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With daily news stories of delayed and canceled flights, lost baggage, and travelers stranded overseas in the middle of a natural disaster, it's easy to see why travel insurance is so important. Like most types of insurance, travel insurance is bought in the hopes that you'll never need it. But, for most travelers, it's worth the price for the protection it provides.
Have you ever thought that this coverage was just an unnecessary, added expense? That's fairly common: most people assume that they've got protection through their credit card company, their regular health insurance, even their homeowners' policy. In some situations, that may be accurate - but unless you know the details of those types of coverage, you're more likely to be left paying out-of-pocket expenses you thought were taken care of... but aren't included.
Tuesday, March 28th
SquareMouth has helped more than two million customers to find the right travel insurance. This service brings you quotes from more than 30 top names in the industry and makes it easy to compare their coverage and benefits. Over the last year alone, SquareMouth sold nearly $100 million in travel insurance policies.
Best selection of insurers and policies here
To make a fair comparison across travel insurance websites, we used the profile of two 35-year old travelers taking a $3,000 trip to Mexico in six months, paid in full on the date we requested the quote. Naturally, because SquareMouth is a referral service, we got many more options than with platforms that only offer policies from a single insurer: 56 that best matched our search criteria, out of a total of 102. The top five policies ranged in price from $106 to $208 and included plans from Trawick International, Seven Corners, Tin Leg, Generali Global Assistance, and IMG.
Information at a glance
What we really like about using SquareMouth is how easy it is to see at a glance what each policy has to offer. On our list, we noticed right away that one insurer was a Forbes 5-Star Travel Insurance Provider in the previous calendar year, another was featured by Forbes for offering superior coverage during the pandemic, and a third got kudos from Forbes for its travel delay benefits. All policies had a preview of the coverage for COVID-related cancellations or medical, trip cancellation and interruption, medical evacuation and general medical benefits. It was also very easy to click the "Compare Policy" checkboxes and see any travel insurance that we wanted to see side-by-side.
Easy to compare
Another thing we liked about SquareMouth is how easy it is to compare all the policies they match you with. You can sort the results by least expensive to most expensive, and use their side-by-side comparison tool to evaluate the details of each policy.
Take advantage of thousands of customer ratings
Another big benefit of using a referral platform like SquareMouth is being able to see hundreds - or thousands - of reviews from other travelers. Every quote tells you how many policies that company has sold via SquareMouth and since what year, plus ratings from clients. You can click on the "Full Policy Detail" and read what clients have said, while getting the complete information about any travel insurance coverage you're considering.
No upselling here
We also appreciate that this travel insurance service aims to "downsell" you: in other words, they'll recommend the lowest-priced policy that still matches the coverage you need. SquareMouth doesn't base its sales on commissions, so there's no reason for them to push policies that are more costly.
Terrific variety of travel insurance types
A final reason to consider getting your travel insurance through SquareMouth is the variety of coverage types available here. Our quote was for a traditional single-trip policy, but what if you're an avid traveler who wants to cover multiple trips in a year? Or you're taking a cruise? Maybe you're an adventurer participating in skydiving, an athlete competing in amateur sports competitions, or bringing expensive gear for skiing or scuba? When you get an insurance quote from a single insurer, the answer may be "no" , but through SquareMouth you can find policies from companies that will say "absolutely!" .
Disappointing drop in the BBB rating
All of these positives are why we were shocked to see that since our last review, SquareMouth's listing with the Better Business Bureau had dropped to a "D-" for failing to respond to 13 customer complaints. That's not a huge number, but we were puzzled to see that most of those were in the most recent one-year period. We wonder what SquareMouth's excuse would be for not addressing such a small number of client concerns.
Digging deeper
However, this disappointment should not be a huge factor in whether you use SquareMouth. Why? If you look at the BBB complaints, you'll see that they're all related to failures on the end of the insurer - not SquareMouth. So, they logged their complaints with SquareMouth, when really their complaints were with an entirely different company. Of course, ultimately your satisfaction with your travel insurance will depend on that insurance company.
Outstanding choice
Overall, SquareMouth is an outstanding place to shop for travel insurance. We love being able to see thousands and thousands of customer ratings - and this site offers more client reviews than any other provider we evaluated. With their large insurance network, you'll get a competitive quote and be able to check out other customer reviews and comments. Once again they earn high marks in our review of travel insurance providers.
Insure My Trip was one of the world's first comparison sites for travel insurance, founded in 2000. There are more than 20 insurers offered through Insure My Trip, with thousands of plans that might match your needs. You'll have a hard time finding another site that makes it easier to get the right policy.
Easy to get started
We started out the quote process with a sample traveler profile: a $3,000 trip to Mexico for two 35-year-olds, about six months in the future. Along with our residence, citizenship, and initial trip payment date, that was all we needed to do to get a matching list of policies.
