How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost UK (2024)?
Travel insurance for a single, week-long trip starts from around £11 for a trip to Europe (or £30 for a trip to America); cover for multiple trips throughout the year starts from around £11 if you're only going to Europe (or £29 if you need worldwide cover)—but prices are higher for older travellers, if you want worldwide or USA cover and for families. How much will you pay?
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost? Single vs. Annual Multitrip
Surprisingly, research by NimbleFins found that annual, multitrip travel insurance policies can be cheaper than buying cover for a single trip—depending where you're going, and for how long. Keep this in mind if you're considering buying a single trip policy, and check quotes for annual policies as well since these can cover additional trips over the coming year.
Annual policies covering Europe may cost the same as single trip travel insurance. For example, to buy a budget plan covering Europe, Brits would pay from around £10.90 for a single-trip policy to cover a 10-day trip—and the same for an annual multi-trip policy. This means that if you’ll travel more than once per year, multitrip travel insurance should be more economical for you; but this won't be the case for all providers.
| Comparing Costs: Single Trip vs. Annual, Multitip | Europe | Worldwide including USA |
|---|---|---|
| Annual, multitrip | £10.9 | £29.9 |
| Single Trip | £10.9 | £28.7 |
In fact, cover for a single trip to the US can be more expensive than buying an annual, multitrip policy with worldwide cover, including the US. Our research showed that the average cost of the 10 cheapest plans available for a 10-day US trip was £29.9—which is more expensive than the result for the cost of an annual policy with worldwide cover. So before buying cover for a single US trip take a look at multitrip plans, especially if you plan to travel again within the year.
Note: Figures represent the average of ten cheapest quotes found for a 30-year-old solo traveller. Single trip is for 10 nights.
A good travel insurance plan can help alleviate the financial repercussions and worries of a holiday gone wrong. While cover varies from policy to policy, most basic policies will include medical emergencies, cancellation cover (e.g., if you fall ill and can’t travel), personal liability, flight delay (e.g., due to weather) and baggage (e.g., loss, theft or damage to personal belongings).
Average Cost of Cheap Travel Insurance by Age
The cost of travel insurance is a bit high for younger travellers aged 20, then prices come down are are relatively stable for people in their 30s, 40s and 50s. By 60 years of age price rise around 40-50%. But by the time you're 70 or 80 years old prices really jump up.
A healthy 80 year old would pay around 10X as much as a 30 year old—add in some pre-existing conditions and prices will be even higher. This premium for older policyholders has risen since the onset of the pandemic—80 year olds used to be 7X more expensive to insure than 30 year olds. It's not surprising considering the potentially high health costs associated with at-risk older passengers.
Prices below reflect the average of the 10 cheapest plans found for different ages; reflects plans that have cover equivalent to 3 out of 5 stars or more.
| Cost of Single Trip Travel Insurance by Age | Europe | Worldwide |
|---|---|---|
| 20 years old | £11.42 | £31.09 |
| 30 years old | £10.87 | £29.85 |
| 40 years old | £11.83 | £34.71 |
| 50 years old | £13.00 | £35.81 |
| 60 years old | £14.98 | £46.17 |
| 70 years old | £30.28 | £99.30 |
| 80 years old | £86.61 | £338.80 |
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost by Destination?
The cost of travel insurance can vary greatly depending on the geographic area(s) covered by a policy. Generally speaking, travel insurance for Europe will be cheapest; countries in North America are the most expensive. For example, a solo traveller going to a European country like France can pay as little as £10 to cover a 10-day trip; cover for America would be more than 3X the price, around £30. In the following table and chart you can see the average price of cheap travel insurance by destination for single trip policies (below that we show costs for annual, multitrip policies).
