# Lost Passport - Insurance Claim



## geecee (12 May 2008)

Hi All
I lost my passport last week - when on holidays in thailand...
I eventually got back under an emergency passport - 3 days late - but at least i got home!

The following term appears in my travel insurance:
"Travel Documents
The underwriter will pay for any reasonable expenses
you incur, whilst obtaining replacement passports, green
cards, visas, accommodation vouchers and petrol coupons
or travel tickets which have been lost or stolen during the
trip, up to the amount shown in the Schedule of benefits
on your certificate."

The Schedule of benefits shows a maximum of €500

So my question is what is "reasonable"?

I have incurred the following expenses...
- Emergency Passport
- Replacement Passport
- Passport Photos
- Change in flights
- 3 days additional Accomodation
- 3 days additional living expenses, food, laundry, 20+ taxis etc
- Phone calls (both within Thailand and back to home)
- 2 days pay cut in work (due to late return)

Would be interested in hearing what you guys think comes under reasonable expenses...
Unfortunately i have very few receipts for the living expenses as Taxis and food shops don't normally give out receipts in thailand

Thanks in Advance!


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## Ravima (12 May 2008)

what did the incident cost you? If it cost you in excess of €500, then list the whole lot and submit.


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## geecee (13 May 2008)

The whole incident will have cost me around 300 is cash
And 2.5 days that i am going to haveto take at my own expense in work...

ie.I will be deducted 2.5 days pay from this months salary... Do you think it is claimable?


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## mickpyrmont (13 May 2008)

umm dont think you will get your lost wages but sure as was said stick everything you can think off in, they will only say no


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## Ravima (13 May 2008)

you wont get the wages, but you should get the rest, subject to any policy excess and assuming you kept with the policy conditions. That is the important thing. is there a notification period and did you adhere to that?


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## geecee (27 May 2008)

Insurance co were on to me today and confirmed that the will be sending on approx half of what i have claimed...

My claim was relating to the loss of my passport

I'm not particularly happy with the outcome... But i guess some is better than none!

The parts they rejected were a claim for emergency phone cals that i had to make to home (in order to get copies of passport, birth cert) calls to theinsurance company and lost salary in work...

I didn't claim for any of the taxis - as i had no receipts for any of them...


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## madmum (28 May 2008)

Well seems like a good outcome if all they rejected were loss of wages and telephone calls to the UK. Most insurance companies would not cover what they call "consequential losses" like that....and if your wages made up the other half of the claim i'd say you got a good result!

You've said you arent happy with the outcome - - You weren't really expecting them to pay your loss of wages were you?


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## geecee (28 May 2008)

madmum said:


> You weren't really expecting them to pay your loss of wages were you?



Well the insurance policy says that it will cover all reasonable expenses that occur as a result of the passport loss

I lost 2 days salary this month - as a result of having no passport - so i think that the lost salary should be justifiably part of the claim

My manager is pushing me to go to the small claims court about it... but i'm not sure f that is actually possible?


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## Framley (28 May 2008)

geecee i agree with madum.  You got a good result I think.  If insurance policies covered absolutely everything you felt like claiming for, they'd cost 1000 times what they actually cost.  If you got everything but the two days work & phone calls you did ok.   As a matter of interest you don't mention an excess.  how much was deducted?
Also how much did your policy cost against how much you got?


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## NovaFlare77 (28 May 2008)

Looking at the terms supplied in the original post, I can understand why the loss of wages was rejected under this portion of the policy:

"The underwriter will pay for any reasonable expenses you incur, *whilst* obtaining replacement passports, green cards, visas, accommodation vouchers and petrol coupons or travel tickets which have been lost or stolen during the trip, up to the amount shown in the Schedule of benefits
on your certificate."

I think you may have a case with the phone calls home given that they were connected to you obtaining a replacement passport. Challenge them on this part. Ask them what reasonable evidence they need to verify that the calls were connected to this (e.g. would written statements from the person that took the call be enough?). 

Calls to the insurance company are probably not going to be covered as they are not involved in getting passports, even though the policy documents probably tell you every chance they get that you need to call the insurance company.

If you're not happy with the final outcome, you may be appeal to the Financial Ombudsman, but you need to have gone through the insurance company's appeals and complaints procedure first. See what the complaints procedure is in the policy documents and see who they are regulated by. I presume that because the insurance company were selling in Ireland, they would be bound by the Financial Ombudsman's decision if it got that far.

Best of luck!


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## huskerdu (5 Jun 2008)

The policy states that it will pay out "expenses you occur". Your salary is not an expense which you occur, so I suspect that you have no change of claiming that you should be compensated.


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