Over a year long trip Asia,NZ and WHV Australia. How do I pick insurance

I am about to leave for 18 months travelling followed by a year in Aus working. The longest travel insurance you can get is around 2 years. I have done quite a bit of looking for long term backpacking insurance and the 2 best companies that i can find are

EssentialTravel.co.uk/travelinsurance
or
Backpackertravelinsurance.com

For around £280 you can get decent insurance for 2 years constant travel. Main points are repatriation and medical insurance., you get some cover for personal things up to £1000 and a few other perks. This is a grade 1 activity scale, it does cover diving up to 30m, which is as deep as your allowed to go with an advanced PADI. You can bungee jump with this but not sky dive. If you wanted to get sky dive cover the price jumps to nearly £400! .....that makes it one expensive sky dive.

I went with backpacker travel and the basic grade. For me it covers everything i need it to cover. Like i said before the medical and repatriation are the most important! You dont want to have a massive bill from an air ambulance to get you home ....trust me!

Hope this is of some help!...and good luck

Any insurance is all about coverage. There are plenty of travel insurance policies available to cover your time span (or longer AlexWood). What you should look for besides coverage that fits your needs (compare apples to apples, not just price) is a policy that can be renewed while 'on the road'.

For example, World Nomads is a well known travel insurance provider who allows extending coverage for as long as you want. Given your plan to look for work in Australia (there is no guarantee you will find work or perhaps enough work) I would start with 6 months of coverage and then if things work out in Australia, extend the coverage.

Alex, your time seems to have been 2.5 years total. How do you reconcile that with a maximum of 2 years coverage?

Hi Nathan;

Just a note that most high level Credit Cards give you free insurance as long as you pay for a certain amount of your travel with them. I last took my family to Asia with Free CC travel insurance and it was as good as many of the products you buy. It also covers family members travelling with the CC holder.

Not sure if you would be eligible and you should always read all the terms and conditions. It will not cover you for the whole time you're away but you could pay for travel insurance only for the time you are not covered by CC travel insurance. Which could be a real saving.

Have a great trip!

Edited by: newdawn2001

a credit card travel insurance policy won't cover someone who is working, nor someone who is away for this length of time.

OP - sort it quickly. If you have bookings, yo need insurance.

Yes, you must get the insurance BEFORE you book a flight. People often make the mistake of booking the flight first.

In the however unlikely event that something happens after booking your flight and insurance that means you need to cancel your departure, your insurance will ONLY cover that if you bought the insurance before you booked the flight.

If you book the flight first and then the insurance, the argument is that you may have already known you were going to have to cancel your flight and so you bought insurance after the fact in order to be able to claim.

World nomads will charge over £1000 for 2 years cover. Very expensive.
(Nauta) I plan on getting a medicare card, and pay as i go, praying I don't get any serious injury. I will be covered when working through the employers insurance policy. I rarely go to the doctor at home so am banking on that. Fingers crossed.

I am travelling on a shoe string and am only looking for basic cover for as long as i can possibly can for the least amount of money. Choose which is best for you.

The price varies depending on your home country Alex. I don't know where Natedogg is from and it does not say on his profile. It varies because of what the insurance company can expect to be able to get from your national coverage. ie. If you are a Brit, will the NHS pay to repatriate you on an air ambulance.

If you go to the WN website you will see the first question asked is where are you from. Enter the UK and ask for a year of level 1 coverage and the price is 207 GBP. So I don't see where you are getting the 1000 for 2 years from. You cannot ask for more than 18 months initially with WN so I can't give you a 2 year comparison. For 18 months it is 437 GBP. I can't see it getting to 1000 for another 6 months given the 12 and 18 month prices. It will however be more than your 280 GBP price obviously. But can you extend if needed?

What I suggested to the OP is to start with 6 months coverage (since they allow you to extend while 'on the road'). That would cover the time period up to his getting to Australia and if he found work then he could decide what to do from there. Extend coverage or rely on Australian employee coverage if it were provided to him (not all jobs backpackers take provide health cover). For 6 months WN wants 113 GBP for a resident of the UK.

Using your own scenario of employee coverage in Australia, that is all the OP might need to pay for, 6 months coverage. Why pay for more unless needed and assuming you can extend? Extend or start a new policy while 'on the road' is something that a lot of travel insurance providers do not offer. It can be very important if your plans change in some way. Don't underestimate it.

You can even cancel the remainder of a WN policy, receive a refund and then at some future date if you go back on the road, start a new policy from OUTSIDE your home country. See where that might come in handy?

There is more to consider than just price.

Alex - hope it doesn't happen, but if you have an accident that is not covered by your employers, or you need repatriation FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD you will give your family the choice of selling their home to cover some of the cost, or leaving you where you are. It has happened.

you want a long trip abroad. Fine. Buy the insurance. Not to do so is selfish and irresponsible.

and it doesn't need to be the other side of the world. There are Brits stuck in Europe racking up bills because they didn't want to buy travel insurance.

This is all good info for natedogg so he can decide the best coverage. Your prices on WN are for europe only. WN include SE Asia (which australia is part of) with the US, who have astronomical medical costs, if you select the insurance incl us, se asia etc you will see the price grows a lot and would be over £1000. My advice would be to try and find a company that dont incl SE Asia with the US all those companies give much cheaper insurance with all the same coverage that you need.

The NHS do not pay for repatriation - I have had experience with this flying my grandfather back from greece on an air ambulance. It was hugely costly.