Travel Insurance is one of the most lucrative businesses on the Internet If you have a credit card you have probably had the card issuers telemarketing brigade try to sell you insurance at some time over the phone.
The main features are always emblazoned on advertisements and the cost is relatively cheap, or is it?

Ever heard of ‘Proximate Cause’ ?  If you ever have to make a claim you soon will.

An example of Proximate Cause would be, if you have a headache and take 2 paracetamol tablets to relive the pain, then have a violent reaction to the paracetamol causing you to cancel your holiday. The cause that started this chain of events is the headache (Proximate Cause). So you probably had a pre-existing condition either diagnosed or un-diagnosed and you are not covered. What caused the headache?

Like me you probably would have thought the cause was the paracetamol. Not so. (Violent Reaction)
Recently I had the misfortune to make a claim with Egg Travel Insurance a policy underwritten by AXA Insurance UK plc. Egg Financial Intermediation Limited is permitted to arrange and offer for sale general insurance. Egg Financial Intermediation Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Prudential UK Holdings Limited.
Did you know that 50 million people and businesses have put their trust in the AXA Group of companies?
That’s a lot of premiums.
Who’s claims department AXA Claims is nothing to do with Egg Travel Insurance or AXA insurance.

My wife who has Multiple Sclerosis had a violent reaction to Morphine which her GP had prescribed the day before we travelled, my wife had a pain in her groin and the morphine was for pain relief. The pain undiagnosed and the Morphine untried. However the reaction to this drug meant that my wife was to be admitted as an emergency to hospital, she remained in hospital for seven weeks undergoing tests for the undiagnosed symptoms. She even had key hole surgery . Two consultants could not determine the cause of the pain. A further consultant decided that it must be the MS.

The holiday was cancelled because of the violent un-expected reaction to morphine.
The GP stated this and that also my wife was fit to travel.  But for the Morphine taken by my wife she would have been okay to travel.
Egg Travel Insurance however decided it was MS that caused the holiday to be cancelled.

Imagine if the telemarketing team at Egg Travel Insurance telephone 2 Million people and sell a cheap policy to 1 million people at £35 a time, they would have taken in a gross of £35 million pounds. I wonder how much and how often they pay anything out?

Whoever you decide to take out travel insurance with, for your own peace of mind check what’s covered, read the small print and never buy on the telephone. See the policy document first.