Get three top recommendations right away
Right away, we noticed that Insure My Trip offers three top-recommended plans:
That's a fantastic way to save time trying to compare individual plans: our fictitious travelers had more than 40 policies in "their" results list. Those three recommended plans were priced from $106.96 to $144 and came from Nationwide, IMG, and Berkshire Hathaway.
Use the filters to set any preferences
Whether you look just at your three recommended plans, or opt to view all of the ones that fit your needs, you can always click the "Compare" checkbox to see any policies side by side. We noticed that none of those three recommended plans offered "Cancel For Any Reason" , but customers can get the results rearranged by going to the filter at the top of the page. It defaults to "Recommended" , but when we selected "Comprehensive" we were given checkboxes to select Cancel For Any Reason, Cancel For Work Reasons, Pre-Existing Condition Waiver, and so on. Be sure to use this feature if there are specific things you want to cover.
Read customer reviews - especially ones that filed claims
We really like being able to read through customer reviews on each of the insurers quoted by Insure My Trip. It's particularly helpful to use the "filed claim" checkbox to display only the ratings coming from clients who put each service to the test. After all, it's easy for an insurance company to score a high rating when their customers' only experience is with buying the policy in the first place; not as easy to do when it's time to pay out for a covered expense.
Best Plans Guarantee
That's part of Insure My Trip's Best Plans Guarantee. New plans and providers get a six-month grace period to sell policies and get reviews. Any insurer that doesn't demonstrate a good track record of meeting customer expectations loses its place on the platform.
Anytime Advocates service
While some travel insurance referral sites offer little to no help in working with the insurers when there's a claim, Insure My Trip takes the opposite approach. Their Anytime Advocates program offers claims assistance and dispute resolution, with the help of 40 on-staff licensed travel insurance reps who will intervene with the insurance companies when needed. According to the company, travelers have saved (or been reimbursed) more than $1.25 million through this advocacy program.
More than 20,000 five-star ratings
Insure My Trip earned an "A+" and accreditation from the Better Business Bureau, with only eight complaints filed in the last three years. Customer reviews and comments on Insure My Trip left in other places are overwhelmingly positive, with more than 20,000 five-star ratings. They praise everything you'd anticipate: lots of insurers and policies to choose from, great support from the advocate team, and an overall smooth experience from quote to claim (when needed).
Great site for travel insurance needs
Insure My Trip has a lot going for it. They offer a wide variety of top-notch insurers, an easy-to-navigate website, and excellent advocacy when customers need to make claims. Along with a strong reputation, they continue to rise in our rankings. Insure My Trip is a great place to shop for your travel insurance needs.
Travel Insurance gives you the chance to compare policies from 15 different insurers, all with a simple quote form. You can also take advantage of their informative articles before you ever even look at a policy, covering topics like whether or not Medicare will cover you while abroad or the differences between primary and secondary travel insurance coverage.
Easy-peasy to get a quote
To make a fair comparison across travel insurance websites, we created a traveler profile: two individuals (age 35) going to Mexico for a week, about six months in the future, and paying a total of $3,000. How did Travel Insurance do? We liked that once we entered the basic profile information, we were offered a series of filters to narrow down the choices among the 22 matching plans in our initial results. Those included a pre-existing condition exclusion waiver, cancel for any reason, car rental collision coverage, and so on.
Simple process to browse and compare policies
Even without selecting any of those filters, our results were easy to understand. The lowest-priced policy in our Travel Insurance quote was Trawick's Safe Travels Explorer Plus: it was 99% recommended by previous clients on this site (purchased by nearly 50,000 people) and affordably priced at $65.72 for both of our fictitious travelers. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Travel Guard's Deluxe policy came in at $339.42, was purchased by more than 11,000 Travel Insurance clients, and was 98^% recommended. For any plans we liked, we could click the "add to compare" checkbox and see all of the benefits laid out side-by-side.
No multi-trip policies quoted here
What's missing? The only aspect that jumped out at us was that we didn't see any options for annual coverage: there was nothing in the quote form that allowed for entry of multiple trips within a 12-month period. You'll have to use a different travel insurance website if that's the kind of policy you need.
"A+" from the BBB
Travel Insurance gets an "A+" and accreditation from the Better Business Bureau, with only 6 complaints filed (and resolved) in the three years leading up to our review. Client feedback elsewhere is really positive, with 90% recommending this platform as a good place to buy a policy. But, remember that your real experience will be with the insurer of the plan you choose, and not necessarily with Travel Insurance itself.
Helpful support team
That being said, we were glad to see comments from clients who needed to make a claim and were able to get help from Travel Insurance to get a resolution. In several instances, Travel Insurance reps escalated issues or provided alternate contact information for the insurance company that moved things along more quickly.
No concerns here
Travel Insurance could be a solid starting point for buying coverage for your next trip. It would be helpful if they added multi-trip/annual coverage to their policy options, to be more competitive with some of the services we evaluated. However, we can still give Travel Insurance a big thumbs-up as a site worth using to compare policies.
