Nationwide Aviva Travel insurance - impossible terms

helibird

Does anyone else find some of the new terms in the travel insurance policy impossible to meet: eg under the belongings section for a claim you to provide Proof of purchase of the lost, stolen or damaged item • Proof that you owned the money and its value. How many people have receipts for everything in their suitcase. How do you prove ownership and value of money. Under the wintersports cover : Equipment deliberately left somewhere that is not in an insured person’s full view, with someone they know, or their travel provider  - So you can't lock your skis and go into a restaurant for lunch, You can't leave them in the hotel ski room. In theory you couldn't even leave them in your room. The old policy provider required them to be locked which is much more sensible

Nasqueron

Everything I buy of any value is done online and has a receipt emailed - I bought it, I took it on holiday, it's mine

The terms about line of sight I agree is a bit silly though, doubt it would stand up under challenge

VXman

Nasqueron said:

Everything I buy of any value is done online and has a receipt emailed - I bought it, I took it on holiday, it's mine

The terms about line of sight I agree is a bit silly though, doubt it would stand up under challenge

That's ok for recent purchased online stuff but I have 2 cameras and an expensive headphones that were paper receipts - I am sure plenty of people don't buy everything online.

Nasqueron

VXman said:

Nasqueron said:

Everything I buy of any value is done online and has a receipt emailed - I bought it, I took it on holiday, it's mine

The terms about line of sight I agree is a bit silly though, doubt it would stand up under challenge

That's ok for recent purchased online stuff but I have 2 cameras and an expensive headphones that were paper receipts - I am sure plenty of people don't buy everything online.

Photograph or scan using an app on purchase day, backup to cloud

Exodi

It's quite funny because when watching a documentary about insurance fraud, the insurers would routinely ask for evidence they owned the items they were claiming... and there seemed to be an uncanny correlation between the people who happened to have photographic evidence of all the items and those who were caught out for committing fraud.

In reality, I can't imagine I happen to have an image of my sofas, TV, laptop, watch, wedding ring, etc. It would surely be more suspicious if I did!

In regards to receipts, some of the items I own were purchased on C2C marketplaces so no receipt exists (a £750 laptop, a £500 coffee machine, about £500 worth of Google smart products, my wifes £500 phone, two designer items worth around £400 each, etc). I'm not sure what would happen if we ever tried to claim for these... I may be left extremely disappointed?

born_again

Exodi said:

It's quite funny because when watching a documentary about insurance fraud, the insurers would routinely ask for evidence they owned the items they were claiming... and there seemed to be an uncanny correlation between the people who happened to have photographic evidence of all the items and those who were caught out for committing fraud.

In reality, I can't imagine I happen to have an image of my sofas, TV, laptop, watch, wedding ring, etc. It would surely be more suspicious if I did!

In regards to receipts, some of the items I own were purchased on C2C marketplaces so no receipt exists (a £750 laptop, a £500 coffee machine, about £500 worth of Google smart products, my wifes £500 phone, two designer items worth around £400 each, etc). I'm not sure what would happen if we ever tried to claim for these... I may be left extremely disappointed?

But you will have proof of purchase in there. Such as ebay etc..

400ixl

Insurers can't have what would be considered unreasonable terms (at least you can challenge the way they try to implement them).

For the ski example, yes you can leave them in your room and as long as the room was secured (you locked the patio door and the room door) then you could claim. If you left them with a concierge and had evidence then you could. If you left them on a balcony outside a restaurant then maybe not. 

As for personal items, if they are of value as independent items I would most likely have some level of proof for my home insurance. Usually some form of receipt, be it an email receipt or a scan / phot of a physical receipt (because they can fade before even the warranty expires).

In no way would I expect to have to produce receipts for my underwear in the suitcase, and neither would the insurer. Take it with an expectation of having to be able to provide reasonable proof and you should be ok.

Largs

There was someone I went on holidays with years ago (fag run era) and she said she'd never paid for a suitcase, like bought one. I asked her to explain and she said after every trip she claimed off insurance for damaged suitcase. Odd and this was in the days you could get Tripp Luggage cases from Debenhams in the sale. 

Hoenir

With regards to Winter equipment. How often do we hear of tales of bikes being left outside shops unsecured only to vanish in minutes. There's people that target easy pickings. Common sense really that leaving something unattended is the person's who did it's misjudgement. 

Exodi

born_again said:

Exodi said:

It's quite funny because when watching a documentary about insurance fraud, the insurers would routinely ask for evidence they owned the items they were claiming... and there seemed to be an uncanny correlation between the people who happened to have photographic evidence of all the items and those who were caught out for committing fraud.

In reality, I can't imagine I happen to have an image of my sofas, TV, laptop, watch, wedding ring, etc. It would surely be more suspicious if I did!

In regards to receipts, some of the items I own were purchased on C2C marketplaces so no receipt exists (a £750 laptop, a £500 coffee machine, about £500 worth of Google smart products, my wifes £500 phone, two designer items worth around £400 each, etc). I'm not sure what would happen if we ever tried to claim for these... I may be left extremely disappointed?

But you will have proof of purchase in there. Such as ebay etc..

I'm thinking of things like Facebook Marketplace rather than eBay which I accept provides an auto-generated invoice.

It then depends whether a conversation on Facebook Messenger along the lines of "I'll take this for £500." "OK, I live at 1 Sesame Street" "Great, I'll pick this up this evening" would constitute as 'proof of purchase' to an insurer.

DullGreyGuy

helibird said:

Does anyone else find some of the new terms in the travel insurance policy impossible to meet: eg under the belongings section for a claim you to provide Proof of purchase of the lost, stolen or damaged item • Proof that you owned the money and its value. How many people have receipts for everything in their suitcase. How do you prove ownership and value of money. Under the wintersports cover : Equipment deliberately left somewhere that is not in an insured person’s full view, with someone they know, or their travel provider  - So you can't lock your skis and go into a restaurant for lunch, You can't leave them in the hotel ski room. In theory you couldn't even leave them in your room. The old policy provider required them to be locked which is much more sensible

Most insurers will prefer proof of purchase but accept proof of ownership and they are pragmatic about things... you say your bag was stolen on your 2 week holiday. You state it contained 5 pairs of pants that were circa 2 years old and cost circa £25, then they aren't going to ask for anything else beyond evidence the theft happened. Claim instead that they were Loro Piana baby cashmere pants, only 2 weeks old and £2,500 then the insurer is going to make a lot more enquiries. 

For Home insurance, rather than travel as haven't done travel claims in my career, then they accept the older the litem the less likely you'll have receipts or bank records etc however the more chance there should be of various photos of you with such items. Similarly you may have paperwork for watch servicing, boxes for expensive jewellery etc and other things that people retain because they add value to their potential future resale.

They also look at the overall cohesiveness of the situation/story... you're on a £1 Sun holiday, your on NMW, living in social housing, single parent for over a decade but your Herme's holdall was full of Chanel and Prada clothing all bought in the last couple of years but no receipts? Some may say it's stereotyping etc but ultimately these things are only used to decide which claims warrant further investigation not the actual decision if to pay or decline. 


The ombudsman tends to expect a "reasonable care" clause in lost items, something stolen from a locked boot that isn't visible from outside the vehicle tends to be covered even if the insurer blanket states nothing from a vehicle is covered. I would imagine that they'd be similar for winter sports equipment