Travel agents’ sales practices put British holidaymakers at risk

British families are risking their health by travelling with inappropriate insurance sold to them by travel agents, fresh research from Direct Line Travel Insurance has found.

A fifth of holidaymakers (20 per cent) who are sold insurance by their travel agent will travel with a pre-existing medical condition, without knowing whether they are covered for it.

Although many travel agents sell travel insurance, they are not regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which can lead to uninformed travellers with inadequate cover. These findings signpost both the Government’s current inquiry into travel insurance - as part of which a Call for Evidence was published yesterday - and the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee’s inquiry into the same subject. The two inquiries will help inform the Government’s decision on whether insurance sold as part of a holiday package should be subject to the same level of regulation as insurers.

The study found that two thirds (64 per cent) of holidaymakers sold insurance by their travel agent will not have had their policy explained to them clearly– and as a result more than one in 10 (13 per cent) will be heading off without knowing what they are covered for.

Medical conditions are a particular cause for concern, with more than half of holidaymakers (55 per cent) not asked about pre-existing medical conditions by travel agents. Seventy-two per cent were not quizzed about cancer or heart related conditions, 77 per cent about whether they have high blood pressure, and 75 per cent about whether they are awaiting medical investigation or surgery.

In addition, the study also found evidence of misleading and ‘hard-sell’ sales techniques, with one in 20 people who buy insurance from an agent (four per cent) admitting they were pressured by the agent into taking it out. Fourteen per cent of holidaymakers who are sold insurance by a travel agent were not being given time to think by the agent, and more than one in 20 were subjected to jargon (seven per cent). A similar proportion admitted that the agent blinded them with numbers (four per cent).

Most worryingly, another one in 20 holidaymakers were told that they would not be able to travel without taking out insurance with the travel agent.

Eighty-three per cent of Britons are unaware that travel agents can sell travel insurance without regulation from the FSA, although there is strong support for this to change, with 91 per cent of Britons in favour of introducing regulation.

Chris Price, Business Manager at Direct Line Travel Insurance: “Every year, the health of millions of British holidaymakers is being put at risk by improperly sold insurance from travel agents. As travel agents are not regulated in the same way as travel insurers, customers do not have the same safeguards.”

“As the findings prove, holidaymakers are being made subject to high pressure sales techniques and are not being asked important information about their health. This means that many people are travelling overseas unaware that they are not covered for serious conditions, leaving them in potentially dangerous situations, should the worst happen.”

“Direct Line has been campaigning for some time for regulations to be extended to include bundled travel insurance and we welcome both the Government’s Call for Evidence and the Treasury Select Committee’s inquiry.”