Annual Travel Insurance

If you take several trips on an annual basis, it might be smart to purchase an annual trip travel  insurance policy, made specifically for frequent travelers. Travel insurance companies design these plans to cover you throughout the year, regardless of how many trips you take.

This means that you can take a trip every month of the year, and have a single annual travel insurance policy cover you (although there are usually limits on the total number of days traveling, or the length of any individual trip, depending on the policy certificate).

Many of these plans are made for frequent business travelers that include special “business-related” coverage, but there are several focused on non-business, “everyday” travelers.You can save both time and money if you purchase one plan for your entire year of travels.

Annual travel insurance is primarily for medical purposes, but many plans provide additional benefits
Most people buy an annual plan for coverage like medical emergencies, emergency evacuations, interrupted trips, and emergency assistance. Many companies, however, offer additional benefits that make buying an annual plan a great choice for all of your year’s trips.

Annual plans are generally divided into two categories; Multi-Trip Travel Medical plans or Annual Trip Insurance plans. The multi-trip travel medical plans focus on medical emergencies/evacuations and similar coverage.

Annual trip insurance plans will provide coverage for trip cancellation/interruption, baggage, trip delays, flight accidents, and even rental car damage as with the Annual Travel Protection plan from Access America (now known as Allianz Travel Insurance). Other benefits of an annual trip insurance policy include the “services”, such as concierge, 24/7 assistance, and even entertainment suggestions.

For example: Travelex Travel Insurance offers an annual travel insurance plan called Annual Multi-Trip, and it includes their Worldwide Assistance & Concierge service.

Since every trip has varying non-refundable pre-paid costs (this is the amount of trip cancellation that you would buy), annual trip insurance plans usually have a set amount. For example: you might have an annual plan with a $1,000 per year limit on trip cancellation coverage.

Since there is a trip cancellation component, as well as some additional coverages, annual trip insurance is usually more expensive, but can still be had for a few hundred dollars a year.

Annual travel insurance is not just for international travelers
Many travelers link annual plans are just for jet-set international travelers, but this is not always true. A multi-trip travel medical plan is usually used for international travelers who are not covered by their home country health insurance. If you are going overseas, you need to make sure you have medical coverage, and most health insurance providers do no cover you outside your home country. This is why you would need travel medical insurance.

A domestic traveler, however, should have health insurance that follows them around their home country. For this type of traveler, an annual trip travel insurance policy would be a good choice to provide the additional benefits. It would also provide secondary medical coverage in the event your personal health insurance did not provide enough.

Travelers who take several trips in their home country would benefit from an annual trip insurance plan in several ways. Many companies, such as Access America Travel Insurance (now known as Allianz Travel Insurance), offer plans like Annual Travel Protection that are very comprehensive:

• Trip Cancellation
• Trip Interruption
• Baggage Coverage
• Baggage Delay Coverage
• Travel/Trip Delay Coverage
• Rental Car Damage (this alone could be worth it!)
• Emergency Assistance….and more

Consider annual trip travel insurance if you travel more than 3-4 times per year
How many trips make it worthwhile to purchase an annual plan? It depends on the traveler, but if you travel 3+ times a year and purchase a policy each time, it’s worth getting a quote for an annual policy. Again, there are difference between a single-trip policy and an annual policy, but it might be the right choice for you.