Desjardins Insurance Review 2024

Desjardins Insurance is the life and health insurance subsidiary of Desjardins Group, the largest cooperative financial group in North America and the fifth-largest in the world, with assets of $404 billion. Desjardins offers a full range of products and services, including life and health insurance, savings and investments, to individuals and businesses through its extensive distribution network, online platforms and subsidiaries across Canada.

Desjardins Travel Insurance is offered by Desjardins Insurance (Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Company) and in some provinces (excluding Quebec), The Personal Insurance Company.

Here are the key types of travel insurance coverage offered in Desjardins Travel Insurance plans:

• Emergency medical insurance: If you get ill or are injured on your trip, travel medical insurance can pay for emergency medical expenses, up to the coverage limits in your plan. These expenses can include doctor and hospital bills, medication and lab work, as well as medical evacuations, repatriation and arranging for a bedside companion if you are hospitalized.
• Trip cancellation insurance: If you cancel a trip for a reason listed in your travel policy, such as you or your travelling companion becoming ill, weather conditions causing a massive delay or you losing your job, trip cancellation insurance can reimburse you for prepaid, non-refundable costs.
• Travel interruption or delay insurance: Trip interruption insurance can pay for a last-minute flight home in an emergency and reimburse money that you lose by cutting a trip short due to a covered reason, including non-refundable activities and hotel stays. If your flight is delayed, your insurance can cover the cost of incidentals, such as meals or accommodations, after a specified period of time, such as six, 10 or 12 hours.
• Baggage insurance: Baggage travel insurance can compensate you up to your policy limits if your luggage is lost or stolen. It will reimburse the depreciated value of your suitcases and what you packed. If your bags are delayed, it can reimburse you for the cost of the necessities you’ll have to buy to tide you over. It also extends to your personal belongings, if they are lost, damaged or stolen.
• Travel accident insurance. This coverage offers compensation in the event of accidental death or catastrophic injury from an accident during your trip. Flight Accident Insurance covers injury while you’re on a commercial plane, during a connection or in an airport. Travel Accident Insurance covers death or dismemberment, including the loss of limbs or eyesight, while in transit during your trip.

Desjardins offers five coverage options for travelling outside of Canada. You can choose one or more depending on your needs.

Emergency Health Care: This coverage kicks in when you require emergency medical care if you suddenly or unexpectedly become ill or have an accident on your trip.

Emergency medical treatment includes:

• Hospital accommodation up to a semi-private or private room
• Services of a doctor or nurse practitioner
• Lab tests and X-rays
• Prescription drugs, up to a 30-day supply after hospital discharge
• Purchase or rental of crutches, a cane or splints
• Paramedical services, such as care from a chiropractor, physiotherapist, or podiatrist, up to $60 per visit, maximum $300 per profession
• Emergency dental due to a blow to the face, up to $3,000
• Emergency transportation, including up to $100, to return you to where you stayed before the medical emergency

Medical benefits also include coverage to bring someone to your bedside, expenses for meals, hotel accommodations and associated expenses if you are hospitalized and/or if a medical delay prevents you from returning home, repatriation expenses and return of your remains if you die.

Trip Cancellation or Modification: This coverage option reimburses you for insured non-refundable travel expenses (such as hotels or prepaid excursions) if you have to cancel or modify your trip due to one of 18 covered reasons.

Baggage: This coverage option reimburses you if your luggage or belongings are stolen during your trip, or if the common carrier (the plane, train, bus, etc.) loses or damages them or delivers them late.

Accident: If you have an accident while you’re travelling or while you’re on a plane that causes your death or the loss of use of a hand, a foot or an eye in the 12 months that follow, this coverage will reimburse you up to the stated maximum. You can purchase either coverage for accident while aboard a plane, coverage for accident while travelling, or both.

Emergency Return Trip: This reimburses you for the transportation expenses incurred to travel home and back again to your destination when a member of your family dies or is hospitalized for at least seven days, or a loss causes damage to your main residence or place of business.

We’ve highlighted the key benefits of each coverage offered by Desjardins Travel Insurance for single trip plans to help you identify which coverage is the best fit for you. You can purchase one coverage, a few or all five.

Emergency Health Care Coverage

Trip Cancellation or Modification Coverage

Baggage Coverage

Accident Coverage

Emergency Return Trip Coverage

The price of a Desjardins Travel Insurance plan depends on factors such as the cost of your trip, your age, your answers to a medical questionnaire, if required, the coverage you choose and whether any discounts apply.

