Zurich to refund travel insurance customers

Zurich is offering refunds to travel insurance customers who took out a single trip policy or hold an annual policy, and were unable to head away thanks to coronavirus restrictions.

The insurance giant says 8,000 single policy customers who were unable to travel during lockdown can expect a full refund or rearrange their policy to fit new trip dates.

Around 2,000 annual multi-trip policy customers will be offered a pro-rata refund for the months they were unable to travel during lockdown.   

The insurer is the first to announce full refund to customers – many stopped selling policies to new customers just before lockdown started.

While some are now beginning to offer their services again, many of the major firms are still halting sales.

However, Zurich is now offering to help its customers who were unable to travel due to the coronavirus restrictions.  

It said for customers who had trips arranged between 12 March and June and couldn’t travel, it is offering a full premium refund as they haven’t been able to make use or claim on their travel insurance.

For single trip customers who are yet to travel, Zurich is giving them several options.

For example, if they already know that they’re not going to travel, they can receive a full premium refund or, like many other travellers, if they are booking a rescheduled trip with their travel operator, Zurich will move the insurance policy dates to align with their new trip dates.

This can be up to 13 months from their original travel date. 

Zurich says that around £300,000 will be returned to customers, which works out at an average refund of £37.50 per person. 

Phil Ost, travel insurance expert from Zurich, said: ‘Travel insurance is designed to protect you whilst you’re on holiday, so with an inability to travel due to the national lockdown, it only feels fair to reimburse premiums to customers who didn’t travel, as well as giving flexibility for those due to travel by changing the policy dates to tie in with their new arrangements.

‘Ultimately, they did the right thing protecting themselves from when the unfortunate happens, so now it’s our turn as an insurer to do the right thing and pay them back for a service they couldn’t use.’

What are other insurers planning? 

This is Money contacted several major travel insurers to find out whether they are planning to offer their customers a similar service as Zurich.  

While it is offering pro-rata refunds, Admiral said it is currently not offering full refunds. 

A spokesperson for the insurer said: ‘Admiral customers with a single trip policy who can’t travel during the lockdown are able to cancel their policy and receive a pro-rata refund, as long as they haven’t travelled or made a claim.

‘For single trip policies, the cover starts from the day they take out the policy as we provide cancellation cover from that date, not just the dates of travel. 

‘We pro-rata these policies to the day, with the policy length calculated as date of sale to end date of trip.

‘We also allow them to adjust the travel dates up to 365 days from the date of issue of the original policy. 

‘Those with an annual policy can also cancel and get a pro-rata refund as long as they haven’t made a claim.’

Tom Bishop, head of Direct Line Travel Insurance said: ‘Single-trip customers that wish to rearrange their trip can amend their policy at no extra cost if they are re-booking the equivalent holiday for a future date. 

‘The cost of their premium may change if the destination and duration of their new trip differs. 

‘Unfortunately we are unable to offer refunds outside the 14-day window of a policy start date, though we are offering pro-rata refunds to our annual multi-trip customers where they have been unable to use the insurance during this period.’ 

We will update this article when we hear back from more insurers.