We are considering travel insurance, annual Vs temp cover

UnsureAboutthis

I've been looking for travel ins as mentioned above.

So far, my understanding is that a single trip works out a lot cheaper if you go abroad once a year or even twice to possibly three times.

The annual cover works out if you are travelling more than 2/3 times.

Then there is the destination to take into account and you can have a worldwide cover or worldwide, minus a handful of countries. The single trip is just that and the price varies on if you are going

Of course, you medical history and that of your spouse is taken into account and that can make a big difference. If you are waiting for an initial hospital appointment or waiting diagnosis, most insurance firms won't cover you but there are several that will and apply their T&C's.

The amount of time you spend during one period of your trip away varies between insurance companies as do the total time spent abroad by some of the others. Then there is your age, which to impacts the duration you are abroad per trip

Any other advantages of taking an annual trip cover if you are going away more than two times a year other than the convenience of not having to pick up the phone or go on the internet?

(NB. The onus is on you to be accurate and complete with your medicals otherwise you may not get you bills paid or even your home taken away if you can't afford to pay your bills)

silvercar

You are locking in the price now, rather than taking out individual policies for each holiday when you book.

DullGreyGuy

Is it your understanding or have you dont quotes? 

Annual cover is rarely 2-3 times the price of a single trip, but it does depend on a number of factors and in some cases Annual can be cheaper than a Single Trip. For me a World Wide Annual exc USA commencing in a few weeks time is £80 whereas a week in Dubai in spring is £58.

So as long as I travel more than once a year there is a saving.

UnsureAboutthis

I've got quotes, 2 quotes, annual cover for worldwide exc usa/etc - one is close to 1600 and the other is close to 1400 - both applied a discount code I gave them of 20%. This only applies to the "base price."

I foolishly assumed that travel insurance was like taking out motorbike/car insurance, IE, you pay your 12-month premium and no increases until 12 months on. I was aware that cover may be withdrawn if you end up with a condition where they had to cancel your insurance and this becomes invalid if you travel against medical advice. I was not aware that on an annual cover, you had to pay extra premiums if you have a new medical condition, or were awaiting new hospital appointment/medical investigation, waiting for a diagnosis.  Sadly, many foolishly believe that an annual cover means you are covered like your motorbike/car etc but you are not.

As we have decided to travel to an EU country/France tomorrow, we will be taking single cover. Next year, it may be Spain or Turkey, and possibly Spain later in the year. The single trip covers for us will be cheaper with both insurers we got quotes from.

I'm awaiting a new hospital appointment in early December and my wife is also waiting for one towards the end of December.

In conclusion based on my personal experience, depending on your age/medicals and the country/s you will be visiting in the next 12 months, other than the convenience of a 12-month cover, it is cheaper in most cases for up to three single trips or the same and if you don't go on holiday, then you save a lot on the 12-month price. Yes, people do take out 12-month travel insurance but circumstances change and they may only do one trip.

I'm glad I actually rang the insurance companies and spoke to their reps as this has resulted in us making a more informative decision.

basketcase

Does the insurance also cover you for any holidays in the UK too?

NoodleDoodleMan

"I've got quotes, 2 quotes, annual cover for worldwide exc usa/etc - one is close to 1600 and the other is close to 1400 - both applied a discount code I gave them of 20%. This only applies to the "base price."

May I ask if you have medical conditions that affect this price quote ?

We have joint annual worldwide travel cover as part of a packaged account with the Co-op Bank - £15 per month.

Both of us have relatively(ish) minor medical conditions - these were accepted by AXA without an extra premium - and the policy runs to age 80.

https://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/products/bank-accounts/packaged-bank-account/

Nationwide offer a similar deal, recently revised, now with Aviva, gone up from £13 per month to £18. They quoted an extra £90 annually to include our disclosed medical conditions. However, on the plus side they have dropped the age limit completely, which I believe may be unique amongst travel insurers.  

 https://www.nationwide.co.uk/current-accounts/flexplus/travel-insurance/

There should be 'phone numbers to call these respective insurance companies direct so you can discuss cover available before opting for either of these accounts.

There are other packaged bank accounts offering travel insurance, however I'm not up to speed on details.

cw8825

If travelling more than once I would always go for the annual 

UnsureAboutthis

NoodleDoodleMan said:

"I've got quotes, 2 quotes, annual cover for worldwide exc usa/etc - one is close to 1600 and the other is close to 1400 - both applied a discount code I gave them of 20%. This only applies to the "base price."

May I ask if you have medical conditions that affect this price quote ?

We have joint annual worldwide travel cover as part of a packaged account with the Co-op Bank - £15 per month.

