Martin Lewis issued a warning for people going away on holiday (Image: ITV)
Martin Lewis has issued some important advice to families going away on holiday soon. He issued some tips on his BBC podcast particularly in light of the impact of the Iran war and how it could affect people’s holiday plans.
He shared his thoughts after a question came in from someone who had taken out travel insurance ahead of their planned trip to Jordan in July, which they booked in January. They were concerned that the Iran conflict could mean they would have to cancel their holiday, and wanted to know if they could get a refund on their insurance.
Mr Lewis took the opportunity to issue some advice for anyone whose travel plans could be affected by the crisis in the Middle East. He warned: « The golden rule is do not cancel this voluntarily yourself.
« If you do, you lose all your rights. It just becomes that you have chosen not to go, and if you choose not to go, then you are not entitled to a refund and your travel insurance won’t cover you. »
He went on to say that if the provider cancels your trip, you should be entitled to a full refund. However, if your trip is not cancelled but you don’t feel safe to go, you may want to check something online.
Read more: Premium Bonds ‘further decrease’ ahead of NS&I changes
Read more: Martin Lewis advice if you have cash savings as he explains ’18 year rule’
Check the Government website
Mr Lewis explained: « You need to look at the Foreign Office’s travel advice. There can be two different levels of advice that they are giving.
« The strongest one is no travel, if they are advising you against any travel in that country. The second strongest is against no essential travel. Different travel insurance policies have different attitudes. Some will only cover you for no travel, some will cover you for no essential travel as well.
« Some will say you don’t get any coverage for wars, and they exclude you from any cover off that back of that. It is simply a case of what your travel insurance policy says. »
You can view the Foreign travel advice page on the Government website to see what the latest advice is for the country where you are going.
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. Read our Privacy Policy
For example, at the time of writing the guidance for the United Arab Emirates states: « Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) advises against all but essential travel. » The advice page also features the warning: « Your travel insurance could be invalidated if you travel against advice from the FCDO. »
Act now
Mr Lewis added a further tip for anyone jetting off soon. He said: « Anybody who has a trip booked to one of those areas, I would be getting your travel insurance policy now.
« Get the document. My tip would be, take it, it’s usually a PDF, put it into a Chat GPT or Google Gemini or Anthropic Claude, put the document in there, and then ask it questions about what you are entitled to, because these documents are long and turgid. »
He added that you should ask the AI tool to point you to the exact paragraph in the document it is referring to, so you can read it yourself and check that the information is correct.
The consumer expert pointed out another element of your policy you should check. He said: « Another thing people should be check is what is the level of cancellation cover on your travel insurance policy. In other words, if the holiday is cancelled and you had ancillary costs, how much would they cover you up to. »
Source link
