Cancelling Travel Insurance

[mickrory]

Just wondered what fellow cruisers thoughts are on this.

We are with Nationwide and pay £13 a month for banking. The main product is an excellent worldwide travel insurance policy because we go away a lot.

Currently although I have a couple of cruises booked its very unlikely we'll be going anywhere again this year so we're effectively paying for insurance we can't use.

I realize we're in unprecedented times and I hope this situation gets resolved quickly but those who buy trip insurance only are doing the right thing the way things stand.

Stay in and stay safe.

[yorkshirephil]

We have a yearly policy (£130) I will keep the policy going for continuity as we have 2 future cruises booked. Plus we are covered for travel in this country. Compared with the money we have tied up in cancelled cruise and deposits £130 is a drop in the ocean.

[Zombatar]

Our insurance is with Nat West as part of our account and costs us £20 per month. We have to pay extra now as I am over 70 and Jenny has diabetes but it is still very competitive Because it is part of a package that includes other benefits we wont be cancelling it and hope that our cruise next February goes ahead.

 

Peter and Jenny

[Pine Man]

We have standalone annual insurance and it expires at the end of April this year. It has already covered us for two cruises last year and would have covered us for a cruise due to start in April this year so no problems there.

 

It would also have covered us for our August cruise this year if we had renewed it and there's the rub! We have paid the deposit but that is less than the cost of insurance so we'll probably let the insurance lapse until we know what is happening with the August cruise. I suspect that we will have to pay the balance for that cruise some time in advance and then start the insurance again to cover that expense not knowing what P&O will be doing about the cruise.

 

Time for a G&T and get the jigsaw puzzle out again!

[pete14]

1 hour ago, Pine Man said:

We have standalone annual insurance and it expires at the end of April this year. It has already covered us for two cruises last year and would have covered us for a cruise due to start in April this year so no problems there.

 

It would also have covered us for our August cruise this year if we had renewed it and there's the rub! We have paid the deposit but that is less than the cost of insurance so we'll probably let the insurance lapse until we know what is happening with the August cruise. I suspect that we will have to pay the balance for that cruise some time in advance and then start the insurance again to cover that expense not knowing what P&O will be doing about the cruise.

 

Time for a G&T and get the jigsaw puzzle out again!

An understandable plan and one I have done before but just a word of caution. Renewing the policy may give you greater cover that you may need than a new policy taken out at a later date would. Insurance companies are going to be recalculating  risk and pricing new policies accordingly, either increasing them or dropping cover you may want or need in order to be competitive on price.

[Pine Man]

2 minutes ago, pete14 said:

but just a word of caution.

 

A good point, which I will take into account when the renewal comes through.

 

Thanks.

[jeanlyon]

I took mine out last November and would have covered 2 cruises until November this year.  Now I am not going on either, I wonder if they refund.  £276 is not to be sneezed at.

 

Ah, no you can't get a refund after 14 days has expired.

Edited March 27, 2020 by jeanlyon

[annieuk]

We have insurance through my husband's bank account, Lloyds, and he's been contacted to say that at the end of the current period - not sure when that is - the insurance will discontinue.  Mind you it could have something to do with that we had to cancel a cruise last May for which we were reimbursed (only a short 5 day one) and then when my husband had a problem when we were on the Canada/USA cruise last September and had to claim for Medical Centre expenses - not a lot. Both of these were cruises were with P&O. 

Nothing to do with P&O but we had booked a cruise with Saga in January which was due to go over Easter.  We found out that if we needed to cancel or even re-schedule the cruise Saga would not allow us to (we had to pay the balance on booking) as we had not opted to take Saga insurance - we didn't take it as at that point we already had annual insurance through the bank.  Had we taken the Saga insurance we would have been allowed to transfer it to next year.  Anyway the cruise has been cancelled now anyway so we had the choice to either get all our money back or we could choose to postpone to a cruise next year with what we'd already paid plus another 25%.  We decided to take a leap of faith, providing they would allow us to take out their insurance, they did, and have booked a cruise for May next year on Spirit of Discovery.  We'll see as we really did want to see what the ship was like as we don't like the way P&O are going with ever larger ships.

