When Is It Ideal to Buy Annual Travel Insurance?

As the name suggests, an annual travel insurance policy is valid for a duration of 365 days or one year. Typically, an annual travel insurance policy secures all the trips undertaken by the insured traveller within a period of one year. However, the duration of each trip is limited to 30 days, 45 days or 60 days, depending on the insurance provider.

An annual travel insurance policy provides a wide range of coverage to its holders. If you get travel insurance with annual validity, you will be covered for medical expenses, baggage insurance, personal liability, trip cancellations, personal accident and passport loss amongst other covers.

Who Should Buy Annual Travel Insurance

An Annual Travel Insurance policy is tailor-made for people who travel frequently or multiple times in a year. While single travel insurance covers the insured for a single trip only, an annual travel insurance policy covers him for all the trips undertaken in a year through one single policy. Not only it is more economical but also saves the trouble of buying a new travel insurance policy before the start of each trip.

But is it really beneficial to buy annual travel insurance? How does a person decide if he needs single trip travel insurance or annual travel insurance for his trip? In a bid to answer these questions for you, here is a list of different kinds of travellers for whom buying an annual travel insurance policy is worth every penny:

Business Travellers

Annual travel insurance is perfect for business travellers or people who travel often to different places due to work. Such people have to keep travelling frequently in order to fulfil their work commitments. If the company for which the traveller is working does not offer travel insurance for each of his trips, he should buy an annual travel insurance policy. It will be more economical than buying travel insurance for each trip and also come with a lot of work-friendly benefits such as trip cancellation.

Indians & Expats with Families Staying Abroad

Indian citizens and expats, whose families are staying in another country, should opt for an annual travel insurance policy. Such people keep travelling to their families whenever they find a chance, especially during vacations and festivals. Since they tend to travel for longer durations, an annual travel insurance policy turns out to be more economical for them. They just have to renew their policy once a year. Moreover, they can opt for coverage that they need in the country where his family is staying. For instance, people travelling to the US can opt for high medical cover as healthcare services are expensive there.

Travel Bloggers

Travel bloggers should also opt for annual travel insurance for their frequent trips. Such bloggers keep travelling throughout the year and explore less popular places. As a result, annual travel insurance turns out to be more economical for them than buying a single trip policy ahead of each trip. However, travel bloggers should focus on getting higher coverage on the loss of personal belongings as they usually carry expensive clothes and photography gears. Moreover, they should also opt for higher coverage on flight delays and missed connection flights. This is because they usually stay in expensive hotels and resorts and any delay in the trip can lead to huge losses for them.

Who Should Not Buy Annual Travel Insurance?

An annual travel insurance policy does not benefit every kind of traveller. Following is a list of travellers who should not buy annual travel insurance in order to avoid suffering a loss:

• Long weekend Travellers: People who go for a trip every time a long weekend comes should opt for an annual travel insurance policy. This is because they won’t be travelling far for a long weekend and thus, can get a single trip travel insurance policy for very low prices. As a result, the cost of annual travel insurance will turn out to be more expensive than single trip insurance.
• Long-Term Travellers: People who plan to travel for more a duration of more than 60 days should not buy an annual travel insurance policy. The permitted duration of each trip under this policy cannot be more than 60 days. The traveller would have to get back to India after its completion and get it renewed. However, single trip travel insurance offers coverage for longer trip duration and is also more economical.

How to Buy Annual Travel Insurance?

The procedure to buy international travel insurance for frequent flyers is very simple and customer-friendly. A traveller can purchase annual travel insurance both online and offline. In case the traveller wants to buy this kind of policy offline, he/ she can contact a nearby branch of the insurance company or meet one of its agents. He/ she will be guided through the entire process of buying an annual travel insurance policy.

On the other hand, all those people who want to buy annual travel insurance online will have to follow the steps given below:

• Go to the official website of the insurance company from whom you want to buy the policy. Or you can visit the website of an insurance aggregator such as Policybazaar to compare various plans offered by different insurance companies
• Select the plan that best suits your travel needs
• Fill in the application form with your personal and travel details. This may include travel destination, travel dates, number of travellers and their age
• Pay the insurance premium amount online via debit cards, credit cards and internet banking
• Your policy document will be mailed to you

Annual Travel Insurance is worth every rupee if purchased by the right kind of traveller. Thus, every travel blogger, business traveller and people with family living overseas should buy this annual travel insurance policy to secure his trip.