Travel

Make sure you complain to Financial Ombudsman Service

2 out of 5. reviewed on Nov 25, 2015

My Cebu Pacific flight in Philippines was cancelled due to bad weather. I wrote to TID; after admitting that the policy covered flight cancellations due to bad weather, its assessor Cerberus Special Risks claimed that it needed more documentation, which I sent to it. Even for low cost airlines, the assessor wants a letter stating that no recompense has occurred although I substituted a nil return from my Cebu Pacific travel fund.

The assessor then settled the claim for a miniscule amount but suggested that the Product Disclosure Statemen

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t mandated that only the higher of my cancelled flight cost and my replacement flight with AirAsiaPhilippines would be covered, and of course the standard excess would be deducted.

Given TID s advertising and the ambiguities in its PDS, I have written twice to the Financial Ombudsman Service Limited by mail = the most effective method - at GPO Box 3, Melbourne 3001 asking it to investigate and seek resolution.

Insurers like TID through their assessors hope that insured parties with claims will simply give up and go away because the amount involved is trifling.

However if 20,000 claimants give up and the average value of their claim after deducting the standard A$100 excess is $150, that is as much as $3 million (less assessor costs) in profits for TID and its underwriters such as

Lloyds.

Don t give up, and don t bother with asking for your partly or fully denied claim to be internally reviewed by Cerberus Special Risks.

While it may have 45 days to respond, far better to go direct to the Financial Ombudsman and put the insurer and its assessor on notice that you are dissatisfied with a claim being fully or partly denied.

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