Here are some examples of the cost for Desjardins Travel Insurance single trip plans for healthy travellers based in Ontario with $1,000 in baggage coverage. These quotes are without the three-day discount for Desjardins members.

You can reduce your baggage coverage to $500 or increase it to $5,000 in $500 increments. Using the sample quote (above) of the couple travelling to Mexico, the cost for $500 in baggage coverage is $22.02, while the cost of $5,000 in baggage coverage is $40.84.

CIBC Travel Insurance

Emergency medical: $10 million
Cancel For Any Reason: No
Baggage insurance (maximum): $2,000

Related: CIBC Travel Insurance Review

BMO Travel Insurance

Emergency medical: $5 million
Cancel For Any Reason: No
Baggage insurance (maximum): $750

Related: BMO Travel Insurance Review

RBC Insurance

Emergency medical: Unlimited
Cancel For Any Reason: No
Baggage insurance (maximum): $1,000

Related: RBC Insurance Travel Insurance Review

The Stable for 3 Months add-on reduces the stability period for pre-existing health conditions from 182 days to 90 days. You must contact Desjardins by phone to add this to your policy.

Yes. Desjardins Travel Insurance offers several discounts:

3-Day Discount: This discount offers three days of travel insurance free of charge, including Emergency Health Care, Trip Cancellation, Baggage and Accident coverage. You must be a Desjardins member to qualify.

50% off Emergency Return Trip Premium: This discount offers 50% off the cost of Emergency Return Trip coverage (if it’s sold with Emergency Health Care coverage) that reimburses the cost of transportation from your travel destination to your home and back again due to a covered reason. You must be a Desjardins member and be between 18 and 30 years old.

Desjardins Discount: This discount offers three days of travel insurance free of charge, including Emergency Health Care, Trip Cancellation, Baggage and Accident coverage, if you have a Desjardins credit card.

Affordable Family Premium: If several members of the same family are insured under the same policy, only the two oldest members of the family (parents or grandparents) pay a premium. Kids are insured free of charge for Emergency Healthcare, Baggage and Accident coverage.

Multi-Coverage Discount: This is a cumulative discount that offers additional savings for each insurance coverage that you add to your policy.

Yes. You can buy multi-trip annual insurance if you travel more than once a year for multiple individual trips. When you purchase your contract, you determine the maximum duration of the longest trip you’ll take during the year. For example, if you plan to take four trips this year and the longest is 14 days, you’ll purchase 14-day multi-trip annual insurance.

There is no medical questionnaire required if you’re 60 years old or younger. For travellers aged 61 to 80, Desjardins offers QUATTRA annual travel insurance whereby you complete a medical questionnaire once and if your health changes, your premium or eligibility will not be affected for four years.

Here’s how the cost compares for each single-trip plan and a multi-trip annual plan:

Worldwide emergency travel assistance is available 24/7 by calling the Assistance Centre.

When you have a travel emergency, depending on your coverage, the following support may be available:

• Referral to a doctor, hospital or clinic
• Help getting you admitted to a hospital or clinic
• Arranging for transportation if you need medical care
• Monitoring your case
• Arranging for you, a travelling companion, your spouse or dependent children to be returned home
• Handling the formalities in the event of your death
• Bringing a bedside companion to your destination if medically prescribed
• Emergency messaging to your family
• Replacing lost, stolen or damaged tickets, identification or official documents
• Finding lost or stolen baggage
• Arranging support in the event of legal problems
• Translation and interpretation services

The Assistance Centre also provides the following pre-trip services:

• Advice on precautions to take while travelling
• Itinerary planning
• Information on passports, visas and vaccinations required

If you have Emergency Health Care coverage, you must contact the Assistance Centre before going to a hospital or any other healthcare facility. If you can’t call yourself, someone needs to call on your behalf within 24 hours of your accident or illness. If you can’t prove that you were unable to contact the Assistance Centre, you’ll be responsible for paying 30% of eligible expenses, up to a maximum of $3,000.

No.

No.

In general, a pre-existing condition is defined as any sickness, injury or medical condition that existed before the start of your coverage, whether or not diagnosed by a physician, that you showed signs or symptoms of or received medical attention for.

With a Desjardins Travel Insurance policy, any pre-existing conditions must be stable for 90 or 182 days, depending on your age and health status, before departure to be eligible for coverage.

In particular, for an Emergency Health Care policy:

• If you’re under 55 or bought the Stable for 3 Months option, the stability period is 90 days before your departure date.
• If you’re 55 or older and haven’t bought the Stable for 3 Months option, the stability period is 182 days before your departure date.

