Actually, it’s not quite that bad. I’ve booked a trip to Singapore for late September, returning on 1 October. Today I realised that my annual multi-trip travel insurance policy expires on 30 September. Not a problem, I thought – just extend it by a day. Except that can’t be done…
There seemed to be just two options. The first is to take out a single-trip policy for the whole of that trip. However, that will overlap with the existing annual policy for all but the final day of the trip and it’s annoying to pay for insurance twice (actually, paying for insurance is annoying, period). The quoted cost for that single-trip policy is £115, which means that, given that I will be covered by the annual policy for everything except the last day, in effect I would be paying £115 for just one day’s insurance!
The other option, of course, is to buy another annual policy, to start on 1 October, which would give me seamless cover throughout the trip. It would cost maybe £250 or a bit less, which although more is potentially a better deal depending on how much travelling I do during the policy’s life. I wasn’t planning on doing that renewal this autumn, however – until I booked this trip to Singapore, I had nothing planned until April, and I had been thinking that I would leave buying the insurance until then. However, having spoken to a few people at insurance companies this afternoon, I now think that buying it now might not be such a bad idea after all. This autumn I am still in my 60s, whereas by next April I will be in my 70s; and I have a feeling that the ‘age on day 1’ of a new policy has an impact on the price. Ah well – I shall remind myself that the glass is half-full, look on the bright side, and feel pleased that I’m in the position to travel at all!