Money expert Martin Lewis has issued a warning to anyone booking a holiday right now.

January is a peak month for holiday bookings, with families turning their attention to the year ahead and the hopes of some sunshine to banish the winter blues in a drab and depressing month.

That’s why Martin Lewis, on his latest podcast instalment, has urged would-be holidaymakers to make sure they also book one extra thing at the same time they secure their dream trip away, or it could end up costing you.

Speaking on the latest episode of The Martin Lewis Podcast from Thursday, January 22, Martin said: “Crucial warning if you’ve booked or are booking a holiday abroad, a hugely important warning for you.

“Make sure you get your travel insurance ASAB; as soon as you book.

“And if you’ve already booked, that means just do it now. Just get it as quickly as possible.

“Because half the point of travel insurance is covering you for things that may happen before you go that stop you going. And if you leave it to the last minute to get your travel insurance, and something happens, well, you won’t be covered.

“So what does having it in place ASAB mean?

“Well if it’s a single trip policy it’s really easy. Let’s say you’re going away the 1st of August to the 8th of August, you get a single trip policy now for the 1st of August to the 8th of August, you get cover for those dates. You pay for it now. You’ve got your policy in place.

“If it’s an annual policy that covers all your trips away in a year, you want to always have a live annual policy.

“So if you don’t have an annual policy, you get one now but you need to have the start date being today, you don’t leave it til the 1st of August and try and book it in advance.

“If you already have a policy, and that is in place until the end of your holiday, you’re fine. But if your current annual policy stops before your holiday date, let’s say, it stops in April, and you’re going on holiday in August, you will want to get a new policy that starts the day after your old policy ends.

“So you have continuous cover going all the way through. Now you can generally only get annual policies up to 90 days in advance, so if something were to happen now for a holiday in August for cover that ends in April, most, not all, annual travel policies will cover you even though the holiday is after their end date if the incident that stops you going happens now. But as soon as you can, get cover that butts up against it.”