Big Cat Travel Insurance Review (2026): Cover Limits, the Age Caps, Exclusions and Real Prices
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P. LauroreCo-founder & Travel and Credit Card Insurance ExpertLast updated: September 14, 2026Is Big Cat travel insurance worth it in 2026?
Big Cat travel insurance is a UK backpacker and long stay specialist that will insure a single trip of up to 24 months, from £15.47 for a week in Europe and £232.09 for six months worldwide. Its weak point is the Budget tier, which carries no cancellation cover at all.
We rate Big Cat travel insurance 4.1 out of 5. It earns that on trip length and on medical headroom: £5,000,000 on Standard and £10,000,000 on Premier, against a market where £2,000,000 is a common ceiling. It also does the awkward things most UK insurers refuse, covering a one way ticket, letting you buy a policy after you have already left, and allowing unlimited home visits on any single trip policy longer than four months.
What pulls the score down is the shape of the cheap tier and the age wall. Budget looks like the headline price on every comparison, but Big Cat's own benefit table shows section D (cancellation and curtailment) and the whole of section E (travel delay, abandonment, missed departure, hijack, seat bumping) as N/A on Budget. And no Big Cat policy will insure anyone aged 70 or over, on any tier.
The other thing a buyer should know before paying: Big Cat's policy is underwritten by Hamilton Insurance DAC, authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland, as of July 2025, while the policy wording published on its own Policy Documents page is a 2017 document served behind both the "before" and "after March 15 2017" links. Ask for the wording that matches your Validation Certificate before you buy, not the one on the website.
- Genuine long trip cover : one single trip policy can run up to 731 days, and 70 sports and activities are included at no extra premium.
- High medical ceilings : £5,000,000 on Standard and £10,000,000 on Premier for emergency medical and repatriation.
- Built for open ended travel : no return ticket needed, cover can be bought after you have already left the UK, and home visits are unrestricted on single trip policies over four months.
- Falling excess as you move up : the medical excess drops from £150 on Budget to £90 on Standard and £50 on Premier.
- Strong customer sentiment : 4.6 out of 5 on Trustpilot across 740 reviews, 85% of them five star.
- Budget has no cancellation cover : section D is marked N/A, so the cheapest tier refunds nothing if you cancel the trip, and section E removes travel delay, missed departure and abandonment too.
- Hard age wall at 70 : Standard and Premier stop at 69, Budget at 49. Over 70 you cannot buy any Big Cat policy.
- Low single article limit : £100 on Budget, £200 on Standard, £250 on Premier, so a laptop or a camera needs the paid valuables and gadget pack.
- Adventure sports are not all free : 70 activities are included, the other 86 or so need a paid Activity Pack, and winter sports is a separate add-on.
- Undeclared conditions kill every condition : if you have anything beyond the automatically covered list and do not declare it, all of your medical conditions are excluded, not just the undeclared one.
Every year, our experts audit each plan against its binding policy wording: coverage, limits and exclusions, cross-checked with real customer feedback and live market prices. The analysis is fully independent, with zero paid placements and no insurer able to pay to influence a rating. We compare travel insurance across every country and currency, using the plans, prices and cover actually offered in your country, not a single guide translated.
Learn moreWhich Big Cat travel insurance policy should you choose?
Big Cat travel insurance sells one product in three tiers, Budget, Standard and Premier, and the honest answer is that Standard is the entry point for most travellers, because Budget removes cancellation and every disruption benefit rather than simply lowering their limits.
The tiers are not scaled versions of each other. Moving from Budget to Standard adds whole sections of the policy: cancellation and curtailment, travel delay, trip abandonment, missed departure, hijack and seat bumping all appear for the first time at Standard. Moving from Standard to Premier mostly raises numbers that already exist, and cuts the medical excess from £90 to £50.
