Kifid — for complaints about travel insurance and financial services

The Financial Services Complaints Institute (Kifid) is the official dispute body for consumer complaints about financial service providers. Relevant for travel claims when: travel insurer refuses/delays payout, credit-card issuer refuses chargeback, bank blocks SEPA direct-debit reversal.

When to go to Kifid? Only after you have approached the insurer in writing (our travel-insurance claim letter does that) and received a final position, or had no response after 6 weeks. Deadline: 1 year from their final position to engage Kifid.

Costs: €50 filing fee (refunded if you win). No legal counsel required. Online form in plain language.

Procedure:

1. File online via kifid.nl.
2. Insurer has 4 weeks to respond.
3. Mediation phase (4-8 weeks) — often settled here.
4. No settlement? Written procedure before the Kifid Disputes Committee.
5. Ruling: binding up to €100,000 (above that advice only).
6. Appeal within 6 weeks to the Kifid Appeals Committee.

What can Kifid decide? Award full or partial payout, damages plus statutory interest, sometimes also additional costs (translation, legal counsel) for gross duty-of-care breach. Framework: BW 7:925/7:941 + Wft 4:24a (financial-provider duty of care) + the policy terms themselves.

Parallel AFM report: Kifid is for your money, AFM is for supervision. For systemic duty-of-care breaches you can also report to AFM — free, can be anonymous.