Are you a globetrotter or an occasional traveller? Read on to customise your single- or multi-trip travel insurances to serve your personal needs.
Everybody loves to travel; it is an established fact. Be it a business trip or a short stay across the country or a longer holiday once or twice a year. No matter what you as a traveller prefer, a travel insurance should be your topmost priority on your travel checklist! For this, there are different types of insurance plans available. Single and multiple trip insurance is among them.
What Are Single Trip Insurance Plans?
As the name suggests, this is a plan suited for people who travel less frequently. Considering you have one planned holiday, be it international or domestic, single trip travel insurance should suffice your needs. Here’s how it works:
- This travel insurance covers you for just one roundtrip. So, once you are back to your hometown, the insurance plan is void.
- However, since it is a one-time travel insurance plan, risks are lower for the insurance company. Hence, you can get better premium options and a broader coverage.
- This plan provides you with a cover for a period of around 180 days (solely depending on the insurer).
What Are Multiple Trips Travel Insurance Plans?
Contrary to the single-trip plan, multiple trips insurance gives you the advantage of making anything between 2 – 60 annual trips. However, considering you make multiple trips, the costs could go higher. So, here are some pointers on choosing multiple trip travel insurance plans:
- One can consider this only if they are a frequent traveller. And in fact, if you work out the math, multiple trips insurance works out to be cheaper than 2 – 3 single-trip plans. Again, making a claim on multiple trips has its restrictions. Hence you get lower premiums.
- With multiple trips insurance, you can get better deals for the entire family. Special discounts and benefits are available, which give broader coverage as well.
- Corporate plans are available in multiple trip travel insurance. Special perks are available for such travellers.
- There is less of a hassle and paperwork. You don’t have to keep applying for travel insurance every time. You can just take one multiple trips policy a year and you are sorted.
In fact, it is said that one claim in multiple trips insurance covers your premium. Suppose you missed a flight, your basic airfare is covered under travel insurance.
If you’re planning just one or two trips a year or if you travel more frequently, travel insurance is a must; either a single trip or multiple trip insurance will do.
Single Trip Insurance versus Multiple Trip Insurance
What should I opt for?
To help you choose feasibly, here’s a checklist you can use to evaluate and decide on the right travel plan.
Duration of coverage
Multiple trips travel insurance is restricted on the duration of coverage. With most plans, you cannot stay in a single location for more than 35 – 70 days. Single trip plans usually don’t have such restrictions.
For people with geographically dispersed families
If you have your family staying around different parts of the country or the world, multiple trips travel insurance makes more sense. In case any vagaries take place, you can immediately take off. There’s no need to worry about insurance paperwork or hassles as you are already covered for an entire year.
But, with single trip insurance, you must re-apply. Though the process is quick, it does work out to be costly.
Check coverage type
For both types of insurance, you must ensure that medical emergencies are covered. Both forms of travel insurance should have provision for travel delay or trip cancellation. This applies to family emergencies, medical health issues, etc.
As a rule of thumb, always read the fine print when buying travel insurance. Sometimes it is not the destination but the journey that matters, and to make sure that you don’t have financial hiccups, travel insurance is always advised.