Commonwealth Bank Credit Card Insurance - Allianz

I thought that I would share my saga with the Commonwealth Bank Travel insurance offered free with their credit cards. Its underwritten by Allianz, so you can learn from this if you plan to use this “deal” or probably any Allianz underwritten Travel Insurance. There are similar experiences on product reviews.

I travelled to Bali and got caught with the Volcano. It was a solo trip a reunion with relatives.

I rang Allianz and was told that it’s ok I am covered, for reasonable expenses and to keep all receipts for the additional expenses.

For those not wanting to read everything, The summary is they agreed to the claim, but its taken 2-3 months. Every query back sent the claim to the back of the queue. They rejected laundry expenses $40 for the 10 days, and baggage storage of $12 at Perth Airport rather than drag my suitcase it thru security etc(14 hour layover where no meals or drinks were claimed). I have appealed but I am now at the back of the queue again.

The details

With this card/insurance there is a deductible $250

I kept many of the receipts - Bali Taxi’s don’t hand out receipts, and as I didn’t catch many I didn’t bother.

Some restaurants wouldn’t split bills so I didn’t get receipts for some meals. Thats ok I accepted this.

After 10 days I managed to fly to Perth at my own (Insurance claimable) expense.

Jetstar gave me a flight back to Sydney at no charge (Replaced my Bali return flight)

I have Qantas club access so I stayed for the 14 hour layover - Nice to have the showers in the club.

Submitted claim for around $1K for expenses inc Perth flight ($240)

Told it would be processed in 10 business days. They called and said it would be a few more days. Which was ok.

Then told needed letter from Jetstar confirming delay, plus they needed copy of my Credit card and original flight charges.

5 days later got letter and forwarded these to Allianz. 18 days (inc weekends/holidays) to the day, they called and said the credit card they wanted was my CommBank card not the card I charged the fare to, I asked why they said they don’t have access to these from the bank (Privacy). I told them that to activate this insurance I had to log onto my Commbank account, which wouldn’t let me apply unless I qualified. BTW which card they required wasn’t very clear in their request

I then copied the front of my card and sent it in. Now its the first week of the year, so again I go back to the end of the queue.

On the last day they ring me again and tell me the claim has been approved, minus Laundry and Baggage.

I dispute the baggage purely on basis it was “reasonable” and that I saved them two meals drinks etc at Perth (as I ate in the club for free) which the caller understood and agreed I could have claimed the meals.

I said I would like to dispute the assessment - they are just being Petty, however would this delay payment. I am told it won’t. Still no payment received. (5 days)

So moral is if you deal with this company be aware any issue they determine seems to put you at the back of the queue, and what you think is “reasonable” as they request all your expenses are, they are not going to reciprocate, unless my appeal is successful. I’ll post the response.

Yep the insurance was free I accept that just sharing the knowledge

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Comments

  • Thanks for sharing, I've used that insurance a couple of times but haven't needed to claim. Was curious how well they covered you.
    Quick q: did you 'activate' the insurance? And which level card was this for - Gold/Platinum/Diamond?

    • +2

      Yes I activated it. Gold Card. You must activate it to get the cover.

      • Ah, thanks.

  • Thank you OP for sharing. You are the travel guru and will take your words for it.

    Just a question - knowing this now about the claim process, will you (if all over again) do the same or purchase your own or use other credit card?

    • It's not over yet. They havent paid up even though they say they will. So I cant really decide.

      Its hard to give up the freebie, but getting dicked around isnt worth it, and I thought my claims were very reasonable. (Its only the second time I have ever claimed on TI.) so I havent been rorting the system.

      I have lifetime Gold with American (1milion miles) to show I travelled a lot. I wont mention the years. :)

  • +3

    Just to be clear they use Allianz Global Assistance which is different to Allianz. I made a claim on my Gold Credit card for purchase protection insurance and had a similar experience. Each time there was an exchange I was sent to the back of the queue which was a 10 business day wait. It took 1-2 months for a simple claim.

    I actually happen to have my content and comprehensive with Allianz (not Global Assistance) and they're a pleasure to deal with. I claimed my partner's lost phone recently and we were surprised how simple the claim process was. After submitting the claim we picked up the replacement the next day from JB Hi-Fi and paid the excess directly to store. I also have friends who got caught up in flash flooding last year who lost their cars in the same carpark. The ones with Allianz got their claim sorted the quickest without any hassle, the cheap insurance providers took the longest and dragged out the processes (3+ months).

    At the end of the day you get what you paid for. I'm going overseas next month and will be relying on my Gold Credit card travel insurance if anything happens. I hope I never have to make a claim but at least I know what to expect.

    • Thank you for clarifying the difference

    • what insurance covers a mobile phone? I didnt think our home contents does (or car or any other we have)

      • It's optional add-on on top of home contents insurance (I think it's called away from home or portable items cover). We nominate a few items and specify their value. It's a $100 excess to claim those items vs $500 for a home contents claim. It does add onto your premium to have the items listed but it's not that much more and claims don't affect future premiums.

  • Anyone aware of which companies use Allianz as the underwriters for (annual) travel insurance?

  • The insurance won't cover the baggage or laundry expenses because the PDS states they will only cover "reasonable additional meals and accommodation expenses" for travel delays
    That being said, if you had done your laundry through the hotel (which is ridiculously expensive) you probably would be approved for that claim because it would fit under 'accommodation expenses'
    PDSs are very specifically worded unfortunately

    • Thanks for that, but the laundry was performed in the hotel and they denied this.

      Guess its ok to stay but to have your clothes cleaned even at the hotel isn't reasonable.

      They do pay for travel to and from the airport, which if we take the "Reasonable etc" provision they could say thats not meal and accommodation.

      So the real problem is what we expect as its not clear. As you thought the laundry would have been ok if included in the accommodation bill. But with Allianz its not. So how can we really know what is "reasonable"

      However while these are overall petty claims arguably on either side, the back of the queue game is really the stinky part (more than my unwashed clothes would have been). Every time they called it was 4pm on the last day of the day, that they committed to process the claim. And each time there was more info required this waiting period restarted. Not what I would call "reasonable" to use their highlighted term :)

      Again. I will have to live with it and do so. The post was also to help others with the expectation of the service they will get.

      • That is surprising and disappointing to hear then. I've made travel delay claims through my CC before, albeit via Zurich and ACE rather than Allianz Global, and they were happy to pay for laundry, ironing and even dry cleaning done at the hotel.
        The shuffling to the back of the queue is stupid and terrible on their behalf. I don't understand why they do it other than to annoy you it seems.

        • Could you advise which CC so I can check he wording of their policy to see if they are similar in wording or if they give more detail to what can be claimed.

          Thanks

        • +1

          @RockyRaccoon: I've claimed on an AmEx Platinum (2013) and CommBank Platinum (2011). I think CommBank might have switched from Zurich to Allianz a couple of years ago

  • Update to the saga.

    Their dispute resolution person (senior claims advisor) called and in effect said exactly the same thing. They are limited by auditors etc

    I told him, where do I go to next and he said they ahve another internal review team who are not part of this "group". Then theer is the FI ombudsman.

    Really, so the dispute resolution group has no power to handle the issue!! It just takes 10 days to tell me that. Plus the finally have paid up, but that took over a week. My friends the auditors had to approve/process the payments.

    I said that the terms of payment are not consistent and gives no one confidence of what they will pay.

    Still mulling whether I should be a bastard like them and go to the FI ombudsman, anyone know if it will cost the bastards money if I do?

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