HolidaySafe Travel Insurance - Your Feedback

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  • Nelsenn
    Nelsenn Posts: 1 Newbie
    edited 16 August 2018 at 10:41AM
    We had to cancel a family holiday in March 2018 due to illness.
    Submitted a claim (with all the required documentation which is significant)
    On 11th April they wrote:-
    "Our Claims Department are currently receiving unprecedented numbers of claims and as a result are unable to guarantee dealing with them within their customary 7-10 day period.
    We apologise for being temporarily unable to provide the rapid service we expect to provide but can confirm you will receive the formal reply to your claim within the next 28 days"
    Needless to say they did not reply within 28days and the saga continued until they finally paid only half of the claim.
    I have been writing and emailing regularly ever since and have received no reply whatsoever.
    We have never claimed from travel insurance before and I am not impressed with how Holidaysafe have and are dealing with our claim.
    No one wants to have to claim on any insurance because to do so means that something has gone wrong. The measure of a good insurance company is how they handle any claims. Holiday safe is found wanting.

    Update 16Aug
    Amber has achieved a letter from Travel Claims Facilities which refers to my recent communication (7th June!!) and says they will review the claim and contact me with outcome.
    No timescale given.
    It's something to get a letter from them but not much.
  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    See similar comments here and throughout the net!


    They do have a rep who gets alerted every time they get mentioned and usually is quick to come on and attempt damage limitation


    Hopefully going public like this will get you some progress with them!
  • Holidaysafe_Representative
    Holidaysafe_Representative Posts: 108 Organisation Representative
    Dear Nelsenn,

    Thank you for your post, my name is Amber and I am the Manager for Holidaysafe Travel Insurance.

    I am sincerely sorry for the issues and delays you have encountered. Although it is peak travel season, this is not the level fo service we strive to provide.

    To this end, can you please email Holidaysafe@tifgroup.co.uk with your policy/claim details please? I can then personally speak to the Claims Manager to get an urgent update for you. I will also ask for an investigation into your case.

    Once again I am very sorry for any and all inconvenience caused.

    Kind regards,

    Amber
    Official Company Representative
    I am the official company representative of Holidaysafe. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • dacouch
    dacouch Posts: 21,637
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    If you do not receive any sucess from Amber you can either post up more details of your claim and we will happily advise you.

    If you don't want our help, your course of action would be to send them a "Formal Complaint" they are duty bound to properly investigate the complaint and report back to you within eight weeks.

    If this still does not yield the response you want, you can then take it to the Ombudsman which is a free but very slow service. They tend to look at what is fair rather than the black and white.

    The bonus of going to the Ombudsman is Holiday Safe will normally have to pay the Ombudsman £450 whether they win or lose your case which tends to focus their mind if you go down this route
  • It was our ruby wedding in March this year and we booked ourselves a holiday of a lifetime touring Canada followed by an Alaskan cruise. Since both my wife and I suffer from a number of medical conditions I looked around for advice on which insurance company to use for holiday cover. I have always placed great faith in MoneySavingExpert and took up their recommendation of HolidaySafe especially since it was also highly recommended by Trip Advisor and Which? Magazine. The online purchase of the policy was fairly straightforward with much attention to detail being paid to our medical conditions but the final price was good and we purchased the policy.
    A few weeks before our holiday my wife took ill and since our departure date was looming I thought I’d take the precaution of phoning HolidaySafe to see what the ramifications would be should I have to cancel the holiday. The call was answered quickly and I spoke to a very helpful lady who examined our policy and told me that since my wife’s medical condition had been declared on the policy and accepted by HolidaySafe then we could expect a full reimbursement of our costs. She even offered to email me the various claim forms I would require should the worst come to the worst. Great service! Well worthy of the high praise given on the comparison sites.
    Unfortunately my wife’s condition deteriorated and we had to cancel the holiday on 23rd April only three days before our intended departure. I completed the holiday cancellation claim form and submitted it, as suggested by HolidaySafe, by recorded delivery on 14th May. I received an automated email reply the following day acknowledging receipt of my claim submission but informing me that due to an unprecedented number of claims submitted I would receive a formal reply within 28 days and not the usual 7 - 10 days.
    28th June (6.5 weeks later) I emailed TIF Group (Who apparently handle HolidaySafe’s claims) requesting the status of my claim and received an automated response saying that it would be dealt with in 10-15 working days.
    9th July (1.5 weeks later) I enquired again re the status of my claim and received the same automated response but then:-
    10th July I received an email from TCF Claims (Part of TIF Group) stating that my claim had been authorised for settlement in full and the funds would be transferred into my account over the next few days. Oh joy! Success at last! Except:-
    27th July (2.5 weeks later) I emailed TCF Claims querying where my settlement was and received the usual uninformative automated response.
    7th August (1.5 weeks later and 4 weeks since the settlement of the claim had been authorised) I sent another email to TIF Group appealing for anyone anywhere to do me the simple courtesy of answering my query and only received the usual automated response.
    Another week on (14 weeks since their receipt of my claim) and as you’ve probably guessed – silence, and no settlement in my bank account.
    Question. Would I recommend this holiday insurance company to anyone? Hmmmm...
  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    See #283 above