Tier | Who it actually suits | Age cap | What is missing |
|---|---|---|---|
Budget The headline price | A traveller under 50 with nothing pre-paid to lose, who only wants medical and repatriation cover | 49 | No cancellation, no travel delay, no missed departure, no abandonment |
Standard The realistic entry point | Most backpackers and long stay travellers: £5,000,000 medical, £3,000 cancellation, £90 medical excess | 69 | Winter sports, activity packs and gadget cover all cost extra |
Premier The full version | Travellers with an expensive itinerary booked, or anyone who wants the lowest excess and the highest baggage limits | 69 | Same paid add-ons as Standard, at higher limits |
Once you pick a tier, you also pick a trip type, and that choice changes the cover more than most buyers expect. A one way trip, for example, ends when you arrive, and carries an explicit warning about return travel expenses.
What does Big Cat travel insurance cover?
Big Cat travel insurance covers emergency medical and repatriation up to £2,000,000 on Budget, £5,000,000 on Standard and £10,000,000 on Premier, plus baggage, personal money, personal liability and legal expenses on every tier, with cancellation and disruption benefits added only from Standard upwards.
The table below is Big Cat's own published schedule. Every figure comes from its Levels of Cover page, and the excess is shown next to the limit because on this policy the excess applies per person, per section and per claim, so a single incident can trigger more than one deduction.
Benefit | Budget | Standard | Premier |
|---|---|---|---|
Medical and repatriation Excess per person, per claim | £2,000,000 Excess £150 | £5,000,000 Excess £90 | £10,000,000 Excess £50 |
Cancellation or curtailment Section D | Not covered | £3,000 Excess £90 | £7,500 Excess £50 |
Travel delay benefit Section E | Not covered | £100 | £100 |
Abandoning your trip Outbound leg only | Not covered | £1,000 Excess £90 | £1,500 Excess £50 |
Missed departure Extra transport and accommodation | Not covered | £300 | £300 |
Personal liability Third party injury or damage | £1,000,000 Excess £250 | £2,000,000 Excess £250 | £2,000,000 Excess £250 |
Baggage and personal effects | £1,000 Excess £70 | £1,500 Excess £70 | £2,000 Excess £50 |
Single article, pair or set limit | £100 | £200 | £250 |
Personal money | £200 | £350 | £500 |
Delayed baggage | £25 per 12 hours, to £75 | £40 per 12 hours, to £120 | £50 per 12 hours, to £150 |
Legal expenses | £7,500 Excess £250 | £10,000 Excess £250 | £15,000 Excess £250 |
Personal accident Death benefit shown separately | £10,000 Death £5,000 | £15,000 Death £7,500 | £25,000 Death £10,000 |
Passport and visa replacement | £150 Excess £70 | £250 Excess £90 | £300 Excess £50 |
Diagnostic testing | £10,000 | £10,000 | £10,000 |
Non medical mountain rescue | £2,000 | £2,000 | £2,000 |
Cyber and ATM theft | £200 | £250 | £300 |
End supplier failure | £1,000 | £1,000 | £1,000 |
Baggage looks generous at £1,500 on Standard, but no one item is paid above £200. A £900 laptop, a £600 camera or a £400 phone is settled at £200 unless you buy the valuables and gadget pack, which itself is capped at £1,000 with a £100 excess. On Budget the single article limit is £100.
What other types of Big Cat travel insurance are there?
Beyond the three cover tiers, Big Cat travel insurance sells five trip shapes, and each one is a different contract in practice: single trip, one way, annual multi trip, an International Experience Canada policy and an already travelling extension.
