Collinson Group Reviews 9,053

**1 star**

I am having an extremely poor experience with Post Office Travel Insurance claims handled by Collinson.

The most frustrating part is that when I checked reviews here, I found page after page of people describing exactly the same issues I am experiencing: delays, poor communication, repeated requests for information, long waits when trying to call, and a process that feels designed to wear customers down rather than help them.

My own claim was submitted in January and is still ongoing, involving unnecessary chasing, repeated requests, and promises of updates that did not materialise.

I have spent far too much time trying to get clear answers. Different responses, no clear ownership of the case, and absolutely no reason for the claim to take this long. For a service people rely on when something has already gone wrong, this is unacceptable.

What is most concerning is that these complaints are clearly not isolated incidents. The same themes appear again and again in recent reviews, which suggests systemic problems rather than one-off mistakes.

I chose Post Office Travel Insurance expecting reliability and decent customer care. Instead, dealing with Collinson has been stressful, time-consuming and deeply disappointing.

As a result of this experience, I will be arranging future travel insurance elsewhere.

If this remains unresolved, I will be referring the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service on the 1st May, eight weeks after my formal complaint.

Based on my experience, I would not recommend this service.

Post Office travel insurance is Collinson Insurance. The Post Office are just the selling front.
Before you buy, be sure to read every one of the dozens of pages of exclusions and wriggles on the "Policy Details". The 3 page summary of what it is reasonable to take in good faith does not cover the exclusions.
Mine was FCDO advice not to travel unless essential. Insurance invalidated if you do. So, cancelling travel would seem sensible? NOT COVERED under the cancellation cover.

Raised the above claim on 30th March 2026 with full documentation of medical costs on a cruise. Got automatic response but nothing else. Tried calling on numerous occasions but phone just plays music. Tried sending email and just got automatic reply. Supposed to be 5 days to review a claim, so missed that deadline and 48 hours to reply to email, so missed that one also. I have to pay the credit card bill that was used to pay for my expense so this is now putting me in great difficulty. Think Post Office travel insurance should also carry some blame on using such a poor claims group. No ability online to see what the process of the claim is. Just says "received your claim".

My wife and I felt the experience with with our claim went great, straight forward with filling the necessary paperwork,and yes we shall be happy to use the Post office in the future.Thank you.sue&Peter.

I had a very disappointing experience with Collinson handling my travel insurance claim, which is administered on behalf of VHI.

After submitting my claim in mid March, I received no response for weeks and had to follow up multiple times. When I finally got a reply, I was initially told the claim would not be covered and that I should pursue the airline instead. This position was later reversed, which suggests the claim was not properly reviewed in the first place.

Throughout the process, I was repeatedly asked for documents I had already provided, as well as for a specific report that the airline does not issue in the requested format. This led to unnecessary delays and a lot of back and forth.

Even after more than a month of ongoing back and forth, the claim is still not resolved, which is extremely frustrating.

The overall experience felt slow, inconsistent and lacking clarity. For a confirmed lost baggage case, this added avoidable stress during an already difficult situation.

Given that this service is provided under a VHI policy, this reflects poorly on the overall customer experience.

This is my latest email to Collinson after several months waiting for my claim for a stolen phone:

Hello. Thank you for your recent email.

Unfortunately, you seem to ignore previous emails from me regarding the situation. You are, once again, asking for something which is unreasonable and impossible to comply with.

Namely:
"Actual receipt from alpha electronics for phone
Phone usage report from 13/11/2025-01/12/2025
Confirmation from phone provider of the date new sim issued"

The first request, although reasonable, is a little confusing as to why you would require this many months after the claim was first made. Proof of purchase has been provided.

The second and third are not possible and, again, have not been requested before by you. How could you conceivably have a phone usage report after the date the phone was stolen and the SIM card cancelled? At the risk of repeating myself many times, there is no "phone provider" in the terms you request. It was bought by me from a phone shop, the SIM was a PAYG from a Spanish company called Lobster. Therefore, there is no de-facto "phone provider" to be able to respond to your request

I would remind you that the first principle of insurance is to act with utmost good faith. I am starting to suspect that your continued delays in responding and the raising of unreasonable obstacles to paying this claim are perhaps institutional and designed to wear down claimants.

I have raised this as a complaint within the parameters of your procedures and I will escalate to Saga and to the Financial Conduct Authority if you continue to obfuscate the situation.

I would be grateful for you urgent response.

M Williams

Actually very responsive, swift and understanding about my claim. remunerated me in full for my injury while skiing.

A quick and simple call enabled me to claim for my miss port . The call was confirmed by email and the funds were in my bank account the same day. A marvellous service with a friendly and helpful person !

It was the first time I claimed for an overnight flight delay and was shocked to learn Oasis Insurance do not cover extra car parking or hotel accomodation. In fact they only pay £25 per 12 hours which doesnt cover the additional costs I incurred let alone the self employed loss of earnings. I would now say that travel insurance isn’t worth the paper it’s written on as it hasn’t delivered anywhere near an amount I would have expected for such a substantial delay. Look very carefully at the wording of a policy. My schedule said max £500 and no mention of £25 per every 12 hours. It’s certainly has made me take note and I ll think very carefully before taking out travel insurance with anyone in the future.

