Hi All, I am having a problem with an insurance claim and I have got to a stage where the companies final decision is to not honour my claim, I am wondering if to take this further and what my chances are, or I should accept the decision. A brief history... On the 14th of May 2009 I took out travel insurance with the above company, I opted for there backpackers insurance as it was well priced and covered me for the whole year that I am in Oz. I received my policy documents via email, had a quick read and thought nothing more of it. Two days before I travelled I printed of my documents and brought them with me. Two days after arriving in Oz I had my wallet lost/stolen, subsequently reported this to the police and filed a claim via email, as I had just arrived and did not want to leave money in my hostel, I had around 1100 AUD in my wallet. The maximum I can claim for is £500.00 and this incurs an excess of £100 as per my insurance documents. Now this is where the fun starts! The policy sent to me at the time of purchase is as below: Thank you for choosing to insure with Direct Travel Insurance. We've attached your policy schedule for your reference. Policy Number: 61022846 Date of Issue: 14/05/2009 Policy Type: Backpacker Policy Holder/Main Insured: DELETED Address: DELETED Commencement Date: 08/07/2009 Period of Cover: 365 days Travel Area: Australia and New Zeland Cover Options Included: Personal Money & Possessions, Cancellation cover. Policy Cost (Exc IPT): £91.80 Insurance Premium Tax: £16.07 Total Amount Paid: £107.87 Up to £5.000,000 cover for medical emergency and associated expenses; 24-hour Direct Travel Insurance Assistance phone number: +44 1273 747 602; 24-hour Talking Nurses phone number, for non-emergency medical queries: +44 208 481 7798. This is the reply I reiceved from direct-travel: Thank you for your e-mail. I am sorry to hear this has happened to you. When you purchased your policy, you did not pay to include your personal possessions or personal money. We would therefore not be able to meet a claim. Kind regards Mrs Sarah Seal Direct Travel Insurance This of course was news to me as my policy directly states that I am covered, I replied to Sarah explaining that my documents say I am covered and sent her a copy, I received this reply: Thank you again for your e-mail. If you open the attachment, you will see that you have only purchased option 1. Option 2 includes cash and baggage not option 1. Where are you actually reading that your policy includes this cover? Please forward it to us as there could be an IT error. We need to look into this for you if necessary. Kind regards Mrs Sarah Seal Direct Travel Insurance Now my attachment does include have option 1 ticked, however there is no explanation on this page on what the options include, so I had no way of knowing if this was correct or not. After a few days of hearing nothing I sent the following: Thank you for your previous email. However I would like to contest your choice not to honour my claim due to an administration error on your part. My policy clearly states in plain English that I am covered for Personal Money & Possessions, as you have seen in the copy of the policy that you have confirmed with myself via email. On receiving this policy I have done as advised and read your policy to check it provides adequate cover, as asked in your Policy Limits. The document tells me that I am indeed covered for Personal Money & Possessions. I dispute the fact that I am not covered because of a tick box, of which you offer no explanation or break down of each optional cover in my policy document. I request again that my claim is considered and a suitable conclusion reached. If again you choose not to honour my claim then I will have no option but to take this matter to the FSA and ultimately the Financial Ombudsman as I feel I have been unfairly treated and cannot be blamed for your error. Kind Regards I then received a we are looking into your complaint letter. I emailed again 3 days ago to check on the progress of the complaint and received this: Thank you for contacting our offices. A final response was sent to you on 22nd July. I have attached a copy for your reference. Should you wish a further hard copy along with copies of the screen shots and policy schedule please let me know. Kind regards, Sasha Coates Here is the attachment: Re. Your complaint regarding your chosen cover options I write further to our letter of 14th July 2009. Following receipt of your complaint we investigated the on-line sales process you followed to obtain your policy. We can confirm that you opted for a Backpacker policy with cover option 1. I have included a copy of your policy schedule which details the cover selected. I have also included screen shots of the relevant internet pages that you would have viewed to purchase this level of cover. Due to a system error the covering sales conformation email stated that you had Personal Money Possessions & Cancellation cover, however, we feel that this does not detract from the fact that you were aware at the time of purchase that this was not what you selected or paid for. Additionally the policy documentation that was attached to the email was all correct and the contract was therefore incepted as selected in good faith. On this basis I feel that you claim has been correctly declined on the basis that the policy cover options you selected for your travel insurance policy did not include cover for the loss of money. In writing this letter, I have attempted to provide a clear and full explanation as to why I am unable to support your complaint. I appreciate that you may not be pleased but I hope you at least understand why I have come to the conclusion I have. Should you wish to pursue the matter further, you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. In this respect, this letter may be regarded as our Final Response. I enclose a copy of the Financial Ombudsman Service’s leaflet and must advise that, should you decide to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service, you must do so within 6 months of the date of this letter. Please note that any complaint submitted to the Financial Ombudsman Service must be made against AIG UK Ltd, the underwriter of the Direct Travel Insurance Services policy. Yours sincerely Sasha Coates So my question as before, do I have a leg to stand on? Many thanks

Unfortantly I think that type of question falls outside the 'skill' criteria, you have to ask a question which takes some form of skill, like a crossword. I have been looking into this for a different reason and the only loophole I can find is a society lottery, ie users have to sign up so they are part of a society!

Thank you very much Tori - I shall be sure to post every step of the way Thanks welshcakes, I may be being a bit of an idiot here but I keep reading about putting your charges (when you get the) into a spreadsheet available on here - but I cant find it! any chance of a link? Ive been reading through the foru for a while now, before I sent of my SAR, its great Im going to move onto barclaycard next and get them defaults removed :)

Well I decided to try an claim my charges back, ive done the 1st stage and asked for my statement details and sent them the cheque for £10 using the teplate from CAG, I recieved the standard letter from them saying sorry blah blah blah and they hope to resolve my issue by the 18th of July. Nervous anticipation awaits!

Well I decided to try an claim my charges back, ive done the 1st stage and asked for my statement details and sent them the cheque for £10 using the teplate from CAG, I recieved the standard letter from them saying sorry blah blah blah and they hope to resolve my issue by the 18th of July. So whats next