Trip type | What it is for | The condition to know |
|---|---|---|
Single trip Up to 731 days | Backpacking, gap years, long stays and multi country travel. No return ticket required. | Home visits are permitted only if the policy runs longer than four months |
One way trip | Emigrating permanently, or returning home for good. Cover ends on arrival at your final destination. | No cover for emergency return travel expenses unless you already hold a return ticket |
Annual multi trip | Unlimited trips over 12 months for people based in the UK | Each trip is capped at 35 days on Standard and 90 days on Premier, and it cannot be bought once you are already abroad |
Single trip, IEC Canada | Travellers on an International Experience Canada visa: working holiday, young professionals, international co-op | Restricted to ages 18 to 35, matching the IEC visa rules |
Already travelling extension | Buying cover after you have already left the UK, or extending a policy from the road | 48 hour waiting period, and illness starting inside it is treated as pre-existing |
Two paid add-ons sit on top of whichever trip type you pick. The Activity Pack and Extreme Activity Pack take the covered activity list from 70 to more than 156, adding white water rafting, paragliding and skydiving. Winter sports is a separate section of the policy that only applies if the extra premium is shown on your Validation Certificate, and it pays up to £600 of owned equipment and a £700 ski pack on Premier.
What does Big Cat travel insurance not cover?
Big Cat travel insurance does not cover cancellation on its Budget tier, does not insure anyone aged 70 or over on any tier, and excludes every medical condition you hold if you have one outside its automatically covered list and fail to declare it.
The pre-existing conditions rule is the one that catches people out, and it is worth reading twice. Big Cat publishes a list of roughly 35 conditions that are covered automatically at no extra premium, including asthma diagnosed under the age of 50 and controlled by no more than two inhalers, diabetes controlled by diet or tablets only, and arthritis provided you can walk unaided at home.
Big Cat’s own wording is explicit: if you have a medical condition in addition to any of the automatically covered conditions, all conditions are excluded from cover unless declared to the medical screening helpline. Not declaring will not invalidate the policy, but no cost linked to an undeclared condition is paid. Declarations last 12 months and then have to be made again.
- Cancellation on Budget : section D is marked N/A, so nothing pre-paid is refunded on the cheapest tier, whatever the reason.
- Anyone aged 70 or over : Standard and Premier stop at 69 and Budget at 49, so Big Cat is not an option for older travellers.
- Return travel on a one way ticket : Big Cat's own notice states that under Curtailment, section D, return travel expenses home are not covered in a curtailment claim if you do not hold a valid return ticket.
- Illness in the first 48 hours of an already travelling policy : it is treated as a pre-existing condition. An accident in that window is covered, but only if independently witnessed and confirmed by a medical professional.
- Activities outside the free list of 70 : anything in the wider 156 activity list needs the paid Activity Pack, and winter sports needs its own add-on premium.
- Manual work and volunteering : bar, restaurant and other non manual work is free, but WWOOFing, volunteering and manual labour require the Activity Pack.
- Any single item above the article limit : £100 on Budget, £200 on Standard and £250 on Premier, regardless of the total baggage sum insured.
One more practical exclusion is not in the policy at all, it is in the buying process. Once you have started travelling, the 14 day cooling off period no longer applies and the premium is non refundable. Big Cat says so in an IMPORTANT notice on the quote form and asks you to tick that you understand it.
How much does Big Cat travel insurance cost?
Big Cat travel insurance costs from £15.47 for a week in Europe, £232.09 for six months worldwide and £320.93 for a full year worldwide, for one traveller aged 28 on the Budget tier. Standard costs roughly 23% more and Premier roughly 50% more.
The quotes below were pulled from Big Cat's own quote engine on 30 August 2026 for a UK resident, one traveller, departing 5 October 2026. Worldwide here means worldwide excluding the USA, Canada and Mexico, which is the area most backpacking routes need.
Trip | Budget | Standard | Premier |
|---|---|---|---|
Europe, 7 days Age 28 | £15.47 | £19.38 | £24.21 |
Worldwide, 3 months Age 28 | £126.12 | £157.67 | £197.08 |
Worldwide, 6 months Age 28 | £232.09 | £285.74 | £357.16 |
Worldwide, 12 months Age 28 | £320.93 | £417.88 | £480.54 |
Worldwide including North America, 6 months Age 28 | £276.21 | £340.10 | £425.09 |
Australia and New Zealand, 12 months Age 25 | £280.83 | £365.62 | £420.47 |
Big Cat travel insurance against a HelloSafe quote, same trip
For the like for like comparison we priced the identical trip on both sides: one UK resident aged 28, Thailand, 5 October 2026 to 5 April 2027. Big Cat Standard is the fair opposite number because Budget has no cancellation section at all.