Travelex Insurance is on a mission to provide "the best travel protection in the world while remaining true to the company's Midwestern values" . Headquartered in Nebraska and in business for over 25 years, this company is part of the Cover-More Group, a subsidiary of Zurich Insurance Group.
Just 3 plans to consider - with available upgrades
There are three main travel insurance plans to choose from here:
Extra plans for other situations
When you're getting your quote, you may also spot links under the Plan Options for Post-Departure and Flight. Those will take you to Travelex's insurance policies for medical coverage after you've already left home, as well as an option for just covering your flights and nothing else.
Smooth site navigation
The quote platform here runs very smoothly, with just a few required questions and an easy-to-understand display of the options that match your travel plans. It was also nice to enter our information once and get every possible insurance plan, instead of having to input it over and over (like we had to do with some of Travelex's rivals).
Good reputation with the BBB
Travelex Insurance has a perfect score with the Better Business Bureau: "A+" and accreditation. We were pleased to see that there were only 25 complaints filed there in the last three years, which is pretty impressive for a company with a history spanning 25+ years.
Ignore the money transfer reviews
Don't get confused when you look for customer comments about this travel insurance company - because it often gets mixed up with Travelex for money transfers. They both seem to be operated by Zurich, but they're operated separately from one another. When we finally found the reviews from travel insurance policyholders, they were mostly positive. A few people had some issues with getting claims paid, but by and large they were handled well and within a reasonable amount of time.
Solid overall choice for travel protection
Travelex Insurance offers a nice range of policies that can cover just about every trip you could dream up. We feel especially enthusiastic about their Travel America option; how can you beat a flat rate of $60? While you'd obviously have more options by starting your search with a referral platform instead of going directly to the insurer, rest assured that no matter how you wind up with Travelex, you'll be in great hands for your travel insurance.
RoamRight is the brand name of Arch Insurance Company: though the RR name has only been around since 2012, its parent company has been underwriting travel insurance policies for more than 50 years. You'll often find RoamRight policies quoted on travel insurance referral sites - like most of the comparison platforms in our review.
6 plans to choose from
There are six different travel insurance plans offered by RoamRight:
Higher-than-average premiums - but more benefits included
Obviously, many of those travel insurance policies wouldn't apply to the made-up scenario we used to compare the companies in our review: two 35-year-olds visiting Mexico for a week, leaving in about six months, for a total trip cost of $3,000. How did RoamRight do on that quote? We weren't super impressed: we were offered the Pro plan for $160 or the Pro Plus for $182. Of course, when you go directly to an insurer instead of using a comparison service, you're going to get more limited choices. The lowest-priced policy was still quite a bit more expensive than many rival insurers' plans, and only offered a maximum of $25,000 for medical expenses. We felt like we could get better coverage from a different travel insurance company. However, both plans included the pre-existing medical conditions waiver, which is often an extra add-on cost with other insurers; the Pro Plus plan also came with the Cancel For Work Reason at no extra charge, and that typically comes with additional fees with other companies.
BBB gives it an "A+"
How about reputation? Under the name of its parent company, Arch Insurance, RoamRight gets an "A+" and accreditation from the Better Business Bureau. There were 40 complaints filed there in the most recent three years, but the "A+" means you don't have to worry about issues getting handled in a timely, professional way.
Positive reputation overall
We found similar feedback from clients who left reviews for this insurance company (many of which you might see if you use one of the travel insurance referral platforms in our review). By and large, customers say that these plans are priced competitively, the claims process isn't too painful, and that they got the coverage they needed.
Only one minor included per paid adult
The one downside we noticed here is that their policies that offer complimentary coverage of travelers under age 18 don't include all of the minors in the traveling party. Instead, RoamRight covers one minor per paid adult - so if you've got a family of two parents and four children, only two of the kids get their travel insurance for free. That's not quite as generous as some insurers who cover any number of children in the travel party.
A trustworthy insurer
Generally speaking, RoamRight is a trustworthy option for travel insurance. You'll have to decide if their policies give you the coverage you need, and we still encourage you to try a referral platform first (to see if there's another insurer that could give you more protection at a better price). However, if your research leads you to RoamRight, you can buy your policy with confidence.
Insured Nomads is the newest travel insurance company in our review, getting its start in 2020. The founders, world travelers themselves, asked what they would do differently if they could do it all again, and what resources they would have liked to have? Insured Nomads came from their answers to those questions, helping anyone who wants to leave the familiar behind and take an adventure - for days, years, or forever - with extra peace of mind and protection in their corner.
