Zurich Insurance Group will be giving refunds to customers whose travel plans did not materialise because of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the insurance giant, travel insurance clients who took out a single-trip policy or hold an annual policy for trips scheduled between March 12 and June, but who were unable to travel will get full premium refunds as “they haven’t been able to make use of or claim on their travel insurance.”
Single-trip customers who are yet to travel also have the option to reschedule their policies.
For clients booking a rescheduled trip with their travel operators, Zurich said it will move the insurance policy dates to align with their new trip dates, which can be up to 13 months from their original travel dates.
The insurer said 8,000 single policy customers were eligible for a full refund or can rearrange their policy to fit new trip dates.
About 2,000 annual multi-trip policyholders will also be offered a pro-rata refund for the months they were unable to travel due to the lockdown.
Zurich estimates 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 giving refunds was the right thing to do, especially at a time when almost everybody is reeling from the economic impacts of COVID-19.
“Travel insurance is designed to protect you while 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,” he said, as quoted by Thisismoney.co.uk.
“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.”
