If you’re backing yourself with travel insurance you’re already winning! But did you know there are ways to make your travel insurance work even harder for you?
The finer details of travel insurance can feel like a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Beyond the must-know info like what’s covered and how to claim, few travellers delve deeper. That’s why I’d like to unpack a few of the things I’ve learned about travel insurance that felt like news to me. Knowing things like how to reduce your claims excess and how to extend your policy are excellent hacks that help you get more out of your travel insurance. Read on for 5 travel insurance hacks to master before your next trip!
1. REDUCE CLAIMS EXCESS
If you’ve never had to claim on a travel insurance policy you’ve probably never encountered ‘excess’.
Much like the excess your car insurer charges you on car claims, so to will an excess fee apply to most travel insurance cover items like lost and stolen baggage, or emergency medical.
Typically excess is charged per item – so if you’re claiming on a few mishaps under the one policy you could be hit with a hefty excess bill. If the concept of excess is new to you, then you also probably don’t know that you can reduce your excess to $0 by ‘buying out’ your excess upfront. Travel with Jane allows you to make excess go away by paying $25 to buy out excess at the time of buying your policy. See more on reducing your excess to $0 here.
2. EXTEND YOUR POLICY
Has your trip turned into the never ending summer? If you’re extending your trip, how about extending your travel insurance too?
But rather than buy a new policy, most insurers allow you to extend your existing travel insurance to cover the new days away.
To extend Travel with Jane insurance you need to call up at least two days before your policy expires. You can only do this once, but you extend up to a maximum combined duration of 12 months. See more about extending your policy here.
3. CANCEL YOUR POLICY
Did you know you typically get 14 days in which to mull over your travel insurance purchase and cancel if you need to?
Whether you need to cancel because your trip’s been grounded, or for any other reason, you can use what’s known as the ‘cooling off period’ to call up your insurer and cancel your travel insurance policy.
With Travel with Jane, the conditions are pretty simple. You can cancel as long as your trip hasn’t started yet, you haven’t claimed on your policy, and you cancel within 14 days from the day you bought your policy. See more about cancelling your policy here.
4. ANNUAL MULTI TRIP COVER
Frequent travellers will be all over this one, but if you’re new to the game, annual multi trip travel insurance can be a massive saver.
As the name suggests, annual multi trip travel insurance covers you for many trips made in the one year with a comprehensive level of cover. So if you’re racking up the air miles to visit family, or travelling overseas for work, an annual multi trip policy gives you better bang for buck than re-insuring each trip.
Buying travel insurance once, instead of multiple times in a year is also a far more convenient way to do things!
5. WINTER SPORTS COVER
Ski holidays are exxy enough without thinking about the price tag that comes with a winter sports injury or accident. If you’re new to travel insurance, or new to winter sports, you might not know that the vast majority of injuries related to alpine activities are most definitely not covered by regular travel insurance. However no need to tape yourself up in bubble wrap!
Most insurers offer optional coverage for winter sports designed for the sorts of mishaps that can happen on the slopes.
Travel with Jane’s optional winter sports benefit covers you for the typical stuff like recreational, cross-country and heli-skiing and snowboarding as well as off-piste skiing or snowboarding with a professional instructor. Check out the full list of what’s covered here.
There’s always a smarter way to travel. The same goes for how you buy travel insurance. Hopefully these 5 hacks will come in handy next time you’re hunting for travel cover. To see what Travel with Jane could do for you, check out our Lite and Luxe travel insurance options.