Don't miss this if you're working or traveling abroad for a long time
If you're looking to work abroad or have an extended stay outside of your home country. Insured Nomads' Global Health Insurance will likely make more sense than a traditional travel plan. Sometimes known as "International Health Insurance" or "IPMI" , it gives you coverage for emergency care as well as routine, preventative, and chronic care in the country (or countries) you designate for your plan. This coverage typically lasts a year and is renewable. Insured Nomads offers Global Health Insurance for extended trips or relocation, and you can sign up as an individual, a couple, or a family. We won't go into more depth than that, since far more people use travel insurance for one-off trips, but we invite you to visit the Insured Nomads site if this sounds like a good fit for what you're planning in the future.
Extremely affordable coverage
Let's take a look at the quote experience at Insured Nomads, through the "eyes" of our case study travelers: two 35-year-olds going to Mexico for a week, about six months in the future, for a total cost of $3,000. We entered the destination and then also had to select a coverage area (whether the US should be included or excluded). We could choose deductibles ranging from $0 to $500, and a maximum medical benefit of $250,000, $1 million or $2 million. We were also asked to check a box if we wanted coverage of adventure sports or marine activities (increased medical limits for activities like kitesurfing or scuba diving, operating or riding personal watercraft, and coverage of scuba equipment). The baseline policy for $0 deductible and $250,000 of medical coverage was a shockingly affordable $32.96 per person.
Hard to get a quote for a non-family member
It got a little trickier when we went to add our fictitious second traveler. It was no problem if they were a parent, spouse, or child of the first person on the policy. However, there was no clear way to include a sibling, friend, or other partner outside of those designated relationships.
Read the details before starting the quote process
When we went ahead and added the second traveler as a spouse, we were only offered the World Explorer policy for $65.92. The next page asked for payment: there was never a detailed list of what our policy would include/exclude, so if you're considering an Insured Nomads plan, you'll want to read up on the site before you start the quote process. Generally speaking, the World Explorer plans cover one trip (anywhere from 1-364 days in length) away from your home country, and it can be extended up to six months longer than the initial purchase. World Explorer Multi is for those taking more than one short trip within a year and returning home in between. Finally, World Explorer Guardian gives you the benefits of the primary Explorer policy but also includes Trip Cancellation coverage. We encourage you to click on the Policy Summary for any Insured Nomads travel insurance you're interested in - because that's where we found important details like it not being available for purchase from New York or Arkansas.
Excellent benefits with free INC membership
One novel aspect of Insured Nomads' travel insurance plans is a free one-year membership to INC. This app-based feature gives you travel comforts (like airport lounge access and VPN for cyber security), travel information (such as health and safety alerts plus visa and vaccination requirements), health and wellbeing tools (like telemedicine in multiple languages), and much more. Travelers say that the INC app is a huge benefit that made a significant difference in their journeys.
Strong reputation so far
Despite being one of the newest travel insurance providers in our review, Insured Nomads has already established itself as a reliable company with an "A" rating and accreditation from the Better Business Bureau. There were no complaints filed with the BBB at the time of this evaluation. We found a small handful of reviews from Insured Nomads' clients: almost all of them gave the company a perfect five-star rating, but we didn't spot any that had actually needed to make a claim.
Best option for long-term travel and digital nomads
We still feel comfortable giving Insured Nomads our own four-star rating. With more and more people deciding to work remotely - and taking advantage of being able to work from Berlin or Bali instead of their basements - the kind of travel insurance that this company provides will undoubtedly become much more prevalent. We'd like to see more detailed policy information given upfront, making it easier for prospective customers to know what they're getting (and what they're not), but in all other aspects this appears to be a worthy addition to the travel insurance industry.
Allianz Travel is a huge name in the insurance industry. Last year alone, this company assisted more than 55 million people with protecting themselves and their belongings while roaming the globe.
Single-trip, multi-trip, and car rental insurance available here
There are ten different types of travel insurance coverage offered by Allianz, all designated according to whether you're covering a single trip (OneTrip), multiple trips within a year (AllTrips), or just rental car insurance. On the main quote page, you simply choose which of the three plan types fits your travels, enter your destination, travel dates, age of traveler, state of residence, and total trip cost, and you'll be shown all of the policies that match.
Not as much for the money
We used a sample traveler profile of two 35-year-olds going to Mexico for a week, about six months in the future, and with a total cost of $3,000. We were given the choice among all three of Allianz' OneTrip plans, ranging in price from $130 to $286 for both people. We weren't really impressed by the coverage: even at the highest level (Premier), the available medical coverage had a maximum of just $50,000 (while many rivals go up to $100,000 or even $1 million on their top-tier policies).
Some options are missing or hard to spot
It also wasn't until we were on the final payment page that we could click to see the full Plan and Pricing Details. We never found an option with Allianz that would cover Cancel For Any Reason. And, it was only in the very lengthy plan details that we spotted that our policy automatically included a pre-existing medical conditions waiver, as long as our policy was purchased within 14 days of the first payment (and several other eligibility criteria were met).
