Credits or refunds on unused travel insurance

[bPeteb]

If there is a Travel Insurance Direct thread apologies, I couldn't find one. Please merge if there is.

We have a TID policy for our trip to our not happening trip to South Africa in July. We had no ability to claim anything on it and had written it off. Bigal randomly decided to check their site about refunds and they are actually offering the possibility of getting a credit. It's better than nothing considering we usually use them.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) FAQs

I applied yesterday afternoon and from how I read the response I get I'm pretty sure we'll be getting it. I just needed to provide detail of why we can't travel and that it's not because we actually have COVID (we don't). The only thing that is a bit of a bummer is credit must be redeemed by June 30 next year but fingers crossed by then we'll be planning overseas travel again.

Hopefully I'll get confirmation today.

 

[bPeteb]

TID has confirmed credit this morning -

How to redeem your credit:

- Purchase a new travel insurance policy from us; and contact us to redeem your credit by 30 June 2021, advising us of your new policy number; and

- The original value of your policy TIDAUSxx_ will be refunded to the purchaser via the original payment method where available. We may ask you to provide your bank details to process this refund.


Terms of credit:

- Travel insurance credit is redeemed by refunding the original value of the policy after a new policy is purchased. It cannot be redeemed at the time of the new policy purchase or before;

- At least one insured traveller from TIDAUSxx_ needs to be listed on the new policy;

- Credit must be redeemed by 30 June 2021. Travel does not have to commence before this date;

- The credit offer cannot be redeemed if you use this policy TIDAUSxx_ in any way;
a) you have travelled on this policy;
b) a claim is submitted or you want to exercise any other right under the policy;
c) the policy is cancelled before the credit is redeemed.

- This offer of credit is not transferable;

- Credit is applicable to the purchase of travel insurance which is managed by nib Travel Services (Australia) Pty Limited on behalf of the underwriter;

- All insurance is subject to eligibility rules and policy terms and conditions made available at the time of booking. Rates and plans may change without notice. Any premium difference between any new policy and the original policy is payable by you at the time of purchase;

- We reserve the right to cancel the credit and any associated purchase without compensation if you do not comply with these terms and conditions.

 

[blackcat20]

Our policy expires in two weeks so not much point now, but pity they werent doing this a few months ago.

 

[drivatruk]

For your next trip considerations I've used auspost twice. 1 easy claim for dropped phone and i Just cancelled for a full refund on my last policy which had already commenced. I totally forgot about it and called them 4 days in annd they cancelled without issue.

 

[Mattg]

After reading this thread, I just logged in to Insureandgo and discovered that I'm eligible for a $602 credit towards a future policy due to not using 8 months of my current travel insurance policy. I've now submitted a credit request, will see what they say...

Thanks @bpeteb!

 

[Pushka]

I've already claimed on mine for March Bali Covid cancellation, and will be doing another July cancellation one when the Smart Traveller website updates.
This is a good idea for those who never got to use it but should have been done a while ago. I guess they mitigated the risk in terms of $ of offering it.

 

[Mattg]

After reading this thread, I just logged in to Insureandgo and discovered that I'm eligible for a $602 credit towards a future policy due to not using 8 months of my current travel insurance policy. I've now submitted a credit request, will see what they say...

Thanks @bpeteb!

Update: Credit was approved in under 4 hours.

 

[JohnM]

All of my flights, tours and other arrangements for the 13 week DONE4 I should have been a month into have now been cancelled.

My TI was with Columbus Direct, so I checked their web site to see what they were offering in the way of refunds or credits. This is what they have up:

If I am no longer travelling can I cancel my policy and get a refund?


Outside of the 19-day cooling-off period, the policy does not permit cancellation and refund as standard. However, we do understand that the current COVID-19 situation represents an exceptional set of circumstances. As such, as a gesture of goodwill, Columbus Direct and the underwriters are currently willing to consider offering a refund of the unused portion of your policy premium, excluding irrecoverable administrative and promotional costs. The detail of the partial refund that would apply to your policy is available on request and subject to no claims having been made on the policy. You should carefully consider whether you wish to cancel a policy and the cover it provides before proceeding.

I've emailed them requesting a refund. The whole policy was unused.

It will be interesting to see what they offer and what their 'irrecoverable administrative and promotional costs' are as a proportion of the premium.

 

[LHT]

Our policy expires in two weeks so not much point now, but pity they werent doing this a few months ago.

I paid for TID insurance on Jan 24th 2020 for travel to the US on 17th March 2020. I contacted them on March 14th asking what their policy was if we didn't travel. Our flights were not cancelled at this stage. I received a response form TID on 30th April 2020 offering me the same credit.

 

[JohnM]

All of my flights, tours and other arrangements for the 13 week DONE4 I should have been a month into have now been cancelled.

My TI was with Columbus Direct, so I checked their web site to see what they were offering in the way of refunds or credits. This is what they have up:

If I am no longer travelling can I cancel my policy and get a refund?


