A guide to travel insurance – Part 2

FEATURE

By Balkish Rosly

SaveMoney.my began our guide to travel insurance last week by explaining exactly what it is and what it entails. This week, we continue with an explanation of the types of travel insurance policies. Read on to learn more!

Types of travel insurance

Before you march up to the insurance company or click the “purchase” button on the airline website, you have to first decide which type of plan suits you best. So how do you find out? It depends on the following factors:

1. Coverage area

Planning a holiday? Great! But first of all, where are you heading? From what we can suss out, there are three major coverage areas included in the travel insurance plans:

Domestic
The domestic travel insurance cover areas within Malaysia only and generally has the cheapest premium (our research shows this can start from RM11 and above). Basically, the domestic plan will cover the expenses of any accidental or loss that you might experience while travelling within Malaysia. On the other hand, this type of travel insurance sometimes lack the extensive coverage and protection that comes with other bigger coverage areas.

A quick note: Premium means the cost of insurance, i.e. how much you have to pay in order to get the insurance.

Asia
Usually, Asia basically means just that â€" the whole of Asia countries such as China, India, and the slew of Arab countries. However, some insurance companies do tend to separate these countries into South East Asia (or ASEAN) and Asia Pacific region. While it is less comprehensive, this could actually be a good thing â€" purely because you might just get a cheaper premium if the insurance company split up the region and covers less countries. For example:

Travel insurance company

Insurance Name

Coverage Area

Premium Range (RM)

Lonpac

TravelNet (South East Asia)

Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia

RM18 To RM125 (VIP)

Lonpac

TravelNet (Asia Pacific)

South East Asia, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Langka

RM26 to RM138 (VIP)

So if you are boarding a plane to say, Thailand, you can actually get a cheaper premium price.

Worldwide
Similar to the ‘Asia’ definition, Worldwide also sometimes consists of several categories. The most common that we’ve come across are: Worldwide including USA and Canada (usually comes with a higher premium) and Worldwide excluding USA and Canada. Also remember that the worldwide category tends to cost way more than the Domestic and Asia regions, mainly because it covers more areas on the globe. Basically, when you purchase this type of insurance, you will be protected in all the major countries in the world (lost your luggage in Timbuktu? No problem! You will be compensated by your insurance provider). But obviously this comes with a price, as Worldwide is usually the most expensive option.

Stay tuned next week for SaveMoney.my’s next instalment, as we cover another factor that’s important to selecting your type of travel insurance, as well as detailing where to get them.

Balkish Rosly is an Investigative Journalist of SaveMoney.my, an online consumer advice portal which aims to help Malaysians save money through smart (and most of the time painless) savings in their daily banking, technology, and lifestyle spending habits.