Southern Cross Travel Insurance

Much like the other reviews of late I would caution using southern cross travel insurance at the moment as their backlog for claims is very bad. At the time of writing this it is currently June 2023, I was advised by the claims team staff that they’re still working on claims from February 2023 so even though I have been waiting a month I could still potentially be waiting a few more months which is very inconvenient as we have a reasonable claim to make for our trip which I am not pleased about this and being out of pocket a couple thousand dollars.They advised me it is due to the delays caused by COVID-19 and an influx of claims as they had reduced staff which has lead to the delays, I hope they are working on hiring more staff as this is pretty bad for a large company to still have 4-5 month claim delays.

If you are NZ resident, SCTI staff will advise you - MUST CLAIM ACC BEFORE LODGING AN ACCIDENT CLAIM EVEN WHEN YOU TRAVELLED OVERSEAS!!!! You can only claim the balance from SCTI so please make sure you do not waste time like our case…….I have never been advised that we have to lodge a claim thru ACC due to an accident claim until a staff called Jayden from the claims department in Feb 2023. This is totally a wasting time process. Why we were not informed at the first place when I contacted SCTI on 2-Oct 2022 but asked us for all the supporting documents and receipts 5 MONTHS LATER?The staff from the claims department called Jayden only responded to my son with no more than two sentences. We have not been advised for any next step. He put a Full Stop at our claim. This was a Very Unprofessional customer service from a well-known insurance company.* SCTI only processed our claim until we lodged a formal complaint because 3 months is too long for a claim. This is below standards. When you suffered from injury and monetary loss, you will have to wait for a long time to get the reimbursement. There was NO apology for this but saying they are understaffed.Update on 28/02/2023 - SCTI finally settled this claim, reimbursed us the procedure costs at a Public hospital in HK, the difference of airfare for the flight postponed due to injury. No income loss has been paid because we must lodge a claim thru ACC.Update on 25/02/2023 - still no response from SCTI(ACC STAFF CONFIRMED THAT THEY WILL NOT PAY FOR ANY OVERSEAS SURGERY COSTS AND SOUTHERN CROSS TAKING US AROUND IN CIRCLES AND GETTING NO WHERE!!!!!!)I personally bought health insurance from SC since 2003 (20 years ago) and never had any issues with medical claims so far. I thought this is a great insurance company to deal with.I paid for my son’s travel insurance of an overseas trip, unfortunately, he had a bike accident in Hong Kong on 3-Oct 2022 which was 13 days before his retuning flight and his knee was injured badly. He was sent to emergency department in a public hospital by an ambulance due to a very deep cut of his knee and was operated by an orthopaedic surgeon within 8 hours.At that time, I called the SCTI emergency assistance while I was travelling to England and then they responded to my emails slowly. We had to pay NZ$2K as a deposit due to my son is a tourist in HK. After exchanging emails with the SCTI Emergency Assistance for 4-5 days, they could not help us because the total of hospitalisation cost is less than NZ$2K so we ended up paying the bill by credit card. This was annoying - wasted time!I emailed them all the pictures of injury and asked for the next step for the claim. No response until I called again after 10 days. IT IS CALLED EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE. This was frustrating!Finally, we were told that we had to lodge a claim for CONSIDERATION so we waited until my son was back in Auckland then we could send all the paper works including hospital records and receipts to SCTI in Dec 2022. His flight was postponed for another two weeks till early Nov 2022 due to the complications of his wound healing.This is not a great experience we had so far - this company cannot screen the insurance claim and advise customer what to do?????On 20/02/2023, my son received the following email:Claim number: - 196157Policy number: -Dear Axxxxx,You must claim any amount payable under this section from Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) if you can. This policy will only cover the remaining amount once you’ve claimed as much as you can from ACC.Kind regardsJaydenClaims TeamSouthern Cross Travel InsurancePlease do NOT waste your customer time like this - I will never insured with SCTI again and will go with AA insurance from now on.This is an extremely bad experience and poor customer service that we had!!!!!!

Waited 7 months for a straightforward stolen bag claim to be assessed. When it finally came through we only got $600 back for a laptop bag that was packed with tech worth $1000s of dollars. Very poor coverage and very poor customer service. Not recommended, will go back to AA next time.

My experience with Southern Cross Travel Insurance has been highly disappointing. Despite their claims of resolving half of the claims within 10 working days, I have been waiting for my travel claim to be assessed for the past four months. This blatant discrepancy between their advertised timelines and the reality of their process is extremely frustrating as our claim is simply to refund a single plan ticket.

Don't expect SCTI to pay out your claim promptly. Terrible experience with them taking months to pay out a genuine claim. They have plenty of people employed in Marketing, Advertising and sales, but few in their claims dept. Nowhere when signing up does it mention there could be months of waiting to process your claim. Strongly recommend you choose another provider.

Been using them every-time we travel. Of course you would not want to make claim since it means something wrong is going to happen. Then the inevitable happened. Took an insurance because there was a forecast of a typhoon. They declined the claim since it says it’s supposed to be unexpected and given that the typhoon is expected, they will not pay out the claim. Yea, given that the typhoon is expected, does that mean anything related to a typhoon is un-claimable?! Not only that, it took 4 months to assess the claim! In the end, they declined it. Never will we use Southern Cross Travel Insurance again — ever!!! They’re very good at receiving your money but not serving you well!

First time I have used travel insurance, our flights were cancelled and no other flights were available that day on jetstar, I had to pay an exorbitant amount of money on another airline and SCTI covered the extra cost, will definitely use them again.

My partner and I travelled to Australia and had to purchase new flights to make a connecting flight due to weather disruption. We then missed a 2nd internal flight because of further weather issues. Once I got home I contacted Southern Cross. Really quick responses and when our claim was accepted again the response advising was quick. Really pleased with SCTI. Top service and easy to purchase insurance online.

My experience with Southern Cross Travel Insurance has been highly disappointing. Despite their claims of resolving half of the claims within 10 working days, I have been waiting for my travel claim to be assessed for the past four months. This blatant discrepancy between their advertised timelines and the reality of their process is extremely frustrating.Southern Cross Travel Insurance needs to be more honest with their customers about the actual time it takes to assess claims. Waiting for four months without any clear communication or updates is simply unacceptable. Their lack of transparency and inefficiency reflect poorly on their reputation as an insurance provider.I strongly advise seeking alternative options when considering travel insurance. There are other providers that value their customers' time and adhere to realistic timelines. Southern Cross Travel Insurance has proven themselves incapable of fulfilling their promises and delivering satisfactory service.In conclusion, Southern Cross Travel Insurance's deceptive delays and lack of transparency have left me deeply dissatisfied. It is best to explore other reputable and honest insurance providers to avoid the frustration and disappointment I have experienced.

I've purchased travel insurance with Southern Cross many times, but this is the first time I've needed to claim. Disappointing experience as after two months of waiting, the claim hasn't even been assigned to an assesor. I'd recommend checking out other options..