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Annual multi-trip travel insurance can cover you for every trip you take within the year, all in one insurance policy. It can be simpler, and cheaper – but there are limitations (such as the length of the trip). It can often be worth getting single trip insurance for each trip.
Planning a few holidays this year? Annual multi-trip travel insurance could be a good idea to save money. It’s travel insurance that covers you for the whole year, on all your trips. Sounds pretty great right? But there’s a bit more to it, which we’ll cover below.
The alternative and most common insurance is single trip travel insurance, which covers you for just one trip – if you hadn’t already guessed!
Nuts About Money tip: if you’re paying a monthly fee for your bank account, you might already have travel insurance from them, and this can be annual multi-trip insurance, with worldwide cover – so it’s worth checking!
Annual multi-trip insurance can be a good option for multiple trips and holidays for 2 main reasons:
Most things come down to money, don’t they? And insurance is no different. Booking cover for the whole year and multiple holidays can work out cheaper than booking single trip insurance every time.
However, it does depend on how many trips you actually take – the more trips you take, your cost of insurance per trip is reduced. If you’re not planning many trips, it’s probably not worth it – just get single trip cover for each trip.
If you’re not quite sure what travel insurance covers, here’s a quick run through of the essentials, and additional cover we recommend too.
Here’s the essential cover that every annual insurance policy should cover:
Here’s what we recommend you include as extras in your annual cover (if not provided already):
And if you’re doing specific activities on your trip, you’ll need extra cover for:
If you want a more detailed view, here’s our guide to what travel insurance covers and what travel insurance does NOT cover.
Find the best deal for you in no time with Confused.com.
Although it seems quite simple, travel insurance for all your trips, for the whole year, there are quite a few details!
The first thing to be aware of is that it doesn’t cover you everywhere across the world as standard, you’ll need to decide beforehand which area you’d like the insurance to cover. Your options are:
And you guessed it, worldwide is quite a bit more expensive than just the UK.
You’ll also be restricted by how long you can take on each trip – it’s not indefinite, normally it’s up to 31 days, but some insurance providers offer up to 60 days. Which means you’ll have to return home before you jet off on another trip.
And, you can only go away for a limited time in total per year, which is typically around 183 days.
If you’re going to be away for a very long time in one go, or the whole year, you’ll instead want to look at long stay travel insurance (sometimes called backpacker insurance) – this covers you for a long holiday, all the way up to 365 days (and sometimes even longer).
It’s also not intended for older people – and most policies won’t cover you if you’re older than 75 years old, and some are as low as 66. And between 66 and 75, you’ll normally only be covered for up to a maximum of 21 days per trip.
Normally, winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding, won’t be covered. Or, anything like extreme sports, such as bungee jumping. You can get this, but you’ll need to add it on as extra cover.
Getting an annual travel insurance policy can also mean you’re covered in the UK for as many holidays as you like throughout the year – which is great news! However, there are some limitations, for instance, you’re not covered when you’re at home, or anywhere surrounding your home (your local area) – it needs to be an actual trip away.
If you have a pre-existing medical condition, you’ll need to share it with the travel insurance provider beforehand – it’s always best to be honest, otherwise, when it comes to actually needing the insurance, the insurance company might not pay out.
Medical treatment for pre-existing medical conditions aren’t normally covered as standard on annual insurance, you’ll need to get this added on.
With all types of travel insurance, if you want to make a claim, which is asking the travel insurance provider to pay out if you’ve had an accident, you’ll have to pay some money yourself too, which is called an excess.
It’s put in place to stop fraud and to stop people claiming low amounts.
With travel insurance, the excess is normally £150-200, but this can change per policy, and you can normally change this yourself, either up or down – which will increase how much you pay for your insurance (the premium). If you have a higher excess, the premium is normally lower, and vice versa too.
It can be a hard decision to make, but let’s compare your two options.
Single trip insurance is typically cheaper overall, and can cover a wider range of insurance options, which you can set up just for your trip (e.g. skiing).
Annual multi-trip cover is more expensive overall, however, depending on how many trips you take, it can work cheaper overall.
Having said that, if all the trips are different, for instance, a short trip to France, and then a long-stay trip to Australia, and skiing in Canada, you’ll need annual cover for everything (e.g. winter sports and worldwide cover), which can mean you’re paying over the odds for your short trip to France.