| How Much is Cheap Travel Insurance for a Single Trip? | Premium |
|---|---|
| Ireland | £8.3 |
| France | £8.5 |
| Turkey | £12.9 |
| Australia | £16.0 |
| India | £24.8 |
| Thailand | £27.7 |
| Canada | £27.7 |
| USA | £29.9 |
Similar to single trip policies, when buying an annual, multitrip policy you're likely to pay the most if you include cover for America, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. These countries are typically bundled together when buying annual, multitrip travel insurance. For example, a 30-year-old traveller pays around £12 for Europe but £28.5 for Worldwide Cover (including USA).
| How Much is Cheap, Multitrip Travel Insurance for a Year? | Premium |
|---|---|
| Europe | £10.9 |
| Worldwide (excl. USA, Canada, Carib. and Mexico) | £22.6 |
| Australia and New Zealand | £22.6 |
| Worldwide (incl. USA, Canada, Carib. and Mexico) | £28.7 |
Insurance to the USA is expensive largely due to the high cost of medical treatment in America. Travel insurance to Europe is cheaper in part because many travel insurance providers require you to have an EHIC card before traveling—an EHIC card provides free or reduced-cost health care to residents of the EEA and Switzerland as they travel within the region. Since Brits can have health care in Europe covered through the EHIC programme, insurers expect lower medical costs for European travel and can reduce premiums as a result.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost: Basic vs Premium Policies
Some insurers offer an array of policies, from the most basic coverage to comprehensive coverage with all the bells and whistles. All else being equal, a policy offering a higher coverage amount typically costs more, and may charge a lower excess should you need to claim. In addition, premium policies may include additional coverage categories that are not included in cheaper, more basic policies. For example, SAFI or ESF, passport replacement, delayed departure, valuables, etc. are more likely to be found on more premium plans.
Should you pay more for a premium plan? Besides the additional coverage features you might find on a premium plan, it's worth noting that the additional price you pay for larger coverage amounts is usually small relative to the additional coverage. For example, plans with £5,000 of cancellation cover don't cost 5x as much as plans with £1,000 of cancellation cover—in fact, you'd usually pay less than 2x as much for a £5k cancellation plan as you'd pay for a £1k plan on average.
| Comparing Costs of Basic and Premium Travel Insurance | France Single Trip | Europe Multitrip | USA Single Trip | Worldwide incl. USA Multitrip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £1,000 Cancellation Cover | £14.7 | £15.0 | £48.8 | £48.1 |
| £2,000 Cancellation Cover | £14.4 | £22.4 | £53.3 | £60.0 |
| £5,000 Cancellation Cover | £16.0 | £24.8 | £59.6 | £67.8 |
| average of 10 cheapest quotes for each level of cancellation cover |
Cost of Travel Insurance for a Family
Insuring a family of four luckily doesn't cost 4x as much as insuring a solo traveller—it costs around 2-2.5x as much, give or take. For example, cheap multitrip travel insurance with worldwide cover for two children and two adults costs around £89 per year (vs. £40 for a solo traveller).
| Comparing Costs of Basic and Premium Travel Insurance (Family) | France Single Trip | Europe Multitrip | USA Single Trip | Worldwide incl. USA Multitrip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £1,000 Cancellation Cover | £37.0 | £43.5 | £112.8 | £115.7 |
| £2,000 Cancellation Cover | £34.1 | £55.1 | £144.1 | £144.3 |
| £5,000 Cancellation Cover | £43.0 | £71.4 | £157.3 | £154.9 |
Paying for Extra Cover
Travel insurance add ons like golf, winter sports, weddings, cruises, etc. will increase your premium.
In some cases features like Travel Disruption cover need to be purchased as an optional add on, if available. This can be key cover to protect against events like the coronavirus outbreak.
You are also likely to pay more for travel insurance if you have any pre-existing medical conditions.
FAQs
Methodology
To determine the average cost of travel insurance for UK consumers, we first collected hundreds of travel insurance quotes. To get an idea of the true cost of a "cheap" policy, that is, how much someone might need to pay to secure cover, we averaged the 10 cheapest quotes to reflect costs for a range of policies at the low end of prices.
Other than the "age" section, our sample traveller was 30 years old and healthy with no pre-existing conditions.