Not upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Hood Travel Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs D complained that Hood Travel Limited failed to auto-renew her travel insurance policy and did not notify her of the renewal failure, leaving her without cover when she had an accident during travel in March 2025. The renewal payment was declined on 14 January 2025, but Hood failed to send a payment failure notification. Hood did send three emails about the policy status, including a 20 January 2025 email stating the policy had expired, but Mrs D did not open this email until 12 March 2025, after her accident. The ombudsman did not uphold the complaint, finding that Hood provided sufficient notification and that Mrs D bore responsibility for checking her cover before travelling and for opening the expiry notification email in a timely manner.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Hood provided sufficient notification through three emails, with the critical 20 January 2025 email clearly stating the policy had expired. Although Hood failed to send a failed payment notification email, the ombudsman reasoned that Mrs D had a responsibility to check her cover before travelling and to verify that payment had been taken and policy documents received. The ombudsman placed the onus on Mrs D to have opened the 20 January 2025 email in a timely manner to discover the policy had not renewed, rather than placing responsibility on Hood for the failure to send the payment decline notification.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website