Some nice perks
However, there are some benefits with Allianz travel insurance plans that didn't necessarily apply to our case study travelers but could be a reason for you to choose their coverage. For example, OneTrip Prime adds no-cost coverage for children 17 and under when traveling with a parent or grandparent. The AllTrips Executive plan covers your business equipment in the event of loss, theft, or airline delay: you can be reimbursed for equipment rental, replacement, and/or repair - and this policy will cover your personal travel/vacations as well.
"A+" from the BBB - despite 1,100+ complaints
You'll find the BBB's listing for Allianz Travel under their Global Assistance division: an "A+" and accreditation. There were over 1100 complaints filed with the BBB in the most recent three-year period, but an "A+" means that they were all responded to and handled professionally.
Mixed results on handling claims
Considering what travelers have said in other places, Allianz gets its fair share of complaints about slow claims processing. On the other hand, we found plenty of people praising how fast they were reimbursed for covered losses - from hotel and restaurant costs when return flights got canceled and rescheduled for another day to airfare and more, often getting payments to the customer within two weeks.
Good enough
All of this adds up to Allianz receiving the same rating that we gave them in our last review. This travel insurance provider is reliable, and they've added one more coverage type since our previous evaluation. We're not concerned that travelers will have big problems here, but there are other services that provide a wider range of options than Allianz.
QuoteWright is one of several travel insurance websites that provides policy quotes from a variety of insurers: 12 here, to be exact. Many of them can be found in a standalone review, such as RoamRight, Seven Corners, and Travelex. QuoteWright guarantees that you won't get a lower quote on any of the travel insurance plans they sell, even if you go directly to the insurers themselves. Of course, with insurance prices being regulated by the state, that's not exactly hard for them to guarantee.
Relatively easy quote process
You'll be asked the standard series of questions here to get a quote on your travel insurance coverage: state of residence, destination, trip type, departure and return date, number of travelers, whether or not any payments have already been made, and the prepaid trip cost (either per traveler or the total). When we entered the details for our case study travelers (going to Mexico in six months, total trip cost of $3,000 for two 35-year-olds), we were given seven different policies to choose from, ranging in price from $136 to $286.10. The included insurers were Generali Global Assistance, Travel Insured International, and Travelex.
Use filters to sort the way you want
The policies defaulted to a display from least to most expensive, and the short summary was set to show the Trip Cancellation benefits for each plan. If some other coverage is more important to you, such as Cancel For Any Reason or Travel Delay, you can select that instead. Finally, you can either click to view any plan's details or select two or more to compare (which is probably our favorite way to look at policies because it gives you at-a-glance info on all of the available benefits, add-ons, and coverage).
Don't be confused by low ratings
One part that may confuse you as you browse the travel insurance policies in your results list is the QuoteWright rating. A low rating doesn't mean that the insurer is bad: it's just an indication of how favorably that particular plan compares with the rest of them in your list, or how much value you'll get for your premium.
No complaints at the BBB
We were glad to see that QuoteWright has an "A+" rating and accreditation from the Better Business Bureau. Better yet, there were no complaints filed there: an impressive feat for a company that's been around for more than two decades.
Not much user feedback
Otherwise, there isn't a ton of feedback for this travel insurance referral service. Do people get policies they love? Maybe, especially given that no one complained to the BBB about their experience, but that's not a lot to go on.
Not the best comparison site
QuoteWright isn't a terrible place to start your search for travel insurance, but there are other referral platforms that are much more comprehensive: more insurers, a wider range of policies and coverage, and more input from customers about those policies and their overall impressions when using the service. We didn't spot any red flags here, but you'll probably get more from one of our higher-ranked travel insurance companies.
Travel Guard is one of the most widely-used, travel agent-recommended insurance companies in the industry. Millions of leisure and business travelers alike use this company for emergency travel services, medical assistance, and other travel-related problems.
Policy names and inclusions have changed
If you've used Travel Guard before, things may be different now from what you remember. No longer named as Platinum, Gold, or Silver plans, the travel insurance policies here are now called Deluxe, Preferred and Essential - with slightly different coverages and new add-ons for adventure sports, destination weddings, and more.
No surprises in the quote process
Let's take a look at how those plans were offered for our sample traveler profile: a one-week trip to Mexico about six months in the future, with two 35-year-olds spending a total of $3,000. We had to start by entering our destination (though we liked that Travel Guard had quick buttons for the US, Mexico, and Caribbean as top locations), then indicating if we were taking an airplane, cruise, or neither. As we went through the standard questions - travel dates, number of travelers - we noticed the same wrinkle as our last review: to get an online quote, all travelers have to live in the same state of residence. In other words, if you're planning a family trip and your sister lives in Oregon, your brother is from Maine, and you live in Georgia, each of you will need to get a separate Travel Guard policy. However, that's an exclusion frequently found with all travel insurance sites - because prices are regulated at the state level.
