As the Coronavirus outbreak hits its stride and gets worse all round the world, the World Health Organisation have declared it a global pandemic. What should you do if you were going to be taking a holiday this year? If you’ve already booked your holiday for this Easter school holidays, the summer holidays or at any other time, you need to look at your travel insurance documents.
Buy It When You Book
Let’s start with the first rule of travel insurance. You should buy it when you buy your holiday. That does not necessarily mean that you should buy the insurance policy offered to you with the holiday. These are often far more expensive than what you can buy yourself. From another company, through a comparison site, for example. Again, you should do this at the time of booking. ATOL and APTA protected holidays are great, should something happen to the travel company, like Thomas Cook collapsing, but what if you book your holiday and then the next day you get hit by a bus? Get your insurance on the day you book your trip.
Insurance Companies Stopping Services
Reported last night, Liverpool Victoria (LV=) have stopped offering travel insurance policies. The company noted that it has seen it’s number of policies sold double over the last fortnight. The surge is due to travellers trying to protect themselves financially. It’s worth saying that if you’ve already bought travel insurance from LV+, you’re covered.
Th company said “In light of the impact that Coronavirus (COVID-19) is having globally, we’ve made the difficult decision to pause the sale of travel insurance to new customers.” This is likely due to the fact that their liabilities will be enormous should they have to pay out on these insurance policies. They’re probably taken the business decision to protect the company. This does come after Aviva has restricted the level of cover it’s offering on new policies. Sportscover Direct, who are the largest online seller of sports holiday insurance, has implemented a “Coronavirus exclusion” into its policies. Don’t be surprised if more insurance companies lock down what they’re covering in their available policies and maybe follow suit, pausing sales just like Liverpool Victoria.
Disruption & Cancellation
As thousands of flights are cancelled worldwide, it’s obvious to see the impact that the COVID-19 epidemic is having. Until the government announce that they advise us all to not visit certain places, the decision is up to you whether you travel or not. If you choose not to, unfortunately, without the government advice in place, you’ll lose your money. This is the case even if you have travel insurance in place. We need to keep an eye on what the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) are saying. If you have a travel insurance policy you need to check it or contact the company who you have it with to see where you stand.
It’s a confusing and worrying time. There is apparently going to be a boom in the ‘Staycation’ this summer as people stay here in the UK. Sounds perfect to me, we have a wonderful country to explore. Whatever you do, stay safe, wash your hands regularly and keep an eye out for one another.
