KATIE MORLEY INVESTIGATES

If a company has let you down, our consumer champion is here to fight your corner

LETTER OF THE WEEK Axa left us to pay £58,000 hospital bill after US trip

I write in the hope that you will be able to help my wife and me to resolve a situation that could be ruinous for us.

We travelled to Florida in June, before which she had been having stomach pains, suspected to be caused by gallstones. She had blood tests and was given the all clear. We took out travel insurance with Coverwise, a subsidiary of Axa, and told them about this.

In Florida my wife fell seriously ill and was admitted to hospital. She had emergency surgery to remove a gallstone and a piece of her intestine. We had to extend our stay in the United States while she recovered. She racked up a medical bill of around $150,000 (£116,000).

To our horror, Axa said it wouldn’t pay. It was satisfied that my wife had declared anything that could have been linked to the gallstones, but it took issue with the fact that she had failed to declare that she also had mild osteoarthritis in her knees and fingers.

For three weeks we were beside ourselves, thinking we were on the hook for a £116,000 bill. Then Axa flippantly told us it had made an “error” and would actually pay 50pc of the claim, leaving us with £58,000 to pay.

It seems to have no concept that these are life-changing amounts of money to us. A £58,000 bill is still devastating. I was hoping to retire soon, but this bill will wipe out our savings and eat up some of my tax-free pension lump sum. It seems terribly unfair.

SM, MANCHESTER

As far as insurers go, Axa is usually one of the fairer-minded. However, in your case it has been both sloppy and unreasonable. For three weeks it left you thinking you had £116,000 to pay – casually correcting itself later with little regard for your feelings. You say you were so stressed during this period that you barely slept. For this, you still don’t feel you’ve had a proper apology.

But from what I can see, Axa’s graver mistake was to use the nondisclosure of a few minor aches and pains as a reason not to cover the full cost of your wife’s gallstone treatment. I consulted a doctor on whether a medical link between osteoarthritis and gallstones existed. I was told it did not.

Given that your wife had fully declared all medical information relevant to her claim, and given that this risk was priced into her premium, how could Axa possibly justify paying only half the bill? I gave it 48 hours to reconsider.

I’m afraid the insurer dug its heels in. It said your wife’s failure to declare

Write to Katie Morley, Telegraph Money, The Daily Telegraph, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT

Please do not send original documents. Include an address, phone number and separate notes addressed to all organisations authorising them to talk to Katie. For full terms see p3 or visit telegraph.co.uk/go/ consumerchampion. You can also email kminvestigates@ telegraph.co.uk her osteoarthritis meant her premium was 50pc lower than it should have been, so it could pay only 50pc of the claim. I think it suspects that she deliberately concealed an achy knee and fingers to get cheaper insurance.

It dawned on me that polite nudges weren’t going to be enough to make Axa see its own error. So I rolled up my sleeves and went for the jugular.

I firmly believe your wife acted in good faith. The aches in her fingers and knees were particularly mild – so mild that she didn’t even take the medication she was given by the GP. Joint pain is something felt by virtually everyone once they reach a certain age.

For many people in their 60s, such as your wife, it is thought of as an annoying part of everyday life. That it didn’t spring to mind when Axa asked her to declare her medical conditions I find perfectly plausible.

Further to this, your wife does not work in insurance and cannot have been reasonably expected to know that mild osteoarthritis would so significantly affect her premium. If anything, it seems absurd of Axa to price in minor joint pain as if it were equally risky to potentially more serious conditions. If she were trying to pull a fast one, wouldn’t she have kept quiet about her other problems too?

Also on my evidential buffet cart for Axa was a note from your wife’s GP. The note confirmed that she did not take medication for her joints. It echoed my previously obtained medical advice that this and her gallstones were in no way linked. The GP urged Axa to pay her claim in full.

In case all this wasn’t enough to satisfy the giant insurer, I reminded it of an amendment to the Insurance Act 2013, which directly applies to your case. It prevents insurers denying payouts because of accidental nondisclosure of information that has no relevance to the claim. And as two doctors had now testified, the nondisclosure of your wife’s osteoarthritis

I’m nearly 80 and have a reasonable grasp of internet activities, but I’m at my wits’ end with my Amazon account. It is in the name of my late wife.

In September I went on holiday and, when I got home, there were three packages from Amazon, which I had not ordered. I checked my credit card and discovered that other items worth £700 had been ordered and sent to alternative addresses.

There were also emails confirming that I had rung Amazon and changed my password. It seems a hacker has got into my account. I’ve tried to contact Amazon, but it doesn’t recognise me as a customer and won’t ring me back.

I am locked out of the account and can’t access a library of around 400 Kindle books that my family has collected over the years. It is very frustrating.

Hackers spent £700 using my Amazon account

TB, CHESHIRE

There appears to have been a spate of Amazon account hackings recently, as my mailbox has been brimming with similar complaints. When big companies come under siege from cyber criminals it is up to them to bolster their defences.

It is alarming to hear that Amazon isn’t making it easy for people such as you to report fraudulent purchases and make accounts secure. The fraudsters must be having a field day.

I got in touch with Amazon and, following my involvement, it has now refunded the £700 of rogue purchases made through your account. Your account is secure, it told me, and you now have full access again. It has also offered you a £30 gift card as a gesture of goodwill.