Insurance company LV withdraw new holiday cover due to coronavirus

British travellers are facing delays and cancellations to their travel plans amid the coronavirus crisis, were today thrown an additional headache as some of the UK’s big insurers started to withdraw the sale of new travel cover policies.

Insurance giant LV stopped selling travel insurance last night in a move described by one expert as ‘alarming’.

Aviva, the Post Office and Admiral have also started to withdraw or reduce cover relating to travel disruption or cancellations, particularly relating to coronavirus.

In a message on its website, LV said it was ‘unable to give’ new customers travel insurance ‘at the moment’, and said it had ‘made the difficult decision to pause the sale of travel insurance to new customers.’

It added it had considered ‘excluding cover or increasing prices for new customers’, but described prioritising customers who had already bought insurance as ‘the right decision’.

‘Whilst LV is a major motor and home insurer, we are a small travel insurance provider and it’s important for the long-term benefit of all our customers that our exposure to this market remains at a sustainable level for the overall business.’

Existing policyholders will see no change, but it gave no indication as to when it would begin selling travel insurance again, despite describing the move as ‘temporary’.