Annual policy- start date?

tarich_23

I know Martin's advice is to buy insurance as soon as you book - but if buying an annual policy, what does the start date need to be? If it's the first day of travel would I be covered if there was an issue before hand that would cause the trip to be cancelled etc?

Voyager2002

No, you would not be covered for cancellation if anything happened before the start date of the policy. Your annual policy would have to start immediately for you to benefit from this cover.

You might consider single-trip insurance, which does give you cancellation cover from the date of purchase.

MyRealNameToo

tarich_23 said:

I know Martin's advice is to buy insurance as soon as you book - but if buying an annual policy, what does the start date need to be? If it's the first day of travel would I be covered if there was an issue before hand that would cause the trip to be cancelled etc?

For annual travel insurance you won't be covered for anything that happens before the start date. So were you to set the start date as the day you travel but then fall down the stairs the day before you wouldnt be covered. 

In principle therefore you should set the start date to be "today" or the date of the expiry of your current policy if you already buy annual cover. 

In practice if you have only committed a £100 deposit or something then some may decide to have a later inception date because doing so they may cover a second trip happening in 13 months under the one policy and accept they would lose the £100 were something to happen in the next couple months. The only word of caution is to ensure you actually know what your financial commitments are; there certainly were some travel agents that took tiny initial deposits but actually your financial commitment was the full deposit even if the other £495 wasnt due to be paid until several months later. 

Single trip insurance asks for your travel dates rather than the start date, it automatically starts instantly. 

NoodleDoodleMan

Martin's advice is 100% correct.

MyRealNameToo

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Martin's advice is 100% correct.

Its the websites advice not Martin's.

The advice is good but not necessarily 100% correct. There are occasions where it would be more money saving to defer purchasing the insurance 

NoodleDoodleMan

Talk about splitting hairs - it's Martin Lewis's website, so any advice and guidance etc. given there must (presumably) have his endorsement.

That aside - in what circumstances would it be advantageous to defer taking a travel insurance policy ?

MyRealNameToo

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Talk about splitting hairs - it's Martin Lewis's website, so any advice and guidance etc. given there must (presumably) have his endorsement.

That aside - in what circumstances would it be advantageous to defer taking a travel insurance policy ?

No, he sold the website to Money Supermarket in 2012 for £87m https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18295587


Say you are booking two holidays one in 9 months, one in 14 months. Both have a £100 deposit until 3 months before travel. You arent intending other trips and due to age/medical conditions your travel insurance is £500 

If you buy the annual policy now you have to renew it for the second trip so pay £1,000. 

If you bought the policy in 3 months time you pay £500 for the insurance and are risking only your £200 of deposits so best case you save £500 and worst case you save £300. That obvious ignores the excess which work mean the worst case is more of a saving as with a £75 excess your claim would only be £25 on each of the deposits.

diveunderthebonnet

MyRealNameToo said:

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Talk about splitting hairs - it's Martin Lewis's website, so any advice and guidance etc. given there must (presumably) have his endorsement.

That aside - in what circumstances would it be advantageous to defer taking a travel insurance policy ?

No, he sold the website to Money Supermarket in 2012 for £87m https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18295587


Say you are booking two holidays one in 9 months, one in 14 months. Both have a £100 deposit until 3 months before travel. You arent intending other trips and due to age/medical conditions your travel insurance is £500 

If you buy the annual policy now you have to renew it for the second trip so pay £1,000. 

If you bought the policy in 3 months time you pay £500 for the insurance and are risking only your £200 of deposits so best case you save £500 and worst case you save £300. That obvious ignores the excess which work mean the worst case is more of a saving as with a £75 excess your claim would only be £25 on each of the deposits.

But if you cancel before the due date the excess would be £75 x 2 as there are two people travelling so they would down - £50 if they claim.

MACKEM99

ASAB. As Martin says.😄