Glitchy website = wasted time
However, that wasn't the only issue As we tried to enter the birthdates of the travelers in our fictitious party (not just the ages, as required by most sites), we kept getting an error asking for the date in a different format. No matter how we tried it, even using the little calendar icon and scrolling through to click on the appropriate birthdate, it wouldn't accept it. It took us nearly five minutes just to get the dates to go through (and we still have no idea what the site finally accepted, because the date looked exactly the same every time).
Keep an eye out for add-ons
We eventually got a quote of $102.50 for Essential, $197.27 for Preferred, and $339.76 for Deluxe. The biggest differences among the three plans were the coverage amounts and not the included items themselves. For example, medical expenses are covered up to $100,000, $50,000, and $15,000, respectively. We were surprised that only Preferred and Deluxe have the possibility of including Cancel For Any Reason, and you still have to pay for it as an upgrade. That optional coverage and all other options - Pet Bundle, Wedding Bundle (if your trip is for a wedding that's canceled; doesn't apply if you're the bride or the groom), Adventure Sports inclusion, and so on - will be displayed and can be included once you've chosen your base Travel Guard plan.
BBB gives it an "A+" despite 1,200+ complaints
The Better Business Bureau gives Travel Guard an "A+" rating and accreditation. There were over 1200 complaints filed there, which isn't too surprising considering how much of a market share this travel insurance company has (with thousands upon thousands of policies issued every month). The BBB's rating means you can trust that if you have an issue, it will be addressed and resolved appropriately.
Claims are frequently denied
That being said, it's discouraging to read through complaint after complaint (on the BBB site and elsewhere) describing how often Travel Guard denies claims. It doesn't even seem to matter what the cause is - airline cancellations, lost baggage, you name it - there are too many times when either something that should be covered isn't, or the policyholder had been led to believe that they had coverage when they actually didn't.
Claims process is a chore
Plus, communication from Travel Guard during the claims process is almost nonexistent - and that squares up with our own experience; making a claim for 8 non-refundable plane tickets canceled during the early days of the pandemic, we were only reimbursed in part for a few of them (with Travel Guard incorrectly claiming that the airline had refunded the taxes and fees), and it was rare for us to get any kind of update. It was a pleasant surprise when we received any money back at all - and even that trickled in sporadically, despite making claims on all eight tickets at the same time.
Not our top choice for travel insurance
We're disappointed to have to give Travel Guard such a low rating: many travel agents still recommend this company as their bread-and-butter insurance choice, after all. However, the overall customer experience - including our own - just isn't consistent enough to rank Travel Guard any higher than "barely average" .
Headquartered in Indiana, Seven Corners is a privately-held travel insurance and benefit management company serving the global market. You'll find a wide range of travel insurance types here, including domestic and international trips, travel medical, student travel, group travel, annual coverage for multiple international trips, and health insurance for visitors to the USA.
Not difficult to get an initial quote
It's relatively easy to use the Seven Corners site to find the right insurance for the travel you're planning. Indicate if you live in the US and if so, which state. In our case study of two 35-year-old travelers spending a week in Mexico six months out from the date of the quote, we then had to indicate that we were traveling internationally and we were given three options:
Time-consuming to re-enter information
It was a little clunky having to go back and re-enter our travel information for each policy type. We would have preferred to enter our details just once (such as traveler ages and destination country) and have it apply across all of Seven Corners' travel insurance offerings.
Top marks from the BBB
The Better Business Bureau gives Seven Corners its highest rating, an "A+" with accreditation. There were 84 complaints filed there in the three years leading up to this review, but the BBB's rating indicates that all of them were responded to appropriately and in a timely way.
Way too long to process claims
That's a little different from what we found elsewhere, and unfortunately not much has changed since the last time we evaluated Seven Corners: you'll get your policy quickly and the customer service team will be right on top of answering any questions you have. But if and when you actually need to make a claim, you'd better round up your patience - because the average time to process them was about 100 days at the time of this review. People are saying that filing the claim and seeing that it's been accepted for evaluation takes time, waiting for it to be accepted adds even more time, and then payouts may or may not happen.
Nice coverage options, but not quite enough service
We have to keep Seven Corners as one of our lower-ranking travel insurance companies: although we like that they offer coverage for both single trips and annual plans, that's no advantage if the claims process is a gigantic hassle. Keep Seven Corners as a last resort if you don't find the coverage you need with a more customer-friendly insurer.
World Nomads has been in operation since 2002. As you might guess from their name, this travel insurance company has a strong focus on exploring the globe - and protecting adventurers with simple and flexible policies. You may appreciate their commitment to giving back to the places travelers visit through micro-donation opportunities when you purchase coverage. And, given that World Nomads gets the endorsement of Eurail, Hostelworld, TourRadar, and Intrepid, it's obvious that this service is most used by backpackers, explorers, and other adventurous sorts - and maybe not the family of six taking their first trip to Disney World.
