Amex Platinum insurance pays up again (when it didn’t need to)

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• Oh! Matron! says:

  7 Aug7 August 09:04

  Rushed to hospital at 3am in NYC in 2010 in an ambulance. $1000 cost. AXA initially dragged their feet, claiming I had medical insurance with my job. I pointed out that was also with AXA. They then paid immediately.

  • CountryKerry says:

    7 Aug7 August 19:48

    That did make me laugh!

• Jon says:

  7 Aug7 August 09:35

  Sorry my experiences completely differ – both with Platinum and Centurion (who Axa provide). I have always found them exceptionally difficult in cases of trip cancellations and found them slow, rude, unhelpful and always want to wriggle out of paying. Interesting to note both of your claims were for relatively small amounts – my smallest claim was £200 for a Eurostar ticket and you would have thought I was claiming £1000s

• Alex says:

  7 Aug7 August 09:36

  Hmmm – To be honest I’ve always assumed the clause about getting medical treatment pre-approved is unenforceable in all legitimate cases that matter . If it’s a medical emergency (and yes, a one year old vomiting can be an emergency) one needs to seek immediate medical attention full stop. I very much doubt AMEX or even AXA would ever drag their feet for a 100 quid bill. And I’d take them to small claims court straight away if they didn’t in the first instance.

  On my side I’ve had small medical claims approved without a problem by AXA (AMEX) and let the various insurances we have sort it out among themselves – I think they split the bill.

  I do not have a Plat card but I am finding it increasingly difficult to deal with amex (axa) insurance everytime something happens.

  • Fenny says:

    7 Aug7 August 10:08

    The pre-approval clause has always bothered me. Being a solo traveller, it’s not as though I have anyone to do this for me and if I’m ill or injured, I’m not likely to be in a suitable state to be working out who to call.

    • Philip White says:

      7 Aug7 August 10:17

      Surely there must be an allowance for this.

      • James says:

        7 Aug7 August 12:36

        My understanding is if you are admitted into hospital they will contact the insurance company direct if you aren’t able to do it.

• Michael says:

  7 Aug7 August 10:28

  I had a bad experience with my Amex Platinum insurance when they refused to pay out ~£150 when I had a problem with car hire which I booked and paid for hire using the card. The car broke down and I was without a vehicle for over 24hours, subsequently discovering the car was reported as faulty before I hired it. Amex honoured my claim within 24hours and then reversed their decision the following day, saying a breakdown (and faulty car) was not covered under the policy. Whilst I couldn’t find any clause in the T&C’s stating that a breakdown was covered, it made me value the insurance when they were being so difficult. Surely any car hire insurance should cover costs when your car hire breaks down? I appealed to Amex but they maintained their position – I’ve several letters from them. After that experience I never used the card for booking travel ever again!

  • Alan says:

    7 Aug7 August 10:32

    Sounds like a rather annoying thing to happen on holiday, Michael! Out of interest why didn’t the hire car company step in to help though when it was their vehicle at fault? My understanding of the Amex hire car policy was that it was purely way of covering any excess on accident claims to allow you to decline all the usual CDW, Super CDW, etc. that car hire companies try and upsell you.

    • Michael C says:

      7 Aug7 August 11:00

      Yes Alan, it was very annoying! The car hire company (Portuguese firm Guerin – AVOID!) took 24hrs to provide a new vehicle and wouldn’t compensate for a taxi back to our hotel or the loss of a day’s hire – when a company doesn’t want to help you, you really have no where to turn, especially abroad. I assumed my Platinum insurance would help but it only covers theft and damage but not break downs which I find very odd. On a point of principle It took over 6 months of emailing Guerin for them to acknowledge that they were at fault and credited me with only 50 Euro. Pretty disgusting that car hire companies can operate like this – incidentally there are lots of negative reviews about this company online (but as I booked through a broker I didn’t know who I was booking with – I won’t do this again!).

      • Alan says:

        7 Aug7 August 11:07

        Ah OK – that sounds like quite a saga! I’ve tended to stick with Hertz – at least when they muck up (as inevitably they do) I can bypass the local agency and complain to HQ. Had a couple of free rentals on Hertz Gold Reward points as a result 😀

• dirtyneedlebluesky says:

  7 Aug7 August 11:35

  this info is really only relevant to existing holders of the account – it’s now a legacy product.

  Axa also provide the travel insurance for the Gold current account provided by Lloyds.

  I’ve found they offer a great service (i.e. it means my claims always seem to be paid).

  If you pay £10 per year then all excesses for any subsequent claims are waived.

  p.s.
  the phone insurance provided with this account has also been good (although the excess for smartphones is £50 Android / £100 iPhone) than can’t be reduced.

• CV3V says:

  7 Aug7 August 11:41

  Amex Plat insurance aside, I’d be interested to know of any good experiences with insurance companies? i.e. when they have paid out and done what they promised in all their glossy marketing. I have yet to make a claim on travel insurance, but you never know when you will need it and that’s the time you want the insurance company to deliver, not spend hours arguing with them.

  • Alan says:

    7 Aug7 August 11:43

    IIRC at the time of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcanic ash eruptions a lot of insurers were pretty poor at paying out – I had to take mine at the time (Insureandgo) to the ombudsman! M&S insurance got a good name at that time as I recall, in part because they didn’t want to damage their underlying brand.

• George says:

  7 Aug7 August 11:49

  Has anyone had any experience with AmEx’s Gold card ACE insurers? My wife is in the starting process of putting our first ever purchase protection claim through as a supplementary card holder and would love to hear any feedback. They got her name wrong over the phone (it can happen, I suppose) but I’ve now seen that there is a form online that can be filled out…

• Martin says:

  7 Aug7 August 11:57

  I’ve had one hospital claim when my partner broke his rib, and one claim for emergency dental work. Both were in the US, so they were eye-wateringly high claims for simple treatment.

  AXA paid out in full eventually, but the procedure was slow and difficult, and they made a few mitsakes along the way which stalled things.

  Using Skype to contact AXA was a problem. There is some issue with their exchange — I was told — that means it works poorly with Skype. While I could use Skype to call numerous other UK phone numbers, calls to AXA (via Amex) typically had them not being able to hear me at all while I could hear them perfectly.

  Another claim for a damaged tyre on a car hire in the Seychelles went much better and was paid quickly and without fuss.

  I too was surprised that I had no cover for non-refundable hotels when British Airways cancelled our flight to the Maldives.

  • Polly says:

    7 Aug7 August 12:14

    Martin. Agree, how are we supposed to get refunded for pre paid unused hotels. Should we be claiming from the airline? Is that why they refuse to cover it? How did it get resolved, did you ever get those refunds from anyone? Axa definitely drag it out, in the hope that you will go away and just drop the claim. I got that feeling, as every time I called in to chase my OH claim, we start from scratch again with the claim, and send in the paperwork yet again! Unreal experience.

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