Ever claimed from your travel insurance? What was your experience?

fimonkey

Hi All,

I'm basically looking for recommendations and warnings re: insurance companies that do or don't pay out on travel insurance.

Please post your expereinces, good and bad, and name the type of poilcy (ie multi/single trip, gold, silver etc etc) and the brief reason for your claim.

I've searched through pretty much every travel insurance thread on this website (and others) looknig for this info. So far I've gleamed:

Avoid insureandgo, they never pay out.
Norwish union are fab, but expensive.

Many thanks in advance from myself and others in many threads who have asked this question (but not had it answered apparently).

balsingh

I usually get my travel insurance through www.moneysupermarket.com simply due to the price and in the hope you never need to claim. On the one occassion where I did have to claim, I had to provide a lot of documentation before they paid out. Bear in mind that often the excess can pretty much cancel out most of the claim as they take the excess per person on the policy.

In terms of Norwich Union, I insure my car through them every year and tey are excellent when it comes to claims. If their travel insurancs is as good as the car insurance, they shoudl be excellent.

buyitall

Good -We claimed on a flexicoverdirect annual policy last year due to my mother being taken ill whilst on her own holiday. They paid out, even though it was a complicated case - we were only cancelling part of our holiday not all of it, and my mum was taken ill whilst abroad so we also had to liaise with her insurers as well as her doctor here in the uk.
Bad - My mum's case should have been much more clearly cut, but her own policy -Thomson's Silver policy underwritten by AXA proved to be much more awkward - communication was really poor while she was in hospital in Spain, they did eventually pay my mum's medical expenses but refused to pay anything to my aunt (who had the same policy) who was on holiday with her and stayed as her next of kin when she was taken into hospital.

chuckles1066

fimonkey wrote: »

Hi All,

I'm basically looking for recommendations and warnings re: insurance companies that do or don't pay out on travel insurance.

Please post your expereinces, good and bad, and name the type of poilcy (ie multi/single trip, gold, silver etc etc) and the brief reason for your claim.

I've searched through pretty much every travel insurance thread on this website (and others) looknig for this info. So far I've gleamed:

Avoid insureandgo, they never pay out.
Norwish union are fab, but expensive.

Many thanks in advance from myself and others in many threads who have asked this question (but not had it answered apparently).

Wife suffered a severe delayed allergic reaction to anti-mozzie medication in the Dominican Republic last year.

We paid on-site via credit card and Columbus Direct settled up without a quibble.

Very professional and well recommended.

fimonkey

Thanks to those who have answered so far. Anyone else had good or bad experience of claiming on their travel insurance?

As others have said, Insurance is worth nothing if they then use clauses to wriggle out of paying a truthful claim.

Thanks all in advance.

woosh0

I had a nasty trip while on holiday in Menorca where I broke my right ankle on both sides and my right leg. I had to have extensive surgery the following morning and was in hospital for 5 nights. We were insured with Options on a multi trip policy and they were superb. They even found a translator for us which helped enormously. A first class service at a very reasonable price.

LondonDiva

Not liking the sound of this as I just bought a year's policy w/ insure & go _pale_

Little_miss_neat

We have had swiftcover this past year and it is just about to expire so have been wondering exactly the same thing. While we were in Turkey last year I was taken ill and had to spend a day in a medical centre attached to a drip and was given (at a huge cost) lots of medication to take. When we got back I tried to make claim with swiftcover and it was a nightmare and went on for ages and the amount of documentation they required was unbelievable. I didn't get the money in the end (was only claiming for about £120). I do not want to renew with them so am looking for a good company. Watching this thread with interest....

chuckles1066

LondonDiva wrote: »

Not liking the sound of this as I just bought a year's policy w/ insure & go _pale_

I used to have a heavily discounted policy with I&G via my employer (perk of the job apparently)..........when we booked a last minute holiday in the Bahamas the travel agent asked us about insurance and when I mentioned we were with I&G she said "oh that's fine, they're very good".

So I assume they have a good reputation within the travel industry........but, not having ever (thankfully) had cause to use them for a claim, I don't know how their claims handling pans out.....

mrs_moneyspinner

I can't name the company as I signed a discretionary settlement agreement but when we called from Dom Rep with an emergency (child going to hospital) they did not recognise my cover and failed to call back or respond to several faxes and phone calls even from the hospital when they promised to do so within 15 mins. As a result we had to pay all hospital costs on our card. It was a very distressing time and when we got home we complained, the company were very up front about the issues we had and compensated us in full for the cost of our holiday. After this experience I will in future call the hotline to test it out and ensure they recognise my cover before I leave the UK.

chuckles1066

mrs_moneyspinner wrote: »

I can't name the company as I signed a discretionary settlement agreement but when we called from Dom Rep with an emergency (child going to hospital) they did not recognise my cover and failed to call back or respond to several faxes and phone calls even from the hospital when they promised to do so within 15 mins. As a result we had to pay all hospital costs on our card. It was a very distressing time and when we got home we complained, the company were very up front about the issues we had and compensated us in full for the cost of our holiday. After this experience I will in future call the hotline to test it out and ensure they recognise my cover before I leave the UK.

I'm glad it worked out for you...........but how typical of Rip-Off Britain that your situation seems to be one of them saying to you "hey, we fu*ked up, we'll compensate you but you mustn't tell anyone our name".

Awful.