Truly awful. I have been trying to renew my annual travel insurance policy online. The Portal is not fit for purpose and kicked me out over a dozen times whilst trying to renew the policy. Phoned cust... Mehr ansehen
Wir überprüfen keine spezifischen Behauptungen, da die Meinungen der Bewerter ihre eigenen sind. Wir können Bewertungen jedoch als „verifiziert” kennzeichnen, wenn wir bestätigen können, dass eine geschäftliche Interaktion stattgefunden hat. Mehr erfahren
Um die Integrität unseres Portals zu schützen, überprüft unsere automatisierte Software alle Bewertungen – unabhängig davon, ob sie verifiziert sind oder nicht – rund um die Uhr. Diese Technologie identifiziert und entfernt Inhalte, die gegen unsere Richtlinien verstoßen, wie zum Beispiel Bewertungen, die nicht auf einer wirklichen Erfahrungen basieren. Uns ist bewusst, dass wir möglicherweise nicht alles erfassen, doch Sie können uns jederzeit problematische Inhalte melden, die wir Ihrer Meinung nach übersehen haben. Mehr erfahren
Das sagen Bewerter
5weeks and still waiting an answer on a simple claim re bereavement cancellation. Issue appears to be with their "agent" Collisons. Wont be buying from them again.
Da parecchi anni Columbus mi accompagna nei viaggi in tutto il mondo. Quest’anno per la prima volta ho aperto un sinistro per una frattura al terzo dito del piede. Mi sono rivolta ad una clinica priv... Mehr ansehen
Unternehmen hat geantwortet
I've been a customer of Columbus for many years. This year, for the first time I had to make a claim due to a travel delay and missed flights out of my control. The claims process did require th... Mehr ansehen
Unternehmensdetails
Informationen, die aus verschiedenen externen Quellen stammen
Columbus is one of the UK's leading Travel Insurance providers. Established in 1988, we were the first company to sell travel insurance direct to the consumer, cutting out the middle man and saving our customers up to 60% in the process. Over 20 years on we have covered over 15 million travellers all around the world. We put our customers first and have won multiple awards for our cover and customer service including the ITIJ Travel Insurance Intermediary of the year award and also the Best Travel Insurance Provider from the Personal Finance Awards.
Why choose Columbus Direct?
Vom Unternehmen geschrieben
- Great value travel insurance
- Columbus provides great value travel insurance and award winning customer service. With single trip cover starting at just £2.69 and annual policies from £22.
- Flexible cover
- With 3 levels of cover to choose from; Bronze, Silver or Gold - you are bound to find a policy to suit your needs.
- Excellent Benefits
- Columbus policies offer a wide range of benefits including up to £15 million emergency medical expenses, 24hr English speaking assistance service, cancellation cover up to £5,000, cover for lost, stolen or damaged baggage up to £2,500. Plus kids go free on all family annual policies.
14 day money back guarantee
Not happy with your policy? It's not a problem with our money back guarantee...
If, having examined your policy documentation, you decide the insurance does not meet your needs, you can cancel the insurance within 14 days from the date you receive the policy documentation, and we will refund the premium provided you have not taken a trip to which the insurance applies, and you have not made a claim.
Kontaktinformationen
Cutlers Exchange, 123 Houndsditch, EC3A 7BU , London
- 0800 068 0060
- customer.service@columbusdirect.com
- www.columbusdirect.com
2.3
Mangelhaft
10'915 Bewertungen
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overcomplicated
I have just signed a travel insurance contract with them. After I signed the contract, I asked them by mail if I could add the £12 zero deductible to my contract. I expected to get a simple yes or no answer. Instead, I was asked for my phone number to clarify some issues. Seriously? A guy calls me with an Indian accent and goes through the whole contract again, reading out question after question for me to answer yes or no to. I just answered all these questions online and confirmed my answers by signing the contract in the first place. This just showed me how time consuming it is to answer the simplest questions. I just cancelled the entire contract with them. Good luck if you ever need to make a claim.
23. Oktober 2022
Bewertung ohne vorherige Einladung
Antwort von Columbus Direct
We're very sorry for the experience you had. The question should have been answered easily as a "yes, you can". It is likely that the call was suggested as we would have needed to take payment from you over the phone had you wanted to add the cover.
Whilst there are certain data protection questions you would have had to go through and a simple check-out script. The team have listened to the call and agree that it sounds like the agent went through some of the usual sales call guidance rather than just focusing on your request which would have made the time spent talking to us much shorter.
Thank you for raising your concerns, whilst it is of no help to you, we will be able to use this to help coach our agents.
