Any news of travel insurance including Covid-19?

[ilikeanswers]

Read about a UK travel insurance that is adding Covid-19 coverage to their policy. I was wondering if anything is happening with Australian travel insurance. How long do you think till any travel insurance in Australia covers Covid-19? I hope it isn't going to end like terrorism where it is never covered😕. 

[Pushka]

1 hour ago, ilikeanswers said:

Read about a UK travel insurance that is adding Covid-19 coverage to their policy. I was wondering if anything is happening with Australian travel insurance. How long do you think till any travel insurance in Australia covers Covid-19? I hope it isn't going to end like terrorism where it is never covered😕. 

Never. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

27 minutes ago, Pushka said:

Never. 

I disagree. It won't be soon, and it might come with heavy premiums for travel to certain countries. But eventually they will have to provide some cover or international travel will grind to a halt.

[The_Big_M]

Still no talk of international travel, so they aren't going to market and price a product for an unknown environment.

 

As the landscape becomes known, then they'll assess the viability of a product.

[nnps]

9 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I disagree. It won't be soon, and it might come with heavy premiums for travel to certain countries. But eventually they will have to provide some cover or international travel will grind to a halt.

Agreed, because as international travel grinds to a halt so does the need for travel insurance and thus their market. I had a year's policy with Columbus Direct taken out in October last year. I ended up only able to take one cruise, another two were cancelled, so I paid over the odds for my cruise. Columbus Direct recently emailed me to inform me that I was still covered (although I can't travel) but that they "have made the difficult decision to suspend sales of our travel insurance products indefinitely."  

[Pushka]

Given that most companies didn't even cover for a generic pandemic prior to Covid I can't see them covering for a specific and known one like Covid. 

Edited June 12, 2020 by Pushka

[OzKiwiJJ]

We took out an annual policy with InsureAndGo before the cutoff of cover for the Coronavirus. Our policy does cover pandemics. Luckily we haven't needed to make any claims for our cancelled Europe trip as InsureAndGo have offered a deferral of the policy while there is a government "do not travel" in place. When that is lifted the number of days it was in place for will be added to the end date of the policy thus extending it. That's a pretty good deal. 

[Pushka]

46 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We took out an annual policy with InsureAndGo before the cutoff of cover for the Coronavirus. Our policy does cover pandemics. Luckily we haven't needed to make any claims for our cancelled Europe trip as InsureAndGo have offered a deferral of the policy while there is a government "do not travel" in place. When that is lifted the number of days it was in place for will be added to the end date of the policy thus extending it. That's a pretty good deal. 

We are likewise with Insureandgo Annual and have already claimed successfully for a late March Bali trip cancellation fee of flights. We are currently in process of claiming for our July Europe cruise, flight fee and hotel cancellation. One thing to note with Insure and go is that each claim has an excess fee which is fine. However, you have to submit each cost as a separate claim, so we had to claim four times for two flights, a cruise deposit and a hotel. Meaning, we wonder, if they will deduct excess fees for each claim. I've already followed up with them suggesting that it is the one (Covid) event that I would not expect an excess from each claim. Time will tell. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

I've only had to make one claim with them in the past, for a medical bill so just one claim. Strange that you have to submit each cost separately.

 

We were so lucky with our trip. The Rome hotel was booked with no deposit required so was easy to cancel. China Airlines cancelled one oif our flights so offered us a full refund which was processed immediately. Hertz refunded the full UK rental car cost. We waited until Crystal cancelled the cruise then requested a full refund which is still being processed. I thought I was going to have trouble with the Booking agent I'd booked the UK hotel through but the hotel itself sent me a cancellation of the booking which I was able to forward to the booking agent and they are refunding the full amount. So we're all square. Very lucky indeed! 

[possum52]

We had a single policy for Insure and Go for our cancelled June cruise. We asked for a credit but it was refused so I took it to their disputes resolution department and recived a confirmation on Thursday that they will give us roughly an 85% credit which we have until March to use.

 

Leigh

[OzKiwiJJ]

I've just had confirmation of our policy deferral. Already it will be enough to cover us for the NZ cruise in late January if it goes ahead, and maybe more depending on when the government removes the Europe " do not travel" advisory.

[OzKiwiJJ]

And if by some miracle our September Round Australia cruise goes ahead I can get the policy restarted if the deferral is still in place, and still get the extension for the days up to that point.

[jland]

3 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

And if by some miracle our September Round Australia cruise goes ahead I can get the policy restarted if the deferral is still in place, and still get the extension for the days up to that point.

