Travel insurance alert after £100k bill received by family in UK

A family is telling people to be careful with their insurance. They made a mistake on a form and their policy was not valid when their daughter got sick on vacation. They had to pay a £100,000 medical bill.

Katya Katalinic, who is 18 years old, from Midhurst, West Sussex, had a bleeding in her brain in South Africa in February.

She remained in Africa after a family trip to Kenya during Christmas.

Axa, their insurance company, said the policy was not valid because the family gave the wrong information.

Miss Katalinic said she woke up in the hospital with strangers around her.

“I couldn’t talk or read anymore, so I felt like a baby when it happened,” she said. “I didn’t know anything. ”

Marsha Katalinic, her mom, made sure the whole family had insurance for their trip to Kenya in 2022.

When her parents went back to the UK in the new year, Miss Katalinic chose to continue with a course to learn how to work on a yacht in South Africa.

Her dad, Roberto Katalinic, got more insurance for her. They tried to use it when she got sick and they rushed to Cape Town.

Mr Katalinic said he told the hospital manager about the policy.

“MrKatalinic looked at the screen and told me, ‘You’re not going to like this email,'”

“Axa told him that they would not pay, so the parents will have to pay for the cost. ”

Axa said the insurance was not valid because Miss Katalinic’s trip to South Africa began in Kenya, not the UK.

Mr Katalinic said that he thought the journey had to start in the UK, and that’s where it did start.

“The journey began here, in Midhurst in the UK. ”

Miss Katalinic is telling people to be prepared for bad things that could happen to them. She says that even though you may hear about bad things happening to others, you might not think it will happen to you. She wants everyone to make sure they have everything they need to be okay in case something bad happens.

Axa said in a statement that when you buy the insurance, you need to confirm that everyone on the policy is going to and coming back from the United Kingdom and that your trip has not started yet.

“On this occasion, the answers given didn’t match Miss Katalinic’s situation and this was only discovered after she made her claim. ” We stopped the policy because we found out it wasn’t valid. We gave Miss Katalinic all her money back.

According to deputy editor Sam Richardson, consumers are given the information they need, but it’s hard to find and requires a lot of effort to discover.

It’s worrisome that 25% of claims aren’t paid. It shows that these products could be improved so people understand them better.