How to choose and buy travel insurance abroad

Good travel insurance is not as expensive as it seems. But many people are very frivolous about travel insurance, buying an international insurance policy solely for obtaining a visa: cheaper, faster, without reading into the conditions. This approach is fundamentally wrong, especially if you are going on a trip with children or have some chronic diseases. Choosing the right travel insurance is easy if you know what to pay attention to.

Below I will share my experience of choosing travel insurance and tell you about the subtleties and nuances of the work of insurance companies.

How to choose travel insurance

To choose a good travel insurance, you need to pay attention to:

1. Assistance — you need to choose insurance according to the assistance with which it works, and not by price.
2. The amount of insurance coverage — for visas of most countries, insurance with coverage of 30 thousand $ is sufficient. To obtain a Schengen visa (Schengen), the minimum amount of insurance coverage should be 30,000 euros. If you are going to Thailand, take out insurance with $50,000 coverage. It will be a little more expensive, but hospitals will have no questions. Medicine in Thailand is expensive, and insurance for 30 thousand rubles.$ questions began to appear.
3. No deductible — I advise you to take out insurance without a deductible, so as not to have problems later shaking money out of the insurance.

The list can be continued, but these three points are the most important. If you don’t understand the terms “franchise” and “assistance”, I’ll tell you in detail what it is below.

How do I choose insurance for Schengen?

My rating of the most reliable travel insurance in 2024

I went through a bunch of reviews on the forums and compiled a list of the most reliable insurance companies for their assistance in 2024:

1. Allianz — works with Mondial Global Assistacne, which has 99% positive reviews. Reliable insurance without surprises. You can buy insurance abroad online on the Instore website →
2. TripInsurance has been the best and most reliable insurance for several years in a row. In 2018, we began to work not with one assistance, but with a pool of assistance in order to organize assistance faster. There is an application through which you can get a doctor’s consultation online. There is a $50 deductible for trips longer than 21 days (except trips to Schengen countries). You can buy it while abroad (there will be a deductible of $ 50). There are both short-term and annual insurance options. Good coverage of chronic diseases. You can buy insurance abroad online on the tripinsurance website with a 5% discount → or install the Tripinsurance app (here is a link to the Android and iOS apps page). Insurance is slightly cheaper in the app.
3. Insurance — it works with Class Assistance, and for Thailand and Indonesia there is a Russian-language Best Service Assistance. There is no franchise. You can buy it even if you are already traveling abroad. For sale online on the Cheryokhapi website →
4. ERV is one of the best insurance coverage. It even covers pregnancy up to the 31st week. You can buy a policy on InstoreTravel.
5. Liberty (with reservations) — works with Class Assistance (since 2016). You can buy it while abroad. There is a franchise in the Southeast Asian region (Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and other countries). You can buy insurance from Liberty online on the Cheryokhapi website →

I bought and used all the insurance from the list, except for ERV. My friends used this insurance, and the insurance showed its best side.

⭕ Which insurance to choose in Thailand →

Allianz and TripInsurance insurance suitable for everyone — both for travelers and winterers. Both insurance companies have a 365-day policy option, i.e. a year-round policy.

The popular insurance company Ingosstrakh works with different assistance depending on the country of travel: Asiser Assistance (Andorra, Italy, Cuba and the Dominican Republic), Remed Assistance (Spain, Turkey, Thailand, Bulgaria, Egypt), Smile Assistance (for all other countries). The assistance companies are good, and the price tag for insurance is good, if only for a deductible of $ 50. In Southeast Asian countries with such a franchise, it makes no sense to take out insurance.

The insurance company “Consent”, which I recently advised as an alternative to ERV and Tripinshurance, changed the assisting company from Class Assistance to AP Companies and lost my trust (read reviews about AP Companies on the example of Thailand below).

The insurance from Tinkoff good conditions, because insurance includes the treatment of exacerbation of chronic diseases, which is not in every insurance. But Tinkoff works with Europ assistance, as does Absolut Insurance, and we had a negative experience with Europ Assistance (read what and how it was), and I will not recommend them.

Insurance from Liberty is a good inexpensive option for winterers, because they allow you to stay in the country of travel for up to six months:

1.4.3. “Place of permanent residence”:
1.4.3.1. during a foreign trip — the country of the Insured’s actual stay for 183 or more (in aggregate) calendar days during the 12 months preceding the event with signs of an insured event, or the country in which the Insured has issued citizenship (including a second one) or a residence permit.
The country indicated in the policy as the territory of insurance should not be a place of permanent residence

But Liberty has another nuance. If you buy a policy directly on the company’s website, then it will be with a franchise, and if on the Cheryokhapi website, then without a franchise. But! For Southeast Asian countries, Liberty insurance includes a deductible of $ 30 even on Cheryokhape.

