Firstly, I'm very sorry for your loss. It's always a good idea to get insurance the same day you book your hols. Otherwise the insurer can reject your claim because you knew you'd be likely to cancel your hols when you bought the policy. You also knew that your sister had a history of cancer, being treated just a couple of months before you booked your hols. Even if her scans in July showed her to be in the clear, there's not many insurers who would touch that type of risk. If you'd declared her cancer to the insurer when you booked the holiday, I'm fairly certain they'd exclude all claims arising from her condition. Sorry but I think you're gonna struggle to get paid. I agree with

If it's a policy through your bank account (I'm guessing Barclays or HSBC), it covers the accountholder and their spouse if travelling with the accountholder. The policy defines close relative and I'd bet it includes mother-in-law. So your husband is entitled to claim for cancellation due to illness of his close relative too. If you have to pay a further cancellation charge, this will be covered too. The nonly area you might come unstuck is if your mum had her medical condition when you booked the holiday and you didn't declare it. If she's been well for several years, this should be OK though. Let us know if you have any probs.

I agree totally with the others about taking out travel insurance. I handle medical emergencies and repatriations over £100,000 for an insurer. Believe me, when you get ill in USA you wanna make sure you're insured. I've had cases where uninsured customers and their relatives have had to sell their homes to fund their treatment and air ambulance home.

As a travel claims handler (not Morethan!), I sometimes appoint Cunningham Lindsey to interview customers about their claims. CL aren't targetted to find fraudsters and charge us a standard fee for every case. The interview may be over the telephone or face-to-face. We often use them to clarify circumstances by taking statements or check documentation provided. To be honest, if you call every day, making threats of complaining to FOS and refusing to be interviewed, they will merely become even more suspicious and wonder what you have to hide. Attitiude of the customer is one of the most frequently used fraud indicators. I've had cases where FOS have supported my decision to appoint CL because of issues with the claim, so escalating your complaint may not help. I would suggest that the best way to resolve this is to express your dissatisfaction with the delays, willingly go ahead with the inteview, be honest about what happened (even if there are bits you can't remember) and see what their decision is. If the claim is declined, you can of course complain. If the claim is agreed you can request interest at 8% from the date that you submitted your claim. The key to getting this resolved is to remain calm and let them complete their investigations. I hope you get a good result. Keep us informed.

Your boyfriend could always try arguing that he had no knowledge of your father's medical condition and therefore was in no position to disclose them to the insurer. He can only be expected to declare that which he has knowledge of and, as your father isn't his close relative, they may accept this.

You could also argue that you've not prejudiced their position in anyway by not contacting the MES. If you have the medical bills confirming your diagnosis and the treatment received, then you've substantiated your claim. Why should the insurer consider that these costs would have been any different if you'd called them? Yes, they'd have been able to discuss your treatment with the treating doctor, but the chances are they'd have merely issued a guarantee for the costs anyway. The only area of weakness is if you are claiming additional costs for coming home early. The insurer would want confirmation from the treating doctor that it was medically necessary for you to return home early. If the Ombudsman have rejected your claim, I'd suggest you ask for it to be appealed and reviewed by the Ombudsman rather than just an adjudicator.

A friend of mine recently got caught speeding by a mobile camera unit. He was approached by solicitors who siad they could help him avoid the points and fine for £160! They gave him some letter templates to follow. Initially he said he didn't know who was driving and could he have the photo. All the police sent was a photo of the vehicle registration and grill. He then said he didn't know who was driving and it could have been any of three people. The police have told him he must advise who was driving. He's now been given a template asking for the calibration of the speed camera, the training record of the officer who used it and a load of other rather tenuous and odd requests. I have heard of people avoiding speeding fines and points by saying the driver was from overseas or simply saying they don't know who was driving. But I'm sure on the radio last week they were saying these "get-outs" were being taken very seriously and not allowed anymore. Anybody know the current situation please? Personally I think he should just fess up but I thought you guys might know what these solicitors were all about?