Penalising 66 year old - Similar to review dated 12 October
Similar to review dated 12 October. I have been with them 16 years+. Always good cover. Then a 225% increase in premium because I reached age 66. Annoyingly I could actually get cover with them through QuidCo as a new customer cheaper than renewal quote. After expressing my concerns, I received a general reply about greater risk "once aged 66" and I cancelled the policy.
Yesterday I received an email noting I had not renewed and offering me a 25% discount!
How not to treat loyal customers.
In the reply Columbus say they would have offered me the same 25% discount when first contacted for renewal. This was not the case and is nowhere stated in the renewal notice. I also wrote to customer services about the high increase and they did not offer the 25% discount at that time or when I later advised I was cancelling. So Columbus reply is factually incorrect and I can provide the paperwork to show this. Very poor all round.
22. Oktober 2022
Bewertung ohne vorherige Einladung
Antwort von Columbus Direct
Thanks for sharing your experience. Unfortunately, as per our response in that review, travel insurance does tend to increase when people reach the age of 65. This is not intended to penalise people, instead is based on statistical information on when insurance companies start to see increased costs from customers.
As for prices on QuidCo, it is possible that with the cashback available from the site, you may have seen a cheaper price. However, the products available would have also been different with less cover available than the policy you were invited to renew. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what you saw so it's not possible to comment on that.
We do all we can to encourage loyalty with our customers and that is by offer all renewing customers a 25% discount. Had you renewed with us when we first wrote to you, the price would have been the same as when we wrote to you to advise the policy had now lapsed, we're sorry if this was not clear from the correspondence. Also, we would have been happy to apply this renewal discount to other cover levels if you felt that you didn't need the same cover as previous years.
Update: There is a mistake in the above response. When offering renewal, we do so on the product the customer originally purchased. The product you have had is no longer available on our website and therefore it is incorrect of us to say that it is discounted by a set percentage. The reason we maintain these products are because they are generally cheaper than our current product range because we have built the renewal discount into the price. As you had not renewed with us, we then invited you to visit the website. As you would have been offered our current range of products, the 25% renewal discount was offered. This is the same discount that customers renewing on our current range would be offered. If you were to compare the policy you previously had against our current range, you would find that the Gold cover level was the closest equivalent, which even with the 25% discount would be at a higher premium than you were offered for renewal. We apologise for the error in our first response.
Really useless
Really useless, wasting time and money.
I don't think there is a way to claim anything from them. Their policies are full of traps,
they may pay you if you can wait for 12 or more hours for your delay or cancel your travel arrangement.
12 hours, half of a day. imagine you have a baby and waiting at a train station or airport for 11 hours. but they say Ooo ooo sorry it is not 12 hours we can't do anything.
19. Oktober 2022
Bewertung ohne vorherige Einladung
Antwort von Columbus Direct
Hi Yavuz. Firstly, we apologise that your claim has taken longer to resolve than it should have done. We understand you have raised concerns about the handling of your case and a complaint has been logged so we can review these issues.
As for the claims submitted, Travel Delay cover is a very small part of a travel insurance policy and our terms are not out of step with the market with many policies not paying a benefit until after a 12 hour delay. Some policies do not provide any cover at all in the event of delays. Equally, there are also policies that provide a benefit sooner. That said, we do not know of any products that would have covered delays of the period you experienced.
We look to make the cover as clear as possible in the sales journey and customers also have the 14 day cooling off period to review the terms and seek a refund if they do not think the cover is appropriate for their needs.
No response
I have sent a claim request on 26- Aug through email. Sent several reminders over a period of 1 Month. Until now no response which is unusual.
24. August 2022
Antwort von Columbus Direct
Hi Stephen. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. It has raised a number of issues with your file and the handling of this matter. We have asked the relevant departments to contact you to get this resolved.
Register your flight at least 24 hours before!
To get some benefits from the insurance you have to register your flight not later than 24 hours before. Ok. I didn't know that first time. Just happened that the plane was late 4 hours. Never mind. When I tried to register my second flight, somehow the website was not responding. I tried to contact Customers Service, which admitted their fault. When I complained that for their reason I couldn't register my flight early enough and it was not fair I lost the benefits, they answered, that it was my fault, I hadn't registered my flight on time. It this is happen again, I will start to be suspicious...
5. Oktober 2022
Antwort von Columbus Direct
Hi Basia. We're sorry to hear that you couldn't make use of this free benefit of your travel insurance policy. We'll share your experience with the product team to see if more can be done to communicate the requirement to customers.
The limit is there to ensure fair use of the free service. If a customer could register a flight on the day of travel, there would be nothing to stop someone from registering a flight that was already delayed to get free access into a lounge.
Easy to use website
Easy to use website, competitively priced. Fortunately, I haven't had cause to make a claim.