Big Cat Standard | WorldSecure Basic, via HelloSafe | |
|---|---|---|
Price for the trip 182 days, 1 traveller aged 28 | £285.74 | £239.87 |
Emergency medical and repatriation | £5,000,000 | about £261,000 |
Cancellation | £3,000 | Not included on this plan |
Baggage Single article limit in brackets | £1,500 (£200) | about £1,000 (laptops and phones excluded) |
Personal liability | £2,000,000 | about £3,900,000 |
Hospital bills paid direct, no money to advance | Not stated in the public documents | Included |
Longest trip the policy will insure | Up to 24 months | About 11 months |
Maximum age at purchase | 69 (49 on Budget) | Under 40 on this plan |
The honest reading of that table is that neither side wins outright. Our cheapest plan for this trip is £45.87 less than Big Cat Standard, and it pays hospital bills directly so you never front the money. Big Cat buys a medical ceiling roughly nineteen times higher, and £3,000 of cancellation cover: when we re-ran the identical trip through our own comparison with cancellation required, it returned no plan at all for a UK resident. If you have flights and hostels already paid for, that £45.87 is not a saving, it is the price of the cancellation section.
We priced a 365 day worldwide trip for a UK resident through our own comparison and it returned nothing: every plan in our UK set is rejected as “trip duration too long” past roughly 11 months. Big Cat will write that trip for £320.93 on Budget and £417.88 on Standard. For a true 12 to 24 month gap year, Big Cat travel insurance is the product that exists and ours is not.
How does Big Cat travel insurance pay a claim?
Big Cat travel insurance handles claims through a third party administrator rather than in house, and for policies issued before 30 June 2025 that administrator is CSAL, reachable through an online eClaims portal or by emailing completed forms.
- For a medical emergency abroad, call the 24 hour emergency assistance line printed on your Validation Certificate before you commit to treatment, so the assistance team can authorise it and deal with the hospital.
- For everything else, open the claim on the CSAL eClaims portal. Big Cat states that portal claims are prioritised and processed fastest, and the portal lets you upload documents and track the claim in real time.
- If you would rather not use the portal, download the form for your claim type (medical and other expenses, cancellation, curtailment, baggage and money, delayed baggage, missed departure, travel delay, or personal accident) and email it with your evidence to info@csal.co.uk. Big Cat warns that email submissions take longer.
- Keep every receipt, police report and airline confirmation. Big Cat's summary of restrictions lists claims where you cannot provide sufficient supporting evidence as a general exclusion across the whole policy.
- Expect the excess to be deducted per person, per section and per claim, so one incident that touches two sections of the policy is reduced twice.
You can claim while you are still travelling, which matters on a long trip: you do not have to wait until you are home to start the process. Questions about a claim in progress go to CSAL directly on 01702 553 443 during office hours, not to Big Cat's sales line.
What do customers say about Big Cat travel insurance?
Big Cat travel insurance holds a Trustpilot score of 4.6 out of 5 across 740 reviews, with 85% of them at five stars and 5% at one star, checked on 30 August 2026. That is a strong score for a small UK travel insurance broker.
The praise is consistent and specific rather than generic. Reviewers repeatedly mention a quote form that handles awkward itineraries without forcing a return date, quick answers on the phone, and value for niche needs such as motorcycle touring and adventure activities. That matches the product: Big Cat is built for the trips other insurers will not price.
