Travel Insurance

[TOS'd]

Recommendations for third party travel insurance when traveling? Whether it is a certain company or specifics such as liability amount?

I do have work benefits but its quite minimal.

[radioman]

Manulife/TIC

Maybe ask someone you know in the industry

[SoNaRWaVe]

i have always used pacific blue cross. i also get additional discounts off them due to my workplace.

i have heard others use bank's travel insurance. you might want to check that out.

[cdizzle_996]

Go go to an insurance broker. Its usually more feasable to buy a year apposed to 2 weeks or a month

[blkgsr]

if you need a broker my cousin does it...i had some medical issues while i was away and had TIC insurance, they covered all my costs

[GLOW]

when you talk to a broker, ask how the payment process works if you have some work coverage.

i remember the company broker told us not to buy travel insurance as our company already had it, and if you ever needed to use it both insurance companies will point at each other and hold out on paying out.

[Eff-1]

Pacific Blue Cross is easy. Just buy online. (Assuming you have no existing health conditions. If you do, then go see a local insurance broker and make sure you disclose).

[nma]

Pacific blue cross.. Like others said just buy online takes like 5 min

[RCubed]

I usually went with BCAA in vancouver. Easy and cheap.

Im using TD's yearly one right now. You get a discount if you use their bank.

[Hehe]

Go with a broker... there are far too many fine prints in the regular travel insurance.

Tell the broker what you are planning to do, what coverage you'd like and they will price it out accordingly and specifically.

I no longer get regular travel insurance after finding out that most of them don't cover any sort of climbing activities. (to an extend that any activities on a mountain, even just normal hiking) So I now just get specific policies for specific tasks. They are priced pretty much the same or just slightly higher or even lower (as I'd opt out some useless stuff) and I know I'm covered for the specific activities I'd be doing on a trip.

If your broker can't assist you on this, keep on calling until you find one that knows what to do. It shouldn't be hard.

[Mr.HappySilp]

I use RBC since I bank with them. My company have travel insurance but is so complicated and you have to file like 4 months beforehand and a list of place and activities you will be doing. Too much work lol.

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by Hehe

Go with a broker... there are far too many fine prints in the regular travel insurance.

Tell the broker what you are planning to do, what coverage you'd like and they will price it out accordingly and specifically.

I no longer get regular travel insurance after finding out that most of them don't cover any sort of climbing activities. (to an extend that any activities on a mountain, even just normal hiking) So I now just get specific policies for specific tasks. They are priced pretty much the same or just slightly higher or even lower (as I'd opt out some useless stuff) and I know I'm covered for the specific activities I'd be doing on a trip.

If your broker can't assist you on this, keep on calling until you find one that knows what to do. It shouldn't be hard.

care to share who you use?

80-90% of my trip will be outdoor activities so I would prefer to have my ass covered should emergencies come up.

also want one that covers trip interruption...with multiple flights it only takes one delay to fuck everything up lol

[pb.kidz]

I get mine online from BCAA

[MelonBoy]

Check credit cards. Mine covers me year round. Most $100-150 cards come with it
Pay a bit more for my card but it comes back to me on the benefits + higher return. Worth if you use your card often


Example. TD infinite travel card.
Benefits inlcude
- Travel pts (roughly 1.33-1.5% back in pts)
- travel insurance
- bag/luggage insurance
- car rental insurance
- couple of other small things

[twitchyzero]

my credit card does rental car insurance and lost lugguage...but i will double check dont think it has flight cancelations/medical....and like someone said medical usually has bunch of fine prints exclusions excluding sthing as simple as hiking.

they're also a major PITA to deal with in my exp

[mikemhg]

Check your employee benefits as well. Most employer plans carry travel insurance, to which you really don't need to purchase privately (I work in this industry for Group Benefits).

[TOS'd]

Since making this thread, I've done two trips with BCAA insurance. And then one trip being covered by TD CC and work benefits.

Thanks for reminding me, I'll need to look into it again for my up coming trip, but I suspect I'll be fine with the TD CC and work benefits again.

Good to note about the physical activities things such as climbing and hiking though.

[winson604]

Another thing to remember is if you have benefits through work say Blue Cross but you get travel insurance through a different company say BCAA make sure you read the coverage to see in the event of an incident who pays. In a lot of cases the company you buy from might have something stating if you get into an incident that they will ask your primary benefits company if you have one to pay the first portion say 70% then the company you bought insurance from will cover the remaining 30%.

This is huge especially if you get into a serious incident. Common for most people's work benefits to have a lifetime coverage of say 1million dollars which slowly gets used up when you go to the dentist, get meds, massages etc etc but if you suddenly get hit with a big amount say 600k for a major incident then you can pretty much kiss your work benefits good buy and know that it likely won't cover you for the rest of your working career unless of course you switch jobs, are already close to retirement so who cares etc.

[twitchyzero]

i ended up going for manulife's coverage (similar to Costco's) through flight centre
medical + trip interruptions is less than $8/day

they cover scuba diving and hiking, but not mountaineering (if ice axe and crampons are involved)

[IMASA]

Originally Posted by winson604

Another thing to remember is if you have benefits through work say Blue Cross but you get travel insurance through a different company say BCAA make sure you read the coverage to see in the event of an incident who pays. In a lot of cases the company you buy from might have something stating if you get into an incident that they will ask your primary benefits company if you have one to pay the first portion say 70% then the company you bought insurance from will cover the remaining 30%.

This is huge especially if you get into a serious incident. Common for most people's work benefits to have a lifetime coverage of say 1million dollars which slowly gets used up when you go to the dentist, get meds, massages etc etc but if you suddenly get hit with a big amount say 600k for a major incident then you can pretty much kiss your work benefits good buy and know that it likely won't cover you for the rest of your working career unless of course you switch jobs, are already close to retirement so who cares etc.

This is a very good point.

Buy travel health insurance, end up with less coverage: A couple's hard lesson - Business - CBC News