When To Buy Holiday (Travel) Insurance

mpeill

My son is arranging a family holiday for us next year, summer 2018 to the USA.
I already have a yearly travel insurance policy running to April 2018, but just for Europe.
If the USA holiday is booked now, but I don't purchase USA included insurance until next April, will the policy then cover the holiday and events leading to it, even though the holiday was booked prior to the policy being in place (accepting we would loose any deposit paid at the time of booking)?

zagfles

You'll have to check the policy, but in all likelyhood your current policy won't cover cancellation if you need to cancel before April. The new policy should cover the holiday and cancellation caused by events happening after you take it out, though events happening before probably wouldn't.

If it's a one-off trip to the US it might be cheaper taking out insurance just covering the period of your holiday, then you're fully covered from when you buy it.

gettingtheresometime

Get cover for America As soon as you book the holiday

agrinnall

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

Get cover for America As soon as you book the holiday

I'd suggest that you read and understand the question before posting.

gettingtheresometime

agrinnall wrote: »

I'd suggest that you read and understand the question before posting.

I did read the question.


OP has an annual insurance policy but it only covers for European travel


OP is planning a holiday to the US.


OP wants to know if it safe to leave buying insurance that will cover the US after April when their insurance has to be renewed.

What happens if the OP is taken ill in February? Or worse?

The holiday they want insured is to the US. Their cover is for Europe only - I would expect the insurers to reject the claim.


Yes you might lose just the deposit but what about staged deposits or tickets etc booked - would that be more than the cost of the premium?

Yes the policy would cover the holiday if bought before any claimable event happened but given the above I wouldn't run the risk

agrinnall

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

I did read the question.

Yes, fair enough, for some reason I misinterpreted your post, I'm not sure what it was that I thought you'd said but on reading it now it makes sense so it should have done then.

gettingtheresometime

No worries - ive done that as well