Travel Insurance

Important steps before buying travel insurance

The last thing you want is to end up with a policy that doesn’t cover what you need. So to get you started here’s a few things you should consider:

1. Check smartraveller.gov.au to make sure your destination is safe to visit.
2. Confirm that all people named on the policy are residents of Australia. If you are in Australia on a working holiday VISA, a sponsorship VISA or even a student VISA, it’s important for you to have valid Medicare cover, or private health insurance, for the length of your trip.
3. Make sure you buy your policy before you start your trip. If you buy it after you’ve left it will be invalid.
4. Talk to us about your pre-existing medical conditions, we can tell you if you’re covered and under what circumstances you can make a claim relating to your condition. It’s really important that you’re open and honest about this, because if you don’t declare your conditions you may invalidate your policy.
5. Work out if you’re willing to pay an excess. An excess is the amount you will have to pay towards the claim yourself. For example, having a $200 excess reduces your premium, but if you make a claim you would need to pay the first $200 yourself. Conversely, if you chose to waive the excess, your policy would be more expensive but you would get 100% of the claim back, provided your claim is approved and does not exceed your policies limit. Find more info about excess here.
6. Read the Product Disclosure Statement. We know its super boring and long, but it could save you a world of headaches later on. If there’s something in particular you’re not sure about hitting ctrl F on the page and searching for the words (eg camel back riding) will show you the section to look at.

Travel Inspiration

Why is travel insurance so important?

Smartraveller.gov.au and the Department of Foreign Affairs recommend that every traveller take out holiday insurance before they leave Australia, no matter how safe they feel their trip will be. If you need medical treatment, have your passport stolen or need emergency assistance to get the help you need, then travel insurance can assist you. When you’re back from holidays, you want to come away with happy memories, souvenirs to remember your trip by, and an eagerness to plan your next getaway. Nobody wants or expects a medical emergency, but sometimes things do go wrong, and costs can quickly skyrocket into the tens of thousands. With travel insurance, we worry about the cost of things like emergency transport, so that you can concentrate on getting well again - you don’t need hundreds of thousands in hospital bills (yep, that happens more often than you think!) to follow you home.

Even if you don’t need a specially commissioned aircraft carrier with onboard medical personnel, you may need coverage for more ‘normal’ emergencies, like lost or stolen baggage, travel delays or damaged valuables. We offer natural disaster coverage as an option as well, because some areas of the world are more prone to natural disasters than others: Bali ash clouds are almost regular occurrences now, so if you want cover for that, it’s really important that you choose the optional add-on.

In Australia, getting cheap travel insurance directly from a provider could be easier than what you think. Simply request a quote online and compare different levels of cover. Most of the time it’s just a fraction of your airline ticket and it can even work out equivalent to one dinner out while you’re away. Try to think of travel insurance as part of the necessities of travel, rather than something you might splurge on.

* Price derived from a single trip of 5 days, Individual, age 30, to New Zealand, Pacific & Bali region. Cover for pre-existing medical may require an extra premium.
** Price derived from a single trip of 21 days, Individual, age 30, to New Zealand, Pacific & Bali region. Cover for pre-existing medical may require an extra premium.