Warning - Annual Travel Insurance

[KARL]

This is not so much a question as an attempt to pass on advice. In case you have an annual policy (almost certainly better economically than more than one individual ones) then you need to watch out regarding cover on bookings for future travel. Your policy will not cover your liability if something happens so as to force you to cancel a booking (incurring a non-refundable loss on tickets, say) made while the policy is in force but for travel after the policy expires. If today you are planning a trip for next summer, pay for arrangements, etc. but illness, death or other causes you to cancel tomorrow, then because your policy expires the day before your planned travel date they will not cover any losses. You have to take out a separate policy covering your travel period, in which case try to get one starting after the expiry of your existing policy so you don't end up with two policies partly overlapping.

[5029]

So effectively you're saying that insurance companies do not pay out if something happens in a period of time not covered by the policy?? Isn't it just common sense that you should have a policy that covers the time that you are on holidays?

[KARL]

Absolutely correct 5029, you and I know and understand this but there will be those who overlook this aspect (in haste or not, thinking "I'm covered for travel") when they hold a current policy and intend to renew or replace it "when the time comes". It would then be too late when the unexpected happens and deposits, etc. are not refunded. As I said at the outset, I am only trying to alert people to a potentially expensive oversight - do you think I should apologise for this ?

[answerbonk]

all sounds very sensible to me Karl. Whilst we are at it shouldn't we alert people to renew other things when they expire? How about a reminder for those with bus passes or a reminder to put another florin in the electricity meter when the lights go out?
I am joking with you, because your question seemed to be a long winded way of actually telling people that if they don't renew an expiring insurance policy they will no longer be covered.

[bernardo]

It was exactly this problem which struck David Blaine. He thought that he didn't need to eat food because he had already eaten the previous day. It was 44 days before he realised his mistake.

[smorodina]

I think Karl's point is not that you should renew your policy when it expires - which is obvious - but that if you book a holiday well in advance and it falls outside of your policy period you may not be covered if you have to cancel now. In other words you need to take out a policy to cover the period of the booked holiday even if you have months to run on your current policy.

[KARL]

Thank you smorodina, spot on - you actually read the "question" (more than the others seem to have done) but now you will no doubt be considered a fool for offering advice to those who might find it useful and avoid accidentally getting into difficulty (nobody is perfect after all). That makes at least two of us earning the label, let's learn from it shall we ?