Difficulty with travel insurance claim

Dear Mr Tan,
Recently I was holidaying in New York and had travelled to Niagra Falls by road where my hand bag together with my travel documents were stolen. Hence, without any travel documents I was refused entry into New York. I had to fly to Vancouver to get my temporary passport made at the Singapore Consulate and flew home from there. As a result, my luggage was left behind in New York.

I had a travel insurance with a leading insurance Company. I sought advice from the insurance Company's claim officer regarding my luggage that was still in New York. I was told to do what is necessary to bring back my luggage first and to follow up with the details later. I arranged for Fedex to send my luggage back and then submitted a claim for the freight cost. Three weeks have gone past and have not heard from the insurance Company. I gave them a call and was told that I cannot make any claim for the cost of sending back my luggage; the reason given was that my travel insurance does not cover freight cost.

Please advise if I am entitled to make this claim and to whom can I turn to for assistance if I were to pursue this matter.

REPLY

I think that you are entitled to claim for the freight cost as you have done it at the request of the insurance company in connection with your claim. It is bad that they now reject your claim for the freight cost. If they do not pay your claim, you can lodge a complaint with FiDREC (www.fidrec.com.sg).

I find the claim handling of this insurance company to be deplorable.

If the claim is not paid, you can send a formal complaint to the CEO of the insurance company. If it is still rejected, you can file a complaint with FiDREC (www.fidrec.com.sg)