Fewer questions than most sites
To get a quote here, you'll start by entering your country of residence. You'll indicate your travel dates and destination(s), the number and ages of the travelers. For the sample profile we used - two 35-year-olds going to Mexico for a week, approximately six months out from the date of our quote - we were offered the choice of two policies. As a side note, it was surprising not to be asked for the total trip cost, the date we made the first payment, or if we had already paid in full.
Some important options aren't available here
World Nomads' policies are underwritten by Nationwide, and there wasn't much that impressed us between the Standard Plan at $122. 85 and the Explorer Plan for $197.88. Neither one included protection for pre-existing medical conditions or the ability to cancel for any reason - and there was no opportunity to upgrade or add on those coverages. Also note that if you need emergency assistance while traveling, that will be fulfilled by Generali; both Nationwide and Generali are often quoted by other travel insurance websites, and you can be assured that they're well-respected in the industry.
Lots of included adventure sports
If you're planning on participating in activities, sports or other adventures while traveling, make sure to click on the link for the "over 200 adventure sports and activities" to see if it'll be covered under the plan you're considering. For example, scuba diving to a depth of 165 feet is covered under both the Standard and Explorer plans, but deeper than that or cave/cavern diving requires the Explorer plan. The only activities we saw that are completely excluded here are Base Jumping, Mountaineering over 22,965 feet (7,000 meters), and working as a Mountain Guide.
Love/hate relationship with customers
How about reputation? World Nomads had received an "F" from the Better Business Bureau at the time of this review. The BBB said that rating was because the company had 23 complaints filed, and 15 of them received no response. That's never encouraging. In looking at the feedback for this travel insurance in other places, sentiment was fairly mixed. While 1,000+ clients gave World Nomads a perfect five-star rating, nearly 600 gave it the lowest possible one-star score.
Customer complaints
Some customers struggle to get covered claims paid (like trip delays due to stolen passports), while others seem to breeze right through the claims process and get reimbursed quickly. At least the complaints outside of the BBB seem to get a response from World Nomads' representatives - but there isn't often any follow-up to know if the policyholders wound up satisfied with the answers they got.
Doesn't deliver what they promise
If you want an insurance policy from Nationwide, you might as well just go directly to their site to buy it - or use one of the travel insurance comparison sites in our evaluation and see if that's really the best insurer for your travel situation. We're all for promoting world exploration and the peace of mind that comes with insurance coverage, but World Nomads just isn't doing a great job of providing that.
Travel Insurance Center is one of several services in our review that offer policy quotes from various insurers. In business for more than two decades, this company wants to help you find the travel insurance that's the best fit for your journey and your budget.
Get a quote online or speak with a rep
There are two ways to get a travel insurance quote here: use the Policy Picker to get a quick recommendation, or fill out the form under "Get an Expert Recommendation" to speak with a rep and get coverage tailored to your needs. We used the Policy Picker to get a quote for the travel scenario we applied across all insurance platforms: two 35-year-olds traveling to Mexico for a week, about six months out from the date we made the request.
Unusual questions and options in the quote process
The questions that Travel Insurance Center asked surprised us. Instead of specifying the exact destination, we only had to say if it was domestic, international, or both. We were also confused that we had to choose if we were interested in protecting our trip cost or something else, like travel medical coverage or emergency evacuation; what if we wanted "all of the above" ? There was also a somewhat strange dropdown under the "Search Plans" button that offered to let us browse their most frequently-searched plans - which included mysterious options like "Defense Base Act Insurance Plans" and "War Risk/High Risk Travel" .
Difficult to get quotes or prices
And that's where we ground to a halt. Every time we tried to search for plans, we got a message saying that our session had timed out and we should try a new request. Each time we did, we got the same result. Could that be connected to the fact that the main URL of the site wasn't secured (which was an internet-wide protocol several years prior to this review)? It took a lot of back-and-forth to finally get the site to render any quotes. We were finally given seven policies to choose from: three from Trawick International, two from IMG, one from Insuractive, and one from Travel Insured. Much to our aggravation, clicking on any of those policies took us to the insurer's main page, where we had to enter our information all over again. Also, only one of the plans had a price quote ($111.73), while all of the rest simply said "See Details" .
Hard to determine the company's background
Trying to research the background of Travel Insurance Center felt like a trip down the proverbial rabbit hole. Looking at the bottom of the page, we saw that the service belongs to a company called Senior Market Sales: an insurance marketing organization that helps agents and financial advisors make more money. Hmmm... Then we found an announcement that SMS was acquired in 2020 by Alliant Insurance Services, an insurance and employee benefits consulting firm. Alliant itself has an "A+" with the Better Business Bureau, but we're not sure that really reflects the performance of the travel insurance arm of the company.
No new ratings
Outside of the BBB, we found a surprising number of five-star reviews for Travel Insurance Center - but none of them were newer than 9 months old. Those high ratings definitely didn't reflect our experience during the quote process, and your experience will depend more on the insurer you wind up with than on TIC itself.
