Sadia contacted us after her insurer declined a claim she made on her mobile phone insurance policy when her phone had been stolen.
What happened
Sadia made a claim on her mobile phone insurance policy when her phone had been stolen.
The insurer turned down the claim because it said the phone Sadia was claiming for was owned by her mother and it was a requirement that she owned the phone she was making a claim for.
The phone had been purchased by Sadia’s mother. The monthly bills to the network provider were paid for by Sadia and the phone was linked to her email address.
Sadia disagreed and felt her insurer unfairly declined her claim, so she complained to the insurer. Unhappy with its final response, she approached our service and asked us to investigate.
What we said
We accepted that Sadia’s mother had purchased the phone and the contract was in her name. And we also accepted the phone contract hadn’t been transferred by the network provider into Sadia’s name. But the policy terms didn’t say exactly what Sadia would need to do to show the phone was hers, just that some form of proof of ownership would be required.
We decided Sadia had demonstrated the phone belonged to her and not her mother, given that she’d been paying the monthly contract, the phone was registered to her home address and it was linked solely to her email address.
So we concluded the insurer’s decision to decline the claim was unfair and asked it to reconsider the claim Sadia made in line with the remaining policy terms.