11. Oktober 2022
Dependable service
Quick and easy to navigate. I have used this in the past and have only stopped my renewal during the lockdown. The provisions are adequate for what I required for a travel insurance and the rates are reasonable.
23. August 2022
Couldn’t be happier with the company…
Couldn’t be happier with the company and service that they provide
16. September 2022
Need a 24 helpline for contact in emergency.
Renewal was fine but when we needed to contact Columbus during an emergency on our last holiday, the lack of a 24 hour helpline meant we could not consult or get advice. Luckily, Travel Company stepped in but it should have been an insurance matter.
2. Juli 2022
Antwort von Columbus Direct
Hi Mike. Thanks for your feedback. We do operate a 24/7 medical emergency services line to assist customers if they require medical treatment whilst overseas.
For non-medical emergencies, the cost of operating a 24 hour service would be expensive and this would be reflected in the cost of policies. As this is not generally something other insurance providers do, we have to balance the cost of services that would be used sparingly versus making our premiums reasonable for customers.
My premium was increased hugely 300%…
My premium was increased hugely 300% having been using them for years and never claiming. I was told it was because one of the two policy holders was 66 - but one is not. They gave me a small refund - but I really think that they should have contacted me not automatically renewed. It went to spam and I only knew about it when checking my bank statement.
1. September 2022
Antwort von Columbus Direct
Thank you for sharing your experience. It is unfortunate that the cost of the cost of travel insurance does tend to increase significantly when a customer turns 66. As for whether we should be contacting customers, of course we do send out the renewal notice and every effort is made to stop this from going to people's spam folders so everyone should receive appropriate notification. That said, we'll share your comments with the product team to see if there is a view on whether more can be done to reach out to customers where there is a significant change in the policy premium.
When during Covid 19 lockdown we were…
When during Covid 19 lockdown we were not allowed to travel, I contacted Columbus Direct to ask them to freeze my annual travel insurance policy and they blankly refused. I hadn't asked for a refund, just for them to freeze the policy until I was allowed to travel once more. They were totally unreasonable.
12. November 2021
Antwort von Columbus Direct
Hi Simon. Thank you for sharing your comments. The challenge with an annual travel insurance policy versus something like home insurance is that there is an expectation built into the pricing that people will not be using the cover the whole time. Therefore, whilst we accept that due to the various lockdowns after March 2020, there would have been times when customers could not use their policy, generally there was sufficient time during 12 month periods when people could.
We also took the decision to increase the discount that we gave to renewing customers to reflect the reduced time on risk. We appreciate that this may not have been your preferred way of reflecting the reduced time on risk, but we have at least tried to be reasonable with customers in such a way that could be managed within our systems and still reflecting our appreciation of customers like you that have continued to purchase cover with us.
0345 customer service number and long…
0345 customer service number and long wait to be answered.
10. Oktober 2022
Haven't claimed but very fair and transparent pricing for declared health conditions
I write this review not ever having claimed on my Columbus travel insurance which is obviously the acid test for any insurance policy.
The 5 stars are given for my experience with Columbus to date. Key points are: -
Their pricing, when declaring known health conditions, is fair and reasonable and the increases (if applicable) are totally transparent.
Unlike so many insurance companies, their annual premiums do not increase unreasonably upon renewal, i.e. you are not punished for you loyalty. Over the years, the premiums have increased slightly or even decreased for not having claimed against a declared condition.
The website application process is also easy, clear and transparent.
Their Covid cover is clearly explained and fair.
Finally, after recommending Columbus to a friend their policy, including cover for a specific condition, was £20 cheaper than the competition that my friend also got quotes from. Indeed, several other companies wouldn't cover the condition at all.
1. Oktober 2022
Antwort von Columbus Direct
Hi Paul. We're sorry you are experiencing any difficulties speaking to us. It's not clear exactly what those challenges have been. Our claims team are available to take calls 5 days week during normal office hours. We'll ask them to try to make contact with you to discuss the matter further.
Disappointing claim response times
Got one email back as a reply of how to claim and then nothing. Have followed up twice. No response.
11. Oktober 2022
Easy to renew…
Easy to renew - they just do it. Everything else is hard. No online management of your policy, everything is through the call centre (even changing your email address). Most things not covered (eg rental car costs if there's a problem like a flat tyre and you need call out). But it's there and relatively cheap
12. Juli 2022
Antwort von Columbus Direct
Hi Robert. Thanks for your feedback, it's much appreciated. We have looked at having online policy management and is something we will roll out in the future. You're comments about rental car costs are a bit confusing though as we are a travel insurance provider, so these kind of costs wouldn't be something we would cover.
Have used Columbus for years
Have used Columbus for years - never had to make a claim but application process is simple.
12. Oktober 2022
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