UPDATE: Annual Travel Insurance taken out on 3rd March; but policy started 1st April

sheramber

When you take out a single trip policy you are asked when you want it start.Most people, and the advice given, is to start it from the date you book, That way you are covered for anything that happens between the date of booking and the start of the holiday. Cover for the actual trip starts from the start date of the holiday. Leaving a gap between the date of booking the holiday and the start date of the policy leaves you open to being unable to claim for anything that happens  between these two dates. As the flight was a separate booking and if there is another fight available I would think you would be expected to use that and no need to cancel hotel booking.

Goobles

sheramber said:

When you take out a single trip policy you are asked when you want it start.Most people, and the advice given, is to start it from the date you book, That way you are covered for anything that happens between the date of booking and the start of the holiday. Cover for the actual trip starts from the start date of the holiday. Leaving a gap between the date of booking the holiday and the start date of the policy leaves you open to being unable to claim for anything that happens  between these two dates. As the flight was a separate booking and if there is another fight available I would think you would be expected to use that and no need to cancel hotel booking.

Thanks Thrugelmir - agreed! This is why we took out the Annual Travel Insurance in the first place. 

Thanks sheramber, too I think I understand what you're saying.  Just to confirm, it's an Annual Policy we've taken out, not a Single Trip. 
 
That said, surely the relevant gap in question is between paying for the Annual Travel Insurance (3rd March) and the start date of the policy (1st April).

Nothing happened between when we booked the holiday (1st January) and when we bought the annual travel insurance (3rd March). 

There are no flights from Stansted Airport with Ryanair on that date; they start flying out 3 days later on Saturday 18th July.

From the general gist of things though, it's not looking positive. 

pramsay13

Have you made a claim on your travel insurance and what did they say?

I think you will find you are not covered and any payment will be goodwill only.

The advice is always get travel insurance as soon as any booking is made as anything can happen in the interim period that causes issues with travelling, e.g. health of travellers, unrest in destination, etc.

Goobles

pramsay13 said:

Have you made a claim on your travel insurance and what did they say?

I think you will find you are not covered and any payment will be goodwill only.

The advice is always get travel insurance as soon as any booking is made as anything can happen in the interim period that causes issues with travelling, e.g. health of travellers, unrest in destination, etc.

Thanks Pramsay 13. Not yet - they want me to dispute through the credit card company first.

In anticipation of some wrangling, I went and re-read the terms and conditions of the policy thus morning to try and discuss the matter further with them. 

Now the T&Cs state you can claim cancellation 'after you purchased the policy or booked the trip (whichever is later).'

In my opinion, the policy was very clearly 'purchased' on 3rd March 2020. This is when they took payment from my AMEX and sent me email confirmation of the receipt. This is going off the layman's understanding of 'purchase' which is 'to buy something'.

After a call, the man (who did not work in claims and suggested I would have to speak to them at a later date) suggested his understanding was that the policy was 'purchased' on 1st April 2020, since that was when it started. 

Well! We're all agreed the policy 'started' on 1st April 2020 ... but that's very different from  when I 'purchased' it, prima facie. 

Given the wording of their T&Cs, I'd be happy to take this to a small claims court.

Thoughts? 
 

pramsay13

My thoughts are your claim will fail because otherwise everyone would just buy an annual policy on 1st January for a holiday starting on 31st December later that year, and get a full extra year of travel insurance.

sheramber

That said, surely the relevant gap in question is between paying for the Annual Travel Insurance (3rd March) and the start date of the policy (1st April).

Nothing happened between when we booked the holiday (1st January) and when we bought the annual travel insurance (3rd March). 

I made a general statement . In your case  nothing happened until the FCO advice on 17 March.  But had something happened between booking and taking out the policy, say someone became ill or broke a leg  and was unable to travel, you would not be covered. So, it is always recommended to  take out insurance to start at the same time as you book.

blindman

Goobles said:

pramsay13 said:

Have you made a claim on your travel insurance and what did they say?

I think you will find you are not covered and any payment will be goodwill only.

The advice is always get travel insurance as soon as any booking is made as anything can happen in the interim period that causes issues with travelling, e.g. health of travellers, unrest in destination, etc.

In my opinion, the policy was very clearly 'purchased' on 3rd March 2020. This is when they took payment from my AMEX and sent me email confirmation of the receipt. This is going off the layman's understanding of 'purchase' which is 'to buy something'.

After a call, the man (who did not work in claims and suggested I would have to speak to them at a later date) suggested his understanding was that the policy was 'purchased' on 1st April 2020, since that was when it started. 

Well! We're all agreed the policy 'started' on 1st April 2020 ... but that's very different from  when I 'purchased' it, prima facie. 

Given the wording of their T&Cs, I'd be happy to take this to a small claims court.

Thoughts? 
 

I think you are wrong and the Insurer is right

What you in effect did when you gave money to the Insurers on the 3rd March was to actually PRE PAY for a product that would be "bought" on the 1st April.

So your annual insurance was effective from the 1st April.

What was the reasoning from your Father to say wait until 1st April (April fools day...)

Goobles

sheramber said:

That said, surely the relevant gap in question is between paying for the Annual Travel Insurance (3rd March) and the start date of the policy (1st April).

Nothing happened between when we booked the holiday (1st January) and when we bought the annual travel insurance (3rd March). 

I made a general statement . In your case  nothing happened until the FCO advice on 17 March.  But had something happened between booking and taking out the policy, say someone became ill or broke a leg  and was unable to travel, you would not be covered. So, it is always recommended to  take out insurance to start at the same time as you book.

Great advice sheramber and certainly something everyone here has echoed. I will do this from now on!

Goobles

blindman said:

Goobles said:

pramsay13 said:

Have you made a claim on your travel insurance and what did they say?

I think you will find you are not covered and any payment will be goodwill only.

The advice is always get travel insurance as soon as any booking is made as anything can happen in the interim period that causes issues with travelling, e.g. health of travellers, unrest in destination, etc.

In my opinion, the policy was very clearly 'purchased' on 3rd March 2020. This is when they took payment from my AMEX and sent me email confirmation of the receipt. This is going off the layman's understanding of 'purchase' which is 'to buy something'.

After a call, the man (who did not work in claims and suggested I would have to speak to them at a later date) suggested his understanding was that the policy was 'purchased' on 1st April 2020, since that was when it started. 

Well! We're all agreed the policy 'started' on 1st April 2020 ... but that's very different from  when I 'purchased' it, prima facie. 

Given the wording of their T&Cs, I'd be happy to take this to a small claims court.

Thoughts? 
 

I think you are wrong and the Insurer is right

What you in effect did when you gave money to the Insurers on the 3rd March was to actually PRE PAY for a product that would be "bought" on the 1st April.

So your annual insurance was effective from the 1st April.

What was the reasoning from your Father to say wait until 1st April (April fools day...)

Dad's reasoning was that we had a holiday on April 1st. So we could extend the insurance into March a little 2021 by starting it later. This was clearly poor advice in retrospect. No sympathies here. 

However, even assuming you are right, I guess the problem is whether or not that use of the term 'purchase' is clear to the client. If it is unclear or misleading, then there are grounds to appeal.

Take for example the medical section which mentions 'When you purchased or renewed this policy, we asked about medical conditions suffered by an insured person.' 

This seems to imply they are using 'purchased' in the sense of 'paid for', not when the policy 'started'. Two different uses of the word in the same document surely?

sheramber

But when you purchased it you asked for cover not to begin on 1 April . Normally when you purchase something you do not delay the starting date, Sadly, thee only benefit  from delaying the start of the policy is that were you intending to travel  between January and April 2021 you would already have insurance on place.