Axa Travel Insurance Scam and Breach of ICOBS

March 27th, 2011

I bought single trip travel insurance with Axa when booking a flight with Ryanair to France in June 2010.

There was a delay due to an air traffic controllers strike coming back and I got to the airport to find a massive queue of angy and distraught people. I could instantly hear different people talking about the flight being cancelled due to the strike and by the time I got to the checkout all I was offered was a flight back to the UK on the following Tuesday ( it was Thursday afternoon ). I was told there was nothing else available as all the other people in front of me had booked everything up. NIGHTMARE!

I am self employed and had work commitments on Friday, Monday and Tuesday and could not afford to miss all those days off work. I managed to get another flight back on Saturday afternoon with BMI and arranged for my sister to come to Gatwick pick me up and take me back home to Devon ( she’s a little angel ).

I obviously went and made a claim on my travel insurance immediately for the two extra nights stay, my extra flight to Gatwick, food and the travel costs to and from each airport.

Axa really put me through the mill trying to make this claim. They blatantly used stalling and time wasting tactics to try and wear me down over the 5/6 month period. I was ringing them on a weekly basis and emailing them all the time as well. It was a real nightmare dealing with them as it would often take anywhere from 2 - 4 weeks to get a response by email from them. I kept chasing and pushing and the most annoying thing was that they would ask for an individual receipt or question on each email. They wouldn’t look at my claim and ask all the questions in one go, they just dragged in out over months! The last three or four phone calls I made before starting legal action against them they would keep telling me my claim was ” in the final stages “; this was over a two month period! How long does it take to make a decision?

After I threatened legal action in December 2010 I suddenly got a payment of £80 into my bank. I was soooooo angry I couldn’t believe it. They wouldn’t give me an explanation or a breakdown of how they arrived at that amount and so I did the only thing left to me - court action.

I read the terms and conditions of the travel insurance quite carefully to make sure I was covered when I made the initial purchase. I’m more than aware that insurance companies will do anything to try and get out of paying you and was happy that I had the level of cover I needed from the insurance.

Axa had already breach their own terms of service in claims handling by not responding to me within the 5 working days ( their own guidelines for response times ) and I was sure they’d breached other guidelines and regulations as well.

I also did a little bit of research into standards within the Insurance industry, specifically relating to claims handling.

ICOBS ( Insurance Code of Business Sourcebook ) states quite clearly that the insurer should:

handle claims promptly and fairly;
provide reasonable guidance to help policyholders make a claim;
not unreasonably reject a claim; and
settle claims promptly once settlement terms are agreed

Well Axa failed on many levels to comply with ICOBS in the handling of my claim.

My case is set to be heard in April and despite not requesting mediation, I had a call from the court mediation service the other day and Axa now want to attempt to settle out of court. They think they’re going to get away with making a silly offer . . . . . but they’re going to be in for a shock!!

The intenet is littered with hundreds of people who’ve had nightmares trying to get Axa to honour travel insurance claims. Here’s a few links to some of Axa’s unhappy customers:

Mediation call is in 2 weeks and will add the outcome to this post then.

Read about the outcome of my call here - Axa Mediation end in stalemate over non-disclosure issue

Posted in Axa Insurance

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Axa Travel Insurance Scam and Breach of ICOBS