Eurostar sold a reader a pricey Mondial travel insurance policy, and him the runaround when he tried to claim
You behave impeccably, filling in forms, answering questions and despatching certificates swiftly. They fail to answer phones, ignore letters, put up obstacles and delay payments. Welcome to the world of making a travel insurance claim.
It's around this time of the year that I receive press releases from travel companies urging Brits to buy cover, with the usual synthetic concern over travellers heading abroad without proper insurance.
This one, from Mondial Assistance, is typical: "MAKING THE MOST OF THE EGGS-TRA LONG EASTER BREAK? But don't cut corners on travel insurance."
One Guardian Money reader took Mondial at its word. While buying a short break in Paris and Luxembourg, the Eurostar sales- person, acting as an agent for Mondial, convinced him to buy seven-day cover for his wife and himself at (a pricey) �57. The tickets, which cost around �400, were non-refundable, but if anything went wrong beforehand, and he had to cancel, Mondial would pay up.
Something did, indeed, happen. His wife's uncle died, and, with the funeral on the day they had planned to be in Paris, our reader cancelled and claimed �432.50. The policy was clear that cancellation as a result of the death of a relative, including uncles, was covered.
That was in September. Our reader has kept a diary since of his dealings with Mondial Assistance. It's a tale of intrusive demands, persistent delays and obstacles and, finally, six months later, a much-reduced payout. First, Mondial wanted details of all his bank accounts, including account numbers. It wanted to know if he had insurance through his bank, so it could bounce the cost on to that. It told him it would not pay the cost of obtaining a copy of the death certificate. It asked for any other insurances he may have, and demanded he fill in a complicated and inappropriate medical form.
It took until December before Mondial acted ? it said it was "experiencing a high volume of claims", an excuse our reader encountered frequently. Then Mondial decided the death certificate wasn't enough ? it wanted the uncle's GP to fill in forms, too. It also asked for more proof that he had not received a refund from Euro- star, even though the train tickets were clearly marked non-refundable.
Some weeks later, Mondial decided that the GP's letter was not sufficient. It wanted permission for free access to the dead person's medical records. All this for a �432 claim. Eventually, in March, it agreed a payout, but when the cheque did finally arrive, Mondial deducted two �50 excesses, one for his wife and one for him.
But our reader is no pushover. He's no less than a Professor of Law at the University of Cambridge, and his Mondial diary is eloquent testimony to the hollow promises of insurers.
When Guardian Money contacted Mondial, it said it followed standard procedures, and that everything was in the terms and conditions. But, in respect of the delays, it repaid the �100 excess as a "gesture of goodwill".
A final thought. Why are the likes of Mondial so keen to establish that you have cover through your bank account when you make a claim, but so quiet about it when selling you a policy?
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/blog/2011/apr/16/travel-insurers-hollow-promises
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