Annual travel insurance demystified

Annual travel insurance is the perfect policy for frequent travellers and people travelling for business. Designed to cover a number of small trips within one year, backpackers and long term travellers can often be fooled by its misleading name. Australian annual travel insurance typically covers multiple trips of up to 31 days when the traveller is departing from within Australia. There are, however, some policies that cover up to 60 or even 90 day trips.

Also referred to as multi trip travel insurance, backpackers are advised to take caution when purchasing an annual policy online. Its name is easily misunderstood to mean year long cover; however, most long term travellers will find that this plan does not suit them at all. This type of cover is suited to people who plan to make several journeys from home throughout the year, whether they be holidays or business trips.

As with all other forms of travel insurance, annual cover is easily purchased online. Without the cost of travel agent commission it also works out to be cheaper for you! It is important to read the terms and conditions of your policy to make sure that the benefits will cater to your type of travel. Like any policy purchased online, make sure that it is underwritten by a reputable company.

When purchasing annual cover online check that the website you’re using has appropriate security. You will often find these details in the FAQ section of the site. Credit card details are not legally allowed to be stored without your permission so you won’t have to worry about them being viewed if you go through a legitimate site. Purchase over the phone is usually available; however, you’ll find that most will process your information over the website anyway.

Online annual travel insurance will generally cost somewhere between $250 and $500 depending on your individual policy and circumstances. Some likely cover inclusions are:

• Medical expenses (including hospital and emergency)
• Cancellation fees and lost deposits
• Travel and luggage delays
• Loss of income
• Personal liability
• Accidental death
• Theft
• Alternate travel expenses
• Permanent disability
• Some leisure activities and sports (e.g. skiing and golf)

Some policies won’t include adventure activities such as skydiving and scuba diving, but if you shop around enough there are some companies that will offer cover for these. Most policies will also offer family packages that aren’t much more of a price difference than individual packages.