WEEKS of uncertainty over holiday claims

BELEAGUERED holidaymakers face weeks without any information on their insurance claims as firms struggle to deal with travel chaos.

Customers are also being forced to wait up to 95 minutes to be connected to their insurer as they battle to reclaim their money, a Which? investigation shows.

Travellers say they are getting stuck in the middle of a blame game as insurers and airlines try to pass the buck for paying out.

One man was left £226 out of pocket for five months while an airline, bank and insurer squabbled over liability for his loss after his trip to Malaysia and Japan was cancelled.

In a survey of 95 members, Which? found insurers were also providing poor levels of customer service. For example, one customer spoke with nine staff at a travel insurer, over one 70-minute call, just to get a claims form.

The consumer champion is recommending that claimants contact their insurer directly for advice before claiming, to keep detailed records of events and interactions with companies, challenge the terms and conditions of policies, and not to give up in their pursuit of a result.

It comes as figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) show a quarter of the 3,500 virus-related complaints it has received are from travellers who have had claims for disrupted trips denied by their insurer.

The ombudsman has also received around 200 complaints about claims made to banks by customers trying to get refunds by using Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

The law means credit card providers are jointly liable with the retailer for any breach of contract covering goods worth between £100 and £30,000.

The FOS also says it has already received more complaints from small businesses this year than the whole of last year.

These were mainly about business interruption insurance and virus-related loan schemes.