My experience with travel insurers

You seem to be ill every time you travel, I would quit smoking and stay at home.

Fit people like me have to pay for unfit moaners like you.

My wife broke her ankle in Germany which resulted in a 3 hour operation and a weeks stay in hospital. Needless to say we had a large claim which was then increased by claiming for a holiday to Spain that we had to cancel. The insurance company Fortis which we had taken out through the Post Office were MAGNIFICENT. They paid everything we claimed for and they were quick in doing so. You do hear horror stories when it comes to insurance so it only fair to report how very fair and understanding Fortis were. Many thanks to them.

PS - I don't smoke - the cigarettes were a gift for my host!

Travel insurance is essentially the same as any other insurance - only as good as the company that is issuing it. Nowadays most of them are little better than old fashioned quack practitioners and each have their own claim prevention systems, so regardless of how closely you study the small print they try to find a way to turn down claims. Even if that is unsuccessful, they will stall and delay and as you have found make under payments (I have never heard of any over payments!) all to try and frustrate the customer who they know will eventually give up. How many times will you really try to get your £20- back?

I have had many poor experiences of insurance claims from several companies - AXA was a notable exception with a homes claim - but the worst was travel insurance with Mondial. I am now realistic enough to know that they will cover you if you have a major accident or die whilst abroad (although even then they have let some people down), otherwise it is a waste of time and effort, so I say take out the cheapest you can find and work on the basis that you are not insured for anything less than death.

Keep clear of Mondial and Aviva whatever you are insuring that is my advice!

We have an annual policy through RBS Black Credit Card and it is fantastic. Luggage delay on the way out for four hours and they pay £350 directly into your account and the same again for my wife. £2500 after 48 hours. 24 hour help line. Don't buy the cheapest and read details before you do.

I am amazed that anyone would bother to claim for 200 fags. Especially lost through own negligence. Did you even ask at lost property? Was it over the excess?

My wife discolated her hip half way through 28 day cruise to the Caribbean four years ago. We were in Granada at the time and my wife had to spend a week in hospital. Natwest Advantage Gold insurance were marvellous kept me informed, sent a nurse out to take us home by Virgin Atlantic where at least ten seats were taken out to accommodate her stretcher. Every thing was taken care of and we had a refund of all expenses incurred plus the money for the remainder of the cruise we could not use.

Claiming for 200 cigs is the saddest thing I've read all day.

Stephen and Rick have taken the words out of my mouth. 200 fags would normally fall within the excess surely? Must assume they were ultra posh fags in gold plated packets.

I have insurance through American express Centurion - its rubbish as a) its though AXA who quibble at everything and b) it says you MUST go through NHS if possible, and there is no payment if you have to wait 10 weeks for the operation (I live in Europe). Unbelievable. So read the small print and dont ever think you pay for what you get - they guy above who got insurance through the post office was dealt with better.

Comparison websites are a waste of time from my experience. The cheapest options would barely cover you for a day trip to Calais.

Once you unctick 'basic cover' and choose 'worldwide', the quotes can double or treble. The devil is in the detail too - Cuba was excluded from worldwide cover when I looked into one provider.

I use Insure & Go who are competitively priced for very comprehensive cover. I claimed after a trip to the US and it all went smoothly.

I referred a complaint to The Financial Ombudsman Service over 2 years ago and I keep getting letters from them saying they are too busy to deal with it. However, I did get one letter about a year ago stating that my claim had been upheld but then it was back to the 'too busy' letters again.

This organisation is a cpmplete joke.

Oh, I also got another letter (from them) stating that I could complain about them (The FSO) if I felt they weren't performing. Was that another joke or what?

All this went through a solicitor (one of these 'we will claim for you') but again, completely disfunctional.

The whole area of Travel Insurance needs to be revamped. With full cover for any losses incurred as a result of any misfortune that was not self inflicted.

The whole article is appalling – Just anecdotal nonsense about lost cigarettes and antibiotics.

Do you really think the travel insurance is about ‘lost fags’? I mean seriously the level of your journalistic integrity has brought you down to complaining about such nonsense!

< so clearly insurers are trying harder to avoid paying out.> What are you basing this comment on?

Appalling Journalism

We have had 2 bad experiences with Mondial.

In Morocco dr's & pharmacy bills only paid - nothing for the £100 taxi fare to get us back to the hotel.

After a broken ankle in Sicily, claim for wheelchair hire refused. But wonderful service from Sicilian hospital on Euro Health card.

I have to agree with Peter Frearson. My husband & I have had annual family world wide cover with Fortis through the Post office for about 8 years & in that time we have had to claim for a couple of injuries, & they have never once quibled over the bill sent to them. They even arranged for me to have 3 seats on the plane home (they paid it direct too) as I had one leg in plaster from hip to ankle! I am sure we could get cheaper if we shopped around but with such exelent service why would we?!!

Forgot to say though, that we had to insist that the doctors abroard took our EU health card numbers & adjusted our bill accordingly as they where happy to charge the full wack assuming we wouldn't care as it was covered by insurance! (But we had read the small print in our insurance document stating EU countries should only charge the ammount over their national allowance/contribution).

I recently used a 'Which' recommenmded travel insurance company and claimed for a badly damaged piece of luggage. My claim was intially turned down by the company because they said it was less than the excess. This was nonsense as I pointed out to them by sending them a copy of their own policy document! They then tried a new tactic listing a number of proofs I had to provide before they would accept my claim, including providing an independent written assessment of the damage! None of these requirements was listed in the policy. Eventually I turned to the Which Legal Service to help me tackle these fraudsters and was eventually paid when the company realised that I would not give up. The moral is that travel insurance providers are all the same in my experience whether recommended by Which or not. Most are reluctant to pay out anything, especially on small claims which presumably form the bulk of claims on them.

After reading the posts here about modial,im not hopefull....

My wife had a siezure last monday in the car,she's never had 1 of these in her life and ive been with her for 20 years..we was due to goto spain in 3weeks but due to her having a clot in a vien nr her brain the doctors at the hospital have advised against this,so i whent to the FC holliday shop were we bought the holiday from and cancelled it,they told me to get a report from the doctor and to take it upto them and they would deal with the forms for me,have i done the right thing? this holiday costs us over £5,000 with the children aswell,its alot to lose ...