Claiming Travel Insurance

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wulfeyez
wulfeyez Posts: 11 Forumite
in Overseas holidays & travel planning
Hi all,

My wife & I travelled to Turkey last year. She became ill after 2 days, high fever, pain. I took her to hospital, 2nd CT Scan showed a kidney stone lodged in her urethra. She was rushed to another hospital.
She has travel insurance & I notified them immediately.

In short, the operating team were standing by in theatre for her insurance to authorise the procedure. I called them many times as did the hospital & the answer was: "our nurses are revewing the case & will have an answer very shortly". Time ran out so I had no option but to pay: about £8,000 for the op & hospital stay.

Since then I have been trying to claim back the money & they keep asking for more details everytime I contact them.

Last time was 6 weeks ago & the claims dept said they will get back with an answer very shortly.

Again, no reply.

What options do I have?

Thanks in advance

Comments

  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 15,286 Forumite
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    I suggest that you make a formal complaint to this insurance company, and then be prepared to use the Ombudsman service.
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
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    I agree with Voyager in principle, but it would help if you tell us which insurer it is as there are some based outside the UK in places like Gibraltar who are not under the auspices of the FOS.
  • NoodleDoodleMan
    NoodleDoodleMan Posts: 3,366 Forumite
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    Financial Ombudsman.

    http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

    In my experience they are very good at resolving issues, although it make take some time as they have to investigate in a proper manner.

    You'll need every piece of information relevant to the case.

    I would also be asking the British Association of Insurers to get involved.

    https://www.abi.org.uk/

    When all is over and done with I would suggest changing your travel insurers.

    Good luck getting satisfaction.
  • stephen160
    stephen160 Posts: 71 Forumite
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    Any update?
  • Ianhobsonuk
    Ianhobsonuk Posts: 1 Newbie
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    Which travel insurance company would you recommend? Every one I've reviewed has the same problem: 5 star reviews from people who have not had to make a claim; 1 star reviews from people who have, with sentences containing words like liars, cheats, incompetent, don't touch with a barge pole etc.
  • EssexExile
    EssexExile Posts: 6,139 Forumite
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    I claimed £6000 from Columbus Direct with no particular problems. The biggest problem was getting the required paperwork from BA.
    Tall, dark & handsome. Well two out of three ain't bad.
  • HoofeHearted
    HoofeHearted Posts: 2,651 Forumite
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    +1 for Columbus Direct for paying out (2013).

    I don't use them anymore, because once you are older than 65 the price shoots up.
  • JGR1
    JGR1 Posts: 1 Newbie
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    Hi, I am looking for suggestions, for any other way of tackling the following situation.

    My daughter has been travelling and working for the past 5 years in Europe and Canada, Three years ago in France she contracted an antibiotic resistant strain of tonsillitis which developed in to quinsy (throat abscess) and was hospitalised for a week.
    Before then she had never had tonsillitis and hadn't suffered in any way until about 6 weeks ago. She is currently in Canada and developed a sore throat which quickly became an abscess and she was sent to hospital or two days with a bill for $2000CAN.
    The insurance company has now said this was a preexisting condition; she had told them she had previously made a claim for a hospital stay for a septic sore throat but as no one said this was a bar to taking out the insurance. At no point has anyone ever told her that, having had it once, you could become susceptible to it and I can't find any information that says that there is a good chance you might get it again.
    She has challenged the refusal of the claim asking on what basis they considered it pre-exiting and asking for them to provide some medical advice that states she had a good likelihood of getting it again. However, the basis seems to be that the A&E doctor wrote that she had suffered from this a number of times in England -which she hasn't. He also said he did a follow up visit to the hospital and provided her with 10 days of antibiotics post stay - which he didn't. We can only think that he either confused her with someone else (seems unlikely) or he is fiddling the books.
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