Buy as soon as you book

Egger2

This is not always the best strategy. If you're 80+ with pre-existing medical conditions, you'll be paying upwards of £500 for European cover, much more for worldwide or cruise. If you book a year ahead, as many of us do, your financial risk, in the event of having to cancel, is limited to the deposit until 8-10 weeks before departure, typically £400 - £500, so your outlay for the insurance outweighs your loss, even if no excess. Surely it is better to delay buying the insurance until this point? You will also, by then, have a better idea of whether you will be fit to make the trip.

TELLIT01

Fair point that purchasing insurance when the cost is higher than the full deposit is questionable.  Just be certain that the you haven't paid a reduced deposit to get you to book, but the full deposit would still have be paid in the event of you cancelling the holiday.  The 'low deposit' option is used by a lot of tour operators.

Caz3121

my take is to take insurance at the point the money lost would be more than the insurance cost. Travelled with my parents recently insurance £400+ Up to 60 days before could cancel for £120 (£60 each) so waited until then to take the policy with the view that taking insurance earlier and needing to cancel would have resulted in a £520+ loss

Voyager2002

However, insurance would be vital for the actual trip. Would purchasing within a month or so of departure be significantly cheaper than about a year earlier?

Mark_d

I generally do sort out all aspects of a holiday at the same time - flights, accommodation, transfers...and travel insurance.  But I agree that needing to buy travel insurance "ASAB" isn't always best.

I have booked a accommodation in Australia for December 2026.  I can't book flights yet as they're not on sale.  What would travel insurance protect me from if I was to buy now?  If I suffered illness,  injury, bereavement...I should be ok to travel in Dec 2026.  If the accommodation provider went bust, I'd claim on my credit card.

Even if something unfortunate happened nearer the time, from my experience accommodation dates can usually be changed and even flight dates can be changed (for a fee)...so the benefit of travel insurance is fairly small until you actually come to travelling.

DullGreyGuy

Egger2 said:

This is not always the best strategy. If you're 80+ with pre-existing medical conditions, you'll be paying upwards of £500 for European cover, much more for worldwide or cruise. If you book a year ahead, as many of us do, your financial risk, in the event of having to cancel, is limited to the deposit until 8-10 weeks before departure, typically £400 - £500, so your outlay for the insurance outweighs your loss, even if no excess. Surely it is better to delay buying the insurance until this point? You will also, by then, have a better idea of whether you will be fit to make the trip.

It depends on if you are talking single trip insurance or annual cover too and if annual, if you have any other trips planned beforehand. 

In principle you are correct but you are running the risk that you develop a new condition between now and then which wouldn't prevent you from travelling but may make the circa £500 insurance premiums become a £1,000 insurance premium. Even if its a not you thing, world events could cause insurances to spike (given the time it takes for certain things to happen the likihood of a world event that causes premiums to be slashed is much less likely)

NoodleDoodleMan

TELLIT01 said:

Fair point that purchasing insurance when the cost is higher than the full deposit is questionable.  Just be certain that the you haven't paid a reduced deposit to get you to book, but the full deposit would still have be paid in the event of you cancelling the holiday.  The 'low deposit' option is used by a lot of tour operators.

Indeed - it would be in the OP's best interests to confirm what the full deposit would amount to if (God Forbid) there is a need to cancel.

More than a few TUI (for example) customers have booked holidays on the low deposit scheme without realising that the full deposit will be required if they cancel the reservation.

zagfles

Mark_d said:

I generally do sort out all aspects of a holiday at the same time - flights, accommodation, transfers...and travel insurance.  But I agree that needing to buy travel insurance "ASAB" isn't always best.

I have booked a accommodation in Australia for December 2026.  I can't book flights yet as they're not on sale.  What would travel insurance protect me from if I was to buy now?  If I suffered illness,  injury, bereavement...I should be ok to travel in Dec 2026.  If the accommodation provider went bust, I'd claim on my credit card.

Even if something unfortunate happened nearer the time, from my experience accommodation dates can usually be changed and even flight dates can be changed (for a fee)...so the benefit of travel insurance is fairly small until you actually come to travelling.

Yup, the generic advice to buy insurance ASAB is mainly applicable to people buying expensive packages or otherwise committing a big non refundable spend. Most of the recent holidays I've been on the upfront commitment was less that typical insurance would cost. Although not an issue for me as I have annual insurance anyway. 

Another way to mitigate costs is not to book so far in advance if possible, the beauty of retirement is you're not fixed to leave dates you might to book a year ahead in some jobs, so if you have at least a little flexibility with dates, hotels, locations etc just see what's available nearer the time.