Travel agents defend right to sell insurance

Travel agents defended themselves from accusations of mis-selling travel insurance last night.

The accusation, made in Which? consumer magazine, stated that travel agents were mis-selling travel insurance, often failing to ask key questions which would affect the degree of cover that customers could expect.

Unlike other insurance brokers, travel agencies are not regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) which requires sellers to ask a set of questions to establish suitability of the policy they are selling.

According to the Which? report only 35 per cent of travel agents asked medical questions, which might lead to the discovery of conditions that would invalidate a policy, while banks and insurers asked the questions 81 per cent of the time.

Mike Monk, head of financial services at the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta), fought the travel agents’ corner at an industry debate pointing out a separate a study commissioned by the Abta which showed that 82 per cent of travel agents asked the important questions compared to 84 per cent of the insurers or banks.

He added: " There’s no evidence to suggest that travel agents mis-sell travel insurance."