My experience of a Home / Travel insurance claim

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Palfrem

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Solihull, near Birmingham
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Unfortunately, on holiday in Portugal a few weeks back my wallet was stolen by pickpockets. It rather took the shine off our holiday as you can imagine.

Reported theft to (very helpful) local Police who didn't pussyfoot about regarding the countries of origin of the scrotes by the way. I spent ages on the phone cancelling all the cards (But that's another story. Santander need you to make two calls. One to cancel debit cards and another to cancel credit cards!), ordered new driving licence, etc., etc.

I have home insurance that covers a fair amount of cash outside the house (including abroad) so I anticipated a swift conclusion and settlement of my straightforward claim.

Maybe I should add the home insurance is arranged through my bank, who I have been with for over 40 years. In that 40 years I have never made a claim on either a home insurance or travel insurance policy.

Phoned insurance company to lodge a claim.

One of the first things they say is "You do realise a claim will affect your renewal price - do you still wish to proceed?"

They then ask if I have any specific travel insurance and will I give them the details as they intend to off-set the cost of my claim against that policy!
Is this normal? That would then mean I have two increased premiums to pay at renewal.

Seems my claim is stalled until they have the details of my other travel policy. Took them 12 days to email me that request. Nice.

I have a packaged current account with my bank that includes travel insurance as well as another travel policy that I bought mainly to cover ill-health and my pre-existing medical conditions (heart failure) that aren't covered on my current account policy.

They also wanted me to prove I had that much money in my wallet. I thought insurance was based on trust, bearing in mind I have never claimed before.

Moving on. Seems the excess on my wallet exceeds the cost of the wallet so I put in a claim with my current account Travel policy. All sorted very quickly except they chipped 20% off the cost of the wallet for wear and tear. It was only about a year or so old, very good quality leather so was just starting to acquire a nice patina of wear. It should have increased in value! Tried to explain to lady but she wasn't interested. Had I got more experience of claiming I'd have doubled the cost of a replacement wallet like most folk would I expect! Honesty doesn't pay really does it.

Insurance Services industry. Pah!

My opinion of a certain High St bank who "are by your side with help and guidance" is irredeemably tarnished.
 
So what they want to try and ensure is that you are not "double claiming" for the same incident. Hence why they want to know the other insurer.

Regards wear and tear. Yup this is usually classed as "betterment" so you wallet was not new, but you want a payout that would be "as new". They will see that as betterment. A bit like claiming for a car tyre.

Same with the money in your wallet. It is on trust (although some will say you must have proof). Sadly that trust is massively abused hence why they make such a fuss.

I feel for you and have no answers. But I suspect that most insurers are the same now.

You could try writing to their Customer Relations Director and complaining. I did this recently (documented on here somewhere) when trying to insure Mrs M's new car. To my surprise, they responded by telephone immediately. More importantly they took up my complaint and found in my favour.

Foocking Pick Pockets are scourge and now invade almost every public space. Mrs M had her shoulder bag cut off her shoulder, leaving her with just the shoulder strap in place. This on a packed London Underground Train and in full public view. In her case the thief was caught (there were a team of five). His case was thrown out on a technicality.
 
No Bruce, it's not to prevent a double claim.

They want to off-set any payout they make with a monetary contribution from my travel insurer. Apparently it's ABI "standard practice"

Sharp practice more like.

A "technicality", the scrotes are winning aren't they.
 
I handled my Mum's claim on her bank account travel policy earlier in the year when she was taken ill on holiday.

Despite being a bit of an ****ache to deal with they actually paid out more than expected.
 
Just discovered after payment to extend existing single trip travel policy for Tunisia that when I double check terms and conditions that I am not covered because of FO travel advice. They have taken two payment and issued cover notes for Tunisia ( having originally rung to confirm that they did still offer cover) but tell me I am not insured. Will recover the second payment under 14 day telephone selling cancellation period. Am going to try recover the initial payment when I get back. Luckily have found another company who hopefully are going to put travel and medical insurance in place from today. Think telling me that I should have checked the small print is tantamount to fraud! We will see what the small claims court makes of this sharp practice
 
Reported theft to (very helpful) local Police who didn't pussyfoot about regarding the countries of origin of the scrotes by the way. I spent ages on the phone cancelling all the cards (But that's another story. Santander need you to make two calls. One to cancel debit cards and another to cancel credit cards!), ordered new driving licence, etc., etc.

Our story.

Returning from Italy last year we had an overnight stop as a treat in a luxury hotel in Montreux, Switzerland. Mrs Druk decided on a quiet hour beside the outdoor pool and duly fell asleep (it had been a hard days navigating after all!).
Woke up to find her handbag et al missing. Santander and BoS 'from abroad' helplines are a crock-o-sh1t. Spending seemingly ages on a mobile from a distant hotel trying to get some non-existent help is simply not good enough especially when the operator then tells you "you should have reversed the charges". Oh very good, thank-you...NOT!
Anyways, the Swiss police were equally helpful and condemning of the (alleged) 'countries of origin' of the thieves. Next day and a couple of hundred miles further north they phoned to say they had recovered the purse and most of it's contents from a bush on the prom but the bag and her specs were missing. Hearing that we were in Germany heading home they posted the purse to our home address. Well done them. No further action was taken.

Just wanted to get that off my shoulders. :D
 
Travel Insurers have always been notoriously difficult over claims - I detested having to deal with them when working in the insurance industry. Been like that for decades. The problem has always been that they were poorly trained , the premiums were tiny in comparison and the potential for fraud was immense. (one fraud I uncovered was by a couple who financed their expensive holiday every year by claiming on their travel insurance which they changed every time) They will request details of any other insurance you have in force covering any part of the loss because contribution will arise between the policies - one of the very basic principles of insurance and nothing to do with sharp practice . Be very careful when taking out travel cover the list of value limits and policy conditions varies hugely.
 

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