Annual insurance cheaper than single policy?

kandy91

Booked up to travel to the dominican republic for 2 weeks at the end of the year (2 adults - 1 child - no pre-existing health conditions). Single policy quotes are £80 odd for the 3 of us, but annual insurance quotes are £50 odd?  Everything I've read online suggests that single policies are cheaper and you should only consider annual when you will be taking multiple trips abroad, which we won't. I've double checked the cover of each policy aswell as the excess amounts, and they are pretty much the same. I also checked that the dominican republic is definitely covered in the annual. 

Is there something that I'm missing or overlooking?

Thanks

bagand96

Probably a quirk of their risk assessment on the single policy where you name the Dominican Republic or the worldwide annual where a country isn't named at all.

If you buy the annual remember you'll need the start date to be today so you're covered for cancellation etc 

Veteransaver

£50 seems quite cheap for 3 people on an annual policy. Are you sure it covered outside EU?

DullGreyGuy

Are you looking at a Staysure Gold Policy for both Single and Annual or a Insure&Go Red Single trip -v- Axa Prestige Annual trip (names made up for illustration)?

You'd expect single trip to be cheaper than annual but often not by much and if you are including things like N.America/Caribbean in both the difference is likely to be smaller.

Obviously if its different products then there are different terms involved even if the headline limits are the same which could easily switch the positioning.

Remember, someone buying a Single Trip to the US/Caribbean are going to that high cost jurisdiction. I buy annual policy including the US because work can ask me to go there tomorrow but I can also go a year without ever going to the region. Whilst its never happened for me, some people buy annual travel and dont travel at all in the year.

You then have to consider what happens at the end of the policy. With single trip thats it, the insurer has to pay marketing budgets and commissions to try and win your business again the next time you travel, you may or may not remember who even your last insurer was to give them a favourable view. With Annual policy at the end it will auto-renew if you dont tell them otherwise giving them a second years premium but minimal cost of sales this time. With better chances of future revenue they can factor that in the pricing and spread the acquisition costs over a period of time. 

Doshwaster

Normally you need 2-3 holidays for an annual policy to be cheaper but there are lots of quirks in the algorithms and models used by insurance companies. Perhaps they think that people who book annual policies are more savvy travellers so are less of a risk than those who go abroad once a year?

Some examples here: https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/annual-travel-insurance-vs-single-trip-which-will-save-you-money-a88Hp6A7TQPp

I always get an annual policy as it means you can book last minute trips and not have to worry about remembering to get insurance. 

michele-p

For my ski trip the last 2 years its been cheaper to get an annual policy with Statsure, which has wintersports thrown in free. I just had Europe policy though