Originally Posted by
bostontraveler
That is horrific. My experiences with AXA have sometimes been OK but mostly negative. Either requesting unnecessary documents, denying claims because they didn't read documents properly, giving incorrect information on the phone, refusing to answer questions in writing to their customer service e-mail, long processing delays... add to the fact that many of the agents are incredibly rude.
If Amex were serious about providing a quality insurance product that is commensurate with the fees they charge, they would hire Chubb or an equivalent.
With respect to your LCL Visa Premier card, were you covered even not having paid for the ticket with the card? In other words, is it generally-included coverage? I will have to look at my Visa Premier.
I have never had to use their medical insurance but these kinds of horror stories make me very uncomfortable.
The flights were paid with the AMEX. The insurer of Visa Premier didn't asked if we paid the ticket with this card. Didn't checked the T&C, maybe we were just lucky enough. But I think that if the trip is at least partially paid with the card, then it's covered.
Originally Posted by
carnarvon
Same here.
What to do? Calling them will lead to them saying that they always adhere to the T&C.
Once your are in an emergency situation, the last thing you want to have to do is argue with them.
However, reading the story, I tend to think that our friend had to deal more with an incompetent individual rather than with an insurance company whose corporate policy is to deny coverage at the risk of letting people without medical care. How can we know for sure unless we interview 100's of clients?
Very true. What the T&C says is not that relevant because you won't have time to argue with them in an emergency situation. If they don't want to assist you they will always find something in their policy to not assist you.
So it's wether the insurance company really want's to assist you or not. In an emergency situation the insurance is always in a dominant position, and you don't have the time to argue with them. It's a hit or a miss.
The behaviour of the AMEX insurance made me think at that time that their plan wasn't to do any repatriation or assistance but instead asking me to send a huge amount of document, and then see if they can basically don't cover the case or do any repatriation without being legally involved weeks or months after.
If you read carefully the T&C of the repatriation insurance of each of those cards (Premier, Gold...), you will see that they don't take any responsibility in emergency situation and that you should instead contact the local 911. But they also says in those T&C that they are not covering hospitalization without pre-approval, and that you cannot take initiative before calling them... which is not realistic in an emergency situation in a foreign country. They basically have everything in their hand to not assist you if they don't want to do so.
T&C of my Visa Premier card (Boursorama) :
EN CAS DE DEMANDE D'ASSISTANCE Premier Assistance ne peut en aucun cas se substituer aux organismes locaux de secours d’urgence. Avant de prendre toute initiative ou d'engager toute dépense, l’Assuré doit impérativement : Obtenir l'accord préalable de Premier Assistance en contactant sans attendre Premier Assistance, 24 h sur 24 et 7 jours sur 7:
So if you call them and they don't want to do anything, you are screwed.