Tesco Travel Insurance Review

Overall Rating

Cheap, Staff were polite in dealing with frustrated customer.

General Policy is misleading, need to go through the small print with a fine tooth comb, read and understand the Small Print. Nit Picky, time consuming, unreasonable requests for evidence of ownership or receipts.

Summary: Making a claim from Tesco Travel Insurance was like getting in the boxing ring with Mike Tyson, it felt like Tesco made every effort to duck and dive out of any payment.

My experience was very difficult, very slow and made me regret taking out a cheap policy.

From the start of claim it took 5 months to receive a payout. I had about 15 phone conversations and multiple letters toing and throing over nit picking queries from Tesco. Final payout was around half of the original claim, including £50 excess per person and 20% off majority of items for Wear & Tear - (general policy says New for Old). It took nearly 6 weeks after the payout to receive a breakdown of how they had reached the final sum.

Details: The first day we arrived in The Algarve, our car was broken into and all items stolen from the boot. We had all our holiday cash, £600, along with many other essential items
locked in the boot. The 24 Hour call centre gave no advice, only asked if we needed any emergency cash.
It is only when making a claim you discover how good the policy is. Unfortunately we found out then, that, as valuable items (such as cash, camera's and handbags) were not stolen from our person, or from our locked accommodation or a safety deposit box, we were not covered for their theft.

We also learnt that you are required to provide original receipts (no photocopies) or proof of ownership for most of the items. Where receipts couldn't be provided they asked me to contact a retailer to see if they had receipts on file, or provide a written letter from shops confirming that I was a customer. One retailer provided a written confirmation, but it was on a headed compliment slip Tesco said that wasn't good enough, it had to be on headed note paper.

Luckily, I noticed before travelling, that unless you obtain evidence that you have reported thefts to the local police within 24hours of the the incident, the claim is void. This in itself was troublesome, as the local police had no translator and did everything to try and get rid of us - it was only my persistence at having read that quote on the policy, that we managed to get a report filed.

In contrast, we discovered that personal possessions were covered under our home contents insurance with Marks & Spencer. M&S paid out for the cash, handbag camera etc within 48 hours of contacting them, no quibble, no receipts just excellent service. Due to fear of a more serious situation/emergency we are now moving all insurances away from Tesco to obtain insurances who will give us piece of mind - researched via this site, even if it means paying more.