Best Annual Travel Insurance Plans: AIG Travel Guard vs Allianz vs Seven Corners vs GeoBlue & More
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Most people consider getting trip insurance for a single vacation. But did you know that several major insurance companies provide annual trip insurance plans? These plans can cover you, a spouse, and even your entire family if you want to insure multiple trips during the year — for huge savings compared to insuring each trip separately.
How does annual trip insurance work? Does it differ from traditional per-trip insurance? And which providers are your best options? Our experts have delved into all of these questions and more to help you decide if an annual policy is best for your needs.
Article Overview
- Annual Trip Insurance Limitations
- Who Should Consider Annual Trip Insurance?
- Best Annual Trip Insurance
- What Are My Other Options?
- Looking For Per-Trip Travel Insurance?
Annual Travel Insurance Limitations
Although purchasing annual travel insurance can be a big money saver, you should be aware of one significant difference. Many annual policies don’t cover trip cancellation coverage. In contrast, per-trip travel insurance policies almost always include trip cancellation benefits. However, we’ve found a few annual plans that do include this clause.
You also need to be aware that yearly policies typically have trip-length limits, meaning they limit the number of consecutive days in one trip that they’ll cover (this isn’t an issue with per-trip policies). These trip-length limits vary by policy, ranging anywhere from 30 to 90 days. For example, this means that if your policy has a 30-day limit and you get injured on day 31, you won’t receive medical coverage for that injury because it falls outside of the trip-length limit.
Note: Most annual and typical per-trip vacation insurance policies have restrictions on the types of “adventure” activities they’ll cover if you get injured. These can include bungee jumping, hot air ballooning, parachuting, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, and similar “hazardous” activities.
Read each policy carefully to see which activities are and aren’t covered. If you plan on these types of activities on your vacation, you may want to consider a per-trip policy from World Nomads, which has specialized coverage for adventure activities.
Who Should Consider Annual Trip Insurance?
Annual trip insurance is best for:
- Leisure or business travelers taking multiple trips over the course of one year
- Frequent international travelers who need medical coverage while overseas
- Travelers who don’t need high trip cancellation coverage
Annual trip insurance isn’t ideal for:
- Individuals, couples, or families who will only be traveling once or twice over the next year
- Travelers taking multiple lengthy trips during a year (lasting longer than 90 days)
- Travelers who need high trip cancellation coverage
Best Annual Travel Insurance Plans
We’ve broken down our best picks for annual travel insurance by categories based on your individual needs. But, we also encourage you to read our other options in case there’s another provider that works better for you.
Our experts have analyzed each company by its policy benefits and pricing, COVID-19 coverage, customer service, user reviews, BBB ranking, AM Best ratings (financial strength of the insurer), and other factors. All of the companies we include in our reviews have an A- or better rating from AM Best, have an online claims process, and offer 24/7 travel assistance for concierge service and other needs.
Policy Pricing And Availability
We haven’t included policy pricing in our reviews because most yearly travel insurance premiums vary for each traveler. The companies typically base their pricing on the age of travelers and your state of residence. And be aware that not all policies are available in every state.
Best Overall: Seven Corners Review
Seven Corners stands out as our pick for the best overall annual trip insurance company. They have two yearly plans, Wander Frequent Traveler and Wander Frequent Traveler Plus (which includes COVID-19 medical/trip interruption coverage). Both plans have customizable options, allowing you to tailor your plan to your budget.
You can customize your plan for 30, 45, or 60-day trip limits. You can also choose your deductible from $0, $250, or $500 (per person, per occurrence). And they have a hazardous sports coverage add-on, which is roughly $25 per person. Other companies we reviewed don’t offer this option.
Both plans offer a generous $1 million coverage for emergency medical and medical evacuation coverage, in addition to great coverage for trip interruption, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D), trip delays, baggage loss and delays, and more.
And unlike many other travel insurance companies, they’ll cover you for pre-existing medical conditions up to $20,000 per person for an unexpected recurrence of a pre-existing condition (some age restrictions apply).
Note: Coverage is for international and domestic travel, but domestic travel requires pre-certification.
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Best Budget: GeoBlue Review
If you’re looking for the best cheap year-long travel insurance, GeoBlue may be your best bet as long as you’re okay sacrificing a few benefits other companies provide. GeoBlue has two budget-friendly plans, Trekker Essential and Trekker Choice. Both have good coverage for emergency medical ($500,000 and $1 million) and medical evacuation ($250,000 and $500,00) as well as decent benefits for lost luggage and AD&D. Both also have 70-day trip limits.
