Guide
The cooling-off period: fourteen days, three conditions
By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026
What the window is and what it refunds
The cooling-off period exists so that buying insurance is not irreversible the moment it is paid for. On the plans we arrange it runs for fourteen days from purchase. Cancel inside it and you receive a full refund of premiums less any applicable administration charge — the insurer's FAQ describes it as a full refund; the policy wording adds the administration-charge qualifier, and the wording is the contract.
Three conditions attach. The request must arrive inside the fourteen days. It must come on the insurer's completed Cancellation Form, not an email saying "please cancel". And no claim may have been made or attempted — a policy that has been used is not cooled off, it is cancelled under the ordinary terms.
The visa-timing trap
Cover on the plans we arrange starts only once payment is received and verified, and consulates want the certificate in the file at application — so the policy is usually bought weeks before the visa decision. The fourteen days can therefore run out while the application is still pending. If the visa is refused after day fourteen, the ordinary cancellation terms apply, not the cooling-off refund; our refusal guide covers what to do next, and this is a question to ask on the quote call before you buy, not after.
The other timing point is the start date. A policy bought early to satisfy a consulate is a policy whose twelve-month period of cover is already running; ask the specialist how the commencement date is set against your travel plans so that the certificate satisfies the file without the cover clock starting further ahead of your move than it needs to.
60-second check
Not sure the policy you have meets your destination's written rule? Run it through the policy check now, before you build the rest of the file around it.
Check my policyWhat cancelling does to the pre-existing clock
One consequence is easy to miss. Your date of entry — the day cover began — is the date the pre-existing-condition exclusion is measured against, and on the plans we arrange a break in cover resets it and reapplies the exclusions. Cooling off a policy and buying again later is a fresh date of entry, not a continuation; anything diagnosed in between is on the wrong side of the line for the new policy.
That is not a reason to keep a policy you do not want. It is a reason to decide inside the fourteen days rather than drift past them, and to treat the quote call as the place to settle the questions — level, start date, territory — that would otherwise be settled by cancelling.