Monzo / AXA Claim User Journey

Today I needed to make a claim to AXA Travel Insurance, via Monzo, for compensation as I was unable to fly to Brazil on Sunday (sad times).

I wanted to share that I am a Monzo Premium customer, and I found the experience very clunky; certainly not an experience that felt ‘premium’ at all, here’s why:

  • The phone line for AXA is only open Mon-Fri for Monzo based accounts.
    • I called AXA direct and was able to get through but they were unable to talk to me about the Monzo account.
  • The online claim is only able to be sent, as far as I can tell, via the link in the Monzo app.
    • The link that opens on mobile from inside the app (https://uk.claims.axa.travel) shows a blank page (looks like a create-react-app) if you load it on desktop (Brave Browser, macOS).
  • In my opinion, the the whole experience is clunky because of the above.
    • You have to type in all of the data on a mobile screen with touch. I’m not a fan of this for official related activities such as an insurance claim. Especially where long-form detail is required.
    • The browser that opens obscures the policy number (meaning unless you have it written down elsewhere, you have to close the browser pane and re-open it again).
    • The policy number does not get pre-populated into the AXA form
    • The order of ‘items to hand’ tend toward the bottom, and you need access to all of these on your mobile. This means leaving the app and getting everything together once you have spent time typing a lot of things out.
    • ^This was especially frustrating because having filled out the detail of my issues I then reached the bottom of the form and was asked for documents; I had to navigate out of the app to take screenshots of a few of these, and when I went back into the app, the form had timed out and I was directed back to my Monzo current account balance…
    • I went back into the form, and it was empty. I had to do the whole thing again. Really bad UX here.
    • For forms where you’ve detailed out an insurance claim, having to re-fill long-form boxes is really frustrating.

Eventually I got my claim off, but it left a bad taste in the mouth. Unfortunately some of that ends up Monzo because I am paying you guys for Premium.

Has anyone else had this experience with the travel insurance side of things? Is there a sign-post I missed somewhere that would have made this whole experience easier?

Cheers

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That sounds like horrific UX. The very first point…

The phone line for AXA is only open Mon-Fri for Monzo based accounts

… would put me right off to start with.

For the other points, it is amazing that it was signed off by someone as OK to put live.

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Most insurance claims departments are staffed regular office hours in my experience, unfortunately, unless it’s an emergency line.

It specifically says Monzo insurance is only office hours to be fair - not all of Axa. A premium service (as in Monzo Premium in this case) should not aspire to be only as good as the industry standard. Sounds like they are taking a cheap support package from Axa.

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Any insurance company I’ve had to deal with has been at least up to 8pm with some been longer and weekends generally to 8 on a Saturday and 5 on a Sunday

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I don’t know how it compares to other bank offerings (because thankfully I’ve never had to use them) so maybe it’s par for the course. But I agree.

I think this really exposes the fact that Monzo just put this together in the hope it made them money through signups vs a thought out packaged account.

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Why doesn’t any of this sorry tale surprise me. Basically a bunch of people wanted metal cards, so Monzo flung together some of the usual perks for a paid–for bank account, shrugged its shoulders and outsourced the experience.

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It’s been a few weeks now and I’ve had no communication from AXA. I’ve heard from someone else who is going through a separate claim they’ve been told 6 weeks, but the noticeable thing for me is zero feedback other than an automated “we’ve received your case” email.

Again, not a premium experience.

Monzo is associating its app experience with a separate brand, and so far it’s not going well.

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It’s now been two months to the day since I made my claim and there is no tangible progress.

My experience is reminiscent of old ways of working that are entirely antithetical to Monzo: they appear to want to do everything by phone; I have no app to monitor my claim; they have no direct communication line that elicits a response.

I received a voice mail from AXA on the 30th of December when I was in Canada, but I missed it. In that voice mail they left me no number to get back in touch with them directly; they said they would email me, but as yet haven’t. Why not just send the e-mail in the first place?

It’s a bit of a joke really. Two months and counting.

Logging this here for the record as it is yet more negative experience (being associated with Monzo).

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Woo. Thanks for sharing was about to sign up. Staying well clear now.

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I placed a claim on AXA travel insurance after breaking my foot on 5th December. Have heard nothing since and sent a chaser.

They want a GP letter and wont accept a Orthopaedic consultant letter confirming the broken foot. The GPs are inundated with work. This is also a private service as NHS are not responsible for dealing with insurance claims & in case AXA hadnt heard the NHS primary care is on its needs and in crises. Therefore asking for a GP letter adds anothet 12 weeks to a claim.

I was lured into ’ premium’ for the travel insurance and metal card. However £15 @ month - £180 @ year - i realise now it would have been cheaper to have just bought travel insurance from a specialist.

I am very, very disappointed with Monzo as it appears the partnerships they agreed with AXA was sub standard and they still expect me to pay the £15 a month while insurance is ’ processing’

I would not advise anybody to go to , ’ premium ’ service. Waste of £180 @ year

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They will have gone with the lowest bidder, or package (if AXA was already decided on).

It is always worth getting decent insurance, not using it packaged deal.

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I think that’s the key point here, isn’t it? Does any packaged bank account insurance really do better? From experience, it’s always better to go direct.

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This is true if all you want is the travel insurance and metal card.

I obviously don’t know how you use Monzo, but if you have a positive balance in your account you do get some interest which reduces the £15.

I wouldn’t go that far.

Neither would I. But other people have other views.

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This is always going to be the case, the same goes for phone insurance. If that’s all you care about, get it separately.

But you haven’t just had the card and insurance, there are other Monzo features you’ve had and continue to have. It’s far from a ‘con’

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There are indeedy other ‘features’ but none that I need or are any use. A metal card is neither here nor there . the discounts they give on a handful of products are not that popular I’m sure! Which perks do you use? Have you used the travel or phone insurance? Thanks

Agree! Yes, I guess if despite this cost of living crises you have enough money left in the account to accrue a reasonable amount of interest per month - then for those people, it is worth considering. sadly, I am not one of those people. I realise the fool is me as now while AXA ‘process’ the claim for 6 months I will still have to pay the £15 a month premium! I’ve no way out at the moment.

I have Plus, not Premium, so no insurance use from me. But I have many times recommended people to get AppleCare over the phone insurance.

Whether you used the discounts, the interest, the increased allowances, think the metal card is a perk, the sheets export, the trends features, the open banking integrations etc etc is all a bit moot really, they are there.

Insurance of any kind is always going to do their best to avoid paying out, making you jump through hoops etc.

If you’d gone with someone else instead of via Monzo there’s no guarantee that this process would have gone any better, they might have required proof from a GP.

I hope you get paid out soon!

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Lesson learned! Trouble is I am still paying for the lesson as I can not cancel the premium service while a claim is processing.

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took my partner over 10 months to get a claim settled with a leading travel insurer despite repeatedly submitting all the forms required / requested … all insurance providers are the same , if they can delay or decline a claim they will :slight_smile:

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