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

I took mine out last November and would have covered 2 cruises until November this year.  Now I am not going on either, I wonder if they refund.  £276 is not to be sneezed at.

 

Ah, no you can't get a refund after 14 days has expired.

And Jean, to be fair, you have been covered from when you took out the insurance until you cancelled your cruises, so you have  had cover for at least 4 months.

[vitrocmax]

I took out a single trip policy with Aviva for our possible June cruise (forever the optimist!), the day before Aviva announced that they were no longer offering travel insurance. I don't usually take out annual insurance because we have only previously had 1 holiday a year.

I sat on it for a week waiting for any P&O developments before cancelling it, within the 14 day period. If I had chosen annual at the time (for an extra £150) I would probably have been OK as we hope that we will be going on a cruise within the year.

I rang and asked if the date of travel could be changed but the response was that it would mean cancelling and starting a new policy, which they can't.

So the cruise is still booked and I'm waiting for P&O to extend their shutdown beyond 11th April, which I expect should happen shortly.

I would expect that any itinerary change (which is on the cards as Iona probably won't be allowed to travel to Norway, as P&O have already suggested) would be sufficient for a full credit.

[jeanlyon]

5 hours ago, wowzz said:

And Jean, to be fair, you have been covered from when you took out the insurance until you cancelled your cruises, so you have  had cover for at least 4 months.

Yes true, but I haven't travelled!!

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Yes true, but I haven't travelled!!

 But if for some reason you could not travel, say a heart attack, you would have got your fare back. The insurance covers you from the moment you take it out,  not just when you are travelling. 

[terrierjohn]

I recently received this update from my annual travel insurance company, it may help others who are struggling to find travel insurance at present.

 

An important notice to our customers

 

 

You may have noticed that many price comparison websites such as Compare the Market and Money Supermarket have suspended their travel insurance comparison services. Likewise, many travel insurance providers have taken the decision to withdraw their products.

 

 

We contact you today to assure you that Free Spirit travel insurance continues to be available and we are working hard to minimise disruption for our customers.

 

 

There are a lot of uncertainties around travel at the moment, and we believe this makes travel insurance more important than ever for those who need it.

 

 

Free Spirit quotes and policies continue to be available online and over the phone, whenever you need them.

[Morgans]

14 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I recently received this update from my annual travel insurance company, it may help others who are struggling to find travel insurance at present.

 

An important notice to our customers

 

 

You may have noticed that many price comparison websites such as Compare the Market and Money Supermarket have suspended their travel insurance comparison services. Likewise, many travel insurance providers have taken the decision to withdraw their products.

 

 

We contact you today to assure you that Free Spirit travel insurance continues to be available and we are working hard to minimise disruption for our customers.

 

 

There are a lot of uncertainties around travel at the moment, and we believe this makes travel insurance more important than ever for those who need it.

 

 

Free Spirit quotes and policies continue to be available online and over the phone, whenever you need them.

 

Their insurance may still be available but does it cover coronavirus ? Possibly not.....

[smj777]

We have annual travel Insurance from 9/5/19 to 9/2/20. We are due to cruise with P&O on 17th. June having paid the deposit in 2019 and the balance in March this year. My Travel insurers say that if the cruise is cancelled by P&O after 9/5 we will not be covered under our existing policy or through a renewed one because the renewed policy will have a Coronavirus exclusion. I would have thought that paying for this cruise inside the policy dates should be covered. Apparently not. I don't know what else we could have done to cover ourselves. Is it just me or do these insurance companies stink?

Edited April 22, 2020 by smj777
Misspelling

[pete14]

4 minutes ago, smj777 said:

We have annual travel Insurance from 9/5/19 to 9/2/20. We are due to cruise with P&O on 17th. June having paid the deposit in 2019 and the balance in March this year. My Travel insurers say that if the cruise is cancelled by P&O after 9/5 we will not be covered under our existing policy or through a renewed one because the renewed policy will have a Coronavirus exclusion. I would have thought that paying for this cruise inside the policy dates should be covered. Apparently not. I don't know what else we could have done to cover ourselves. Is it just me or do these insurance companies stink?

