Ageas confirms John Lewis travel insurance exit

John Lewis has stopped selling travel insurance.

This is according to the Guardian.

Ageas –the retailer’s partner confirmed this in a statement.

A spokesperson for Ageas, said: “After examining our partnership arrangements it was agreed with John Lewis Finance not to extend our travel insurance offer beyond our existing contract (January 2019). This decision reflects our continued drive to become more profitable.”

The retailer has offered travel insurance in partnership with Ageas since 2012.

Rebrand

John Lewis recently rebranded as John Lewis and Partners during September 2018 to differentiate itself from its competitors. Its sister store also rebranded as Waitrose and Partners.

A financial services spokesperson at John Lewis, explained: ”We have offered travel insurance, in partnership with Ageas, to customers since July 2012.

”With the current contract with Ageas coming to an end, we have carefully reviewed our travel insurance product to consider how best we can meet our customers’ needs.

”As a result, we have taken the decision to close our travel insurance offer from 18th February 2019.

”We can assure customers who have purchased travel insurance through John Lewis Finance that the cover they have remains unaffected, and they will continue to receive first-class customer service throughout the term of their policy.”

Partial exit

It follows Ageas partially withdrawing from broker travel business last year in November as it was “no longer sustainable.”

Ageas will close its online broker travel facility in May 2019 but plans to keep its schemes open.

The firm said that it will continue to accept single and annual multi-trip policies via this facility until then which will be serviced until June 2020 when the remaining ones expire.