Martin Lewis has issued a warning to those planning any holidays this year, as a "big mistake" often catches people out.
Speaking on his podcast, the Money Saving Expert urged people to sort out their holiday insurance as soon as their trip is booked. If people fail to do this, they could be forced to pay extra if they have to cancel the getaway.
According to the expert, a lot of holidaymakers leave it too late to purchase their insurance before they go away. Unforeseen circumstances can sometimes crop up and impact your ability to travel, and some travel companies won't refund you in this case.
Manchester Evening News reports that a concerned holidaymaker had contacted the podcast asking for advice about a holiday they had booked in the summer.
Since booking the trip, the customer had received a cancer diagnosis and could no longer go as they were receiving chemotherapy. Both the operator and holiday firm wouldn't cancel the trip as the passenger hadn’t booked the flexible option.
In response, Martin highlighted that it's not the provider's responsibility to issue a refund for the trip if it isn't "faulty".
Because holidaymakers don't always buy insurance right away, they aren't fully covered if any issues do crop up.
Martin said: "They ask me what to do and I say that’s what your travel insurance is there for and I can’t tell you how many times they say ‘well I haven’t got travel insurance yet I was going to get it before I go’.
"I’m left impotent without being able to give them any solution other than go and speak to the holiday company again and throw yourselves at their mercy - will they give you vouchers, will they give you something else."
He added: "That is why you get travel insurance ASAB - as soon as you book, because of those unforeseen events that may stop you going away before you go on holiday."
For example, anyone booking a holiday now for August 1-10 would need to buy travel insurance as soon as possible to cover them for those dates.
As they would start paying for the policy now, it would protect them if anything happened before they were due to travel.
He also explained that annual travel insurance would also cover you, even if it ran out before your departure date, as it offers protection against anything occurring before it expires.
In this case the customer would need to buy another annual policy, or a single trip insurance option, once the original one had expired. Martin added that annual travel insurance is cheaper for those who go away two or more times.
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