If you are an occasional traveler you ll probably buy your insurance from the travel agent. But if you travel more than twice a year, it is much more cost effective to have one insurance lasting all year round, than buying one every time you travel. Think ahead, plan ahead. Annual travel insurance easily pays for itself with just a couple of trips. But not all insurances are worth the same and as always cheapest is not necessarily the best. More on this later. Annual travel insurance is not compulsory but it gives you the peace of mind case of illness and loss or damage to property and many other events. Where is the best place to buy annual travel insurance? 1. Your bank is probably the first place you ll try. Banks have in recent times become highly competitive and in order to retain your business, may offer better rates. For example my bank has upgraded my checking account to a premium account and for that I pay 20 per month. As a result I get several privileges including free, worldwide, comprehensive travel insurance. But here is the best part... I get all this free travel insurance not just for myself but also for any member of my family traveling with me including my parents and siblings. I said free because I am already getting other benefits which are worth a lot more than 20 per month if I were to buy them individually. I also save a lot of time as I never have to look around for insurance. So don t ignore your bank. 2. Credit card companies also offer similar insurances, with some added advantages. In case of theft or loss of your credit card, they will supply you with an emergency one, often within a few hours. In addition to travel insurance offers, there is another advantage in checking your credit card company s terms. If you book your travel using your credit card, pretty much all card companies give excellent cover against many of the things that can go wrong. Some credit card companies also have specialist travel departments which not only give you travel discounts but also give you even better protection, i.e. better travel insurance and at a much lower cost. But note that all insurance offers exclude you making a claims, for the same item, to multiple sources even if you do have multiple insurance cover. For example, let s say you have bought travel insurance separately and you have bought your travel ticket using your credit card. If your luggage is lost, you can almost certainly make a claim to either of the two sources but not to both at the same time. The reason is that the insurance companies have suffered massive fraud in recent years. Allowing multiple claims simply encourages fraudsters to have multiple insurances and make multiple false claims. For example, they can take an already damaged suitcase on a long journey knowing that it will fall apart. They can then claim damage and loss of property from multiple insurers.
