‘Insurer won’t pay for the cruise I had to cancel due to heart condition’

You had two holidays booked. One was to have been in that month and
the element of that claim concerning flights booked for you and your wife
was met.

You had also booked, in August 2012, a cruise to depart in January 2014. The
initial deposit was £1,028 and the balance of £9,528 was due on September 27
2013. As the date for paying the balance was approaching you contacted NFU
Mutual to confirm that cover would extend into your new insurance year, but
were told that coronary and vascular conditions would be excluded from
renewal.

You checked with the cruise company, which stated that full medical insurance
had to be in place with no exclusions. With little time left to do anything
else you cancelled the cruise immediately so that you lost only the deposit.
Any further delay could have incurred far greater costs.

However, even though the booking had been made long before the diagnosis, NFU
Mutual wrote: “The contract of insurance lasts for 12 months and our
underwriters would review any claims or changes in risk before deciding
whether to invite cover and, if so, on what terms for the following year.
There is no guarantee that the terms will remain the same.”

So NFU Mutual wouldn’t cover the holiday in full or pay the £1,000 or so
cancellation costs that resulted from that decision. With so many cards
stacking up against you the insurer was not to my mind responding within the
spirit of the agreement.

I said as much to NFU Mutual, which responded: “Our underwriters have
carefully considered this case and come to a fair conclusion based on our
standard underwriting procedure and recent changes to Mr T’s circumstances.
Our responsibility to all our members means we have to take a sensible and
prudent approach but we also have to treat each member fairly.”

I pushed the insurer again to change its mind but it would not budge, so I
advised you to try the financial ombudsman. Giving the insurer short shrift,
it found in your favour and NFU Mutual was obliged to pay the cancellation
cost of just over £1,000.

I pressed NFU Mutual for a comment and eventually it said: “In this case we
acknowledge that our service did not meet our member’s needs. To make sure
that this does not happen in the future we are reviewing the way we
administer our travel policies.”

The Financial Ombudsman Service is at Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR or
on 0300 123 9123; the website is financial-ombudsman.org.uk

• Find out how to contact Jessica here