I filed a $414 (£359) travel insurance claim with Axa final October after struggling dehydration within the US. Ten months later, it nonetheless has not been handled. I had offered all of the requested paperwork, together with three years of medical historical past from my GP, and in January I used to be referred to as to be instructed my claim had been accepted.
Nothing arrived, so I referred to as once more in March. After an hour, I used to be instructed the claim was nonetheless being processed.
In May, I then acquired an e mail stating it had been refused, and requesting 5 years of medical data to see if that might change the end result. I duly did so, and acquired affirmation of receipt in June.
That was the final I heard. I’ve emailed, and calls simply drop after ages caught within the queue.
LH, London
Customer experiences on the evaluate web site Trustpilot inform an identical story of indefinite waits within the phone queuing system, calls reduce off and emails ignored. It’s probably you’d be marking the anniversary of your claim in limbo if I hadn’t roped within the press workplace.
Axa didn’t tackle my questions on staffing ranges, nor did it clarify the verbal promise to pay out in March, nevertheless it did admit that you just had been let down. It says that your claim was refused since you didn’t declare a earlier urinary tract an infection (UTI) once you took out the coverage.
However, it can now pay out to make up for its poor service. You insist that, though your medical doctors within the US initially suspected a UTI, the next lab report identified dehydration.
Pre-existing medical situations are a vexed situation for travellers. Application types require prospects to element each ailment for which they’ve sought medical recommendation over the previous two years or extra, and insurers can seize on a forgotten minor sickness to refuse paying out for an unrelated main one.
The utility type on your coverage required you to checklist any situations for which you’ve been prescribed medicine over the previous two years. I discover it troubling, due to this fact, that Axa required your medical data for the previous 5 years. I put this to the corporate, which replied evasively that it had initially requested for 2 years’ price.
According to the Financial Ombudsman Service, an insurer can moderately reject a claim that has nothing to do with a pre-existing situation, if they’ll present that they’d not have allowed the coverage to be taken out had the situation been disclosed. Axa tells me that, had it been conscious of your earlier UTI, it could have bought you a distinct coverage.
Martyn James of complaints web site Resolver says some insurers delve into medical data searching for a motive to keep away from a payout. “It’s called fishing,” he says, “and it’s probably more widespread that we know, because most people just accept it when a claim is refused.”
Price comparability web sites have a tendency to steer prospects to the most affordable insurance choices that seem, in abstract, to have them lined for many eventualities.
It’s within the phrases and situations, which few totally learn, {that a} myriad of exclusions and restrictions are detailed. It’s due to this fact important to learn them and declare each ailment you’ll be able to recall, nonetheless insignificant – even when it dangers growing the premium.
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