CRUISE passengers are amongst holidaymakers who've fallen foul of poor insurance-selling tactics by travel agents, according to a poll today.
 

A number of cruise travelers have been wrongly told that they could not book their break unless they took out insurance offered at the time by their travel agent.

This incorrect procedure has affected 5% of those who bought insurance from travel agents over the last 12 months, a YouGov survey found. 

Also, 16% of those buying insurance from a travel agent in the last 12 months were not asked about any pre-existing medical conditions, while 17% were not given full details of exactly what they were covered for.

The findings come a day before the introduction of new rules that will mean travel agents will need to be regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) or become introducers or representatives of an FSA-regulated company in order to sell travel insurance.

As the big cruise operators such as, Carnival, NCL and P&O kick-off their cruise sales, customers are warned to shop around and find the best insurance that meets their individual needs - not to just purchase insurance packages offered by either their travel agent or operator.

Sainsbury's Travel Insurance manager Sam Marrs said: "The survey findings are alarming but it will be much more difficult for rogue travel agents to do this once they are regulated by the FSA.

"Our research shows that up to 8.14 million people could have bought insurance from travel agents over the past 12 months and the new regulation will provide consumers with valuable, much-needed protection."

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