Swiftcover Travel Insurance Review

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2.9 stars
Average rating for this product is: 2.9 out of 5

From 3 ratings and 22 reviews

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Guest's Review of Swiftcover Travel Insurance

23rd Jul 2009

Overall Rating

1 stars
  • Value for money
    1 stars
  • Type of Insurance
    Not supplied
  • Were you treated fairly?
    Unfairly
  • Date of Insurance (month/year)
    February 2009
  • Was your claim successful?
    Unsuccessful

Swiftcover travel insurance is APPALLING. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!

My partner and I were abroad in France when we learned that one of his colleagues had tragically died (of breast cancer at a young age) and we needed to come home for the funeral. It cost us more than £600 to cancel our existing arrangements and rebook everything. Swiftcover refused to cover us. Why?

First of all, they claimed that we weren't covered for employees, only death of close family. Luckily, I had the contract to hand, and was able to discover and point out that this was a barefaced lie - the contract says you are covered for "close business associates".

Next, they tried to argue that the colleague wasn't a "close business associate". After I said that the company only had four employees and they all worked together closely, they reluctantly accepted it. But then they argued that...

The contract says you must inform them of any pre-existing medical conditions that might result in you having to come home. Since we hadn't told them she had breast cancer, it was apparently not covered! Well, firstly:

- I said that we'd taken the travel insurance out six months ago, and didn't know the condition was terminal at that point - they said we should have informed them when the condition became terminal. Well, we only found out she was terminally ill a week ago, and at that point we were very upset. The last thing on our minds was ringing the insurers to tell them!

- Also, I said that they hadn't asked me upfront at the time of buying the insurance whether anyone we knew was ill. They said it was in the small print in the contract, so it was our fault for not reading it.

Summary: Swiftcover were appalling and insensitive. From the first minute of the phone call I had the sense that they were going to find any excuse they could not to pay out (including simply lying about the policy).

It's hard to describe how horrible it was having to argue over the phone just after we'd found out that someone we knew had died.

And they left us totally in the lurch, hundreds of pounds out of pocket.

AVOID!!!

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