invisible

Until moving to Singapore I never needed separate travel insurance for trips in US and Europe because either there really was no need for it - flight/hotel related travel cancellation/delay issues could be resolved quickly without significant potential expenses. For rental cars, driver's primary personal can insurance was covering rentals as well. At the end, there was always Chase Sapphire which was used for all travel related expenses and does provide travel protection.

Just for the data point - I and my wife take about 3-4 short (no more than 5 days) trips within the region. All these trips we fly with LCC and stay mid-to-budget hotels. I started to purchasing travel insurance from NTUC per trip which comes about $50 for two people.

So my question is mostly for locals/expats living in Singapore - if you travel for pleasure within the region, do you buy travel insurance? If so, from which provider and do you buy per trip or on annual bases?

gilbertaue

I travel on around 3 long haul trips and about 4 short haul trips with my family every year. So for us we generally go with an annual travel plan. Currently I'm with AXA (after shopping around). The main reason for being with AXA is that they have a good add-on for vehicle rental excess. It does not seem very popular here as most people from here prefer to not drive when they travel.

When relatives join us, I will typically purchase single trip travel insurance for them on their behalf and there I shop around too. Typically these relatives come with us during the school holiday periods and many travl insurance providers run big discounts just prior to those holidays (and around travel fair times). Often these discounts can even be up to 50%.
But I have found that at any given time there is always at least one provider with some form of discounts.

What I have started using a lot lately is a comparison site called GoBear
It's very much up-to-date with all the discounts and you should be able to run some sample dates and then compare them to the Annual travel insurances to see what fits your budget the best.

A ballpark figure is that for travel within SE Asia, you would pay SGD5/per person/per day.
Annual is probably around SGD200 per person for Asia.

invisible

That's what it is based on previous payments.

I would not mind such policy, but. What are fine prints and what is specifically excluded? For example, terrorism/war/volcano eruption/medical evacuation back to Singapore - is it covered? If yes, I would be interested.

gilbertaue

Have a look on gobear - it's all on there. IIRC my AXA covers terrorism but not war. Volcano is not mentioned.

Here is the policy of my insurance https://www.axa.com.sg/pdf/our_solut...cy_wording.pdf

But i'd suggest to just compare on GoBear and then click on the individual policies and read through them.

I signed on last month and paid ~SGD470 for 2 adults and 1 child.

SQ319

I used GoBear to do my travel insurance comparisons too. For me, one thing is a must - unlimited medical evacuation coverage.

I usually buy individual policies rather than an annual one, as I don't make many long haul trips outside of Asia, which makes a worldwide plan not so worth it. At the same time, I don't want to purchase an Asia annual plan only to travel outside the coverage area and needing to purchase another plan.

Additionally, I like to do my purchase during the NATAS fair, as there tend to be more promotions during those periods.

lcpteck

I used to use ACE Travel Insurance for Asia (annual plan). I claimed for 2 flight delays and 1 luggage delay and it paid off my annual premiums for those years fully...

Currently I'm trying Sompo Insurance annual plan (Elite) for worldwide (I had a couple of trips planned to the US so needed a worldwide plan). Haven't encountered any problems yet so not sure how the claim process is like.