VTB Insurance works with GVA, offers low prices. There used to be a lot of negativity about GVA, now the reviews have become better. You can choose as a budget insurance, but it’s better to look towards Zetta or Consent. If you choose to travel to Thailand, Malaysia, Bali, then you should take into account that insurance does not cover Dengue fever.

How to choose insurance for Thailand →

Rosgosstrakh offers insurance at good prices and cooperates with a number of assisting companies (GVA, Europ Assistance, Fidelitas Assistance, Savitar Group, Balt Assistance). The problem is that assistance is assigned only upon the occurrence of an insured event, and you never know in advance whether it will be GVA or Savitar.

I applied to the hospital for insurance in different countries: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. The most reliable insurance is Tripinsurance.

What is tour insurance, and how does it work?

It is easier to choose travel insurance if you know the basic concepts on which not only the price of insurance depends, but also the service itself. Let’s start with the most important thing: let’s figure out how travel insurance works, who the assistance is and why it is needed.

If you know what travel insurance abroad is, you can safely move on to the next section. And for those who don’t know how it all works, I’ll explain now.

Medical travel insurance — this is an insurance that will pay for your treatment in another country. But this does not mean that you can buy honey. insurance, go to Israel for medical treatment and demand that the insurance company pay for everything. Travel insurance will pay for treatment only when you are on vacation and something has happened to you. For example, food poisoning, fracture, or appendicitis. With chronic diseases, things are more complicated. Often, the insurance company agrees only to stop the exacerbation, and will offer you treatment at your own expense at home.

At the med. traveler’s insurance has coverage — this is the amount that the insurance company undertakes to spend on your treatment. The question is often asked “I got sick, the doctor’s appointment cost $ 100, when will the insurance pay me $29900?”. No, tour. insurance doesn’t work that way. You pay a small amount once, and the insurance company undertakes to treat you for the amount of coverage if you get sick or something happens to you abroad.

The next important concept is assistance.

Assistance — a service that organizes assistance to the traveler in case of an insured event. The assistance contacts the hospital, finds out the prices and transmits it all to the Insurance company from which the policy was purchased. The insurance company either agrees or starts haggling. For example, our friend, having an accident in Bali, waited for the operation for more than 8 hours while VTB was negotiating with the Bali hospital.

The speed of the assistance depends on the speed of the doctor’s call, receipt of payment to the hospital and other important communications. The choice of both insurance and assistance needs to be approached very, very seriously.

The deductible in the tour insurance is the amount that the traveler pays out of his pocket in case of anything. For example, a tourist “walked, fell, woke up — a cast,” and all this cost him $ 150. The insurance he took out has a deductible of $100. This means that the tourist will pay $ 100 himself, and the insurance will cover only $ 50.

Recently, a lot of insurers have introduced frashiza. Liberty has a franchise ($30 for Southeast Asian countries), IngosStrakh (for all $ 50), Renaissance ($50), Reso ($50), TripInsurance (only for trips > 21 days a franchise of $ 50 is introduced), Zetta ($50).

On the one hand, the deductible makes insurance cheaper, i.e. it is a way to save money. On the other hand, it is always a risk to pay for treatment out of pocket.

Although insurance with a deductible is cheap, our advice is: do not take insurance with a deductible to countries with expensive medicine.

The last important term I want to talk about is the insurance coverage period. There is an international insurance policy:

• short—term – covers a specific number of days abroad. For example, when we went to Cyprus for 8 days, we made ourselves short-term insurance for exactly 8 days;
• annual — valid for a whole year, depending on the type:

1) annual policy with unlimited number of trips, each of which is no more than 90 days. This type of insurance is ideal for active travelers who make many trips abroad, each time returning to their homeland. For winterers, who often leave for six months, such insurance will not work.

Annual policies with an unlimited number of trips for 90 days are very popular. The price depends on the amount of coverage and the country of travel. You can buy annual insurance, for example, from Liberty with coverage of $ 30 thousand, for 8 thousand rubles. ERV offers annual insurance with coverage of 100 thousand.$ for 6000 rubles, TripInsurance for 10 thousand rubles, Alpha insurance (Class Assistance) for 9 thousand rubles.

2) annual insurance policy for 365 days — no matter how many trips abroad, because the policy works 365 days a year without lunch breaks and weekends. Unfortunately, this is the most expensive type of insurance. Alfa-insurance offers annual insurance for 365 days for 75 thousand rubles, Zetta for 45 thousand, Liberty for 43 thousand. TripInsurance has such insurance called Multitrip and costs 40 thousand rubles, and is valid in all countries except the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Caribbean, Thailand and Russia.

Annual insurance for 365 days is an ideal option for a long trip around the world.

