Do you buy your travel insurance from a travel agent?
Written by Karen BryanThe UK Treasury is investigating the sale of travel insurance purchased as part of a package from travel agents. At present travel insurance bought as part of a package is not subject to the same Financial Servies Authority (FSA) regulation as stand alone travel insurance. I know that travel agents make good commission on selling insurance to customers. Travel agents are opposed to the extension of FSA regulation and assert they are in the best position to offer pertinent advice on an appropriate policy, offer convenience to the customer and ensure that the customer is immediately covered and doesn’t forget to buy an insurance policy later. The British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) believes that self regulation cover sold by travel agent does not always offer the best protection and is often overpriced.
I can not remember the last time I purchased travel insurance from a travel agent as I always thought it was too expensive. Even in the days before the internet I would look at travel insurance ads in a Sunday paper and phone around for a few quotes. You can read my advice about travel insurance.
Update 27/6/07 :
The decision has been taken that insurance sold by travel agents will be subject to FSA regulation from 2009.
I’m sure that they are in the best position to advise on what the best policy is, but they never take advantage of that position and in practice they simply sell the insurance policy that is put out by their parent company.
I’ve never had any of them ask questions about pre-existing conditions (eg diabetic, pregnancy, etc.) which can have a significant impact on the insurance cover that you actually need and the problem is that you would never know that the policy was unsuitable until you tried to claim.
The thing is if travel agents are acting professionally and in the best interests of their customers, why are they opposing regulatation by FSA?
I have just read that BIBA has today released the results of a survey which reveals that 97% of consumers back the proposal for travel insurance sold by travel agents to be covered by FSa regulations for example: 72% of customers were not advised by travel agents if there cover included acts of terrorism, 45% of customers were not made aware of the policy excess. You can read more:
http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1116042.php?mpnlog=1
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I normally dont buy a policy from my travel agent. I stick to the bones of travel inurance that i get from my life insurance or auto polices
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