Wedding Insurance

Hello, im in the same position too! We have to book our venue by the end of the week or we might loose our date, but I can't get wedding insurance from anywhere.

Going to pay the deposit on credit card I think so then at least if anything goes wrong with the venue we should get money back...

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Hi Lucy,

Yes it's a real struggle, from speaking to the venue they reckon that the insurance companies have got to get all of their lawyers together in order to rewrite their policies but that they will release new policies at some point in the future. In the meantime it seems that paying by credit card is the best we can do for now ..

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Oh that is a very good point and something that I hadn't thought of. Let's hope that at some point soon new policies will come out. I understand why they've withheld everything for now, but its frustrating for those of us who want to get the ball rolling. I just hope Covid clears up soon so that we can all carry on and celebrate in the way we want! Credit cards does seem to be the only option.

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Yes, fingers crossed. It's very frustrating as venues / future dates are getting booked up so quickly due to all of the postponement from this year so I'm keen to get a date secured but it's not ideal to do so without insurance. Nice to know I'm not alone... let's hope the situation improves soon!

I imagine insurers stopped offering policies because of the volume of claims and because offering any more policies would have been loss making.

Couples will now want pandemic cover in their insurance policies and i imagine, given the current situation, that's going to cost quite a bit for what were, traditionally, fairly inexpensive insurance policies.

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Yes, I can imagine they have so many claims to go through and going forwards any insurance that does include cover for pandemic will be pretty pricey like you said!

Hi Gabrielle,

We got Covermywedding about a month ago. They were the only one available. They specifically exclude Covid-19, but not all pandemics. Our venue has a very good pandemic cancellation policy though.

I am also paying as many things as I can with my credit card. As long as you pay over £100 (even if you pay more by another means) you are covered for the full amount you have paid under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. So I paid £150 of my venue deposit by credit card, and the rest by bank transfer.

I strongly recommend finding and getting insurance. There are people out there offering it they're just harder to find as all the common ones are trying to rewrite their contracts so they don't have to pay out in the future.

Paying by card is fine, but claiming the money back via section 75, across multiple suppliers is an exceptionally long, drawn-out process. You'll often need to submit your contractual agreement for each supplier to the card company and if you don't have the money to rebook your wedding right away (i.e. you need it back so you can rebook elsewhere) it could mean delaying your wedding 6 months or more.

I have a flight refund claim that I started in May which is still ongoing.

Hi Chris and Charlotte. Thanks for that - some really helpful information

Just to clarify section 75.

Its the goods that have to be over £100 in value and not the amount you pay on the card. So if it costs £300 you can pay £20 on the card and still be covered for the full £300 even if you pay the other £280 via cash.

Watch out if you are using paypal because even though it may be connected to your credit card you are not covered by section 75 as it has involved a 3rd party.

You won't get insurance that covers Covid. Pay with a credit card. Venues are either going to make a mint next year with re-bookings plus new business, or there's a third wave, and a lot of them will go bust, and it's the only way you will get your money back.

I am in a similar position with not being able to find insurance. I am only needing to pay deposits at the moment so am paying them on credit card for some cover. Will review the insurance situation when it is clearer.

I’m in the same boat too!
It seems venues only want bank transfer! Help

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We've just found that our venue will only accept bank transfer too. We don't know what to do!

Honestly think the wedding insurance re a global pandemic is pretty worthless anyway. We are with John Lewis (was supposed to get married in June 2020) and whilst they cover a pandemic, they literally force you to change the date as 'government advice' does not count for their policy.

So despite the fact our bridal party are in the high risk shield list with NHS letters, they said tough! So I'm all a literally sceptical now about whether the insurance would even pay out.

We have moved our date to April 2021 but basically unless the government have a law that weddings are not permitted (like they do now) the best outcome is they will encourage you to move the date - we couldn't get money back for deposits to do something else.

After paying hundreds for wedding insurance, and being told recently that I'm not covered for anything - I'd say don't bother!

View quoted message Did you venue allow you to pay the deposit via credit card? We are having real issues with ours who won’t let us. They only accept BACS transfer.

View quoted message Yeah, venue was fine with credit card. They understand the issues with trying to get insurance at the moment. So accept that we want some protection that is offered by the credit card. It may be that they are charged for card transactions which is why they are wanting to be paid by BACS transfer.

I’m the same and my venue doesn’t accept credit card payments. That was one of the first things we asked but they changed their cancellation policy to suit Covid. Have you thought seeing if they would be more flexible in the contract. I’m hoping they’ll have insurance policies with Covid by Christmas but if not I’ll take policy with covermywedding anyway.

View quoted message Which venue are you? I feel like it’s a loose loose situation for couples!

I am also in this boat, I am glad I’m not alone. Our wedding is in France, we paid £6k deposit and they want another £10k in January. It seems an awful lot to pay without insurance. I keep feeling so worried that covid will never go away. Our wedding is sept 2022

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Surely that's an unreasonable sum given it is so far away?! Having read everyone's comments regarding insurance and the new measures, I don't think I'll be booking anything now Hopefully, a vaccine arrives by next year. I'll bet everything gets booked up straight away then though!

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Its one in Staffordshire. Its beautiful and we love it and they have the date we want but we're so worried about potentially loosing the money. But the longer we wait the more expensive weddings are as they go up each year. It's just frustrating they won't take a small payment on CC and the rest on BACS for us to feel like we have some safety.

Don’t bother with wedding insurance. I bought a policy in February before the pandemic really hit and the insurance company has found its way out of paying out. If the govt has any impact on the decision of the wedding going ahead, I’m not covered. Just a waste of money. Pay by CC or just wait until there’s a vaccine.

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I'm in the same boat! Found our dream venue but not sure what to do to offer some protection for our money! I never thought that the venue might not let us pay by credit card, so I am definitely going to check with them now before we confirm a booking with them!