Travel insurance renewing just before trip

[Elodie]

Just seen another post about someone with the problem of their annual travel insurance running out midway through their trip, and it prompted me to check our renewal date.

I knew we were fine for this year, as our policy renews in April and we travel in August. However, we’ve just booked a Disney cruise for April 2021, starting 8 days after our policy renews. We’ll want to fly out a few days early, just to be on the safe side and to have a little stay in Miami before the cruise, so we’ll probably be flying out just a few days into a new policy.

I guess so long as the policies run straight from one to the next, it’s all fine, so long as there are no changes to the T&Cs etc? Is there anything I should double-check beforehand? Or am I worrying for nothing and I should just assume it will all be fine?

Just a bit concerned as it’s a good policy, but we get it free with home insurance, and I worry that they might decide to stop giving away such a good policy for free! If we needed to find alternative insurance, I don’t know how that would work with such short notice.

[stanleycamel]

I would suggest you check what your insurance policy offers with regard to cruise cover if you haven't already.

[tinkerella123]

Wouldn’t be surprised if was an extra cost to cover the cruise anyway, prob worth asking who you booked with to add it the policy.

[Elodie]

Originally Posted by stanleycamel

I would suggest you check what your insurance policy offers with regard to cruise cover if you haven't already.

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That’s a good point. I’d checked against a list of features and limits for our WDW trip this year, and found it was way over the minimum requirements, as well as having a 5* defaqto rating. I’d only looked to see that cruises are covered (they are ) , but I never even thought to check against a specific list of requirements for a cruise. What should I be looking for?

If our free insurance proves not to have the level of cover we require, how would it work to have single trip insurance for the cruise at the same time as our annual insurance for other trips? I’ve heard it’s a bad idea to have two lots of travel insurance running simultaneously in case of a claim, but how do you manage if you need single trip insurance but already have annual insurance? I didn’t realise this was going to be so complicated!

I’ve had a look for quotes for a single trip cruise, just in case, and I can’t seem to input dates as far ahead as our cruise (either 2021 or 2022). I’m sure people do get single trip insurance well ahead of time, so how do they do it? Is it just a matter of doing the searches yourself rather than using a comparison site? Or do we necessarily need the insurance in place while we’ve still got free cancellation? i.e. could we just make sure insurance is in place before we book flights / pay the balance on the cruise?

[Elodie]

Originally Posted by tinkerella123

Wouldn’t be surprised if was an extra cost to cover the cruise anyway, prob worth asking who you booked with to add it the policy.

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Yes, I’ve just realised this. Our policy says it includes cruise cover so long as it’s under 42 days (it’s 5 days ) but I don’t know exactly what amounts and features I should be checking for. What do I need to ask them to add?

[itz_baseline]

If your current policy doesn’t cover for your cruise and you need to take out a specific single policy to cover your cruise, then you don’t have 2 insurance policies against your cruise therefore it’s not a problem. It’s like asking if you are allowed house insurance and car insurance at the same time. They are difference items, just like if your travel insurance doesn’t cover your item (cruise) then you insure it somewhere else.

I think you are over thinking it, why is it any different to renewing car insurance? Do you worry that you are driving your car the day after you renew your insurance? You just check that the policy remains the same and if you aren’t happy with it you can take out another policy within an hour with a difference company.

[Elodie]

Originally Posted by itz_baseline

If your current policy doesn’t cover for your cruise and you need to take out a specific single policy to cover your cruise, then you don’t have 2 insurance policies against your cruise therefore it’s not a problem. It’s like asking if you are allowed house insurance and car insurance at the same time. They are difference items, just like if your travel insurance doesn’t cover your item (cruise) then you insure it somewhere else.

I think you are over thinking it, why is it any different to renewing car insurance? Do you worry that you are driving your car the day after you renew your insurance? You just check that the policy remains the same and if you aren’t happy with it you can take out another policy within an hour with a difference company.

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Haha, yes, I suspected I was worrying about nothing and it would all be fine, but just wanted to be on the safe side and double-check. (A good job, since it turns out I was under-thinking it, and hadn’t even thought about checking what level of cover we get for cruises!)

I do think there could be an issue with having two lots of travel insurance if that is what we need though. As posted above, our annual insurance DOES cover cruises, but I need to figure out exactly what StanleyCamel etc meant for me to check on the policy. If the level of cover is insufficient, and we need a single trip policy, then we’d have two lots of cruise cover running concurrently. In the event of us needing to claim anything, I can imagine that could lead to each company trying to pass the claim onto the other. I’ll keep googling and just hope our annual policy does have the level of cover we need, or that we can pay to boost the levels of coverage. I just need to figure out exactly what we need first.