holiday company demanding full payment

peachyprice

mcc100 wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, are these two the same person ?

If so the holiday company may be sympathetic if they are provided with details of the car fire.

Just a thought.

Why would a car catching fire yesterday be a sound reason for cancelling a holiday some time in the not so near future?

katejo

Dogger69 wrote: »

Nonsense. Duchy is correct - you tell the insurer the dates you will be out of the country, but cancellation cover starts when the insurance is taken out.

I am not disputing this statement . However I have heard of cases where people have been refused a payout because they gave the insurer a start date closer to day of departure. Then they became ill before that date

elsien

This might be what you are thinking of - it confused me when I read it and I'm still not sure what it means on the cancellation front as I read it as meaning you're not covered till the date of travel. However I always assumed I was covered for cancellation from when I took out the cover.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jun/10/aviva-rejected-travel-cancellation-claim

Any clarification, or am I misreading it?

peachyprice

elsien wrote: »

This might be what you are thinking of - it confused me when I read it and I'm still not sure what it means on the cancellation front as I read it as meaning you're not covered till the date of travel. However I always assumed I was covered for cancellation from when I took out the cover.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jun/10/aviva-rejected-travel-cancellation-claim

Any clarification, or am I misreading it?

It seems that it was entirely the persons decision not to start the policy as soon as the flights were booked, that's completely different to an active policy that didn't cover them until departure.

Most people would start the policy at the time of taking it out, wouldn't they, isn't that just common sense? Certainly if you book through a travel agent and take out their insurance you're covered from the time you pay for the policy

Aviva has listened to the phone calls you had with it when you took out the policy. It says you were asked when you wanted the insurance cover to start and you said 27 November. You hadn't yet booked the trip but that was when you expected to fly. You then went on to ask if you could start the policy earlier if you changed your departure date – and you also mentioned earlier cancellation.

You were told you could start it earlier but at that time you decided to stick with the date until you were sure of your date of departure.

You claim Aviva did not make it clear enough to you the consequences of not changing your policy date to reflect possible cancellation because of illness. But, because you discussed this idea with its operator and decided not to change your policy start date, even after your flights were confirmed, we don't think you have a valid case against Aviva.

katejo

elsien wrote: »

This might be what you are thinking of - it confused me when I read it and I'm still not sure what it means on the cancellation front as I read it as meaning you're not covered till the date of travel. However I always assumed I was covered for cancellation from when I took out the cover.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jun/10/aviva-rejected-travel-cancellation-claim

Any clarification, or am I misreading it?

Yes that is exactly the type of example I had in mind . I did read that one before

katejo

peachyprice wrote: »

It seems that it was entirely the persons decision not to start the policy as soon as the flights were booked, that's completely different to an active policy that didn't cover them until departure.

Most people would start the policy at the time of taking it out, wouldn't they, isn't that just common sense? Certainly if you book through a travel agent and take out their insurance you're covered from the time you pay for the policy

Yes it is common sense but some get it wrong . I was not referring to an active policy with no cancellation .

Enterprise_1701C

When you take out insurance for a holiday you tell the insurance company when you will be out of the country. The cover for cancellation etc starts as soon as you take out the policy.

I know this for certain because we had to claim for cancellation of a ski holiday.

luci

Enterprise_1701C wrote: »

When you take out insurance for a holiday you tell the insurance company when you will be out of the country. The cover for cancellation etc starts as soon as you take out the policy.

I know this for certain because we had to claim for cancellation of a ski holiday.

This is true for Single Trip insurance. Where people have come unstuck is taking out Annual insurance with a start date in the future and not at the time the travel was booked. With an Annual policy you can specify when you want it to start as you may already have a policy in place which has not yet expired.

peachyprice

luci wrote: »

This is true for Single Trip insurance. Where people have come unstuck is taking out Annual insurance with a start date in the future and not at the time the travel was booked. With an Annual policy you can specify when you want it to start as you may already have a policy in place which has not yet expired.

So wouldn't you then claim in the unexpired policy?

Bottom line is if you're not covered from the time you part with money it's down to your own mistake, not any fault of the insurance company and the majority of people do seem to get it right. I guess it's an expensive lesson to learn for those who don't.

duchy

katejo wrote: »

No you are wrong there . Quite a few people make the mistake of asking for their insurance to start on the first day of the trip . They are not covered for cancellation before that date .

Really ?

The odds of someone having an annual policy when they don't understand a simple tour operator contract so are likely very infrequent travellers are somewhat low don't you think ?

Instead of instantly telling someone they must be wrong (it reads like you may have made the annual policy mistake yourself) it sometimes pays to consider all possibilities. Perhaps with twenty years experience of working in the travel industry I'm more used to taking that approach though !!