Our travel cover contradicts itself

On a trip to Cheshire my 17-year-old daughter tripped on some outside steps at a friend’s house and cracked her two upper front teeth, breaking off a large piece of one of them.

The incident happened on a Saturday and the next day, as she was in pain from nerve exposure, she attended an emergency dental clinic to have a temporary cap fitted, before a full repair could be arranged at a later date.

The cost of the emergency dental work was £230.

We have annual travel insurance with More Than and, on checking the details, I found that we were entitled to “up to £1,000 for the necessary and reasonable costs of the result of your becoming ill, injured or dying during a trip within your home country”.

It seems clear-cut to me that we should be covered.

However, More Than is denying my claim by referring to the one-line entry in the index relating to this section of the policy. Confusingly, this refers to “medical and other expenses outside of your home country”.

I have reached the end of the line on this and wondered if you might be able to help. MC, WEST LOTHIAN

I spoke to the underwriter, Allianz Global Assistance UK, about this and it came back to apologise “sincerely for the service Mr C has experienced as a result of submitting a travel insurance claim for emergency dental care on behalf of his daughter, which was initially declined”.

On further examination of the claim it then confirmed that the event was indeed covered under the clause you had cited. It agreed to process the claim as a matter of priority.

It said: “We take very seriously any customer service issues and will be looking to review our policy wording in order to remove any ambiguity

and ensure this case is not repeated.”

I suggested that it should also pay you some money as a goodwill gesture and it has now given an additional £50 on top of the reimbursement.

You are delighted that this has reached a satisfactory conclusion.

92-year-old mother, for whom I have power of attorney. I suggested she sell some shares in certificated form and Alliance Trust Savings, which I intended to sell them through, replied unequivocally that it could do this.

We sent off the certificate 10 days later, only to be told that Alliance Trust Savings had terminated this facility, bizarrely two days after my inquiry, to “new” customers.

Since this notification I have spent ages on the phone

and have sent many emails. Quite a few of them have been unanswered. GS, LONDON

This is about Alliance Trust Savings’ certificated dealing service, which was withdrawn rather suddenly earlier this year.

The last dealing date for “new customers” was Jan 19, a mere two days after you had made contact. No one had thought to tell you that the service you were asking about was about to

be terminated when you got in touch.

“New customers” were defined as those who did not have a fully registered account with Alliance Trust Savings or who had not used the certificated dealing service within the previous three months.

For “existing customers” the last dealing date was Feb 28.

As it could still deal while this was happening I asked why, given the circumstances, it could not