Ozkiwi are you with insure and go as others on here seem to be, thanks. I am in dispute with AllClear, a division of insure and go. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

14 minutes ago, jland said:

Ozkiwi are you with insure and go as others on here seem to be, thanks. I am in dispute with AllClear, a division of insure and go. 

Yes, direct with Insure and Go. I didn't know they had other divisions - or is it that Insure and Go and AllClear are both entities under the same parent company?

[OzKiwiJJ]

I just checked both companies. The only link between them is that they use the same underwriter. I'm not sure exactly how that works but I think the companies are quite separate.

[possum52]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I just checked both companies. The only link between them is that they use the same underwriter. I'm not sure exactly how that works but I think the companies are quite separate.

They also have the same address in Sydney. 
 

Leigh

[OzKiwiJJ]

17 minutes ago, possum52 said:

They also have the same address in Sydney. 
 

Leigh

I didn't check that. For some reason I thought Insure and Go was WA based. 

[badgerbill]

Take your dispute online to the AFCA - Australian Financial Complaints Authority, I did  not going to disclose against whom my complaint was against but the outcome was 100% with 18 months to use the credit. 

[jland]

Thanks for your reply OzKiwi. Definitely the same company, at times when they answer the phone they ask which of the two companies you are with. AllClear is the travel insurer you go to when nobody else will insure you because of pre existing conditions. In my husbands case heart failure, stroke, type 1 diabetes etc won’t bore you with his complete list. AllClear charge like a wounded bull but we have always been grateful they have taken us on. Since 2010 we have paid them at least $3000 per year for insurance, so we are slightly peeved that they will not extend our yearly policy which we purchased 6/2/20.  We tried dispute resolution, never got an answer so we have gone to insurance ombudsman.

[possum52]

11 hours ago, jland said:

Thanks for your reply OzKiwi. Definitely the same company, at times when they answer the phone they ask which of the two companies you are with. AllClear is the travel insurer you go to when nobody else will insure you because of pre existing conditions. In my husbands case heart failure, stroke, type 1 diabetes etc won’t bore you with his complete list. AllClear charge like a wounded bull but we have always been grateful they have taken us on. Since 2010 we have paid them at least $3000 per year for insurance, so we are slightly peeved that they will not extend our yearly policy which we purchased 6/2/20.  We tried dispute resolution, never got an answer so we have gone to insurance ombudsman.

My dispute resolution with Insure and Go took just over 6 weeks from when I contacted the Internal Dispute Resolution Team to when I received an answer last week. I also made a mistake in my above post 10 - we have 18 months to use the credit from March 2020.

 

Leigh

[OzKiwiJJ]

Both companies have a notice about policy deferrals on their websites.

 

InsureAndGo states:

"For all Annual Multi-Trip policy holders who have not made a valid claim and can no longer travel as planned due to the impact of COVID-19 we will consider a deferral of their policy. To register for this credit please login into your account here and follow the steps."

 

AllClear states:

"For all Annual Multi-Trip policy holders who have not made a valid claim and can no longer travel as planned due to the impact of COVID-19 we will consider a deferral of your policy."

 

jland, have you made any claims on that policy?

[jland]

Thanks for your replies folks. We have used AllClear since 2010, we have never made a claim. We emailed AllClear on 14th April asking for a deferral of this policy, they replied on 20th April saying sorry they do not offer refunds and if we were not satisfied to write to Dispute Resolutions which we did on 21st April. No response so on 1st June we emailed AFCA they have given AllClear until 1st July to respond. We will wait and see what happens.

Thanks for all your help.

[OzKiwiJJ]

But you weren't asking for a refund, just a deferral. It's really weird. With InsureAndGo I just applied online for the deferral, had an e mail immediately saying they'd received my application, then another email yesterday saying the deferral was granted.

 

From what I understand the number of days for the deferral is from March 18th when the government issued the "do not travel" until the time it gets lifted for either the US or Europe (min 3 countries) depending on your policy. The deferral days get added on to your policy expiry date.

 

If InsureAndGo are doing it, why aren't AllClear! Very strange indeed and certainly worth chasing.

[jland]

We could not understand the no refunds email, not want we asked for.

It is also strange that your deferral starts from March 18th went the government issued the do not travel advice but the cut off date to be cover for Covid-19 is 31st January. Two different things I know but still.
 

 

[possum52]

6 minutes ago, jland said:

We could not understand the no refunds email, not want we asked for.

It is also strange that your deferral starts from March 18th went the government issued the do not travel advice but the cut off date to be cover for Covid-19 is 31st January. Two different things I know but still.
 

 

Have you logged into your Allclear account recently? I would check if there is a Credit Request button when you do log in. If there is, press that and wait for a reply. 
 

Good luck. 
 

Leigh