Book Your Travel Insurance the Same Day You Book Your Holiday

Why it is best to buy cover when you book your trip

You may be thinking about buying travel insurance closer to your trip. That is common. But if you wait, your money may be at risk. Cancellation cover only starts when your policy starts. Taking out travel insurance when you book your holiday can help make sure cancellation cover is in place from the outset.

The Cover Gap Nobody Thinks About

Cancellation cover only protects you from things that happen after your policy starts. It does not cover things that happened before. If you book your holiday today but wait six weeks to buy insurance, you will not have cancellation cover during that time. If you, someone travelling with you, or a close family member gets ill, has an injury, dies, or loses their job in those six weeks, you may not be covered.

What Cancellation Cover Actually Protects

Depending on your policy, you may be covered if you have to cancel because of things like:

• Sudden illness, injury, or death affecting you, someone travelling with you, or a close family member
• Being called for jury service or asked to be a witness in court
• Losing your job because of redundancy, as long as your policy terms allow it
• Your home is not safe to live in shortly before you leave, for example because of a fire or flood

You cannot know when these things will happen. That is why insurers only cover them from the date your policy starts. Your policy will not usually cover something you already knew about when you bought it.

Always check your policy to see what is covered.

A Simple Example

Say you book a £2,500 family holiday in January and plan to travel in August. You decide to wait until June to buy insurance, closer to your trip. In March, a close relative becomes very ill, and you need to cancel. Because you did not have cancellation cover in place in March, you could lose some or all of the money you paid for your trip. If you had taken out suitable insurance in January, you would have had cancellation cover in place when the illness occurred, depending on what your policy covers.

The Takeaway

Travel insurance helps protect you from things you do not expect. But it only helps if it is in place before those things happen. To give yourself the best chance of being covered, buy your travel insurance on the same day you book your holiday.

Compare travel insurance quotes

At Holiday Ready we've made finding and comparing travel insurance quotes quick and easy.

Our online quote form aims to be simple to use, and our travel guides are full of helpful facts and information to answer questions you may have about choosing a travel insurance policy that meets your needs.