Doing this job can be hugely rewarding, a lot of the time. Supporting people through the toughest times in their lives, and being able to help them make claims on policies which give them confidence, reassurance and security it a wonderful thing.
But for every good news story, I often hear a bad one. Sometimes I feel as though I spend my blogs lecturing you all on best practise – but then I hear another story that reminds me that the more people I can help by giving them vital information, the better.
I’ll explain what I mean.
Just a few weeks ago I blogged about travel insurance – and the common pitfalls that mean policies let people down. This week I received this email:
“Dear Susie,
I found your blog very interesting. My wife and I once had a very expensive top of the range Travel Insurance through Wexas Travel. I had cause to claim for a holiday cancellation to Sri Lanka costing in excess of £6,000-00. Unknown to me my wife had visited her Doctor 10 days prior to the holiday and been prescribed Paracetomol. No different to that which one could buy over the counter. Needless to say the insurance company would not pay up on the basis of non-disclosure. We now rely on my C0-0P Bank current account travel policy at a cost of £15-00 monthly which also covers both of us for RAC full cover and other “add ons” I do not recall. Therefore I pay £180-00 a year for a policy that may or may not pay out instead of one that certainly did not pay out. I discussed it with my Doctor and he said he and his wife had been caught out because she fell ill in the Channel Islands and it turned out their policy felt the islands are not abroad so no payment!
The benefit of the Co-op policy is that it covers me until I am 80 which very few will do. It is with Axa I think. Needless to say we now ring them with all health updates before we travel.”
It makes me so cross when people are duped by sketchy policies that just don’t provide adequate cover. Sadly, the popularity of comparison sites, coupled with the prevalence of bank account-linked policies often bundled in as a customer perk, has made this problem even more common.
If I can ask you to share one piece of insider info this holiday, it would be to remind your friends that using a specialist – ie an insurance broker like me – is not only free, and comes without obligation, but can also provide policies just as cheaply as those advertised through the comparison sites. The difference with a broker service is that you know just what you’re giving up in order to save money.
