A businessman recently learned that many travel insurance companies will not cover you if your passport is stolen whilst abroad and it was not locked away in your hotel room.
Paul Whyte had been holidaying with his 17-year-old son in Benidorm.
Whilst on their way to the airport to fly home, their bags, which had their passports in, were stolen.
The pair had stopped for lunch on route. They had left their bags in the boot of a hired car, which was locked away.
As their passports were stolen, Paul and his son could not board their Jet2 flight back home.
Instead they were forced to stay and additional night and then drive to Alicante where the nearest British Consulate was to book a last minute peak time flight back to Newcastle.
Once in England, they then had to hire a car to get home to Glasgow.
Paul had bought their travel insurance from Holidaysafe - an award-winning company.
However, when it came to making a claim he was shocked to learn how little they could actually claim for.
He told the Guardian that Holidaysafe refused to pay for the costs that he incurred as a result of the theft - something which he had assumed would be covered.
Paul said: “Everything was locked in the boot of our hire car out of sight, and it all went.
“The local tourist police told us the airline wouldn’t let us fly without our passports, even though we had checked in with those details.
“We had to get back to the villa that we’d already left, extend the car hire, go to the embassy and pay £200 for two emergency travel documents - and rebook expensive flights at a cost of £440 to get us back to the UK.”
<>Paul lost more than £3,000. He accepted that Holidaysafe did not include electronic items that were stolen, but was surprised when the firms insurer, TCF, only paid out £851 for the basic items that were stolen.They refused to pay for passports and the replacement flights.
Paul added: “TCF argues that our passport and tickets should be kept in locked trip accommodation, but I had already left my accommodation and was heading back to the airport.
“I thought leaving them in a locked car was safer than risking the pickpockets and motorbike thieves that operate in Benidorm.”
TCF referred to a clause, which is used by many travel insurance providers, in their terms and conditions under general exclusions.
The clause read that passports, if stolen, are only covered it they were “in a locked hotel safe, locked safety deposit box or in your locked (doors and all windows) accommodation”.
Paul stated that he chose the insurance firm as it had been highly recommended and but claimed it did not live up to its “customer promise”.
TCF has since given Paul an addition £500 as a goodwill gesture and added that this is an industry-wide issue that they will look to address in 2017.
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