Consumers are falling victim to the misleading sales tactics of unscrupulous travel agents. according to a new poll.
The research by Sainsbury’s Travel Insurance suggested thousands of people are being wrongly sold travel insurance by agents every year.
An online poll of 2144 people by YouGov between November 21 and 24 2008 revealed that 5% of people who claim to have bought insurance from agents during 2008 were wrongly told that they could not book their holiday unless they also took out the cover with them.
Sainsbury’s Travel Insurance Manager Sam Marrs said: “This is an alarming finding, but it will be much more difficult for rogue travel agents to do this once they are regulated by the FSA.
“Our research shows that up to as many as 8.14 million people could have bought insurance from travel agents over the past 12 months and the new regulation will provide consumers with valuable much needed protection.”
The research also reveals that travel insurance policies sold through travel agents could leave thousands of people with inadequate cover. Almost a fifth (16%) who purchased their insurance through an agent claim they were not asked about any pre-existing medical conditions.
What do you think? email travel.weekly@rbi.co.uk.