One of the most common issues we have is failure to disclose relatives previous medical conditions. Anything that could be considered serious, chronic or recurring should be disclosed, regardless of whether they're currently stable. So in answer to your question - yes, you should tell them about your BILs' heart attack and heart surgery. The fact that you'd cancel or abandon your hols if anything happened to them means that your trip does depend on their good health. You need to check the General / Medical Warranty in your policy booklet to see what your obligations re. disclosure are. As far as not including grandparents in the definition of close relative, I really don't know. I'd imagine it could be that grandparents are more susceptible to becoming ill, so they're simply avoiding that risk. Seems a bit unreasonable to me but if it's in their policy wording they're allowed to rely on it.

Gismocat, sorry to hear your grandad's not well. I'm not familiar with the Primary Insurance travel policy so can only give you general advice, as a travel claims manager for Norwich Union. The policy booklet should define close relatives. You should be covered if you have to cancel or abandon a holiday because any of these "close relatives" get sick. Check your wording - I'm surprised a grandparent isn't on there! As far as pre-exisitng medical conditions are concerned, you need to make sure you disclose ANY serious, chronic or recurring sickness, injury or disease of any relative, business associate or person upon whose good health your trip depends. You must disclose these conditions when you take out your policy or book your trip (which ever is later). So if you take out a new policy now (and for any future holidays), you'll need to tell them about your grandfather's recent hospital admission. They might agree to insure it or they might not (it all depends how serious his condition is, often a points scoring type system is used) but at least you'll know one way or the other. Primary should only consider this a pre-exisitng condition if your grandad had a history of it when you booked your hol / bought their insurance. If this is the case and you didn't disclose it, they could refuse your claim. If he had no relevant history when you booked / purchased insurance, then they're likely to offer you Cancellation cover if you choose not to go but nothing else e.g. won't pay to get you home if something happens to him whilst you're away. I hope that makes sense. PM me if you need any more advice. I hope your grandad gets better soon. Gail

Talk about leaving it til the eleventh hour! Turned up at court today to be told that DG had advised them this morning they'd be settling for the full amount claimed. Nice of them to mention it to me!! Gonna call DG tomorrow and find out exactly when I can receive my cheque!

Woo hoo! Returned from holiday today to find a cheque for £1000.14 sitting on my doorstep - the full amount claimed! Bit confused why it was from RBS, rather than Natwest but who cares?! I got paid!

I'd definitely get some life assurance to cover the amount of your mortgage. However, it sounds like you're talking about Payment Protection insurance too (aka Accident, Sickness and Unemployment insurance). Whether you get this depends upon your attitude to risk. As somebody who's worked in the PP claims dept, I don't think it's worth the paper it's written on. Yes, it'll cover you if something terrible happens but you'll be paying the premium every month for 25 years, for something that's probably quite unlikely. You need to think about how you'd cope e.g. if you got made redundant, wouldn't you just get another job!? These policies often have restrictions e.g. don't pay out for first 3 months that you're off work or are very specific e.g. certain types of medical conditions but not others. You have to weigh up your personal circumstances e.g. do you have savings or famioly to fall back on against the total premium you'd be paying and the chances of you getting ill.

As a travel claims handler for Norwich Union, I'd be surprised if they were repudiating just because you didn't notify them. Are you sure that your travel policy covers this eventuality? Curtailment / abandonment is usually only covered in specific circumstances such as medical emergency of you or a relative back home, your home being damaged, etc. If you're claiming under Missed Departure you're more likely to be covered for vehicle breakdown but must be able to provide evidence of when this happened. What's the exact reason given for the repudiation?

Took my court bundle to the County Court office today. Also posted a copy to DG Solicitors, advising that I would still settle for £3,100. Now just counting down til 10 July, hoping every day for a settlement. Gonna plant a tree when all this is done! What a complete waste of photocopying!