For a Trip Cancellation or Modification policy, the stability period is 90 days before you buy the coverage.

According to Desjardins, an injury or medical condition is considered stable if you answer “No” to all of these questions:

1. Did you have new symptoms or were the existing symptoms more frequent or intense?
2. Did you see or were you waiting to see a doctor (except for a routine check-up) or did a doctor recommend you be seen by another doctor?
3. Did you have surgery or did a doctor recommend you have surgery?
4. Did you undergo an examination or a test or did a doctor recommend that you undergo an examination or a test for which you have or have not received the results?
5. Were you hospitalized?
6. Did you start a new treatment or a new drug or were you prescribed a new treatment or a new drug?
7. Did you have a change in treatment or medication (quantity, frequency or the medication itself) or were you prescribed this type of change? (This does not include a routine adjustment to insulin or Coumadin, or replacing a brand-name drug with a generic drug if the dose is the same.)

In addition to pre-existing conditions, there are a number of scenarios not covered by travel insurance, known as exclusions, and it’s critical to know what not to do before you make a claim. The following are some exclusions to coverages provided by Desjardins Travel Insurance:

• Travelling against medical advice
• A terminal illness where your life expectancy is less than 12 months
• Expenses if the purpose of the trip is to receive treatment or medical care
• Expenses if you leave on your trip knowing that you are likely to need medical care
• Any optional or non-emergency care
• Care, treatment, surgery and any complications related to cosmetic purposes
• Any medical care not covered by your provincial or territorial insurance
• Life-sustaining drugs that you take on an ongoing basis, including insulin, nitroglycerin or vitamins
• Expenses resulting from pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth or any complications that are incurred after the first 32 weeks of pregnancy
• Any expenses incurred after you refuse direction from the Assistance Centre to change hospitals or clinics, undergo a diagnostic examination or return to your home province or territory
• A riot or criminal act
• Any professional sporting activity
• Any sporting event that awards cash prizes
• High-risk sports and activities including: Hang-gliding and paragliding, parachuting and skydiving, bungee jumping, climbing and mountaineering, freestyle skiing, kitesurfing, scuba diving unless you hold a basic scuba diving licence from a certified school, any combat sport, any competition, speed event or other high-risk activity, including training activities, whether on approved tracks or elsewhere, and whether or not it involves the use of a motor vehicle
• Self-inflicted injury, suicide or attempted suicide
• An accident or medical condition caused by the use or abuse or drugs, medication or alcohol
• An expenses incurred at your destination when there’s an “avoid all travel” travel advisory in effect
• Damage or theft of glasses, contact lenses or their accessories
• Damage or theft due to carelessness
• Damage or theft of money, tickets, bonds, securities and documents, professional equipment, food and drinks, illegally acquired items or any item for which you can request compensation from the common carrier
• Damage due to wear and tear, manufacturing defects or to fragile or brittle objects

To be eligible for Desjardins Travel Insurance you must be:

• A Canadian resident
• Covered by the government health insurance plan of your home province or territory for the entire duration of your trip

In addition, your contract must be issued before your leave on your trip and for the duration, and you must depart and return from your home province.

You can file a claim 24/7 online or by telephone. You must submit your claim within 90 days of the event and submit any information, documentation, proof and authorizations required within 90 days of being asked for it. Within 60 days of receiving all the required documentation, Desjardins will either reimburse you for any out-of-pocket expenses or send a letter explaining the reason for denying your claim or only paying a portion of it.

If you are making an emergency medical claim, documentation may include (but is not limited to):

• Original invoice with the date the care was provided, the name of the insured who received the care, the diagnosis, a description of the care, the signature of the doctor who provided the care and the cost

For a trip cancellation or modification claim, you may be asked to provide:

• Unused transportation tickets
• Official receipts for the additional transportation costs incurred
• Receipts for hotel reservations, car rental, cruise fees, etc., indicating the non-refundable amounts in the event of a cancellation
• Receipts for the living expenses incurred
• An official document stating the cause of the claim
• A medical certificate, including the complete diagnosis and an explanation on why the trip could not be taken as planned

If you are making a baggage insurance claim, you may need to provide:

• Proof of the value of the belongings, such as receipts or credit card statements
• A report from the local police
• A written statement from the transportation company (in the event of loss or damage)
• Proof that your luggage was checked and receipts for clothing and toiletries purchased due to a delay

If you are making an accident insurance claim, you may need to provide:

• An official document indicating the cause of death
• A death certificate, original or certified copy
• A copy of the police report (or other local authority) indicating the circumstance of the accident
• A medical report confirming loss of use