Insure and Wait on Hold (Insure and Go)

Member Name: grovej

Product:	Insure and Go
Date:	14/03/05 (2148 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No human interaction, Good Value

Disadvantages: Customer services

I was booking my holiday over the pond and thought I better get myself some insurance don’t want to be caught out. So I went to my favourite website Greasy Palm to see what cash backs I could get for travel insurance, there were a number available Direct Line, American Express and others, but Insure and Go were offering 5% back and had a reasonable quote, so I decided to go with them.

~~~~~~~~~~~Buying the Policy~~~~~~~~~~~
Purchasing the policy was easy enough the website is easy to navigate on the first screen you are asked to choose what type of trip, single, annual, ski, backpackers, over 65, and business. For my trip I only wanted a single trip policy so this review focuses on that type of policy.

Once single trip has been selected you are asked for the details of the trip Europe, World exc USA and Canada, etc. You then enter the dates of travel and the number of travellers and their ages, all travellers must be UK/EIRE residents.

You are then presented with a summary of the cover that is available for me it was economy, silver, gold, and Silver annual. You can click on any of the items covered to get more detail on the cover being provided, once you have decided on the level you want another screen is presented where you can select options such as, doubling the excess, or waiving the excess, and add winter sports, business or golf cover.

Once the policy has been defined you add more detail on the travellers, this is the party lead address, date of birth and a declaration about pre-existing medical conditions. You also enter the name and DOB and complete the declaration for all other travelling members.

The confirmation screen now shows, once you have checked that all is OK it moves you on to the painful bit of paying. On this screen you can pay an extra pound to have your policy sent to you, which I did the policy pack contains the following things and seemed good value for a pound.

Travel Club Members Card / Policy Card We provide you with your own policyholder card. The card provides a convenient way for you to take your policy details with you on every trip and includes all the emergency numbers should you require assistance while you’re away.

InsureandGo Smart Labels
Millions of items are lost every year by travellers. To provide you with a little more added protection we will send you our free Smart Labels - unique to InsureandGo customers. All you have to do is attach the Smart Labels to your luggage and personal items and should you lose any of your belongings, the labels provide a convenient way for those finding them to contact you.

InsureandGo Discount Booklet.
Inside this useful little booklet you'll find even more ways to save loads of cash with InsureandGo and it's partners.

Once you have paid you get a couple of email one from World pay which is the receipt for your purchase and then one from Insure and Go which is your policy document which you can print off to take with you on holiday.

~~~~~~~~~~~The Cover~~~~~~~~~~~
There are a number levels of cover that can be purchased I opted to go for the Silver cover which broadly offers the below, the policy is underwritten by AIG which are one of the big insurance underwriters.

Cancellation £3,000
Curtailment £3,000
Medical Expenses £5,000,000
Repatriation £5,000,000
Hospital Benefit £1,000
Delayed Baggage £100
Travel Delay £300
Holiday Abandonment £3,000
Hijack £500
Missed Departure £500
Personal Accident £20,000
Personal Liability £2,000,000
Catastrophe Cover £1,000
Legal Expenses £15,000
Pet Care £200
Max days per trip N/A
Personal Effects And Baggage £1,500
Personal Money £500

The cover was £29.49 per person which was about the same as Direct Line for a similar level of cover, there are options to double the excess amount to reduce the cost or buy an excess waiver which puts the cost up.

~~~~~~~~~~~Customer Service~~~~~~~~~~~
I purchased my policy back in December for travel in Feb I ordered the travellers pack for an extra pound, this included the smart labels and other things as mentioned above. A week before I was due to go this pack still hadn’t turned up, so I thought I would send an ‘e’ mail to them, to which I had a prompt reply saying I can view and print out my policy by following a URL, this is not what I asked or what I paid for. So I then resorted to the phone, the menu when connected has a number of options to select mainly new quotes and customer services, so on the first occasion I selected customer services and was on the phone for five minutes then gave up. On the second occasion a couple of days later I again selected customer services, and was again on hold for over four mins, but I wasn’t going to be put off this time and thought I bet sales gets answered really quick. So I called back and selected the option for new quotes and not to my surprise the phone was answered in less than a minute. Once through they agent was helpful even if not the most presented of speakers and promised to send me out another pack in the post.

~~~~~~~~~~~Conclusion~~~~~~~~~~~
On the whole I didn’t think that the policy was that cheap, but I did like the ability to be able to do it all online. The poor customer services and answering sales calls before existing customers is really bad and has put me off using them in the future.

~~~~~~~~~~~Update~~~~~~~~~~~
Thankfully I didn't have to use the policy, but the policy pack never turned up. I wrote to them and they have refunded the £1 that I paid so I guess it was resolved in the end.

Summary: