| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 29/05/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 29 |
| Copyright: Other |
Agents under spotlight over policy limitations
Sales methods took centre stage at the International Travel Insurance Conference last week. Jane Archer reports
MORE than one-quarter of travellers who bought travel insurance through agents or tour operators will not buy from the same source again, according to a Holiday Which? survey.The Consumers’ Association’s Roger Lakin said 27% of the 266 members surveyed indicated they were unlikely to buy through the trade again.
In comparison, 7% said they were unlikely to buy a policy from a bank or building society again, while 18% were unhappy with the policy bought from a direct-sell insurance company.
Consumers’ Association members were also unhappy with the way claims were handled on policies sold by agents, with just 66% satisfied with the result of their claim.
The figure rises to 80% who were satisfied with their direct-sell policies and 82% who were happy with policies from their banks and building societies.
“We have hammered the selling techniques of agents in the past and our comments have been proved by these results,” said Lakin.
“Agents are very poor at drawing clients attention to issues such as medical exclusions.
“If people were made more aware about this the Consumers’ Association would have no problems,” he added.
“It is all about educating agents and getting those who sell to be more upfront about the limitations of a policy.”
Lakin said the survey showed that about 30% of the association’s members buy through the trade.
Of these, 75% buy without comparing the cost of the policy with others on the market.
“That was very disappointing. Clearly we still have work to do to raise awareness of the higher premium they pay,” he added.
He quoted a worldwide family premium of £235 from Thomas Cook compared with £65 from Direct Travel.
Lakin said most consumers want cheap policies that are easy to buy and pay up when things go wrong.
What they don’t want is “dubious” free insurance and the “intimidating” indemnity forms that some agents insist clients sign to free the retailer of responsibility for not selling the client an insurance policy, he said.
Getting better: agents need to improve their skills when it comes to drawing clients attention to issues such as medical exclusions
Getting better: agents need to improve their skills when it comes to drawing clients attention to issues such as medical exclusions