When should I buy my travel insurance?

When should you buy travel insurance? As soon as you make a trip deposit.

While you can buy travel insurance right up until the day before you leave on a trip, it’s important to understand what constitutes the initial trip deposit date.

Once a traveler makes their first arrangement for a trip, that date becomes the initial trip deposit date.

Many travel insurance coverages require you to purchase your plan within a specified number of days (usually 10-14) of making that initial trip deposit if the coverage is to be in effect.

In fact, buying travel insurance as soon as possible is essential in avoiding some common insurance ‘loopholes’.

Coverages that require purchase soon after trip deposit

• ‘Cancel for any reason’ coverage
• ‘Cancel for work reasons’ coverage
• Pre-existing medical condition coverage
• Financial default coverage
• Hurricane coverage
• Work conflict coverage

Of course, purchasing your travel insurance earlier rather than later is ideal because travel insurance only covers unexpected events.

That means, you can purchase your travel insurance for a Bahama getaway any time you like, but if you wait until there is a hurricane alert to purchase it, you won’t have coverage for hurricanes.

If I buy travel insurance early, can I add the plane tickets I plan to purchase later?

Yes, you can cover additional costs – for plane tickets, tours, and more – after you make your initial travel insurance purchase.

It’s best to estimate the total trip cost and get the insurance protection you need and make changes to the policy as you need to. Estimate high, and if you end up with lower trip costs, then you can make changes to the coverage and get a partial refund of your premium as well.

Related topics

• What is the buying process?
• What information do you need to buy it?
• Making changes to or canceling your policy