SHE bought travel insurance and went on her holiday thinking that she was covered.
But on her return, she found out that the payment did not go through.
She is left wondering: Would the insurance company have still honoured the policy if anything had happened to her while she was on holiday?
Housewife Anne Foo, 36, recently went through the experience after she bought travel insurance from NTUC Income.
'Thankfully, nothing bad happened to us on our holiday,' said Mrs Foo.
In her case, Mrs Foo claims, she was told by an NTUC employee over the phone that one of its staff members had keyed in her credit card expiry date incorrectly while sending her particulars to her bank.
However, a spokesman for the insurer said its records do not show that any of its staff members was involved.
Mrs Foo bought a group policy for herself, her husband and her 5-year-old son online on 2Sep, two days before heading to Malaysia for a holiday.
E-mail confirmation
She received a confirmation e-mail immediately after making the purchase.
When she returned four days later, she saw an e-mail from the insurer informing her that the premium of about $41 for the travel policy was still due.
The reason given by the bank was 'invalid card number', stated the e-mail.
After checking with her bank and Income, she claims she was verbally told twice by Income that a staff member had made the mistake.
'I was told that the (staff member) had keyed in March (20)08, instead of March (20)10. And to make matters worse, one of the letters in my name was also wrong in the policy,' said Mrs Foo. 'They also insisted on re-deducting from my credit card.'
Mrs Foo said she has bought Income's travel insurance more than five times previously without any problems.
'The last one was only in June or July, and I even used the same credit card,' she added.
A few days later, she received a letter from Mr Pui Phusangmook, NTUC Income's senior vice-president of general insurance, stating that the insurer will honour the travel insurance based on the terms and conditions of the policy despite the initial error in the name of the insured.
But what Mrs Foo really wanted to know was whether Income would have honoured the policy given that the premium wasn't paid for.
She contacted The New Paper after she felt that Income had side-stepped the issue when asked for a clarification.
She said: 'From what I know, any insurance policy will lapse if the premium payment has not been made. Does that mean that the policy was not valid?
'But what if the mistake was made by NTUC Income itself?'
Mrs Foo said she wanted to know for future reference as she travels frequently.
Travel insurance typically includes cover for medical expenses, emergency medical evacuation, travel delay and baggage loss or theft.
She said that she is willing to pay the outstanding premium if she gets a satisfactory answer from the insurer.
'When we buy a travel policy over the Internet, we assume that the transaction would go through,' Mrs Foo said.
'You can even buy it hours before you fly off, and you wouldn't know whether the payment goes through or not.'
AN NTUC Income spokesman said that the details in the travel insurance document, including the credit card particulars, were based on information keyed in online by the applicant.
'Nevertheless, we are following up with our customer to check if any of our staff could have been involved in the online application process,' said the spokesman.
'At the moment, our records do not indicate so.'
When asked if Income would honour policies for which the premiums have not been paid, the spokesman said that it will consider the circumstances of each case.
Said the spokesman: 'NTUC Income's promise to our customers is that we will be fair in all our dealings with them.'
For customers who had inadvertently overlooked paying their premiums, the company would settle their travel insurance claims and deduct the outstanding premium from the claim settlement sum, the spokesman added.
And what if the mistake was made on its part?
'We are guided by our customer promise, 'We will set things right if something goes wrong.'
'The actions we take to recover the confidence and support of our customers will depend on the circumstances of each case.'
This article was first published in The New Paper on Sept 24, 2008.