    And expect the "sincere" apology template post from amber tomorrow.

    (That sincere apology template email has cropped up on this thread for the last 2/4 years - you'd have thought by now they would have changed the excuse of attempted to sort out their claims handlers who often get the blame)
  • I will never use Holiday Safe again and I have been a customer of theirs for many years. I am currently going through an appeals as they are trying to get out of a claim I have made. My friend and I were unable to go on a trip in March due my friends partner being admitted to hospital and the Storm conditions. Basically he went into hospital and we had to make alternative travel arrangements, then the Storm Emma & Beast from the East hit our area at the same time and Red Weather Warnings were put in place. So all our other travel options were cancelled. So I made a claim and they wrote back and said that it was only severe weather. I have had to gain evidence from the MET office to back up my claim and now i'm still waiting for a decision. Its been 23 weeks and 5 days since my initial claim was started and 38 working days since I appealed. I've had to chase them for answers and each time they keep fobbing me off. Think the next step is the Ombudsman..
  • Holidaysafe_Representative
    Holidaysafe_Representative Posts: 108 Organisation Representative
    Dear Peter Diamond,

    Thank you for your post, my name is Amber and I am the Manager for Holidaysafe Travel Insurance.

    Firstly I am very sorry to hear that you were forced to cancel your trip, and that you have subsequently endured unacceptable delays in the settlement of your claim. Once our claims team email to say that a settlement has been authorised, the payment should usually follow in a couple of days, so I would like to personally investigate what has happened here for you.

    To allow me to chase your payment and speak to the claims team, can you please email responses@tifgroup.co.uk with your policy details? I will be at my desk until 5pm today and then from 8am Monday morning.

    I am very sorry for any and all inconvenience caused, but I will get this sorted for you.

    Kind regards,

    Amber
    Official Company Representative
    I am the official company representative of Holidaysafe. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • Holidaysafe_Representative
    Holidaysafe_Representative Posts: 108 Organisation Representative
    Dear munchkin7775,

    Thank you for your post, my name is Amber and I am the Manager for Holidaysafe Travel Insurance.

    I am so sorry to hear that you were forced to cancel your trip, and that you've been dissatisfied with the service you have received from us.

    If you can email your policy details to responses@tifgroup.co.uk, I can certainly chase the Complaints team on your behalf and ensure that an update is sent to you. I will be at my desk until 5pm today and then from 8am Monday morning.

    I can also ask them to send you details of the Ombudsman if we cannot resolve this to your satisfaction first.

    Kind regards,

    Amber
    Official Company Representative
    I am the official company representative of Holidaysafe. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • I have just passed over the relevant policy information to Amber so that she can work her magic on my outstanding settlement.
    Strangely I received another email last night from Jake Mitchell of TCF Claims listing all our correspondence to date and again stating that the settlement had been authorised and would be in my bank account within a few days. Strangely this latest correspondence was dated 1st. June 2018 but I assume this to be just a typographical error. I wonder whether this latest correspondence was forthcoming anyway or whether it was in response to my posting here. Who knows but I’ll give Amber her place and see if she can sort this out for me as she has promised.
    I’ll keep you up to date with developments.
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