Insure & Go claim went on and on

In September 2016, I was booked to fly to Brazil to meet an English photographer to see and photograph jaguars.

This trip was extremely important to me as I had saved hard and there was only going to be one other person with the photographer so I would have had a lot of help with my photography. Then I became ill with a chest infection, saw the doctor and was advised not to travel as the journey would take nearly 24 hours. I couldn’t even have driven myself to Heathrow.

Needless to say, I was devastated.

I duly submitted a claim form to Insure & Go, which I had been insured with for a few years. A part of it was filled in, as requested, by my doctor.

Question five was “has she ever had this before?” He answered “Yes”. Then it asked “If so, how many times in the past five years?” He replied, “Once, in June 2014.”

Now Insure & Go is doing everything in its power to avoid paying me.

I would be extremely grateful if you could do anything possible to get my money refunded. PK, WEST SUSSEX

Insure & Go wrote back to say that it had noted that you had had multiple chest infections since June 2014 and that you had not declared them in your medical declarations. It, therefore, wanted full access to all your medical records.

You responded that it had misread the doctor’s form. You had had no chest infections between June 2014 and September 2016.

This was ignored. Feeling it having access to all your medical records was an infringement of your privacy, you went to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) on this issue.

It was agreed that the insurer could ask specific questions which would be sent to you, to see before being forwarded to the doctor. These questions turned out to be unacceptable to you.

A stalemate was reached. The month before you wrote to me the FOS had informed you that it could no longer help.

After I contacted Insure & Go it emailed you asking for permission to speak to me, which you gave. It didn’t, though, keep me in the loop.

It now says this is because it had not passed on details of your consent to its underwriters and, in future, it will change procedures and see that this happens.

In fact 18 days after I had approached Insure and Go, you received a cheque for £4,545 for the claim and an offer of £147 interest for late payment.

Then, out of the blue, the underwriter called the FOS and said it was paying up. The FOS had not expected to hear from the underwriter as it was no longer involved and had never looked into the actual claim. Meanwhile, you also copied myself and the FOS in on a letter to Insure & Go questioning the interest calculation.

The FOS looked at this element and agreed with you that the interest should increase to £511 as it had not been worked out over the correct time span.

Insure & Go came back saying: “Helping our customers in a timely and friendly way is a top priority for us, but sometimes it can take a while to reach a resolution.”

Insure & Go said it had never received a reply from the GP. This is hardly surprising because, for one thing, you had not given him permission to reveal all your medical information.

Also he had given the correct answer to what he had been asked first time around.

Insure & Go also said it had been working with the FOS as if it had been doing so all along. Really the FOS had only been involved in the information issue and, latterly, the interest calculation.

Insure & Go has admitted to you that it had made a mistake on the interest calculation.

It is sorry for the delay and for any inconvenience caused.

That this has all been resolved at last is a great weight off your mind, but it has not been an easy win.