How much does travel insurance cost?
A travel insurance plan can cover you for unexpected costs incurred before or during your trip. A travel insurance plan can reimburse you for the pre‐paid, non‐refundable portions of a trip if you need to cancel or interrupt your trip for a covered reason. That way, costs are less likely to come out of your own pocket.
There are a few things that can increase your travel insurance policy’s cost, but once you understand what each service does and why it affects the cost, you’ll be able to make an educated choice about what cover you need, and what you can pass on.
Things That Can Affect Cost
Travel insurance typically costs between 4 and 8 percent of your trip’s prepaid non-refundable cost. However, a “cancel for any reason” policy can run you 10 percent of the non-refundable cost or slightly higher. Your policy may be more expensive if you’re older or engaging in a risky activity that makes a claim more likely, but generally speaking, you should be in that range.
The following are the main factors that affect the cost of the different travel insurance plans:
- total trip cost
- length of trip
- age of travellers
- options
- pre-existing conditions
- excess
Customised Travel Insurance Plans
Senior citizens and travellers with pre-existing medical conditions will be required to buy specific travel insurance plans. They will likely pay a little more because it’s deemed more likely that they will have to file a claim. As with all travel insurance plans, always carefully read the PDS to learn the boundaries of your cover before purchasing the plan.
Depending on the travel insurance plan that travellers choose, there are terms of cover that may or may not apply to their policy. Most travel insurance plans include 24/7 assistance services to re‐book flights and hotels on your behalf and act as a personal travel assistant while you are away from home. Some plans even include medical evacuation cover (the price of which may cost upwards of $100,000) and medical expense cover.
Read carefully through the description of each plan and what it does and doesn’t cover. One plus of youGo Travel Insurance is you can customise and adjust your policy to cover exactly what you need without worrying about paying for the fluff you don’t want.
Additional Cover Options
Some travel medical plans also have additional options that a traveller can add to the policy, such as adventure sports cover, that will likely raise the cost slightly, or increased excesses, that will lower the cost slightly.
Travellers who add cover options will pay a little more. Some of these options include:
- “cancel for any reason”
- adventure sports cover
- luggage cover
- non-medical evacuation cover
- concierge services
How Excesses Affect the Total Cost
Per person cover limits, such as the maximum for medical evacuation or life insurance, will affect the cost of the policy. If you choose $50,000 for life insurance protection versus $25,000, your policy will be slightly higher.
Similar to your health policy at home, some travel insurance policies apply excesses to certain benefits. Excess is the out-of-pocket amount a traveller is responsible for before insurance begins picking up the remaining costs.
If you select a higher excess amount, say $200 versus $100 for emergency medical, then your travel insurance plan will cost less.
Making adjustments to the plan to suit your comfort level is a great way to keep the cost of travel insurance affordable for your specific budget.
Summary
- Travel insurance costs 4-8% of the total trip cost
- Trip cost, trip length, and age of travellers are the main pricing factors
- Policy add-ons or upgraded cover limits can affect price
There’s no authoritative buyer’s guide that can tell you if you’re looking at a bargain policy or a rip-off. That’s because no two travel insurance policies are exactly the same. Do the research, compare travel insurance plans and then get a quote from youGo Travel Insurance to see if our policies match your needs and your budget.