A couple of drinks? It’s ‘alcohol abuse’ and we won’t pay your claim, say travel insu

[Legal Beagles]

Tourists unlucky enough to have an accident while on holiday risk having their insurance claim turned down if they have had a few drinks, the financial ombudsman has warned. Insurers will accuse customers of “alcohol abuse” in order to wriggle out of paying claims, according to complaints made to the Financial Ombudsman Service. In cases […]

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[Kati]

Re: A couple of drinks? It’s ‘alcohol abuse’ and we won’t pay your claim, say travel

In cases reported to the dispute resolution body, insurers have insisted that a customer suffers from "alcoholism" even when medical evidence showed that they had consumed no more than two alcoholic drinks.

I like a glass of wine with a meal, and occasionally have a couple of pints of shandy when I'm out at lunchtime - would I be classed as an alcoholic :lol:

Just because excessive drinking invalidates a claim, that should not mean that only teetotal holidaymakers are covered.
The onus lies on the insurer to prove that a customer has been drinking sufficiently for their claim to be turned down, not for a customer to prove their innocence. "It is up to the insurer to show that an exclusion applies, not for their customer to show that it doesn't," the ombudsman's spokesman said.

Just another way of getting out of paying???

[righty]

Re: A couple of drinks? It’s ‘alcohol abuse’ and we won’t pay your claim, say travel

Typical insurance company I'm afraid