Singaporeans love to travel, and most people will buy travel insurance. But have you ever thought if your travel insurance cover acts of terrorism or war?
It might be hard to accept, but the recent Paris attack is just a reminder that terrorism is just part of our lives. Making sure your travel insurance covers terrorism is essential when you purchase travel insurance. This post is to help you understand the terrorism cover in travel insurance.
From my observation, it seems most basic travel insurance policies offered by airline or credit card companies do not provide cover for acts of war and terrorism. Even if they do, they have stringent terms and the limit is very low.
On the other hand, most personal travel insurance policies distributed by insurance agents and brokers have comprehensive terrorism coverage.
How to know if your travel insurance covers terrorism
If you want to know whether your travel insurance covers terrorism, you should look for a section in your travel insurance schedule with a word terrorism. Different insurers may name it differently. For example, here are some comment names of the section.
- Cover in the event of Terrorism
- Terrorism Extension
- Full Terrorism Cover
Take note of different terms of travel insurance terrorism cover
You should pay a bit more attention to the terms and conditions of each travel insurance policy. It is a myth that insurance terms are hard to understand. Nowadays all these conditions are in plain English and it takes you just one minute to know what is going on.
Nevertheless, I am going to make your life really easy by giving you some examples from a few insurers.
Terrorism cover excluding nuclear, chemical or biological events
We will pay You the benefits in Sections xx to xx for covered losses arising directly from an Act of Terrorism during the Trip, subject to the respective limits of the Selected Plan under each Section and the terms and exclusions of the Policy.
We will not pay for any losses directly or indirectly suffered, contributed or attributed to or caused by from or in any connection with any act of nuclear, chemical or biological events.
Terrorism cover excluding certain sections
Covers death or bodily injury, loss or damage in the event of terrorism including the use of Nuclear, Chemical and/or Biological weapons whilst Overseas (Not Applicable to Section xx, xx, xx)
Terrorism cover with aggregate limits
Some insurers may impose an “aggregate limit” and more stringent conditions. It goes like this:
We will compensate you for the benefits provided under this Policy subject to the aggregate limit stated above for this Section for claims arising directly or indirectly from Act of Terrorism.
From these examples you can see, there are three things you should take note for travel insurance terrorism cover:
- What events are excluded from this cover
- Which sections are excluded from this cover
- What are the aggregate limits of the cover
School holiday is coming and a lot of people are travelling. When you buy travel insurance online, you should pay attention to this clause, especially if you are travelling to Europe and US countries.
Now you are an expert of travel insurance terrorism cover, and I am sure you can choose the best product for yourself.
As you know, at SGMoneyMatters we have a lot of tools and resources for you. Now you can enjoy great premium discount and free gift when you buy travel insurance online.
Good write up, i think it’s best to do a comparison as different companies keep changing their coverage and costs. After doing a comparison on gobear I decided to go with FWD, their Travel plan cover most “extreme” sport activities like sky diving, diving, hiking etc.
Have very good baggage loss/delay terms and are on par with all the big names in accident and medical coverage, they even include terrorism cover. I used a link for 5% off and completed their survey for an additional 5%. So overall, it’s a very good deal.