The complaints cluster in two places. The first is the cost of add-ons once the headline premium has done its job, which is the Activity Pack and gadget cover problem this review has already flagged. The second, and the more serious, is claims handling: the most detailed negative review describes a claim running about nine months with repeated document requests and difficulty tracking uploads through the portal. On a 740 review base that is a minority experience, but it is worth knowing which administrator you would be dealing with before you buy.
A travel insurance score is dominated by people reviewing the purchase, not the claim, because far more customers buy than claim. Read the one star reviews first and look only at whether they describe a claim, and how it ended.
How do you contact Big Cat travel insurance?
Big Cat travel insurance can be reached on 0333 003 3161 from 09:30 to 17:00 Monday to Friday, and it is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays, so there is no weekend sales or service line.
What you need | Where to go |
|---|---|
Sales, quotes and policy questions | 0333 003 3161, Monday to Friday 09:30 to 17:00 |
Medical emergency abroad | The 24 hour emergency assistance number printed on your Validation Certificate |
Making or chasing a claim | CSAL eClaims portal, info@csal.co.uk, or 01702 553 443 in office hours |
Declaring a pre-existing condition | Big Cat's online medical screening service, or 0204 5994676 to screen by telephone |
Extending a policy from abroad | The extend my policy page on bigcattravelinsurance.com, available even if the original policy was bought elsewhere |
Two identity details are worth keeping. Big Cat travel insurance is a trading name of Flynow.com Limited, FRN 1022075, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and the policy is underwritten by Hamilton Insurance DAC, authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland, as of July 2025. You can check the broker on the Financial Services Register.
How do you cancel a Big Cat travel insurance policy?
A Big Cat travel insurance policy can be cancelled for a full refund within 14 days of receiving the documents, but only if you have not yet started travelling: once you have left, the cooling off period no longer applies and the premium is not refundable.
The 14 day window is the standard UK cancellation right and Big Cat applies it in the usual way. Contact the issuing agent inside that period and the premium is returned in full, unless you have already travelled, made a claim or intend to make one, in which case the cost of the services provided is recovered first. After the 14 days, you may still cancel the contract but no refund is made.
Big Cat’s quote form carries an explicit notice for anyone buying an already travelling policy: once you have started travelling the 14 day cooling off period no longer applies and premiums are non refundable. You have to tick a box confirming you understand it, so it will not be treated as a surprise later.
What do people ask most about Big Cat travel insurance?
Big Cat travel insurance is a credible specialist for long and open ended trips, and we rate it 4.1 out of 5. It scores well on trip length, up to 731 days, on medical ceilings of £5,000,000 on Standard and £10,000,000 on Premier, and on flexibility such as no return ticket and unrestricted home visits after four months. It loses marks because its Budget tier carries no cancellation, travel delay or missed departure cover at all, and because no tier will insure anyone aged 70 or over. Its Trustpilot score is 4.6 out of 5 over 740 reviews, checked on 30 August 2026.
Big Cat travel insurance is a trading name of Flynow.com Limited, FRN 1022075, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The policy itself is underwritten by Hamilton Insurance DAC, authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland, as of July 2025. Note that the policy wording published on Big Cat’s own Policy Documents page is a 2017 document, older than the current underwriting arrangement, so ask for the wording that matches your Validation Certificate.
Big Cat’s quote form does carry an offer code field, so promotional codes exist from time to time, usually through partner sites rather than on its own pages. A code is worth a few pounds on a policy that already costs £15.47 for a week in Europe, so it is not the thing to optimise. The choice that actually moves the number is the tier: Budget to Standard on a six month worldwide trip costs £53.65 more and is what buys you the entire cancellation and travel disruption half of the policy.
No. Big Cat travel insurance has a hard age ceiling: 69 on the Standard and Premier tiers and 49 on Budget. Nobody aged 70 or over can buy any Big Cat policy, and the quote engine simply refuses to price it. If you are over 70, or over 50 and want the cheapest tier, you need an insurer that specialises in older travellers instead.
