Season ticket insurance

[Flamingo]

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but a passenger asked me today and I didn't know the answer.

Does anybody offer insurance for season tickets?

 

[GadgetMan]

A lost season ticket can be replaced for the cost of an admin fee. So I'm not sure what extra benefits such insurance would be able to offer.

 

[34D]

A lost season ticket can be replaced for the cost of an admin fee. So I'm not sure what extra benefits such insurance would be able to offer.

Plus a change of circumstance that allows the ticket to be replaced with a different ticket, or (I think) refunded less the admin fee (and obviously the usage to date, expressed in other tickets - example weekly/daily).

 

[AlterEgo]

A lost season ticket can be replaced for the cost of an admin fee. So I'm not sure what extra benefits such insurance would be able to offer.

Usually the ticket will be replaced only once or twice. This forum regularly sees posters who have lost their ticket more times than the TOC will tolerate, who end up hugely out of pocket.

 

[Nym]

Usually the ticket will be replaced only once or twice. This forum regularly sees posters who have lost their ticket more times than the TOC will tolerate, who end up hugely out of pocket.

Solution: Don't loose it!

If it's stolen get a crime number... Usually more sympathetic TOCs are...

Although if you have a PTE ticket, you're buggered if you want a replacement!

SO insurance would be relevant for something like an Annual County Card that has now broken into four figures at £1005...!

 

[Barn]

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but a passenger asked me today and I didn't know the answer.

Does anybody offer insurance for season tickets?

My household insurance covers lost tickets BUT it treats them as cash, which means there is a maximum payout per claim of £500.

 

[island]

I am aware of some household insurance providers that offer it, but as Barn says, there are often major restrictions (due to moral hazard).

 

[ajdunlop]

This is a big problem when you have an annual season ticket running into thousands of pounds. It's all very well saying don't loose it more than the once the ToCs allow for but it is not unreasonable to drop what is after all a couple of tickets in a ticket wallet. People insure their mobile phones which are worth at most a few hundred pounds and there are much more noticeable when dropped. I think it even says somewhere in T&Cs for season ticket that you should provide your own insurance. But after a look around I couldn't find such a thing. Maybe it would be too risky to insure which suggests that is happens quite a bit.
I think the ToCs could make a but of money charging and extra £10-20 on top of a season ticket to insure it I did find a bus company who offered such a service for season tickets (think it might have been a local First service).

 

[island]

Or, they could issue season tickets on smart cards with the holder's photo on the card that could be hotlisted if stolen and replaced for a fee of around a tenner. Hey, wait a minute...

 

[Flamingo]

Thanks for that. Short answer is NO, then!

 

[island]

Depends on the value, in fairness. A monthly Reading Stations to London Terminals at £364.80 would probably be insurable. An annual Swindon Wilts to London Terminals at £7,448 would probably not be (practically).

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Imo, if you think you are going to lose your season more times than a TOC will replace it, you should put some money aside each month just in case, after all, if you can afford an insurance premium, you can afford to save up. Also imo, if you are the sort of person who loses their season regularly, you will quickly end up with either a very high premium or no-one willing to insure you.

 

[infobleep]

Alternatively, if you lose your season ticket by it from another train company the next month, assuming your on monthly tickets. That's not a bad insurance policy. I mean who only have to lose your ticket twice in one 12 month period to be out of pocket.

Why do people insure their phones?

 

[tony_mac]

Oddly enough, firstgroup do offer insurance for bus season tickets.
http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/aberdeen/tickets/insurance/

It makes sense for it to be run in conjunction with the TOCs. If done completely separately it seems if would be wide open for fraud.

 

[island]

Why do people insure their phones?

An iPhone costs up to £700 to replace.

 

[Brucey]

My household insurance covers lost tickets BUT it treats them as cash, which means there is a maximum payout per claim of £500.

When I worked for an insurance broker, we could manually increase the cash maximum on a policy, up to something like £5000. Although this did rule out most of the cheaper and mainstream insurers.

 

[Nym]

An iPhone costs up to £700 to replace.

Indeed, all the more reason not to have one.

I'm supprised companies like insure your bubble or AXA PPP don't offer specialist season ticket insurance, although if they where covered as cash then it would mean that you'd end up paying a larger excess and loosing a reasonable amount of no claims discount.

I mention AXA PPP as the're the only people who I have found that will give me life insurance, if the're specialist enough to do that, then the're specialist enough to offer season ticket cover.

 

[IanXC]

I'm supprised companies like insure your bubble or AXA PPP don't offer specialist season ticket insurance, although if they where covered as cash then it would mean that you'd end up paying a larger excess and loosing a reasonable amount of no claims discount.

I mention AXA PPP as the're the only people who I have found that will give me life insurance, if the're specialist enough to do that, then the're specialist enough to offer season ticket cover.

I'm not sure how an insurer providing specialist life insurance is somehow more likely to provide specialist general insurance.

I would think mobile phone, gadget or even travel insurers would be most likely to provide season ticket insurance.

 

[thedbdiboy]

The rail industry has been approached by insurers in the past on this subject. The problem is that the insurance industry is of course very risk averse. When they are told that everyone with a monthly or longer Season Ticket is entitled to at least one replacement per year, they realise that their insurance would then have to cover anyone losing more than one ticket in a year, i.e. they would only be able to cover what in insurance terms are the higher risks. Funnily enough they tend to lose interest at that point :roll: