Our Guide To The Best Family Travel Insurance For Australians

You can take out separate cover for each person in a party, but many providers also offer the option to cover a family in one go, on one policy. To be considered a family, you and your partner must be travelling with children, who are your dependents, are not in full-time work and depending on the provider, are aged under 18 to 25. Often providers will accept parents, step-parents or legal guardians going on holiday with their children, or step-children and grandparents travelling with their grandchildren.

When running quotes on an insurer’s website you may or may not come across an option specifically for family cover. Either way, you’ll be required to state the number of people travelling and their ages, which will enable you to view quotes for policies suitable for families.

Travellers may choose family travel insurance over purchasing individual policies for each family member for the following reasons:

• Lower costs: Family cover can be the cheaper option, but not always so it’s best to compare individual policies too.
• Less paperwork: You and the rest of your family will all be on the same policy, and typically will have the same cover levels, so you won’t have tonnes of form-filling.
• Shorter application process: You’ll be able to take out cover for all family members at the same time, rather than going through the application process multiple times.

Family travel insurance may not be the best option if you are:

• Travelling with a mature relative: travel insurance tends to rise in cost the older you are, owing to the increased risk of falling ill while away. As mature relatives can bump up the cost of a policy, it may be worth insuring them separately.
• Travelling with someone who has a medical condition: Insurers refer to medical conditions travellers had before taking out cover as ‘pre-existing’, and some don’t cover these conditions. Those that do may charge extra, which can raise the overall cost of a family policy. Taking out separate cover for relatives with pre-existing conditions can sometimes work out cheaper.

As with other forms of travel insurance, there are three main options when taking out cover for the family:

Single trip: This type of policy covers a one-off holiday taken within the space of 12 months.
>Annual Multi-trip: It can be more cost-effective to opt for this type of policy if you and your family intend to take more than one holiday in the next year, and you’re able to plan your vacation well in advance.
Long-stay: You’ll need this type of policy if you intend to travel for longer than 31 days, typically. Depending on the provider, cover can last for six, 12, 18 and even 24 months.

The various types of cover provided by family travel insurance is wide ranging and differs between policies. Common forms include:

• Emergency medical expenses: Covers the cost of treatment should a member of the party fall ill or get injured while away. Comprehensive policies often offer no limit on this cover.
• Trip cancellation: Pays out should an emergency such as illness or bereavement prevent your trip from going ahead.
• Baggage and belongings: Covers your luggage and personal effects. Look out for a total limit on cover as well as sub-limits for individual items.
• Passport and personal documents: Covers the cost of replacing travel documents if lost or stolen.
• Personal liability: covers you or a family member that injures someone else or damages someone’s property.

Policies will usually protect you and your family for an array of sports and activities, but cover for winter sports, and cruise holidays often come at an additional cost through ‘add-on’ packs.

Looking through the product disclosure statement (PDS) of a travel insurance policy is a crucial prerequisite to purchasing cover, as it will list exactly what the policy covers but also any restrictions and exclusions and sub limits that apply. While these all can differ between policies, generally you can expect most insures to refuse claims that are the result of:

• Intoxication and disorderly behaviour: an insurer is unlikely to pay out if your claim resulted from being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or reckless behaviour.
• A pre-existing condition you didn’t declare: some travel insurance providers do not cover pre-existing medical conditions. If they do, you’ll need to declare these conditions during the medical screening section of the application to make a related claim in the future.
• Injury caused when not wearing safety gear: Insurers often refuse injury claims caused by taking part in a sport or activity, where the traveller did not wear the appropriate safety gear, such as a helmet, harness or knee pads.
• Travelling against official advice: All travellers should make sure to regularly refer to the government’s Smartraveller updates on the status of their holiday destination. Travelling to a destination on the Smartraveller’s “do not travel” list, such as Iran or Yemen, can invalidate your policy.

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The cost of family travel insurance varies between providers, but they tend to consider holiday destination and length, the age of all members of the party and whether anyone has any pre-existing conditions among other factors when determining price.

To provide an idea of how much a comprehensive policy can cost we ran quotes for a family spending 13 to 26 May in Bali, on the website of the top five insurers we consider to offer the best travel insurance. You can view our full ranking to see how our top 10 picks compare.

We used the profile of a family of four, aged 42, 40, 14, and 12, all without pre-existing conditions, though all five providers cover pre-existing conditions. Note: quotes will likely be higher for this form of protection. You can find the quotes below, including the maximum number of dependents that can be covered by the insurer:

Each also offers an unlimited amount of emergency medical cover, while the policies from Travel Insurance Direct, Bupa Travel Insurance and insure4less additionally include cover for unexpected dental issues. All policies also cover travel delay, baggage and belongings, travel documents and passports, accidental death and permanent disability should you or another member of the family suffer life changing injury. For a full breakdown of the full range of cover a policy offers, you can read its PDS.

When considering the cost of a policy, it’s also important to weigh up price against the excess it levies. This is the set portion of each claim amount you’ll be expected to pay, subject to certain exclusions as detailed in the PDS. Allianz and insure4less levies a standard excess of $200 on its policy. Bupa charges $250 in excess and InsureandGo, $100. Travel Insurance Direct does not readily state the excess amount payable on its policy online. Allianz and Bupa levies excess per incident, while insure4less applies it per person per incident. InsureandGo expects an excess payment per person, per incident, per section of the policy you are claiming under.

All providers offer more basic policies with lower levels of cover for a lower premium, and some also allow you to choose the excess level. Generally, opting to pay less in excess will raise the policy price, while paying more will lower it.