If you haven't planned all your trips and holidays for the whole year, it could work out cheaper to get single trip insurance each time – rather than getting the full works, and not actually need it.
Nuts About Money tip: it’s always worth getting a quote for the level of cover you’d ideally like – you might find the prices are great value. You can get a quick quote with Confused.com¹.
Although travel can seem pretty complicated, especially multi-trip insurance, the good news about all travel insurance is that it’s super easy to get.
First, you’ll need to determine the level of cover you’ll need, so is it worldwide cover, or just Europe? Winter sports or chilling on a beach? You don’t need to know everything in detail, just a good idea of the trips you’re heading on.
After that, head over to a travel insurance comparison site, like Confused.com¹ (we’ve listed all the best below). Once there, answer a few questions and they’ll head off and find all the best deals for you – it only takes around 10 minutes.
If you’re still not sure if you annual multi-trip insurance or single trip insurance is right for you, have a look at the quotes for both – you’ll then be able to compare the prices.
Then from the shortlist, pick the one you’d prefer (normally the cheapest one that has all the right cover), next, click through to the insurance company’s website – your details should all be pre-filled, have a check over to make sure everything is correct, and then simply buy the insurance.
And that’s it. You’ll normally be covered immediately, and the annual multi-trip policy (or single trip policy) documents should be sent to you via email, and sometimes an online account will be created for you with everything saved. We recommend printing them off if you can, or save them to your phone – so they’re easily accessible if you ever need them.
If you’d like a bit more information, here’s our guide on how to get travel insurance.
This normally has the cheapest travel insurance quote for most people.
Confused.com will compare up to 40 travel insurance companies (and all the largest companies).
They'll cover all the main types of insurance (e.g. pre-existing medical conditions, winter sports etc).
You can get a quote in just a few minutes too.
comparethemarket.com will search 42 travel insurance companies to find you the right deal.
They'll cover all the main types of insurance (e.g. pre-existing medical conditions, winter sports etc.)
MoneySuperMarket compares 35 travel insurance companies to find a great deal for you.
They'll cover all the main types of insurance (e.g. pre-existing medical conditions, winter sports etc.)
Find the best deal for you in no time with Confused.com.
If you have an accident or incident while on your trip, you’ll want to make a claim – and this is simpler than you might think.
Hopefully you’ve got all the insurance documents with you, or saved to your phone. Simply call the number, and you’ll be connected with the insurance company who will guide you through everything you need to do, whatever the incident – they’ve done it all before.
If you want to claim when you get home, that’s not a problem either, but you’ll need to get in touch with the insurance company as soon as you can, as there’s normally a time limit.
We hope that’s made annual multi-trip travel insurance a bit easier to understand.
It’s a great idea to get it if you are going on multiple trips or multiple holidays per year, especially if they’re all similar, and require the same level of cover. If they’re all different, you might be better off with single trip travel insurance (specific insurance for each trip).
Remember, there are some limitations for annual travel insurance, for instance, you can’t be away for the whole year (normally less than 183 days per year), and each trip can normally only be under 31 days.
You’ll also need extra cover for things like skiing – which can mean single trip insurance works out as a better option if you’re only heading off for one ski trip.
It’s worth comparing insurance deals for both annual multi-trip and single trip insurance to see which works out as the best value for you and your personal circumstances. It’s easy to do, and can only take around 10 minutes – simply head over to Confused.com¹ to get started.
And that’s it. All that’s left to do is enjoy the multiple trips! We’re super jealous.
Find the best deal for you in no time with Confused.com.
Find the best deal for you in no time with Confused.com.
Edward Savage is a leading expert on money, with a background of 8 years working in financial services in London, has a business, accounting and finance degree, runs an investing community, and teaches people about money. He writes about all aspects of personal finance, including pensions, investing, mortgages and insurance.
This article was written, reviewed and fact checked by the expert team at Nuts About Money. You’re in safe hands. Learn more.
We're experts in all things insurance, with many years of combined experience writing and talking about the range of insurance cover available. Some of our team were top financial advisors. We understand the ins and outs of insurance, how to communicate insurance in an easy to understand way (we hope you agree), and of course, how to get the best insurance deal for you.
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Find the best deal for you in no time with Confused.com.
