Need to take out travel insurance to start from now for a booked 2018 cruise?

[LittleMoonbuggy]

Hi,
We have already booked our family cruise holiday for summer 2018 (I know, I know).

When booking it over the phone, the travel agent said she strongly advised us to take out travel insurance with immediate effect.

We paid a deposit of about £300. The terms and conditions seem to suggest that if we don't pay the balance of the holiday cost 12 weeks before the holiday is due to start we would lose our places, but it doesn't seem to imply that we would have to pay the balance anyway.

So, is there any benefit to us taking out travel insurance starting now, when it is so far ahead? Obviously we would take out a policy nearer the time to cover the duration of the holiday itself.

Many thanks in advance.

You should be able to get very cheap travel insurance to protect your 300 quid deposit balance, but I do get your point that the chances of an event that would prevent your trip happening quite so far in advance are pretty small - barring your own deaths. Obviously you'll need to have insurance in place the instant you pay your balance in case something happened which meant you had to cancel.

If you're planning any other trips in the intervening period you might want to just get annual travel insurance.

Thanks both. Yes, will definitely get insurance for as soon as pay the balance.

I'm not too worried about the deposit really.

Happy to chuck the deposit? Fine.

Or you could buy one trip insurance which starts on departure date but will cover you for cancellation from now. This is how it works.

Who do you bank with? We actually have travel insurance and AA cover as part of our current account with Lloyds Bank. there is a monthly fee but it works out cheaper than just the AA cover per year

What difference does it make if you take it now or nearer the time? The price is related to the location and duration of the holiday. The sooner you take it out the sooner you have cover if the unexpected happens without there being any difference in cost to you.

Actually the advantage of taking single trip insurance out now is that if one of you were diagnosed with something in the next year but still able to travel you wouldn't get stung on the insurance costs.