At CIB we are often asked why we don’t sell travel insurance online, so we thought we’d share some thoughts with you about why we think you should deal with a person, not a computer.
With travel beginning to open up, many brokers are offering online travel policies and some are advertising that the policies include “full covid cover”. Whilst some policies may offer covid cover for all circumstances, it is possible that some may only include it for medical expenses, or have other restrictions for cancellation and delay.
If you are buying a travel policy online (or any type of cover for that matter), you are missing out on getting valuable advice from an experienced insurance broker. Whilst you may skim through the policy summary online before you buy it, the full policy may be more complicated and use language that may be difficult to understand – especially if you have no insurance knowledge.
Missing out on this advice could mean that you spend money on a policy that will not pay out a claim that you expected it to. By dealing with a broker, you can ask questions and discuss various scenarios to make sure you understand what you are buying.
If a broker gives you advice on a policy that turns out to be wrong, there is a clear right of recourse, and you may be able to recover any financial loss from that broker. Buying a policy online that doesn’t pay a claim could leave you counting the cost as it will have been bought without advice and leave little option for getting your money back unless the insurer or broker was misleading in their advertising.
A broker selling a policy online is also likely to be restricted to using just one insurer, so there is no option to look at other providers.
At CIB, we prefer to offer insurance that fits your needs and wherever possible, we will give you a choice of insurers, together with a recommendation of which insurer we think you should choose and the reasons for that recommendation. That way, you can travel with peace of mind knowing that you understand the cover you have and that you won’t be left high and dry when it really matters.