Travel Insurance: Insure and Go Explained (Policies, Prices and What Actually Matters)
If you have typed “travel insurance Insure and Go” into a search box in the last week, you are in good company. Insure and Go is one of the biggest travel insurance brands in the UK, and it shows up in almost every price comparison, TV advert break and airport poster you have ever half-noticed. I have bought their policies twice, once for a week in Portugal and once for a ski trip that ended with a badly bent wrist, so I have some opinions about where they are good value and where they are not.
This guide covers what the company actually sells, roughly what it costs, the catches in the small print, and how to decide between single trip and annual cover before you hit the buy button.
What does Insure and Go actually cover?
Insure and Go splits its cover into three main tiers: Budget, Silver and Gold. Budget is the cheap entry level and it is honestly quite thin, with medical expenses capped around £2 million and baggage cover that barely covers a decent suitcase, never mind what is inside it. Silver raises medical to £5 million and adds a few extras. Gold, their top level, offers up to £10 million medical, higher cancellation limits and cover for most gadgets without paying extra for each one.
All tiers include some basics that people often assume are optional extras. You get 24-hour emergency assistance, cover for legal expenses, and a small amount of money cover. Personal accident and personal liability come as standard too, though the payout ceilings vary by tier. What you do not get as standard, on any tier, is winter sports, gadget cover above the basic amount, or anything the insurer classes as a “hazardous activity”. Those are add-ons, and I will come back to them because they catch people out constantly.
How much does it cost?
Rough numbers, because prices move with age, destination and trip length. A 35-year-old buying single trip cover for a week in Europe might pay somewhere between £8 and £25 for Budget, and £20 to £40 for Gold. Annual multi-trip works out cheaper if you travel three or more times a year: expect £50 to £90 for a European annual policy, or £70 to £130 for worldwide cover, depending on your age band. Over 65s pay noticeably more, and over 70s more again, sometimes double or triple the base premium.
My own rule after years of buying this stuff: never take the first quote on a comparison site. The same insurer often appears three times at three prices through different aggregators, and Insure and Go frequently sells slightly cheaper direct through its own website, especially with the discount codes it emails to past customers. Ten minutes of checking has saved me £15 to £30 more than once.
Single trip or annual multi-trip: which one should you buy?
This is the decision most people get wrong. Here is the maths I use:
- Two short European trips a year: single trip wins. Two Budget policies at £10 to £15 each beat most annual premiums.
- Three or more trips, or one long trip plus a couple of city breaks: annual multi-trip almost always wins, often by £30 or more.
- Any trip over 31 days: check the small print carefully. Many annual policies cap individual trips at 31 days, and ski weeks and gap-year style travel need an extension or a specialist policy instead.
One more thing worth knowing. Annual policies usually include a few days of winter sports automatically, often 17 days, while single trip policies charge for it as an add-on. If you ski, that alone can tip the balance toward annual cover.
The small print catches that cost people money
Alcohol exclusions
Like nearly every UK insurer, Insure and Go will not pay out if an accident happens while you are drunk. The wording is usually something like “under the influence of alcohol to the extent that your judgement is impaired”. In practice, if you fall off a balcony in Magaluf after eight sangrias, you are on your own. I think this is fair enough, but a lot of people genuinely do not know it exists.
Undeclared medical conditions
This is the big one. If you have a condition you did not declare when buying, whether that is high blood pressure controlled by tablets, asthma, or a hip replacement from 2019, the insurer can void the medical part of the claim. Insure and Go has an online medical screening process, and it takes about ten minutes. Do it properly. A declared condition might add £20 to the premium, which is a lot less pleasant than a £40,000 hospital bill in Florida being refused.
EHIC and GHIC are not insurance
The old EHIC, now the GHIC for most UK travellers, gets you state healthcare in the EU at local rates. It does not get you repatriation, it does not cover the USA, and it does not pay for a private clinic in Spain that the state system refuses to refer you to. Get both, but do not confuse them.
Working and sports
Playing football on the beach, hiring a moped in Thailand, or doing a day of casual bar work all fall outside standard policies. Add the activity extension or accept the risk consciously, not accidentally.
How does Insure and Go handle claims?
Claims are handled online or by phone, with forms downloadable from their site. From what I have seen and heard from other travellers, straightforward claims like a delayed bag or a stolen phone get processed in a couple of weeks, and the brand has consistently held a decent rating on Trustpilot, usually somewhere in the 4 out of 5 range, which for a claims-heavy industry is respectable. My own wrist claim took three weeks to pay out, and they accepted a photo of the ski resort medical invoice without demanding the original posted to them, which I appreciated.
Their extra add-ons deserve a mention too:
- Gadget cover extends phone and laptop cover, usually £50 to £80 extra on annual policies.
- Excess waiver removes the standard excess (often £100 to £150 per section claimed) for around £15 to £25.
- Excess waiver is genuinely worth it if you travel with a family, since the excess is charged per person per claim and those numbers add up fast.
Is it worth buying, and how do you buy it well?
Insure and Go is a solid middle-of-the-road choice. It is not the cheapest on every quote, and it is not the most generous for pre-existing conditions, where specialist insurers like Staysure or medical-focused underwriters sometimes win. Where it does well is fast purchase, a clear tier structure, and add-ons that are easy to understand without reading a 40-page document.
If you are buying, do it this way:
- Get quotes for the same trip on the Insure and Go website and on at least one aggregator, and note the difference.
- Run the medical screening honestly before choosing a tier, because a cheap premium that becomes invalid is not cheap.
- Compare Gold against the mid-tier with your actual belongings in mind. If your phone and laptop are worth over £1,000 combined, Gold usually wins.
- Check the policy PDF for your specific destination exclusions before paying, especially for anywhere with a Foreign Office warning attached.
- Buy the same day you book the flights, so cancellation cover starts immediately. Waiting until departure week means a cancelled flight before purchase gets you nothing.
One last takeaway from someone who has claimed once and overpaid twice: the best travel insurance is not the cheapest or the biggest brand, it is the policy you bought before you needed it, with every medical box ticked honestly. Spend the extra ten minutes on the screening questions and the tier comparison, and you will get more real protection out of a £25 policy than most people get out of a £90 one.