"Notice of Allocation to the Small Claims track (Hearing) scheduled for 10 July 07 at Worthing County Court. Each party shall deliver to the other party and to the court office copies of all documents on which he intends to rely at the hearing no later than 14 days before the hearing. The claimant do, within 14 days from the date of this order, file and serve details of: b) how the sum claimed has been calculated." I've prepared my court bundle including all correspondence, schedule of charges, statements, case law, OFT report and T&Cs. All numbered up and ready to be copied. Can somebody tell me if there's a letter template to nudge the solicitors again at the same time I send them my bundle? My head's spinning a bit at the mo!

Thanks. Sorry, thought more people would see it in General!!

There's no date stamp but it has a 2nd Class POstage Paid franking stamp. Guess they'd forgotten that they were running out of time! Thanks for the advice. Think I'll go for the full amount.

I sent my LBA on 22 May. No response 14 days later (5 June) so I issued MCOL on 5 June. Today (7 June) I receive a letter offering me my charges but no interest or costs. The problem is their letter is dated 1 June and has taken 6 days to reach me. As their offer of settlement predates my issuing proceedings, do I have to accept it? They have, after all, offered me what I was asking for before I litigated! Worried that a Court may feel I was acting unreasonably to hold out for interest and costs now.

Help needed please! My LBA was dated 22 May. As I had no response 14 days later (5 June) I issued MCOL. The offer letter I received this morning is dated 1 June and is just offering the charges back! Why it took 6 days to get here I don't know. Given that their offer is dated prior to my issuing, do I have to accept it or can I still hold out for interest and costs?

Letter from Cust Rels offering to pay charges but no mention of interest or court fee. They prob haven't even caught up with the fact that I issued against them earlier in the week! Just drafting letter telling them to @*%£ off and give me my full amount claimed. Here we go again!

Bad luck! At least you know the insurer had to pay FOS £400 to consider your complaint!

Pilbers, that would prob be under Accidental Damage coz anybody could have knocked it off the unit. Chewing and scratching e.g. "normal" pet behaviour isn't usually covered. But if your animal is sick for example you can argue that it isn't "normal" behaviour and they would have paid under AD if a child had been sick. So the trick is to cover all the scratch marks with vomit.....

Thanks guys. I've had a browse of the threads. I've sent the first nudge letter to DG, also sent a letter to the court of transfer with a Draft Order for Directions. I also called the court who confirmed there was no allocation fee to pay. Guess we'll wait to see what track the judge allocates and what date is set for the hearing. Holding my nerve, just!

Issued MCOL against HSBC a few weeks ago Received an offer of refund of charges but no interest or court fee so rejected this as full settlement Yesterday I received a Notice of Transfer to my local court. And an order from Northampton CC stating that "the filing of an AQ be dispensed with in this case unless the district judge at the court of transfer orders otherwise. Any party affected by this order may under rule 3.3(5) apply to have it set aside, varied or stayed. Such a party must apply under rule 3.3(5) within 14 days of service of this order. An allocation fee may be payable." The Defence states "1. The Claimant's account is governed by the Defendent's T & Cs. 2. The Defendent is entitled to make a charge for its services as set out in its prove list. 3. The Defendent denies that the charegs amount to penalties at common law and / or unfair contract terms. 4. The charges are reasonable and are properly and fully disclosed in the T&Cs. The charges represent the contractually agreed price for the services provided. 5. Each and every allegation is denied. It is denied that the Claimant is entitled to the relief claimed or any relief." Aargh! What do I do now? Does it prejudice my position by not being able to file an AQ? I was hoping that doing this would put some pressure on the bank to settle! Is it too late for me to accept their previous offer? Do I just wait for the local court to contact me with further instructions? Getting v scared. Last time I just got my settlement right after issuing my claim, so this is all new to me. Any advice please?

SAR letter sent to London address - 9/1/07 No response SAR letter sent to Data Protection Manager in Edinburgh - 30/1/07 Copy statements received Prelim approach letter sent - 13/4/07 Letter from Customer Services advising they were investigating - 25/4/07 LBA sent - 22/5/07 Money Claim Online issued - 5/6/07 My sister-in-law is a branch manager at Natwest and is severely unimpressed with me!! LOL!