Outside of the 19-day cooling-off period, the policy does not permit cancellation and refund as standard. However, we do understand that the current COVID-19 situation represents an exceptional set of circumstances. As such, as a gesture of goodwill, Columbus Direct and the underwriters are currently willing to consider offering a refund of the unused portion of your policy premium, excluding irrecoverable administrative and promotional costs. The detail of the partial refund that would apply to your policy is available on request and subject to no claims having been made on the policy. You should carefully consider whether you wish to cancel a policy and the cover it provides before proceeding.

I've emailed them requesting a refund. The whole policy was unused.

It will be interesting to see what they offer and what their 'irrecoverable administrative and promotional costs' are as a proportion of the premium.

Update.

I'm impressed.

I emailed them at just after 1000h WST. Reply just after 1400h WST.

On a policy that cost $527 they offer a refund of $342.55. A quick calculation shows that is 65%.

I think that is quite reasonable. There has to be some give and take under these terrible circumstances.

I'm happy.

 

[JohnM]

Update on the Columbus Direct refund.

I accepted the refund offer last night.

Refund made to my CC this morning.

 

[awaywithfairies]

Thanks for the tip. I was supposed to be leaving on a 3 day cruise on 5 June and am insured with TID. I've just submitted a cancellation request. Will see what the outcome is.

 

[Beano]

I booked a flight and took out cancellation insurance with Air NZ for NZ domestic travel before Covid-19 cancellations started. The airline cancelled the flight and eventually refunded the fare, and the insurance premium. It was not a large sum but much appreciated considering what I have heard about fare refunds.

 

[Jurahn]

I purchased a policy with TID for a two-week domestic trip in May, which of course had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 - technically the policy has expired (as my trip would have ended on May 20) but I wasn't aware that they were offering the credit, so have put in an application. A little disappointed hat I never received any notification from TID that it was possible to apply for a credit - they've sent me a couple of generic promotional emails recently ("tell us your plans for future travel" type of thing) but nothing else.

To be honest, I didn't even bother to check their website as when I previously had to cancel a trip due to unforeseen and extenuating circumstances, I contacted TID only to be told that they wouldn't refund the policy outside of the cooling off period, so I thought there was no point in even asking this time as I purchased the policy back in October last year. .

 

[djd]

After reading this thread, I just logged in to Insureandgo and discovered that I'm eligible for a $602 credit towards a future policy due to not using 8 months of my current travel insurance policy. I've now submitted a credit request, will see what they say...

Thanks @bpeteb!

I wish you luck: even though I had used Insure and Go many times, they refused me a credit

 

[debgow]

Got an email from Columbus this morning stating “
Given the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic and its unprecedented impact across the world, we have made the difficult decision to suspend sales of our travel insurance products indefinitely.

We are writing as we note you have an Annual Multi-Trip policy (Schedule No. xx_xx_x) which expires on 17 March 2021. Whilst your current policy will not be affected, unfortunately it does mean that we are not in a position to offer you the opportunity to purchase another policy when it expires. Should you require a travel insurance policy at this time then you may wish to refer to the Find an Insurer tool at the Insurance Council of Australia’s website”
Presume that means Columbus Direct travel insurance is closing up shop?

 

[Mattg]

I wish you luck: even though I had used Insure and Go many times, they refused me a credit

I applied online and the credit was approved a few hours later. Took me all of a few minutes to apply!

In my case, I had a single-trip policy and coverage ended (due to the "do not travel" advice) 4 months into the 12-month policy. I received a credit roughly equivalent to the value of the remaining 8 months worth of coverage.

On the flip side, I was overseas on 18 March and was unable to claim expenses that I incurred to get back to Australia after then at short notice. That would have been better, but I'm OK with it.

Presume that means Columbus Direct travel insurance is closing up shop?

Most travel insurers are not selling any new policies at the moment. I assume most will start issuing insurance again once international travel returns to normal, but at this point we don't know when that will be.

 

[willclan]

I had 2 Domestic travel insurance policies with Medibank Private. Received a full refund when I stated I would not make a claim on the policies. Also offered a full credit for future use, but preferred the cash.

 

[Jurahn]

I had 2 Domestic travel insurance policies with Medibank Private. Received a full refund when I stated I would not make a claim on the policies. Also offered a full credit for future use, but preferred the cash.

I'd prefer cash as well, but TID isn't offering that as an option - I'll be happy to at least get a credit approved, considering I didn't think I'd be eligible for anything at all.

 

[Tassey69]

If there is a Travel Insurance Direct thread apologies, I couldn't find one. Please merge if there is.

We have a TID policy for our trip to our not happening trip to South Africa in July. We had no ability to claim anything on it and had written it off. Bigal randomly decided to check their site about refunds and they are actually offering the possibility of getting a credit. It's better than nothing considering we usually use them.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) FAQs

I applied yesterday afternoon and from how I read the response I get I'm pretty sure we'll be getting it. I just needed to provide detail of why we can't travel and that it's not because we actually have COVID (we don't). The only thing that is a bit of a bummer is credit must be redeemed by June 30 next year but fingers crossed by then we'll be planning overseas travel again.

Hopefully I'll get confirmation today.