The price of insurance is a tour. insurance varies the cost depending on:

• depending on the country, there are countries with a high level of risk, for example, Thailand, or countries with very expensive medicine, for example, the USA and Australia.
• depending on the age of the insured, the insurance price is higher for children and the elderly;
• from additional risks — for example, extreme sports, ski insurance, driving;
• the longer the trip, the more expensive it is.

There are also other factors that affect the cost of insurance. For example, additional options “loss of documents”, “flight delay”, “emergency evacuation”, etc.

What types of insurance are there for travelers

For most cases, the most common travel insurance for trips abroad is suitable.

There is insurance for ski sports. It is calculated with additional risks, therefore it is more expensive than the usual tour insurance. TripInsurance insurance for skiers costs from 1000 rubles for 5 days (use the promo code COUNTRY for an additional discount).

If you plan to engage in extreme sports during your trip / vacation (all types of surfing, diving, snorkeling, cycling fall into this category — in general, everything except lying on a chaise longue with a cocktail in hand), then you need extended travel insurance.

There is also insurance for the ticket. Recently, I have been asked the question “do I need insurance for an air ticket?” In my opinion, such insurance is needed if you are afraid of being late for connecting flights or are afraid that your flight will be delayed. If the flight is direct and punctuality is not important, then insurance is not needed.

But if you have valuable luggage, then be sure to make insurance for the ticket!

Useful: How do I decide if I need insurance for an air ticket?

The pitfalls of low-cost insurance

When we chose insurance for ourselves, we reread a lot of conditions from different insurance companies and that’s what we realized:

• the cheapest insurance in which case only offers relief of pain syndrome — in other words, it is pain relief, not for treatment;
• translator at your own expense;
• calls to the insurance company at your own expense;
• the number of free visits to the doctor and the number of procedures in the hospital (for example, bandages) is strictly limited — often 2 visits, the rest is at your own expense;
• They do not cover tropical fevers and sun allergies;
• they have a franchise.

Of course, it is better to buy even the cheapest insurance than to go on vacation without insurance at all. But think about it: do you want to butt heads with insurance instead of getting help in the hospital?

Important Details when insurance stops working

Please note that if you drive a moped in Thailand (or in any other country) without a license, then your insurance automatically stops working. If you surf, make sure that your insurance includes active sports activities.

Don’t forget to add the “Exercise” option to your insurance policy

In most insurance policies, you need to additionally enable the “Bike driving” option. The price of insurance increases at the same time. But! If you drive a bike without a license valid in the territory of the country of insurance, then the insurance will also not work. This should be borne in mind, because in Thailand our customary rights do not apply, we need to get local ones (read more here).

If you were drinking alcohol when the injury occurred, the insurance will not cover the costs in 99% of cases.

Insurance companies will not pay for chronic illnesses. In this case, many travelers are advised to keep silent about the chronic nature of the disease at the first call to the assistance. Let the doctor examine and prescribe treatment.

Payment for pregnancy and childbirth is also not covered by insurance.

If a military coup or a terrorist attack or a natural disaster suddenly occurs in the country of rest, then some insurance policies also stop working.

Our insurance review: TripInsurance with Allianz (formerly Mondial Assistance), Absolut with Europ

During our travels, we had to go to the hospital several times for various reasons. There are several articles on the blog reviews about the work of one or another insurance:

• Our experience of applying to a TripInsurance hospital in Bali
• Treatment at the hospital for TripInsurance insurance in Thailand (Koh Samui)
• Experience of applying to a hospital for insurance with Europ Assistance in Malaysia

How to save money on insurance in Southeast Asian countries?

If you plan to visit several Southeast Asian countries in one trip, you can make insurance for the whole region. This is very convenient: if you suddenly want to go to another country, then add. there is no need to do insurance. This is where the catch lies, because the cost of insurance is calculated according to the most expensive country in the region.

So, empirically, we found out that if you make insurance separately to Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, you can save several thousand rubles. Thailand has an increased risk factor, so insurance in Thailand is more expensive.

If you are already traveling, then, for example, it is cheaper to take out insurance for a month to Malaysia/Indonesia from TripInsurance than from the same Liberty.

The main thing is not to forget that not all insurance companies make policies for travelers who are already abroad. This is one time. The second point is, if you are already traveling, then you need to take out new insurance at least 7 days before the end of the old one. This is how insurance companies get rid of unscrupulous travelers who take out a policy only when something has happened.

Where can I buy travel insurance online?

There are several sites where you can make insurance online. We can recommend Cheryokhapa or TripInsurance. A detailed overview of the sites where you can buy insurance →

If you want to save on insurance, then look for a policy on Cheryokhape — there are more than 12 insurance companies, from the cheapest to the most reliable. Which insurance companies should be avoided, we wrote just above.

If you need reliable insurance, then definitely choose TripInsurance.

Источник: life-thai.com