Travel Insurance

katies_mum

We were about to purchase travel insurance last night when just before inputting card details we read this:
" We`ll securely secure your payment details so further payments on your policy can be handled easily" 
There was no option for card details not to be stored.  I would assume that after making the payment then that was it, but I was rather put off that they could possibly want to take more payments.  I have never read this before when paying for something.

Has anyone come across this statement before when purchasing travel insurance (the company was Post Office)    

Thank you x

Voyager2002

I have often seen that when buying home insurance: they store card details so that the policy can auto-renew. Usually there is no opt-out, but after buying you can contact them to say that you don't want the policy to auto-renew and ask them not to store your card details.

Presumably you were buying an annual travel insurance policy.

Personally I prefer to buy single-trip insurance, so that auto-renewal does not become an issue.

katies_mum

Thank you for your reply.  Yes it was an annual policy, I have had various quotes over the past few days and most companies give you the option about whether your want to auto-renew before you get to the payment page but the Post Office don`t.  I didn`t feel comfortable proceeding after reading their comment.

We usually take single-trip insurance but are hoping to go away at Easter so thought annual might be more cost effective.  

DullGreyGuy

katies_mum said:

Thank you for your reply.  Yes it was an annual policy, I have had various quotes over the past few days and most companies give you the option about whether your want to auto-renew before you get to the payment page but the Post Office don`t.  I didn`t feel comfortable proceeding after reading their comment.

We usually take single-trip insurance but are hoping to go away at Easter so thought annual might be more cost effective.  

Annual can be cheaper even if you are only going on one trip. 

For some auto-renewal is compulsory at the time of purchase and if you dont want it you either have to buy and then tell them to remove auto-renewal or buy from someone else who gives you the option not to select it. Even if you dont auto-renewal many will still state they will store card numbers so when you call them to say you've developed high blood pressure they can just take the additional premium rather than having to faff with you giving a new card number etc

Voyager2002 said:

Personally I prefer to buy single-trip insurance, so that auto-renewal does not become an issue.

Unless you dont travel much at all I'd question if Auto-Renewal is such an awful thing that you're willing to pay triple the premium just to avoid it. 

lisyloo

You are free to buy from a company without auto renewal but unless you have very strong feelings about it I'd question whether that should be a high priority criteria for choosing an insurance provider.
It's pretty easy these days to put a reminder in a diary.

katies_mum

I appreciate your replies, I would have liked the option to choose but they don`t mention about auto-renew they just say keeping card details so further payments on the policy can be handled easily.  I don`t feel comfortable with that.

lisyloo

katies_mum said:

I appreciate your replies, I would have liked the option to choose but they don`t mention about auto-renew they just say keeping card details so further payments on the policy can be handled easily.  I don`t feel comfortable with that.

Don't use them then. Choose a different insurer.

katies_mum

We decided last night not to use them, but just wondered if anyone else had taken out travel insurance and come across this statement.

DullGreyGuy

katies_mum said:

We decided last night not to use them, but just wondered if anyone else had taken out travel insurance and come across this statement.

I'd argue it's fairly common but most people dont bother reading the assumptions etc carefully. Before the days of ultra fast broadband our assumption page (Motor, Home, Travel and Pet) was about 20 bullet points, so a screen and half. The average time spent on that page was under 8 seconds and that includes the time for the page to download, for them to move the mouse to the I Accept button, click it and the notification to get back to our web servers. One of those bullet points was agreeing to allowing us to setup a continuous payment authority to enable to deal with mid term adjustments, renewals etc.