What do you not get? Neither policy covers trip interruptions and cancellations, travel delays, or baggage delays. They also are one of very few companies we’ve reviewed that have no coverage for COVID-19 occurrences. But unlike most companies, GeoBlue covers pre-existing conditions as well as non-emergency medical expenses.
Note: Coverage is only for travel outside of the U.S.
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Best For Trip Cancellation Coverage: Allianz Review
A big player in the travel insurance industry, Allianz offers several competitively priced annual plans that include trip cancellation coverage. However, it’s important to know that trip cancellation benefits apply per year rather than per trip. All the other benefits included in policies, like emergency medical, baggage loss, etc., apply for each trip you take during your year of coverage.
Allianz has four annual plans to choose from (all but the Alltrips Basic plan include trip cancellation). Their Alltrips Premier plan is the best overall value out of the four. It has 90-day trip limits, coverage for emergency medical ($50,000) and medical evacuation ($500,000), and generous payouts for trip interruption, trip delays, baggage loss and delays, and AD&D.
And with the Premier plan, you can choose your level of trip cancellation/interruption coverage from $2,000, $5,000, $10,000, and $15,000. This plan also waives Allianz’s typical 120-day look-back period for pre-existing conditions.
Their plans also include rental car damage coverage and COVID-19 coverage for medical and cancellation/interruption. Just keep in mind that if you’re more concerned about higher medical, evacuation, and other benefits rather than trip cancellation, Seven Corners is a better value.
Note: Coverage is for international and domestic travel.
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What Are My Other Options?
AIG Travel Guard | Trawick | USI Affinity
AIG Travel Guard Review
AIG Travel Guard, a well-respected provider of traditional trip insurance, offers one stand-out annual travel insurance plan. It offers 90-day trip limits, security evacuation coverage (up to $100,000) in the event of a natural disaster, riot, or civil disorder, and COVID-19 coverage for medical expenses and trip interruption.
The policy includes $50,000 for emergency medical, $500,00 for medical evacuation, and good coverage for trip interruptions, AD&D, missed connections, baggage losses, and trip and baggage delays. However, premium pricing is a bit higher than average for the payout benefits you get. It also has a 60-day look-back period for pre-existing conditions.
Note: Coverage is for international travel and travel within the U.S. (must be more than 100 miles from your residence).
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Trawick International Review
Trawick International offers three Safe Travels annual travel insurance plans, Basic, Deluxe, and Executive. Their plans stand out because they include trip cancellation coverage ($2,500, $5,000, and $10,000) and COVID-19 cancellation and medical coverage. But be aware that, like Allianz, the trip cancellation coverage is per year rather than per trip.
However, their other benefit payouts are lower than comparably priced plans from other providers. For example, their mid-level plan’s pricing is higher than average yet offers lower payouts for emergency medical ($20,000) and medical evacuation ($100,000) compared to similar coverage with other companies we review here.
All plans include trip interruption, trip delay, lost baggage, and baggage delay coverage. They also have a 30-day trip limit with each plan and a 90-day look-back period for pre-existing conditions.
Note: Coverage is for international and domestic travel.
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USI Affinity Review
USI Affinity has a good reputation as a long-time provider of traditional trip insurance, and it offers two annual travel insurance plans, Voyager Silver and Voyager Gold. Both plans have 90-day trip limits and coverage for AD&D, baggage loss and delay, and COVID-19 medical.
The major benefit payouts vary widely between the Silver and Gold plans: emergency medical ($50,000 and $100,000) and emergency evacuation ($100,000 and $250,000). You’ll need to go with the Gold plan if you want trip interruption coverage (which covers COVID-19). The Gold plan also includes security and political evacuation coverage (up to $100,000). USI Affinity has a 180-day pre-existing condition look-back period.
Note: The sample policy we reviewed says that coverage is “anywhere in the world.”
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Looking For Per-Trip Travel Insurance?
If you don’t think annual travel insurance will work for your traveling needs, be sure to see our reviews of the best per-trip travel insurance plans. In that article, we review plans from some of the same companies as we do here as well as additional top travel insurance companies. Benefits and coverage vary a great deal between per-trip vs annual plans.