Hi there,

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, but it seemed most appropriate.

In October I went on holiday to India. Before I went I took out "gold" cover travel insurance with Cover For You. While I was on holiday my mobile phone was stolen from my bag. I reported it to the police, got a police report, immediately had it blocked by my phone company and did all the right things. However, on contacting the people administering the insurance, it turns out that mobile phones are not included in the insurance and that it is required to take out additional gadget insurance to cover phones.

Now my phone was a brand new iPhone 7 that I'd had for 3 weeks. If it had been at all clear that it was excluded when buying my insurance, I would have taken the additional gadget insurance. But I remember going through the form application and when additional gadget insurance came up, it said this (I have recreated the insurance application and the screen is exactly as it was when I ordered):

I remember thinking - I am not taking up to £3k, my baggage cover is up to £2k, so I don't need to "extend" it. And carried on. Maybe that was naive of me, maybe it was my fault for not examining it more closely, but the wording appears misleading to me. Then when I looked at the key facts, there is no information at all that gadgets are excluded from baggage allowance. In fact it states exclusion includes when:

The loss, theft or damage to Valuables and electronic/other equipment occurs whilst not being carried in your hand luggage while You are travelling on Public transport or on an aircraft.

This is in the personal baggage section. The reference to electronic equipment in that section again reinforced for me the idea that gadgets were covered up to the value of the personal baggage allowance.

I would like to ask opinions on whether I have grounds for complaint here. I feel like I was mislead when buying the insurance and that it should be much much clearer that gadgets, including mobile phones, are excluded from personal baggage allowance and that it's essential to take out additional gadget insurance.

Thanks in advance you your thoughts.

[Just realised this should be in the insurance section - could an admin move it for me? Very sorry.)

What is the single article limit for personal effects in the policy you bought ?

Usually they would pay up to the single article limit, less any excess.

The way i read it, is that the gadget insurance provided is extra cover in addition to the standard policy. The £3000 is just stating what many people take with them.

Edit. Just checked the policy wording online. Single article limit is £200 and there is a £75 excess for one claim incident. So if the phone was the only item stolen, you would only get £125.

https://www.coverforyou.com/content/policywording-cfu-direct.pdf

Having looked at this further, they do exclude cover under Personal Belongings/baggage for many things including mobile phones, digital cameras. You have to take out gadget cover to cover many things which are covered by other Travel Insurers within their standard policies.

If you run through a quote again with this company and take screen prints. If there is no mention about gadgets needing separate cover, then i agree it is misleading. Complain to the FOS and have a look at FCA ICOBS for the rules that apply.

Did you buy the policy direct or via a comparison site ?

I just ran through a quick quote on the Cover for you site and it is not clear. I think they have had complaints about gadgets not being included within personal belongings cover, as they have now added a section titled ' mandatory gadget cover'. They might have already had FOS complaints about this.