Don't forget to renew your Travel Insurance before you book a trip

Many people take out annual travel insurance either individually or for a couple or family. The great thing about this is that you have peace of mind and if you are taking holidays throughout the year you don't have to keep on buying new insurance. This is rather like when you take out an annual car hire excess insurance policy.

The insurance provider would normally notify the policyholder that the policy is about to expire and if it is not renewed then cover will stop immediately. These reminders would either be by post or by email.

People often leave it till the last minute or till after they have just booked a break for a few days away several weeks in advance. In the intervening period they would remember to renew the policy.

What happens if you foreget, you have made a flight / ferry booking and have an accident before you travel? You are going to have a bit a problem. This occurred recently with someone I know where the flight was booked, it was not going to be till a month later, but the traveller forgot to renew or take out the family travel insurance.

A week or so after the booking was made one of the family had an injury whilst playing cricket on a Saturday afternoon. Two days earlier the Travel insurance had expired and it looks like this person won't be able to fly in three weeks time because of the injury. This means that they will not be able to claim this time.

Always renew your Travel Insurance when you get the reminder. It should then be effective from the date of renewal and if you make a holiday booking you should be covered.

If you are making a holiday booking and you don't have an annual policy, make sure you immediately take out Travel Insurance cover. You never know what is around the corner and you could easily trip over your favourite garden gnome ten minutes after booking, injure your leg and not be able to get on the plane the following week.