It pays to shop around for your travel insurance as you could be saving over $200 on similar policies, according to a new report by price comparison website Mozo.com.au.
It also highlights that adventure cruisers should read the fine print to make sure they have the cover they need.
The report assessed 243 travel insurance policies from 66 different insurers and found that 11 per cent provided no cruise coverage, 35 per cent offer it as an optional extra, and 54 per cent automatically cover it.
“Whether you’re heading to Bali, Thailand or the UK, we found that when it comes to the country’s best value travel insurance policies it really does pay to do the legwork with savings of almost $200 to be made on similar policies,” Kirsty Lamont Director of Mozo says.
Using a nine-day South Pacific cruise as a reference, they also managed to find the cheapest policies that provide ‘comprehensive’ levels of cover for a cruise in the South Pacific for nine days (i.e. unlimited medical cover, at least $7,500 of luggage cover and $15,000 cancellation cover).
The policies that take the crown are the ‘Comprehensive’ cover with Simply Travel Insurance, Travel with Kit and both the ‘Essentials’ and ‘Top’ cover with World2Cover, which cost from $43 to $53 per person.
For comparison, the cheapest basic insurance option starts from $23.18 with Budget Direct and goes up to $83 on the premium cover with Cover More.
“The reason we don’t just give the value awards to the cheapest policy is because there is significant variation between the features offered by different travel insurance policies and we don’t know customers preferences. A customer might prefer a slightly more expensive policy that offer slightly more cover,” says Mozo.
Cruisers should also note that while some general policies provide automatic cover, they may not include cover for shore excursions cancellation, missed cruise departure, cabin confinement, missed ports and ship evacuations.
Adventure cruisers should check the fine print
Mozo advises people who are going on adventurous holidays to read the fine print of the policy to make sure they get a policy that specifically covers the adventure activities in their plans. Don’t automatically assume that you’re covered.
The fine print of the policies often includes a list of excluded activities, the most common ones being: mountaineering (83%), rock climbing (75%) and skydiving (60%).
“If you’re going on a more adventurous holiday selecting the right policy for the activities you’re planning could save you a small fortune if things don’t go to plan,” says Ms Lamont.
According to InsureandGo’s website, their cruise policy covers you for the air land and sea portion of your international journey.
So that will include shore excursions that you book with cruise lines or independently at various port of calls.
For some activities like Canopy walking or tree-top walking and Go-karting, they must also be booked with a commercial operator in order to be eligible for coverage.
“If you’re going on a more adventurous holiday selecting the right policy for the activities you’re planning could save you a small fortune if things don’t go to plan,” says Ms Lamont.
Here’s an example of how policies can differ in their exclusion of activities in the fine print.
Covermore excludes “mountaineering or rock climbing using guides, ropes, rock climbing equipment or oxygen” as well as scuba diving “unless you hold an Open Water Diving Certificate or are diving with a qualified diving instructor”.
Meanwhile with InsureandGo, the company differentiates outdoor and indoor rock climbing. Outdoor rock climbing is excluded but indoor rock climbing with harness is covered to an extent.
The policy does not include coverage for accidental death and permanent disability and personal liability and also does not require the activity to be booked with a commercial operator.
For scuba diving, InsureandGo states coverage for a maximum depth of 30 metres. Qualified divers must not be diving alone while unqualified divers must be with an instructor and booked with a commercial operator.
Vote in this year’s special Readers’ Choice Awards
No doubt 2020 will go down in cruise history as the year of the pandemic – a once in a generation event. And this year’s Cruise Passenger Readers’ Choice Awards will reflect it.