could you really prove ownership of everything you take on holiday?!

A question about : could you really prove ownership of everything you take on holiday?!

Yet another case of 'read the small print', but even then what in practical terms are you supposed to do?

The event was a break in to a hire car in New Zealand, luggage stolen. Reported to police etc. All seems 'reasonable' at that stage.

Unable to contact insurers as they are only open for business 9-5 Mon-Fri, yes really! No email contact possible either. Oh and theres a 13 hour time difference , oh and one of the things stolen was my Uk SIM......

In summary, a lot of the claim, for nearly Ј1500 of clothes and belongings was rejected because I was unable to prove ownership. How, on what basis etc are you supposed to do that? Luckily had receipts for more recent purchases that could track down, say 1/3 of the total.

In terms of the insurers, you would expect reputable names like Amex (front), and AXA (behind) to be as good as it gets.....Well they are not, avoid because you cannot have dialogue when you need it, they have prevaricated every step of the way on the claim, and been about as unhelpful as a you could get.
Caveat Emptor (buyer beware) on Travel Ins......

Best answers:

• If you are unhappy with your insurer make a complaint.
• already done that, and also as an Amex card customer for many years would have expected a more reasonable approach!
• Try claiming on your home insurance, if you have the appropriate cover they're less strict on proving ownership and you will receive considerably more than from a travel policy
• Is this stand alone AmEx policy or one thats bundled with one of their cards? Which level of policy/ card is it?
  What is the rational given for paying out less than you claimed? Remember that even on home insurance clothes are not settled on a new for old basis and most travel insurance policies are always indemnity based so if the clothes were a couple of years old then you'd expect the settlement to be under half their new price.
  Insurers will expect to see proof of ownership for as much as you can provide. This is ideally receipts but can also be things like bank statements, packaging, manuals, accessories, photographs, valuations etc. Realistically they wont expect you to have the receipts for every pair of knickers and socks you own however they'd expect these things to be appropriate and consistent. So if all the receipts you can provide are from Primark and TK Maxx they will get suspicious that the items you cant provide receipts for are Tom Ford shirts, Huntsman suits and Louboutin shoes.
  Naturally the higher the claim the more tyre kicking will happen. Going away for a weekend and you've brought 5 bespoke suits and 4 evening dresses? Obviously explain you are going to a bespoking suiting convention and the associated evening balls and these stories start hanging together better especially if you've declared your job as a tailor/ cutter
• magpie cottage - Amex going through whatever their complaints procedure is, but at end of the day dont expect anything other than thats the way it is!
  What surprises me is the apparent lack of interest by these big organisations of what I call the knock on effect, ie as far as I am concerned I would tell anyone i come across to never go near Amex Ins! Also it leaves a sour taste towards Amex generally and even though I dont really want to, am considering dumping my Amex card, perhaps I bit silly I know!
  dacouch - many thanks interesting comments about the different approach on the different policies. Not quite as easy as that tho because some home policies do not cover worldwide etc, so you have to look at that aspect
  InsideInsurance - It was a standalone policy, the card is Platinum, but no Ins linked to that.
  The rationale for not paying out as claimed was lack of proof of ownership. Where I could prove ownership, ie with some receipts for more expensive stuff, these were reduced by a %. Generally I have little if any receipts more than 2 years old, and certainly dont keep small values anyway, who does.
  In this case they have exactly expected proof of ownership of everything, ridiculous. As we lost 2 whole suitcases on a long trip to NZ you can imagine all the things in there, pretty much everything apart from our key valuables like money, cr cards and passports..