Travel insurance query

[Travelinsuranceclaim]

Hello everyone.

I paid for an annual travel insurance policy to start on 31 August, as was due to go on holiday the next day with family.

On 28th August, my Dad has a heart attack and was deemed not fit to fly (he was coming on holiday with us).

The travel insurance claim has been denied as only started from 31 August, but if I'd had single trip insurance, would have I been covered?

So annoyed at myself and gutted so please be gentle on me!

I've never had an annual policy before and it seemed like a good idea but obviously it's not as just cost me £1,000! 😭

It’s not nonsense. If you book a holiday every year, you should make sure you have continuous annual insurance in place, you shouldn’t ‘stop and start’. That way, you will always be covered, regardless of exactly when you book your holiday.

Now you know how the two types of policies work OP, just to add if you don’t already know, that if you’re travelling to Europe you also should also have a GHIC card for everyone in your party (used to be an EHIC and if you’re old like me you’ll remember when it was an E1-11) because travel insurance policies don’t cover you for anything that the GHIC covers. They are free from the government website and are valid for a few years at a time.

Also - though you probably know this as well now - your annual policy will cover you for cancellation of any trips for travel dates beyond the end of the policy (eg, October 26) but only up until the policy expiry date. You then need to either have a new annual policy starting from the date the current one ends, or have bought a single trip policy by then to ensure continuous cancellation cover.

And the advice to have a policy of either kind in place as soon as you’re booked is spot on.

Source - I sell travel insurance. I have to pass an annual test to remain licensed to sell it and these are exactly the kind of questions on the test.

Wishing your Dad a full and speedy recovery, and hopefully you can all get another holiday lined up soon, because it sounds as though you could do with one after this.

That means you can't take it out to start more than 31 days from now. That's not that you can't take it out before the holiday. It means if you buy it today you can start your policy in the next 31 days so up to 2nd October. If you book a holiday today. You start your policy today. So if you break your leg it whatever the week before you go you are covered