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Holidaymakers have been falling victim to misleading insurance-selling tactics by travel agents , it was claimed today.
More than 400,000 tourists might have been wrongly told they could not book a break without buying the cover offered by the agents, while many more might have bought policies that provided inadequate cover over the past year, according to Sainsbury's Travel Insurance.
The company claimed an online survey of nearly 2,150 people in November commissioned from pollsters YouGov revealed underhand methods were being used by some "unscrupulous" travel agents. The findings, which it extrapolated to suggest affected many thousands of holidaymakers, came on the eve of new rules requiring agents selling insurance to be regulated by the Financial Services Authority or become introducers or representatives of an FSA-regulated company.
The survey showed 5% of people who claimed to have bought travel insurance from travel agents in the past year were told they had to buy cover with their holiday. Sam Marrs, Sainsbury's Travel Insurance manager, said: "This is a 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 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 survey also suggested that 16% of those who had bought travel cover in this way claimed they were not asked about pre-existing medical conditions and 17% said the travel agents had not outlined what their policies did and did not cover.
Meanwhile travel association Abta said it was concerned more people would go on holiday uninsured because of the new regulations. It feared "their cost and complexity" would mean fewer companies offering cover. Mike Monk, head of financial services, said: "Ask your travel company about insurance, and if they can't offer it, make sure you obtain it elsewhere as soon after you book your holiday as possible."
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