When the day is calculated by a travel insurance company!
Right about now you’re probably asking yourself why it matters? How could the difference in calculating a day possibly effect travel insurance? The answer is simple – most travel insurance plans offer a “waiver of pre-existing medical conditions” as an inducement to buy travel insurance within a short period of time following their first trip payment. This period of time can vary by company and plan and can vary from 10 to 30 days following the traveler’s first trip payment.
Here is where it starts to become complicated. Most travelers will just add the number of required days to the date they made their first payment to see if they still qualify for the “waiver”. So if a traveler made a deposit payment on November 1, 2013 and the plan requires purchase within 10 days than most will believe that if they buy the insurance on or before November 11 they will still be eligible for the “waiver”.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t always hold true. Several companies start the count on the day of deposit rather than the following day which means that if you add the required days to the deposit date than you’ll also have to subtracted one day from the result. So, in the above example if you’ve waited until the 11th to buy your insurance you’ll have missed your eligibility by one day. Understanding this can be the difference between having a claim caused by a pre-existing medical condition paid or declined.