Puffin Travel Insurance

hamster99

My son has bought an annual travel policy with Puffin after finding them on a comparison site. I have no experience of them and there is a mixture of feedback online, although they do have a very good score on trust pilot. I believe they changed their insurers/underwriters a year ago so would that be a concern and maybe make previous reviews less comforting?

kazwookie

hamster99 said:

My son has bought an annual travel policy with Puffin after finding them on a comparison site. I have no experience of them and there is a mixture of feedback online, although they do have a very good score on trust pilot. I believe they changed their insurers/underwriters a year ago so would that be a concern and maybe make previous reviews less comforting?

Have a good look at their web site and see in the small print, the stuff at the bottom, who backs them etc

twopenny

The big boys even change their underwriters so that's not necessarily a concern.
Neither Trust pilot. 

What would bother me is if they have enough staff and back up in the event of a serious health issue or crime.

They may be a subsidery of a bigger company which you should be able to find.

Here's the details of the company and it's owners/staff
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09545476/persons-with-significant-control

For me travel insurance is too important to go for the cheapest but many people don't think anything much will happen to them or realise the difference.
Time to read the small print. I'm betting no one has read the terms and conditions 

hamster99

kazwookie said:

Have a good look at their web site and see in the small print, the stuff at the bottom, who backs them etc

Thanks. I've had a bit more of a delve and seems like ultimately they are underwritten by AXA, which is a little more comforting.

MyRealNameToo

twopenny said:

The big boys even change their underwriters so that's not necessarily a concern.
Neither Trust pilot. 

What would bother me is if they have enough staff and back up in the event of a serious health issue or crime.

They may be a subsidery of a bigger company which you should be able to find.

Here's the details of the company and it's owners/staff
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09545476/persons-with-significant-control

For me travel insurance is too important to go for the cheapest but many people don't think anything much will happen to them or realise the difference.
Time to read the small print. I'm betting no one has read the terms and conditions 

Well that depends on if they are doing the claims handling or if they are just doing the sales process and the insurer is actually the claims handler. Their website footer says the policy is administered by Inter (part of Axa) so it's likely their 7 employees arent the ones you call to make a claim. 

Travel is a little unusual as the market is dominated by intermediaries acting as tied agents or non-insurers doing affinity deals. There is a relatively modest number of underwriters that most of these circle through. Changing your provider isnt that unusual but there are a variety of reasons why some do... it can be as simple as the economics of the deal, Axa offers a brand an extra £2 commission per policy sold over Aviva, it can be the underwriter pulls the plug saying the business the brand is supplying is too unprofitable, sometimes affinity brands want more control or say than their insurer is willing to give them. Unfortunately no one will ever really know the reasons.