cosmos & travel insurance. is this legal ?

elk_2

hi

this week i have booked villa only accomodation with cosmos for june 2008.

i declined their travel insurance at time of booking and was told that unless i tell them who my premium is with within the next 2 weeks they will automatically apply their own travel insurance to the cost.

is this legal ?

now i'm planning to have at least 1 trip abroad before that, but do not have any firm dates yet.
so i'll be getting an annual policy, but do not know my start date. therefore i am not in a position to purchase a policy yet, but i'm thinking of purchasing a policiy with a random start date, just to avoid paying for the expensive cosmos one.


any help/ advice would be greatly appreciated.

dmg24

You agreed to their terms and conditions when booking the holiday, so yes, it is. I would contact them and explain your situation, I am sure that they can be flexible.

Voyager2002

You could just tell them the company you expect to use: I doubt if they will insist on seeing your actual policy.

Also, single-trip insurance can be very cheap and includes cancellation cover that is often missing from annual policies. Maybe you would do better to get single-trip cover for this holiday (NOT with Cosmos) and then buy another policy for the other trip you plan to take.

Sam_Bee

One thing to note is that many people do not take out insurance until the day before they travel. However, they miss out on cancellation insurance, which is half of the benefits. If something happens between booking & taking out insurance, you could be subject to massive cancellation fees.

I'd urge you to get it organised at the same time of booking. But definitely not with them, as i'm sure it's a rip-off.

elk_2

thanks to all replies, i'll have a look into the best thing to do over the weekend.

hammy_the_hammer

tell them you have a platinum bank account with lloyds tsb and you have worldwide travel insurance as part of the deal ...you don't need to divulge your banking details to them

deva

it is part of the requirements of booking a number of packaged holidays as a protection that if you cannot pay the balance the company doesn't simply have to write it off. Usually the name of the providing company is enough- as said above. Check out www.travelsupermarket.com and i recommend setting up an annual policy asap.

richardw

Sam_Bee wrote: »

many people do not take out insurance until the day before they travel. However, they miss out on cancellation insurance,

They have sometimes paid £1000s for a holiday and think a little saved on insurance is worth it.

The package holiday people just want you to be covered, by any policy, to save them the hassle of providing help to the uninsured, which would cost them money, because the reputation cost of not helping the uninsured would be high.

Sam_Bee

richardw wrote: »

They have sometimes paid £1000s for a holiday and think a little saved on insurance is worth it.

The package holiday people just want you to be covered, by any policy, to save them the hassle of providing help to the uninsured, which would cost them money, because the reputation cost of not helping the uninsured would be high.

Not only that, but when I worked as a Travel Agent I remember a case of someone who had a major accident in Nepal and needed evacuating by medi-vac emergency helicopter. However, the client was unconcious and travel insurance couldn't be found. They contacted us after reading the paperwork, but they didn't have our travel insurance, and we didn't know who they had it with. As a result, they were not evacuated as there was no-one to guarantee the cost. God knows what happened in the end.

That's why they often ask for your insurance details - it's not a case of being nosy.

jaymac_2

There have been so many posts here from people who have had to cancel holidays and lost out because they had no insurance...if you've booked accomodation the sensible thing to do is get insurance cover at the same time. Direct travel have a good, cheap annual policy so there's really no excuse!

dzug

If you want cancellation insurance (and I am sure that Cosmos require you to have it) then you need to take out that annual policy NOW.