Terrible experience. My father in law and then a month later my father also suddenly passed away. We had to claim as we were unable to travel due to funeral arrangements etc. They were very unhelpful repeatedly asking for the same documents. Have refused to pay for our ski hire costs even though I have sent them the invoice and clearly didn’t travel . Then suddenly announced they had finalised the claim and paid out not the complete amount and seem to have decided they are finished dealing with it leaving me £350 short. Total waste of time paying for insurance with this company. We booked through the post office thinking we were booking through a reputable company . I would avoid post office insurance in the future and definitely while these people are providing the cover .
I even called to get a goodwill refund on our lift passes as we regularly travel to this resort. The French people were so helpful and agreed to this. If I hadn’t done this the insurers would have had to pay this aswell. But despite this they were still total unhelpful. I will now have to continue to try and get this back somehow from them as they should not be allowed to do this. They rely on appalling email communication.

I Took out the emergency and it was very poor service supplied. They called out for a blockage but said they needed a ladder to unblock it from outside so they were going to rebook it but like usual the customer has to do all the chasing around. They were meant to send a engineer but failed to so I had to get a company out to fix it, yet they are saying he called out a complete lie. So they are classing that as a callout without anyone arriving as they promised me someone would come out, but the tenants were getting frustrated by the wait so I had to get a independent company out. So there should be 1 more callout but they are refusing saying he called out when he never did, the toilet needs to be fixed. All these insurance companies quick enough to take your money when it comes to problems the first to make excuses

People, do not buy any insurance from this company, there are a lot of incompetent people working there and the contact with the company is terrible.

CLAIM 837175 Dealing with Collinson via Post Office Insurance has been nothing but stressful. Whilst on holiday a separate company they used were extremely helpful to my family as i dont rememberthe actual incident. On getting home and submitting the claim to retrieve all the medical bills we have paid out has proved so slow. It's been over 3 weeks, and all I have received is an acknowledgement and blaming a backlog. Due to illness I have been off work so really need the money, hence what insurance is for!

Do not expect your claim to be processed smoothly or for your claim to be paid when they say it will be paid. Based on my experience I was told repeatedly that my claim was valid, but did not receive payment without chasing and chasing it. I felt like they were delaying payment, but perhaps it was just incompetence by some staff. The last person I spoke to actually sorted the situation out so credit to her. Oh, and don't phone the 0333 customer service number from a landline - you'll get charged an arm and a leg! As I found out when my phone bill came through and I'd been charged over £50 for a call they asked me to make to 'provide more details' for my claim.

Do not use this company / they are completely incompetent . The air doctor service they use is useless / we were unable to get a doctor to us so had to ask our hotel to get one. Then when claiming they try to take the excess of you because you had to get your own doctor

The best service I could ever hope to have. Don't read the negatives. From start to finish, the refund procedure took 4 weeks. Easy, lovely, simple service.

Collinson Group, operating under the Post Office travel insurance banner, delivers what can only be described as a masterclass in inefficiency, indifference, and systemic failure.

From the outset, dealing with them is an exercise in frustration. Communication is virtually non-existent—emails go unanswered, updates are never provided, and any attempt to obtain even the most basic information about a claim is met with silence or vague, unhelpful responses. There is no sense of ownership, no accountability, and certainly no urgency.

Their handling of claims is chaotic at best. The same documents are requested repeatedly, as though previous submissions vanish into a void. Progress is either glacial or entirely absent, with delays at every conceivable stage and no explanation offered. It quickly becomes apparent that no one within the organisation has a clear understanding of what is happening, or how to properly manage a claim.

Escalation? Forget it. There is no meaningful pathway to speak with anyone senior or capable of resolving issues. Complaints are treated with the same disregard as everything else—submitted into a system that appears designed to ignore them entirely. Responses, if they come at all, are late and inadequate.

Ultimately, the only viable route to action seems to be through the Ombudsman—an unnecessary and exhausting step that should never be required for basic service delivery.

This is not just poor service; it is a complete breakdown of customer care. For a company operating under a trusted banner, the experience is shockingly substandard. Avoid at all costs.

30/3: Collinson responded below to say they have got in touch with me - I look forward to their follow up and will keep progress updated on here

I would think very carefully before relying on Post Office Travel Insurance.
Although my claim was ultimately paid, the process was unnecessarily difficult, prolonged, and required a level of persistence that I suspect many customers would not maintain.
My claim arose from cancelled flights and the additional costs that followed. What should have been a straightforward claim turned into a drawn-out process where payments were made in sporadically , and each stage required further emails, repeated explanations, and resubmission of documents that had already been provided.
Communication was poor throughout. I frequently had to chase for updates, and on one occasion I was promised a follow-up email which never arrived until I called again. There appeared to be little continuity or ownership of the claim.
In my view, the process felt obstructive rather than supportive. It was only after I raised a formal complaint that the claim was properly reviewed. At that point, they accepted that their handling had been inadequate, apologised, and paid £75 compensation.
While the final outcome was correct, I am left with the strong impression that the process is structured in a way that would deter many people from pursuing legitimate claims to completion.
If you do use this insurance, be prepared to:
Keep meticulous records
Chase repeatedly
Challenge decisions
Escalate formally if necessary
Without that level of persistence, I do not believe my claim would have been fully paid.

Claim accepted on day 1. Now 36 days still waiting for payment. Asked to send the same documents twice. The claim has been validated Customer service states that there is a backlog due to Middle East. There was no problem there when claim was submitted! Unable to speak to anyone in a senior position and constantly told that the claim would be escalated. Disappointed and still being stalked

Do not buy insurance from this group.
My parents cancled their holiday due to ill health . The holiday is for this summer and collinson kept the full amount of the insurance. If you don’t cancel within 15 days they will keep your money. Even if you don’t travel.
They made them fill in doctors forms Claim form and a 10 page document hoping they would give up .then after all that just said no we are keeping your money as you didn’t cancel within 15 days.
NOT TO BE TRUSTED.