Does the travel insurance with my bank account actually cover me?

Packaged bank accounts are one of the few places where the fee actually buys something worthwhile, and the travel section is usually the most valuable part. The problem is that nobody buys it as insurance, so nobody reads it as insurance, and the conditions that make it work are ones you have to act on rather than ones that apply automatically.

Safety

Step by step

1. Find the policy document, not the account summary.The account webpage describes the benefit. The insurance policy document sets out the cover, the limits and the exclusions, and it is a different, longer document. Download it and read the schedule.
2. Check the upper age limit for every traveller.This is the most common failure. Packaged policies frequently stop covering a traveller at a stated age, or cover them only on payment of an additional premium, and the bank does not always make it obvious when someone crosses it.
3. Complete the medical screening.Many packaged policies require you to declare conditions through a separate screening line before travelling. Without it, an undeclared condition is treated exactly as it would be on any other policy.
4. Find out whether cover has to be activated or the trip registered.Some accounts require you to activate the travel cover or notify each trip. If the requirement exists and you did not do it, you are travelling uninsured.
5. Check who is covered and on what terms.Account holder only, joint holders, partner, children, and whether family members are covered when travelling independently. Definitions of family and dependent child vary and often have their own age limits.
6. Compare the limits with a standalone policy.Medical and repatriation limits are usually good. Cancellation, baggage and single-item limits are often the weak points, and gadget cover is frequently poor or absent.
7. Check the excess and the trip-length cap.Both behave exactly as on an annual policy, and the trip-length cap is the one that catches longer holidays.

Tips

• If the packaged cover is good for medical but weak on baggage and cancellation, it is legitimate to rely on it for medical and self-insure the rest — as long as you know that is the decision you have made.
• Do not close or downgrade the account mid-trip. Cover typically ends with the account, not at the end of the trip.
• Keep a copy of the policy document and the emergency assistance number offline. The number is the part you will need at three in the morning.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the cover works because the account fee is paid — Age limits, screening and activation are conditions of cover, not administrative extras. Any of them unmet can mean no cover for the traveller concerned.
• Buying a second policy without checking — Duplicate cover rarely pays twice. If you already have adequate packaged cover, the money is better spent on an add-on for the gap.

Questions people ask