Photo: Squaremouth

Woman Wins $10,000 for Reading Fine Print on Her Travel Insurance

News
by Eben Diskin Mar 7, 2019

This high school teacher from Georgia did what few others have ever done: read the fine print on an insurance contract, and it paid off in a big way. Donlean Andrews purchased travel insurance from Florida-based company Squaremouth, in advance of a trip to London with seven of her friends in September. And, like she always does, she read the fine print on the documentation. What she found, buried under a mountain of legalese, were contest rules to reward $10,000 to the first individual to read their policy from start to finish.

“If you’ve read this far,” the fine print says, “then you are one of the very few Tin Leg customers to review all of their policy documentation.” As a high school teacher, Andrews was familiar with the tactic. “I used to put a question like that midway through an exam,” she said, “saying, ‘If you’re reading this, skip the next question.’ That caught my eye and intrigued me to keep reading.

After Andrews reached out to the insurance company, she was rewarded with the $10,000 prize, and another $10,000 donated to a children’s literacy charity. Additionally, $5,000 each was donated to two high schools as part of the insurance company’s “Pays to Read” campaign.

Donelan was the first to contact Squaremouth for the contest that had launched only 23 hours prior.

On its website, the company shed some light on the secretive contest after Andrews claimed her prize. “We understand most customers don’t actually read contracts or documentation when buying something,” they wrote, “but we know the importance of doing so. We created the top-secret Pays to Read campaign in an effort to highlight the importance of reading policy documentation from start to finish.”

Andrews announced that she will use the contest money to travel to Scotland with her husband to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary and her upcoming retirement after 25 years of teaching.

H/T: CBS News

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