Travel Insurance Question

[hazzaboy69]

I lost a pair of glasses on holiday recently and replaced them now the travel insurance company are saying they wont pay out because I dont have a police report. I lost them in the middle of nowhere in Australia what do you think I can do to try and make them pay? or am I wasting my time?

[oldsoak]

Would really depend on what your insurance policy conditions/fine print said was covered and what was needed in event of a claim.
If it states that in circumstances of loss you must report the loss to the police and obtain a reference number /report/whatever, and you haven't done that...you would be (IMHO) wasting your time pursuing the matter further. Put it down to experience and next time report the loss to the authorities and obtain proof of reporting.

Edit for spooling mistonks

Edited by oldsoak on Tuesday 24th July 11:09

[davido140]

they do this as it is an utter nightmare to get a police report number in a lot of "tourist" destination. my hotel room got robbed in amsterdam a few years back. took about 5 hours of waiting to make a report!

I lost my ipod skiing, was about an hours drive to the nearest police station!!

Unless its a major theft/loss a lot of people wont bother, saving the insurance company lots.

[hazzaboy69]

Well a replacement cost me £225 and I paid £60 on the policy so im pissed off that I am now £285 down. I will ring them tommorow and kick up a fuss but like you say they probably wont pay. To have reported it would certainly have meant missing a flight.

[Jasandjules]

First rule of insurance - avoid paying out at all costs.

That is all they are trying to do is make it as difficult as possible for you to claim.

[mmm-five]

Had a similar problem when I broke a ski last year. The insurance company insisted I needed a police report, even though the ski had not been lost or stolen.

After letters back and forth, and sending the broken ski to them, they agreed to pay for one ski as that's all that was broken.

Luckily the hand-written invoice from my purchase of the skis in Canada didn't have a currency on it and just a shop name so I got paid 50% of £700 rather than 50% of CDN $700 - which was nice!

[JustinP1]

Jasandjules said:

First rule of insurance - avoid paying out at all costs.

That is all they are trying to do is make it as difficult as possible for you to claim.

Agreed.

However, on the other hand with travel insurance if you didnt need to have a police report it would be very easy to claim that your semi-pro camcorder was taken from your bag/room/under towel and the insurance company would have to pay out for fraudulent claims which would bump up the prices for everyone.

[Deva Link]

hazzaboy69 said:

I lost a pair of glasses on holiday recently and replaced them now the travel insurance company are saying they wont pay out because I dont have a police report. I lost them in the middle of nowhere in Australia what do you think I can do to try and make them pay? or am I wasting my time?

I've no idea if this is possible, but couldn't you find the relevant Police force and drop them an email (or even give them a call using one of 1p/min services)?

UK Police will give a crime number over the phone.

My daughter smashed one of the lenses in her glasses which have special (and expensive) glass lenses while in Prague for a weekend and our house insurance paid out no problem, and allowed us to go to our own optician, and paid for a new pair of lenses (so the colour would match) without query.

I've made various insurance claims over the years and can't think I've ever had a problem.