Martin Lewis warning for holidaymakers as ‘you lose all your rights’ | Personal Finance | Finance
Martin Lewis issues a warning for people going on holiday (Image: ITV)
Martin Lewis has some important advice for families going on holiday soon. He gave some clues about himself BBC podcast especially in light of the impact of the Iran war and how this may affect people’s holiday plans.
He shared his thoughts in response to a question from someone who had travel insurance before their planned trip to Jordan in July, which they had booked in January. They were concerned that the conflict in Iran might mean they would have to cancel their holiday and wanted to know if their insurance would be refunded.
Mr Lewis took the opportunity to offer some advice to anyone whose travel plans may be affected by the crisis in the Middle East. He warned: “The golden rule is not to voluntarily cancel it on your own.
“If you do this, you lose all your rights. You are choosing not to go, and if you choose not to go, you are not entitled to a refund and your travel insurance will not cover you.”
That said, if the provider cancels your trip, you should be entitled to a full refund. However, if your trip hasn’t been canceled but you don’t feel safe, you may want to check things out online.
Read more: ‘Further decline’ in Premium Bonds ahead of NS&I changes
Read more: Martin Lewis gave advice if you have cash savings while explaining the ’18 year rule’
Check the government website
Mr Lewis explained: “You need to look at the Foreign Office’s travel advice. “The advice they give can be on two different levels.
“The strongest is that if they advise you not to take any travel in that country, you should not travel. The second strongest is that you should not take any essential travel. Different travel insurance policies have different stances. Some will only cover you for not traveling, and some will cover non-essential travel.”
“Some will say you don’t get any coverage for wars and exclude you from that coverage. That’s just what your travel insurance policy says.”
You can view International travel advice page Check the Government website to see what the latest advice is for your destination country.
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and advertising from us and our partners. You can check out whenever you want. Read our Privacy Policy
For example, at the time the guide was written United Arab Emirates states: “Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) It advises against all but essential travel.” The advice page also warns: “Your travel insurance may be invalidated if you travel against FCDO advice.”
Take action now
Mr. Lewis added another tip for those who will be flying soon. He said: “Anyone who’s booked a trip to one of these regions, I’ll be buying your travel insurance policy now.
“Get the document. My advice is, take it, it’s usually a PDF, put it in Chat GPT or Google Gemini or Anthropic Claude, put the document in there and then ask it questions about what you qualify for, because these documents are long and bloated.”
He added that you should ask the AI tool to direct you to the exact paragraph the document is referring to, so you can read it yourself and check if the information is correct.
The consumer expert pointed out another element of your policy you should check. “Another thing people need to check is what level of cancellation cover your travel insurance policy has. So if the holiday was canceled and you had incidental expenses, how much would it cover you?”
