Real problems remain on affinity insurance, and in particular those covering mobile phones, judged Arnaud Chneiweiss, the insurance mediator, in the institution’s annual report published Thursday.
Affinity insurance, which is linked to the purchase of a product and is supposed to be optional, represented 18% of referrals to Mediation in damage insurance in 2022, and 12% for smartphone insurance.
The number of files relating to mobile phone insurance has in fact increased sharply in 2022 (+80%). Disputes over travel cancellation insurance, after having marked a decrease in 2021, again increased significantly in 2022 (+38%), underlines the report of the Mediation of insurance.
Sometimes considered the bad student of the profession, the Indexia group (Hubside, Foriou, Celside) has made headlines in recent months for a set of bad practices. At the end of April, the group received a temporary interim ban on the distribution of any insurance contract from the insurance police, the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (ACPR).
This ban, as well as certain measures dictated by the profession and partly taken up by law, in particular on the extension of the withdrawal period, should dry up this source of litigation for the future, hopes Arnaud Chneiweiss, in an interview with AFP .
The mediator also believes that it would be necessary to work on the expertise to restore the confidence of the insured, judging that there is a major project to be carried out.
The independence of the profession is thus sometimes disputed, particularly in the case of cracks in houses, where the expert must decide on the possible role of drought.
Mr. Chneiweiss thus calls for thinking about a mechanism for randomly appointing the expert, strengthening the professional and ethical rules and setting a reasonable deadline for the appointment of the expert.
Home Insurance : save up to 125 € per year thanks to our online comparator
In 2022, Insurance Mediation received 21,502 referrals, a 50% increase compared to 2019, and more than 30,000 files are expected for the whole of 2023, after the entry into force on January 1 of a measure facilitating referral.
From now on, policyholders who have not received a response they deem satisfactory from their insurer within two months can appeal to mediation.
The danger is that we become the claims service of the profession, worries Mr. Chneiweiss, who calls on insurers to increase their resources dedicated to this activity.