Millions of holidaymakers are making a simple mistake by not buying travel insurance.
Only a third of holidaymakers make sure they have travel insurance in place as soon as they book their trip, according to a survey by Opinium, commissioned by Multitrip.com.
The study found 13% have travelled without travel insurance because they forgot to buy it.
Nearly 1 in 5 one in five (17%) who bought insurance only did it last minute, thus missing out on crucial cover – especially as one in five travel insurance claims are for holiday cancellations.
“Travel insurance is too important to be an afterthought. Always buy it as soon as you book your holiday,” says Christian Bennett from Multitrip.com, a travel insurance provider.
Not having travel insurance in place exposes holidaymakers to potential financial loss if a holiday has to be cancelled.
Martin Lewis tweeted about the issue, saying: “What counts as having travel insurance in place?
“On the back of my ‘get it ASAB (as soon as you book) tip many people ask about what counts as having insurance in place. So put simply…
“Single trip policies. You pay for insurance to cover a specific trip away (eg 10-17 August), and once you’ve paid for that insurance, the cover is in place, if something happens before then to stop you going away you’re covered. –
“Annual policies: If you don’t have any other cover, you need the start date to be the time you book the holiday (or as soon after as possible) not the date you are going on holiday. Otherwise, if something happens before the start date you won’t be covered.
“If you’ve already got annual cover, but your holiday is after the cover ends, get another policy to start as soon as it finishes (most policies, will cover you if something happens to a booked holiday which is after your renewal date, as long as the policy is still live – but a few don’t, so check).”
It’s worth remembering that cancellations are not always related to your own health or situation. In fact, 32% of cancellation claims were due to the illness or injury of a travelling companion; 13% resulted from the death of a non-travelling relative; and 8% involved the illness or injury of a non-travelling relative.
Christian Bennett says: “If you wait until closer to departure to arrange your travel insurance and then find yourself in the unfortunate position of not being able to travel – for example, if you or your travel companion or a close relative is diagnosed with a serious illness – you may not be able to recover the cost of your trip.
“That’s why we’re urging holidaymakers to get cover sorted as soon as they book their flight or holiday. Travel insurance is too important to be an afterthought.”
Source – The Argus