Don't waste your time here
While we can definitely appreciate the convenience of getting multiple travel insurance quotes with a single request, this service doesn't even come close to measuring up with similar referral platforms we evaluated. We can't think of one good reason why anyone would spend their time getting a policy quote from Travel Insurance Center instead of using a different comparison service - or just going to an insurer directly.
Axa Travel Insurance has been in operation for more than 20 years. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, the company handles more than 14 million assistance cases per year.
Not so impressive
Straight out of the gate, we feel we should tell you to expect a difficult experience all around if you try to use Axa for your travel insurance. We've got nothing against companies not headquartered in the US, but when you have to place an international call to get further information (or to make a claim), that's already a huge hurdle. Once you finally track down their "store" for US-based travelers, it's still hard to get impressed; at the time of this review, the site's copyright was over two years out of date.
Very few policy options
Still, we forged ahead with our sample profile (a trip six months in the future for two 35-year-old travelers visiting Mexico with a total trip cost of $3,000) and got a quote for one travel insurance policy: Silver, priced at $106. That plan included $25,000 in emergency accident and sickness medical expenses, but offered no pre-existing conditions waiver or the ability to cancel for any reason. This travel insurance policy seemed to cover the bare minimum, and we were frustrated by not getting any other options. Your search could be different, but our results here definitely didn't compete with other services we reviewed.
BBB gives it a "C" for not responding to complaints
We weren't really excited to see that Axa Travel Insurance had a "C" rating from the Better Business Bureau at the time of our review. That lower-than-average rating was from the insurer's failure to respond to two complaints and to resolve two others, out of the 21 in total that were filed over the last three years. That's not a huge red flag, but we can't think of a good reason why Axa would choose not to address those issues.
No one seems to have a good experience here
Sadly, client feedback in other places mirrors this negative impression. Out of nearly 500 ratings, a full 91% said that their experience with Axa wasn't just average or poor but full-on bad: a one-star rating. Here's a sampling of their complaints: "over 2,000 minutes on hold over the last few weeks" , "three months ago I made a claim... with no communication since" , "awful customer service" , and "no money paid into my account even after waiting seven months to get a settlement letter" . Money only seems to go one way when you buy an Axa travel insurance policy - and that direction isn't in your favor.
Don't buy this travel insurance
Are you surprised that this is our lowest-ranked travel insurance company? Not only are you limited to their own brand of coverage, but those plans give you much less for your money than other insurers. Add the abundance of 1-star ratings for Axa and it's absolutely no wonder that this is our least favorite choice among the travel insurance options in our review. Avoid Axa Travel Insurance and go with a different service.
And, even if you do have that kind of protection, travel insurance policies can amplify your benefits. For example, if you choose a plan that offers $500,000 in primary medical coverage, you might not need to touch your regular health insurance: your bills will be reimbursed up to that amount, no matter what your everyday health plan includes. Car rental insurance can go above and beyond what's paid for by your credit card company or even your own vehicle's coverage - and that can be critical if you're driving in another country and have an accident.
What type of travel insurance do you need? Naturally, that depends on your trip, your travel party, and your budget. A single-trip policy will be more affordable than multi-trip coverage - but if you're traveling internationally more than once in a year, the annual policy becomes much more economical. Do you need to be able to cancel for any reason? Is it important to you to have a waiver of the pre-existing conditions exclusion? Are there any children under 18 in your party that might be included at no extra charge, depending on the insurer you select? These are all factors that will influence your decision when picking a travel insurance plan.
Confused yet? You do have a lot of options. Here are some criteria to help you sort through them and ultimately wind up with the travel insurance coverage you need:
To help you get the protection you need on your next adventure, TopConsumerReviews.com has evaluated and ranked today's most popular sources of travel insurance. We're confident that this information will make it easy to protect yourself and what you've spent on your trip - and to have backup if something goes off track on your journey. Bon voyage!
If you're making plans for your vacation or your family's vacation, you need to determine whether you want to purchase travel insurance. Travel insurance may be another expense, but it can be well worth it so that you're covered in case of an emergency or problem.
Not many years ago, few people purchased travel insurance. However, that's changing fast. In fact, according to the U.S. Travel Insurance Association, in the last 10 years the percentage of American travelers purchasing travel insurance increased from 10 to 30 percent. Travelers purchase insurance for a few reasons including protection against unexpected events, loss of the financial investment in the trip, and peace of mind.
Like many things, travel insurance can cover a wide variety of problems and will reimburse your costs for many situations. But you should know what type of insurance you need for your specific situation.
Here are a couple of tips on when you should buy travel insurance.
There are a variety of reasons to purchase travel insurance and a variety of options to cover you and your vacation. Be sure to look for a travel insurance policy from a dependable company so that your vacation investment is protected, and you can relax and enjoy your trip!
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