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Consumer Action Group critcises the insurance industry.
A consumer watchdog known as the Consumer Action Group (CAG) has criticised the insurance industry for not being clear enough when it comes to selling insurance, particularly travel insurance. CAG has criticised the insurance industry for applying British standards to claims that have been made from individuals abroad. Insurance is a notoriously precise business. People are always warned that they should check their terms and conditions thoroughly to make sure that they know exactly what they are covered for should it come to making a claim. These Terms and Conditions documents are often extremely long, and in order to help people insurance companies are increasingly producing ‘Key Facts’ documents that involve the main important points of the terms and conditions to a smaller amount of information. The problem is that there is no way for the insurance company to work out what is actually a ‘Key Fact’ and what is not. If you have a travel insurance terms and conditions document that is 64 pages long, any ‘Key Facts’ document is going to leave something out that could be important. Should the policyholder choose only to read this ‘Key Facts’ document and then need to claim from a situation that the Terms and Conditions said that the company wouldn’t pay out for, the company is within it’s rights to say that it won’t pay. CAG pointed out that the mere presence of a key facts booklet suggests that large portions of the terms and conditions do not require reading, otherwise there would be no point having a summarised version. The insurance industry pointed out however that it has always suggested that people should read the full terms and conditions in the event of uncertainty, and that it could not include everything within the key facts booklet otherwise its existence would irrelevant. The advice suggested is, as usual, to make sure that you know the ins and outs of your insurance policy, no matter how dull or hard going all the terms and conditions may be. It is also generally good advice to talk over as many eventualities as you can with the individual from whom you are buying the insurance as they will be able to tell you whether your policy covers all eventualities. Obviously, this is not 100% possible all of the time, but it could possibly save a lot of hassle and a lot of grief should the unforeseen arise. The flaws highlight by CAG particularly in regard to travel insurance do not apply only to travel insurance. They apply to all insurance particularly as insurers work very hard to make sure they have calculated every possible risk, and incorporated this into the price of the premium. Whatever insurance policy you get, make sure that you know it covers you for absolutely anything. For house insurance try RIAS.
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Article Added Tuesday, 03 March 2009 |
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