Check on Your Travel Insurance Before Flying Overseas

When you’re planning an overseas holiday, perhaps the last thing on your mind is the risk associated with travel. However, it pays to check the adequacy of your insurance.

Firstly, take note of the distinction between automatic basic travel insurance and top-up cover.

Yes, your bank may provide automatic basic travel insurance for international journeys when you buy your return travel ticket with a qualifying bank card.

But as an Absa spokesperson explains, with reference to their travel insurance provider for automatic cover, that cover applies only under several conditions. In their case, the cover is for a maximum of 90 days, you need to be leaving from and returning to South Africa, the purchase does not apply to EFT transactions, and it excludes pre-existing medical conditions and hazardous activities and adventure sports like parasailing and skydiving – among other conditions.

Take the exclusion of pre-existing medical conditions – this refers to any doctor’s consultation or medical advice, treatment, including prescription medication, from a medical practitioner for any chronic or recurring illness or injury in the past year.

Perhaps then, automatic basic cover is not enough for your situation. “For more comprehensive cover and for longer trips and depending on the circumstances, customers need to consider top-up,” the Absa spokesperson advises. For example, if you are an older customer, you would need to buy the cover that applies to your age group, and perhaps even additional health cover for cardiac, cardiovascular or cerebrovascular conditions.

“It is certainly not the case that insurance is equal to ‘all possible expenses being covered,” an Absa spokesperson explains. “As with all insurance products, ‘Terms, Conditions and Benefit Limits apply’ and customers need to review the terms of cover before leaving to ensure they understand what the cover entails or whether it even applies to their trip.”

Does your medical scheme offer an international travel benefit for emergencies? Again, check where this begins and ends. For example, look at just one of the lines in the Discovery Health Medical Scheme document “International Travel Benefit and Cover for Treatment Received Abroad”: “you have cover at the equivalent local costs for non-emergency treatment”. Note the reference to “equivalent local costs”. And consider non-medical expenses related to an emergency: perhaps family members need to extend their stay if one of you is hospitalised.

Finally, the timing of your insurance purchase is important. Karen Botha, sales manager at Travel Insurance Consultants, advises against delaying the purchase of additional coverage. “It’s crucial to buy comprehensive insurance as soon as you make a payment towards your trip, as it impacts your cancellation cover. If you have to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances, such as a medical emergency, the payment you have made for the trip is at risk.

“If you’re departing on your journey in a few weeks and only intend to buy insurance right before your departure, what happens to the money you’ve already paid for your trip if something unexpected happens – like an injury or illness that prevents you from travelling? For example, if you’ve purchased a non-refundable airline ticket and need to cancel, you’ll lose that money. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to claim because your insurance wasn’t in place at the time.

“Cancellation cover lists the events you are insured for, like an illness or injury that prevents you from travelling. Some insurers may widen the cover to ‘cancellation for any reason’ – but this is almost always subject to purchasing the policy within 24 to 48 hours of making payments towards your trip,” says Botha. “So it’s best to purchase insurance at the same time as making payment towards the trip.” Think of vehicle insurance, she says: “you don’t insure your car a month after purchase – you insure it when you purchase it.” 

Purchasing insurance right away ensures the broadest coverage for trip cancellations or disruptions, providing you with financial protection and peace of mind, both before and during your journey.