Yes. Big Cat sells an already travelling extension, which is unusual in the UK market, provided you still have a permanent UK address. Two conditions apply. A 48 hour waiting period runs from purchase, and any illness that develops inside it is treated as a pre-existing condition and excluded, though an accident is covered immediately if independently witnessed and confirmed by a medical professional. And because you have already started travelling, the 14 day cooling off period does not apply and the premium is not refundable.
Partly. Big Cat includes 70 sports and activities as standard, and covers riding a motorcycle under 125cc, including as a passenger, automatically. The wider list of more than 156 activities, which is where white water rafting, paragliding and skydiving sit, requires a paid Activity Pack or Extreme Activity Pack. Winter sports is a separate add-on section that only applies if the extra premium appears on your Validation Certificate, and it then pays up to £600 of owned equipment and a £700 ski pack on Premier.
Yes, and this is where Big Cat is genuinely hard to replace. One single trip policy can run up to 731 days, and a 12 month worldwide trip for a traveller aged 28 was quoted at £320.93 on Budget and £417.88 on Standard on 30 August 2026. For comparison, when we priced the same 365 day trip through our own comparison for a UK resident, every plan in our set was rejected as too long, so our own catalogue tops out at roughly 11 months.
Only from the Standard tier upwards. Big Cat’s published schedule shows section D, cancellation and curtailment, as N/A on Budget, £3,000 with a £90 excess on Standard, and £7,500 with a £50 excess on Premier. Section E, which covers travel delay, abandoning the trip, missed departure, hijack and seat bumping, is also absent from Budget entirely. If you have flights or accommodation already paid for, Budget is not a cheaper version of the policy, it is a different one.
What is the best alternative to Big Cat travel insurance?
The best alternative to Big Cat travel insurance for a UK traveller depends on one question: how long is the trip. Under about eleven months, our comparison prices plans that cost less than Big Cat Standard for the same dates. Past that, Big Cat is one of very few insurers that will write the risk at all.
Which alternative we would actually pick, and when
If you are heading off for six months with nothing expensive pre-booked, WorldSecure Basic does the job for £239.87 on the exact trip we priced against Big Cat, which is £45.87 less than Big Cat Standard, and its hospital bills are settled directly so you never advance the money. If you are going to dive, ride or climb, WorldSecure Platinum is the only plan in this shortlist that covers risky sports at all, and then only when that option is taken at subscription, so it is the honest match for Big Cat Premier. If you simply want the highest medical ceiling of the three, Safe Start carries about £435,000. And if your trip runs past eleven months, take Big Cat: we would rather tell you that than sell you a policy that expires mid trip. P. Laurore, Co-founder & Travel and Credit Card Insurance Expert at HelloSafe.
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Prices for 1 traveller aged 28, a 6 month trip to Thailand (5 October 2026 to 5 April 2027), departing from the United Kingdom, quoted on 30 August 2026. Adventure sports are covered only on WorldSecure Platinum, and only when the risky sports option is selected at subscription. Policies are pan-European: prices and cover limits are shown in pounds, converted at the live exchange rate.
HelloSafe is available as an app inside ChatGPT. Install it from ChatGPT’s Apps tab, then type @HelloSafe followed by your destination and dates to compare travel insurance.
Two comparisons are worth making before you decide. If your reason for looking at Big Cat is age rather than trip length, read our AllClear travel insurance review, because AllClear is the UK specialist for over 70s and pre-existing conditions and it will quote where Big Cat cannot. If you want another long trip specialist priced against ours, the IATI travel insurance review covers a Spanish insurer that competes on the same backpacking routes, and the Mutuaide travel insurance review looks at an insurer whose strength is assistance and repatriation insurance rather than headline ceilings.
For everything else, our travel insurance comparison prices the whole UK market for your actual dates, in pounds, with no insurer able to pay for a better position.
Last updated on 30 August 2026.
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