Single trip vs annual multi-trip insurance: which is cheaper for your year?
List the trips you expect in the next 12 months. We price each one as a single-trip policy and the whole year as one annual policy, and show which costs less and what the per-trip limit means.
What this tool does
If you leave Pakistan more than once a year, for business, to visit family in the Gulf or Europe, or for several holidays, you have a choice: buy a single-trip policy each time, or one annual multi-trip policy that covers every trip for 12 months. Which is cheaper depends on how many trips you take, how long each one is and where you go. This calculator prices both options with real UIC and Crescent Star rates for the trips you actually expect, and explains the per-trip limit that annual policies carry.
How to use it
- List the trips you expect in the next 12 months: destination, start and end date for each. Add up to six. Dates can be approximate; what matters is the length of each trip and its zone.
- Enter who is travelling and each date of birth. The same travellers are assumed on every trip.
- Press Compare. You get the cheapest single-trip plan for each trip and their total, the annual plans that would cover all of them, and a verdict.
How the result is worked out
- Single-trip side. Each trip is priced on its own, for its own destination zone, exactly as the cost calculator would, and the cheapest plan for each trip is added up.
- Annual side. One multi-trip policy for 365 days is priced for the widest zone among your trips, because a Worldwide policy also covers Schengen and the rest of the world, a Schengen policy also covers the rest of the world, but not the other way round. The per-trip limit is set to the smallest option (30, 45, 60, 90 or 180 days) that covers your longest trip; if your longest trip exceeds every option, the calculator says so and single-trip cover is the answer for that trip.
- Verdict. The difference between the two totals. Both use TravelConcern’s prices and the ages on each trip’s start date.
Example
A Karachi exporter aged 36 plans a 10-day trip to Istanbul in October and a 21-day trip to Milan in December. The Istanbul trip is priced in the Rest of World zone and the Milan trip in the Schengen zone; the cheapest single-trip plan for each is added up. The annual policy is priced for Schengen, the wider of the two zones, with a 30-day per-trip limit, since the longest trip is 21 days. For two short trips the single-trip policies usually win; add a third or fourth trip, or longer ones, and the annual policy starts to pay for itself. Enter your own trips to see where the line is for you.
Frequently asked questions
What does “maximum 30 days per trip” mean on an annual policy?
Each trip must be shorter than the limit you buy. Days beyond the limit on one trip are not covered. Crescent Star annual plans allow 60 or 90 days per trip depending on the plan; UIC annual plans allow 92 days, with a 180-day option on Gold Plus and Platinum in the Worldwide zone.
Can I add a trip to the USA later if I buy a Schengen annual policy?
No. The zone is fixed when you buy. If any trip in the year may include the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, price the Worldwide annual policy.
Does the annual policy cover my family?
Both insurers publish family rates for their annual plans. Choose Family as the travellers to price it; the insurer’s family definition (spouse and children under 18) applies.
When should the annual policy start?
On or before the first trip. The calculator starts it on your earliest trip date and it runs 365 days from there.
I am a student going abroad for a year. Is an annual policy right for me?
No: an annual multi-trip policy assumes you return to Pakistan between trips and caps each trip at the per-trip limit. A continuous stay needs a student plan (180 to 730 days); see the student travel insurance page.
Limitations and sources
Trips that cannot be priced online (for example a traveller over an insurer’s age limit) are listed with the reason and left out of the totals, and the verdict says the comparison is partial. The widest-zone rule is TravelConcern’s reading of the insurers’ zone definitions; the quote page prices the annual policy for the destination you give it.