Policy re-write follows cancer diagnosis
Exclusive UK bank Coutts has been in the headlines recently after it was forced to reinstate full travel insurance cover for one of its credit card holders who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. Following the customer's complaint, the bank is now re-writing the terms and conditions of the travel insurance policy it offers as a packaged benefit. Amanda Aitchison has the details of the case Coutts customer Ron Phillips paid for his holiday using his Coutts gold card, but a few months later was sadly diagnosed with cancer. In keeping with the terms of his policy, Mr Phillips contacted the bank to inform them of the change in his circumstances; the bank then advised Mr Phillips that it would exclude cover for his new diagnosis of cancer. However, when Mr Phillips and his son challenged this decision on the grounds that he expected his policy to provide cover for unforeseen events and that it was unfair for the insurer to amend the terms of a policy midterm. Coutts was forced to concede that its own terms and conditions did not allow it revoke the policy midterm, so full cover was then reinstated. Following the debacle, Coutts has decided to re-word its policy so that terms and conditions can be changed if a client falls ill after they have booked a trip but before departure. For more on this story, please see ITIJ 106 - coming soon!
Exclusive UK bank Coutts has been in the headlines recently after it was forced to reinstate full travel insurance cover for one of its credit card holders who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. Following the customer's complaint, the bank is now re-writing the terms and conditions of the travel insurance policy it offers as a packaged benefit. Amanda Aitchison has the details of the case
Coutts customer Ron Phillips paid for his holiday using his Coutts gold card, but a few months later was sadly diagnosed with cancer. In keeping with the terms of his policy, Mr Phillips contacted the bank to inform them of the change in his circumstances; the bank then advised Mr Phillips that it would exclude cover for his new diagnosis of cancer. However, when Mr Phillips and his son challenged this decision on the grounds that he expected his policy to provide cover for unforeseen events and that it was unfair for the insurer to amend the terms of a policy midterm. Coutts was forced to concede that its own terms and conditions did not allow it revoke the policy midterm, so full cover was then reinstated. Following the debacle, Coutts has decided to re-word its policy so that terms and conditions can be changed if a client falls ill after they have booked a trip but before departure.
For more on this story, please see ITIJ 106 - coming soon!