Maybe I am missing something here. If P&O cancel your cruise why should your insurance company be involved? If you cancel because you no longer want to go, your claim will be rejected. If P&O cancel, they will give you the option of a refund or future cruise credit. My insurance concern is if cruises go ahead and somebody catches Covid19 during the cruise necessitating removal from the ship or repatriation. Few of us could afford to pay the bill for that. 

[Morgans]

16 minutes ago, smj777 said:

We have annual travel Insurance from 9/5/19 to 9/2/20. We are due to cruise with P&O on 17th. June having paid the deposit in 2019 and the balance in March this year. My Travel insurers say that if the cruise is cancelled by P&O after 9/5 we will not be covered under our existing policy or through a renewed one because the renewed policy will have a Coronavirus exclusion. I would have thought that paying for this cruise inside the policy dates should be covered. Apparently not. I don't know what else we could have done to cover ourselves. Is it just me or do these insurance companies stink?

 

But your insurance will have expired by the time you are due to travel - the 17th June?

[smj777]

Does the insurance policy cover the cruise or the payment for the cruise? I paid during the term of the policy and if the cruise is cancelled shouldn't that payment be reimbursed? I am assuming that I shall have to claim on my insurance as P&O will not return the cost of the cruise.

[tring]

On 3/27/2020 at 7:22 PM, jeanlyon said:

Yes true, but I haven't travelled!!

 

You have had cover in case you had needed to cancel though.  The fact that you did not need it does not mean you did not have insurance cover. 

[Morgans]

If you have an annual policy you are covered for travel within that time frame ie 9/5/19 to 9/2/20 ( ?) or do you mean 9/5/20. You are not covered for travel after it finishes that's why the Insurance Company are telling you you have up to the 9th to have it cancelled as after that you are not covered. Then, you will have to accept a refund or future cruise credit.

I am quite willing to be corrected on this, however, but I believe that this is the case.

 

 

[pete14]

20 minutes ago, smj777 said:

Does the insurance policy cover the cruise or the payment for the cruise? I paid during the term of the policy and if the cruise is cancelled shouldn't that payment be reimbursed? I am assuming that I shall have to claim on my insurance as P&O will not return the cost of the cruise.

If P&O cancel the cruise, they will refund the cost of your cruise. If you choose to cancel, you may get a proportion back from P&O dependent on their terms and conditions. Under no circumstances will any insurance company refund what you have paid unless there is a specific medical reason that is either new or previously declared that prevents you from cruising. Makes absolutely no difference when you took out the policy. 

[tring]

24 minutes ago, smj777 said:

Does the insurance policy cover the cruise or the payment for the cruise? I paid during the term of the policy and if the cruise is cancelled shouldn't that payment be reimbursed? I am assuming that I shall have to claim on my insurance as P&O will not return the cost of the cruise.

 

You need to be insured at the point of claim, so you would have needed to continue your policy to the following year to be covered.  Having said that ti is not where you look for a refund in this situation.  Your claim would be to the cruise company and if they go bust/do not pay it would be a claim on a CC.  If the company goes bust it will be claimed from CC, or if you are not covered by that ABTA should pick up the tab.

[Selbourne]

Interesting that Admiral car insurance are giving policy holders a £25 refund due to lower car usage and lower claims as a result. Other insurers are now under pressure to do the same. I wonder if travel insurance companies might take the same approach? I think I might know the answer to that! 

[amajaa]

On 3/27/2020 at 7:22 PM, jeanlyon said:

Yes true, but I haven't travelled!!

Yes but if you took out Life Insurance you wouldn’t say can I have my money back from  last year because I didn’t die

[kenhem]

Apologies if this has been previously posted, but I can't find reference to it. For our upcoming June cruise we took out single trip travel insurance. On checking the policy it states that if the insured trip is cancelled before you travel and are not claiming, or have previously claimed, on the policy you are entitled to a 50% refund of the basic fee plus any additional premium to cover pre existing medical conditions. I don't know if this is standard in all single trip travel policies but worth checking if you have single trip insurance for a cruise cancelled by P&O.