Both of us have relatively(ish) minor medical conditions - these were accepted by AXA without an extra premium - and the policy runs to age 80.

https://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/products/bank-accounts/packaged-bank-account/

Nationwide offer a similar deal, recently revised, now with Aviva, gone up from £13 per month to £18. They quoted an extra £90 annually to include our disclosed medical conditions. However, on the plus side they have dropped the age limit completely, which I believe may be unique amongst travel insurers.  

 https://www.nationwide.co.uk/current-accounts/flexplus/travel-insurance/

There should be 'phone numbers to call these respective insurance companies direct so you can discuss cover available before opting for either of these accounts.

There are other packaged bank accounts offering travel insurance, however I'm not up to speed on details.

Thank you for trying to help.
Yes, as per my post, we have medicals/conditions. We are not diabetic, don't have hear conditions or breaking problems but have various other conditions. We don't use walking aids etc, we are both aged 60+ and as per the previous post, my other half is waiting for a new appointment, she is on the waiting list and has been on the waiting list for a couple of months and we can't see the appointment coming until Feb 2025 when we spoke to the hospital. We are both on statins as a "preventative." I've has cancer in the past and they stopped monitoring me after 5 years ago this was about 3 years ago.
From what they said, it's our age, the medicals and waiting for appointments, new ones ie "undiagnosed."

Most insurance companies won't insure you if you are waiting "diagnosis." Therefore, we are limited.
Last year we went to Germany for 5 nights and the insurance for the singly trip cover was IIRC, over  200 and possibly just shy of 250.

UnsureAboutthis

basketcase said:

Does the insurance also cover you for any holidays in the UK too?

basketcase said:

Does the insurance also cover you for any holidays in the UK too?

Great question and one I did not ask but an important one. As we have.  I'm guess most worldwide travel insurance do cover that as it is "worldwide."  The worldwide cover that excludes certain destinations is always the US and Canada and the  Caribbean.  Therefore, I'm guess the "5 star defacto rated" ones do but if I was worried about that, I'd ask.

We also never book any trip before getting flights/etc booked.

TBH, we were staggered by the prices and most of all the annual cover and you are expected to pay more premiums if you have new conditions. A new medical condition could easily result in the insurance being withdrawn or the amount is so great that you can't afford it.

For us, based on our age/medicals/waiting appointment and the places we are planning on going (we won't go to the US as we've been there about ten times) we are better off with a single trip cover,

NB: Different insurance companies have different criteria about the number of days you can spend away on a single trip in your annual travel insurance and the maximum number of days you can go away. IIRC, one of the companies had a lim of about 6 months of total holidays in a one-year period of insurance, the other I can't recall. Their single-trip maximum stay cover also varied from about 31 days to 35 days.

Edit. FYI, the quotes were for their top-rated travel insurance. One had a 15 million medical cover the other was "unlimited" but both polices were for worldwide excluding US/etc/etc. The bagged and cancellation cover varied as well per person. The excess was around the 130/150 mark.

michele-p

Travel insurance premium quotes can vary hugely, add in upcoming hospital appointments or test results and they can shoot right up. I go skiing each January, and found an annual policy with Staysure that includes free winter cover, and comes out cheaper than a stand-alone single-trip ski policy (it has the past 2 years anyway). It also includes UK trips over 2 nights in booked accommodation over 2 nights too.

2 years ago my husband was diagnosed with an illness which had huge effects on travel insurance and needs to be declared. We looked at prices in Feb this year as we hoped to travel to the US, so needed worldwide. We managed to get a great policy using Insurancewith.com as a couple, annual, worldwide for only £300. We were amazed. I know it's OK as it paid out when I lost my prescription glasses on said holiday. Just check the personal item limit, as I found we were limited to £200 each. Worth a quote.

FYI - Spain is sometimes excluded if you buy a "Europe" policy, check the wording, againfound this out as the last ski trip was in Spain!

soolin

We have annual insurance 2 persons both over 60 one will be 70 before end of the policy. Both of us Declared chronic conditions and I’m awaiting a non urgent test for a new issue that apparently appeared on my medical notes after a car accident but which they failed to tell me about. We only have Europe and that cost us £118. 

Phoned them when OH was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year (no symptoms) and they said we wouldn’t be covered for any issue arising from that cancer until 3 months after a complete removal op. We travelled 6 weeks to the day after OH came out of hospital knowing we didn’t have medical cover for that particular issue . We’ve just reached the 3 month mark, Oh has been told he is under observation for 5 years but tests show no discernible traces of cancer remaining. Phoned insurance company to update as was told we had to pay an additional premium for rest of the policy (approx 6 months) of £64 but we were then covered in full again. 

My main gripe with it all is that we are warned to declare anything, yet the first time I called to update the CS rep kept saying she’d tick this box or that box as it was the nearest box she could find. However what she was ticking was not the condition at all and we went round in circles with her saying it was going to the underwriters anyway so it was fine, and me saying it was wrong. I ended up calling back and speaking to someone else who seemed happy to note down the condition manually rather than force it into boxes. Although when I phoned last week to give the 3 month clear notice they still had 2 conditions noted that were impossible after the op.