With the internet at your fingertips, booking your trip online is easy, and so is choosing travel insurance! With the extra peace of mind that travel insurance provides, you can relax and enjoy your holiday.
Many travel insurance providers sell policies online, making it easy to organise a travel insurance plan from the comfort of your home. To buy travel insurance online, you’ll need to fill out an online questionnaire. This helps the provider find out more about you and your trip so they can offer a policy that may suit your circumstances.
While there’s no face-to-face interaction, you essentially get the same service online as you would over the phone. If you need help or have any questions, you can always call the insurer or use their ‘live chat’ feature, which lets you chat with a consultant in real-time online.
Alternatively, you can also visit a travel agent to plan your getaway and get a referred travel insurance policy. However, product options can be limited, and premiums may be higher.
Buying travel insurance can be as simple as answering a few questions and choosing a policy. You can compare multiple travel insurance providers with our free comparison service in minutes, putting even more choice and convenience in your hands if you want to get travel insurance online before departing Australia. Our service makes it easy to compare prices and coverage to suit your trip.
A standard or comprehensive travel insurance policy will automatically cover a range of potential mishaps. While the exact details of what your policy covers will vary between plans, providers and your level of cover, most policies include:
Your policy will be subject to exclusions, limits and sub-limits so be sure to check the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) before you purchase.
To get travel insurance for a specific journey, like a cruise or ski trip, you may need to buy additional cover as a policy add-on. You can typically get these types of cover online. Some add-ons may include:
You can also find the PDS of a policy online, which we recommend you read before purchasing your cover. This way, you can know your policy’s limits, sub-limits, inclusions and exclusions and ensure you have an appropriate level of cover for your journey.
You will need to let your insurer know if you have a pre-existing medical condition if you want to ensure you are covered if you suffer a loss related to this. Your insurer can then determine if they can cover your condition, although it may increase the cost of your premium.
You can still get travel insurance if you have a pre-existing medical condition that isn’t covered by your insurer, but any medical expenses for that condition won’t be covered.
Yes, you can purchase travel insurance for groups online. These are essentially the same as regular travel insurance policies and can be ideal when you have a group of people following the same itinerary for the entire trip. You’ll need to confirm how many people are travelling, and provide information about your trip like whether you’re going on a cruise or participating in adventurous activities.
Cover for COVID-19 (coronavirus) may be included automatically as part of a comprehensive travel insurance policy, although not all providers will offer cover or the same level of cover. Depending on the policy and plan, you may be covered for cancellations and medical expenses if you’re diagnosed with COVID-19, as well as additional expenses such as quarantine accommodation costs.
Other pandemic- and epidemic-related losses are typically listed as an exclusion on most travel insurance policies.
Yes, if your child will be travelling unaccompanied, you can get travel insurance for them online. However, you’ll need to be aware of the airline restrictions and rules regarding children travelling alone (such as not being able to have an overnight layover).
It’s possible to buy an annual multi-trip policy online. In most cases, you simply select the annual option instead of a single trip during the application. An annual policy will be more expensive, but will cover you for every trip you take in a 12-month period, up to the maximum trip duration (e.g. 30 days).
Most providers will provide options for the maximum trip length. It is important to select the maximum trip length that matches your travelling plans, as any losses that you incur on a trip that is longer than your chosen maximum trip length will not be covered.
If you’ve seen in your policy’s PDS that destinations with a ‘Do Not Travel’ warning aren’t covered, you might be wondering how to check for current warnings online. You can find up-to-date information for most countries on the Australian Government’s Smartraveller website. It offers general advice for your trip as well as travel alerts and warnings. You should check the website regularly before departing to ensure your information is still correct.
We make it easy to compare and purchase travel insurance quotes online. You can compare a number of available policies in minutes with our free travel insurance comparison service.
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