The Money Saving Expert founder has issued a ‘crucial’ warning
Martin Lewis has issued a ‘crucial warning’ to anyone planning to book a holiday this year, or who has already booked one. The MoneySavingExpert.com founder shared the alert on his new Travel Insurance and Life Lessons episode of the Martin Lewis Podcast on BBC Sounds.
He went on to upload a snippet of the episode to his X account, alongside the caption: “Crucial warning if you’ve booked or are booking a holiday abroad. Get travel insurance ASAB.” Martin explains that ASAB stands for ‘as soon as possible after booking’.
Travel insurance often covers problems that happen before you travel, such as illnesses, redundancy, jury duty, so buying late can leave you uninsured for those pre-departure events. Martin recommends buying single-trip policies now and setting the cover dates to match your trip.
He said: “If you’ve booked or are booking a holiday, a hugely important warning for you. Make sure you get your travel insurance ASAB, as soon as you’ve booked. And if you’ve already booked, that means just do it now. Just get it as quickly as possible. Because half the point of travel insurance is covering you for things that may happen before you go that stop you going.
“And if you leave it until the last minute to get your travel insurance and something happens, well, you won’t be covered. So what does having it in place ASAB mean? Well, if it’s a single-trip policy, it’s really easy. You, let’s say you’re going away August 1 to August 8, you get a single-trip policy now from August 1-8. You give those cover dates, you pay for it now, you’ve got your policy in place.”
X video embed
For annual or multi-trip policies, he stresses the importance of making sure the policy is live from today (or continuous) so any incident now is covered. Martin also urges people to avoid buying one that only starts later on.
He said: “If it’s an annual policy that covers all your trips away in the year, you want to always have a live annual policy. So if you don’t have an annual policy, you get one now, but you need to have the start date being today. You don’t leave it until August 1 and try and book it in advance.”
Martin also says that if your current annual policy ends before your trip, buy a new one to start immediately after the old one ends to avoid any gaps. Many annual policies can only be purchased up to about 90 days in advance, and policy wordings vary, so it’s important to check terms and exclusions.
Martin added: “If you already have a policy and that is in place until the end of your holiday, you’re fine. But if your current annual policy stops before your holiday date, let’s say it stops in April and you’re going on holiday in August, you will want to get a new policy that starts the day after your old policy ends. So you have continuous cover going all the way through.
“Now you can generally only get annual policies up to 90 days in advance. So if something were to happen now for a holiday in August for a cover that ends in April, most, not all, annual travel policies will cover you even though the holiday is after their end date, if the incident happens now, which stops you from getting it. But as soon as you can, you get cover that butts up against it.”
Why is travel insurance important and what does it cover?
Travel insurance is important because it helps protect you from big, unexpected financial problems while you’re travelling. This includes expensive medical bills if you get sick or injured in another country, having to cancel your trip, and dealing with lost or stolen luggage.
It makes sure you can get emergency medical help and even get sent back home if you need to. This way, you feel safer in case something bad happens, like an accident or getting sick. Plus, it also helps if your trip gets interrupted or if you lose your stuff. What you’re covered for largely depends on what traqvel insurance you buy, but most will cover:
- Medical emergencies
- Trip cancellation
- Trip interruption/curtailment
- Baggage and personal belongings
- Personal money and documents
- Missed departure
- Personal liability
Always refer to your policy document to see the limits, exclusions (such as risky activities or pre-existing conditions), and rules. You need to declare these; failing to do so could make your coverage invalid. For people living in the UK, a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) or Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) is different and does not take the place of travel insurance.
