Your Trip Deposit Date is the date on which you made your first payment towards your trip. If you’re buying a single-trip travel insurance policy, you’ll be asked to provide this date when entering your trip details.
In most cases, your initial trip deposit will be a payment towards an airline ticket, cruise, or accommodation. However, any trip payment qualifies.
Travel insurance providers will use this date to determine your eligibility for time-sensitive benefits. These are benefits offered by travel insurance providers that are only available for a specific time period after making an initial trip payment, typically 10-21 days.
The two most common types of time-sensitive travel insurance benefits are Cancel for Any Reason and Pre-Existing Condition coverage.
It’s possible you may not know the exact date on which you made your initial trip deposit. If the payment was made some time ago, or you’re unsure what you paid for first, there are a few ways to retrieve this date when getting a travel insurance quote:
While it’s possible to buy travel insurance before a trip is fully paid for, a trip payment of some kind is required to get the ball rolling. Travel insurance providers will need your initial deposit date and trip costs to provide you with an accurate quote for your trip.
If you have yet to make a payment towards your trip, you can use today’s date as your trip deposit date and then estimate your trip costs. Once you know your trip costs, you can adjust as needed.
With that said, we recommend making a purchase towards your trip before considering travel insurance. To get the best available coverage, it’s best to start your search immediately after making your initial trip deposit.
If you make additional trip payments after purchasing your policy, you can contact your provider directly to add these costs to your coverage. You can typically adjust your trip cost amount up until the day before you depart.
In travel insurance, your final payment date is the date on which you finish paying for your trip. In most cases, this will be the day you pay off the largest remaining prepaid trip expense, such as a cruise balance or accommodation payment.
In rare cases, some providers determine your eligibility for time-sensitive benefits, like pre-existing condition coverage, based on this date rather than your initial trip deposit date. Depending on the insurer, you may need to purchase your policy either:
For a payment to be covered by your travel insurance policy, it must be paid before you depart for your trip.