holiday booking is insolvent, but looking at the wording I'm guessing any knock-on costs incurred due to insolvency of a provider of one part of your holiday would not be covered.

Seems they are removing the grey area where card provider & insurer say each is responsible.

But you do have protection on both Credit & Debit cards should a holiday co fold.

There are certain circumstances where certain parts of the holiday would not be refunded if not a package holiday.
eg airline folds, but transfers & hotel are still available. You would get a refund for flights, but not transfer & hotel as they are still available to you.

Just remember that this is not Co-op that is doing this, it is the insurance co & it maybe a industry wide removal of this cover.

w0z

Ergates said:

This is an Axa supplied insurance policy and it is Axa that have changed the policy details.

How is this an "ethical" issue for Coop at all?

If you read my post you'll see that people who booked their holidays in good faith with a Co-op packaged account  insurance in place have had the rug pulled out from under them in many cases AFTER the holiday was booked, and before travel.
The insurance may be provided by a third party but it's part of a product offered by Co-op, not a product offered directly by AXA. I consider Co-op's response (the letter was from Co-op not from AXA) in changing the insurance (or allowing the insurance to be changed with an unreasonably short amount of notice in relation to the type of product it is) to be unethical.
Imagine you'd booked a holiday and bought travel insurance and they changed the terms after you'd bought it and booked your flights and accomodation. How would you feel about that?

Not good enough Co-op, if you're reading this you should have agreed to cover that term for whichever was the longer period, either (a) at least until a 12 month renewal date or (b) until the post xmas new year period when most holidays booked will be over. That would have been ethical.

If it transpires that this becomes an Industry wide exclusion (I hope not) then so be it, but that isn't relevant here.