Buying gadget cover takes a few minutes online. Claiming on it often doesn’t. The customer fills in a form, emails some photos, waits to hear whether they’re good enough, and is sometimes asked to post the phone off for inspection. Meanwhile they’re without a working phone.
That gap between how easy it is to buy and how hard it is to claim is exactly what the Consumer Duty is aimed at.
What the FCA expects
The Financial Conduct Authority’s guidance on the Consumer Duty says firms’ support “should enable customers to get what they paid for, for example by making a claim under an insurance policy … without facing unreasonable barriers” (FCA, FG22/5, paragraph 9.26). It goes on to say firms should make it “at least as easy” to switch, leave or make a change as it was to buy in the first place.
The guidance gives an example of poor practice: an insurer whose complex claims process “deters many customers from pursuing claims”, including a rule that customers must provide hard copies of all evidence, with no exceptions.
Importantly, the FCA doesn’t say insurers should stop asking for evidence. The same example says a firm “may have legitimate claims handling requirements, such as … to provide adequate evidence of the loss.” What it shouldn’t do is impose requirements that are “unreasonably restrictive, rigid or arbitrary.”
So the question for phone insurers isn’t whether to collect evidence. It’s how to collect it without the evidence becoming the barrier.
Why phone claims end up slow
Insurers ask for evidence on phone claims for good reason. Damage that happened before the policy started is hard to disprove, and we’ve written about why in pre-existing damage and phone claims. But the usual ways of getting evidence each slow the claim down:
- Emailed photos can’t be tied to the phone being claimed for, so they often lead to follow-up questions rather than a decision.
- A typed IMEI might be mistyped, or might belong to a different handset altogether.
- Posting the phone for inspection is the most reliable option, and the slowest. The customer waits days without a phone, and the insurer pays for the logistics.
Each one adds a step, and every step is a point where an honest customer might give up.
Evidence the customer can give in two minutes
A Lustre check gathers claim evidence on the phone itself, in the phone’s own browser, with no app to install. You can send the customer a link, or have Lustre text it to them. They then:
- Photograph the screen in a mirror, while the phone shows a one-time code for that check. That proves the photo is of this phone, taken now.
- Photograph the back and camera, with the case off.
- Screenshot their IMEI, which is read on the device, looked up independently and matched against the make and model on the policy.
It takes about two minutes, and the result comes back by API or webhook as soon as they submit: pass, pass with caution, needs review or damaged, with a plain-language summary of any damage and where it is.
Faster decisions, with people where they’re needed
That result gives you something to route claims on. A check that shows clear screen damage on the verified, insured phone can move straight on to repair or replacement. A check marked needs review, perhaps because a case covered the whole back, goes to a person. Your claims handlers spend their time on the claims that need judgement, not on chasing photos.
It’s faster still if the phone was checked when the policy was sold. Then the claim check has something to be compared with: the same IMEI, a clear screen on day one, and a cracked screen now. If the phone was already damaged when cover started, you have the record to show that too, and you don’t need to put every customer through extra hoops to catch the few who claim for old damage.
A remote check won’t make a claims process meet the Duty on its own. But it lets you keep asking for evidence while making that evidence quick to give.
Getting started
One API call creates a check and returns a link, so it can sit inside your existing claims journey, whether that’s an online form or a call with a handler. You only pay for checks that are completed.
If you’d like to see how a claim check would fit your process, get in touch.
Sources
- Financial Conduct Authority, FG22/5: Final non-Handbook Guidance for firms on the Consumer Duty, July 2022, paragraph 9.26 and the example of poor practice that follows it.