Annual travel insurance policies offer savings

Britons who took more than one holiday in 2012 could have collectively saved themselves an estimated £195 million had they purchased one annual travel insurance policy instead of multiple single trip policies, according to research from Sainsbury's Bank Travel Insurance.

Overall, 29% of British adults, equivalent to 13.6 million people, took two or more overseas holidays last year, yet only one in three of them  purchased an annual policy.
 
The average cost of an annual multi-trip policy in the UK is £101.64, just 1.5 times the cost of the average single trip policy at £67.97. This means that someone going on two overseas holidays could save themselves £34.30 by purchasing an annual multi trip policy instead of two individual single trip policies. Someone taking three overseas holidays a year could save themselves £102.27 and someone taking four holidays could save £170.24 across the year.
 
Scott Gorman of Sainsbury's Bank Travel Insurance commented: "We Brits love our holidays but in a time when we're all looking to make our money go further, it's concerning that many holidaymakers haven't realised the significant cost savings they could be making by purchasing one annual multi trip policy instead of multiple single trip policies. Our figures suggest that close to 0.75 million people took three or more overseas holidays last year and they could have saved more than a hundred pounds each.
 
"Our customers value their holidays and we want to ensure that they make their money go further.  An annual policy could be significantly cheaper for people making just two trips abroad, so we would seriously recommend looking into the cost of an annual policy before travelling."
 
Of those people who went on two or more overseas holidays in 2012, one in five (21%) bought single trip policies for each trip, 6% bought single trip cover for some of their trips but were not covered for all of them, but most worryingly one in 10 (9%) weren't covered by travel insurance for any of their foreign travels.
 
Scott Gorman continued: "There are lots of ways you can cut the cost of your holiday, but neglecting to buy adequate travel insurance could be a bad choice and could prove expensive in the long run. We recommend that holidaymakers consider their particular needs, shop for the best cover for them at the best value."