“The price of travel insurance is greatly impacted by the destination, with factors like the cost of medical treatment, re-booking flight cancellations and destination-specific risks coming into play,” Frawley says.
A new analysis from Mozo comparing 45 travel insurance policies from 35 travel insurance providers who offer Covid-19 cover has found that jet setters could be paying as much as double if they don’t shop around before purchasing a policy.
“Another interesting finding was that the price of travel insurance varied between destinations, but jet setters could bank massive savings no matter their holiday destination.”
“Rushing into a travel insurance policy without shopping around can be a very costly mistake and set holiday budgets back by hundreds of dollars,” says Claire Frawley, Personal Finance and Insurance Expert at Mozo.
“When you take into account everything from flights to accommodation costing more due to the rising cost of living, as well as the additional risks COVID brings to the table, it is not surprising that the price of travel insurance has increased.”
The analysis compared like-for-like comprehensive travel insurance policies across eight popular travel destinations, including Bali, Thailand, Europe, the UK, USA, Vietnam, Japan and New Zealand, as well as Cruise, Ski and Worldwide holidays.
Travel insurance for New Zealand was the cheapest, costing $223 on average, with savings of up to $485 for those who shop around. Jet setters really need to set aside time to read the fine print of their policy, so they know where they stand if things don’t go to plan,” Frawley says.
But now more than ever it’s important to make sure you are covered before you step onto that plane. The most expensive destination was found to be the USA, coming in at $455, with a massive possible saving of $839. The average difference between the most expensive and cheapest policies across all categories was $621. Compared to Mozo data from 2019, the premium for a family of four has increased by 57% on average for cover in Bali, Thailand, the UK and the USA.
