TravelSafe Travel Insurance Review — Is It Worth It?

With every trip, there’s a chance something could go wrong. Your first flight could be delayed, causing you to miss a connection. You could get sick or injured. Maybe your luggage doesn’t show up at your destination. For any of these situations, you may have considered buying travel insurance. Whether you’re looking for a detailed policy that covers everything or a policy that covers one specific aspect of your trip, it’s likely available and affordable.

TravelSafe Insurance has been offering services to travelers since 1971. This privately-held company provides travel insurance plans for solo and family travelers, as well as business, student, and group travelers, plus plans aimed at golfers and Canadians. There are also medical-only plans, and all plans have 24-hour emergency assistance.

Before discussing the ins and outs of TravelSafe plans, let’s first look at why you might want to purchase travel insurance, then discuss why TravelSafe could be right for you. We’ll also discuss its plans, how they compare to other travel insurance providers, and how TravelSafe compares to the insurance available on several travel-focused credit cards.

Why Purchase Travel Insurance

Travel insurance is meant to protect the money you’ve spent toward a trip against losses; it’s also meant to protect you against additional expenses from the unexpected. That could include trips canceled at the last minute because of weather or hospital expenses if you become sick or injured while on vacation.

Travel insurance could help you with some of the following:

• You fall and break a bone during a hiking trip, needing to spend time in a hospital.
• Your child becomes ill shortly before a trip, and you have to cancel to stay home to care for them.
• You break a tooth when sampling local delicacies and need immediate dental care, but your health insurance policy from home isn’t in effect at your destination.
• Fighting breaks out at your intended destination, and it’s no longer safe to travel there.

Bottom Line:

The more nonrefundable expenses there are in your trip, and the more risks you’ll be taking during the trip, the more it makes sense to consider a travel insurance policy to protect you from financial losses.

Travel Insurance and COVID-19

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many travelers had to change, cancel, or postpone their trips. Others found themselves with escalating costs after testing positive at their destination and needing to quarantine.

While these sound like typical situations covered by travel insurance, that may not be the case. Some companies have excluded COVID-19 from coverage under the terms of visiting areas with a known pandemic — terms introduced in the past, before the current pandemic.

Additionally, choosing to voluntarily cancel your trip for fear of getting sick or testing positive, thus not wanting to deal with the encumbrances, isn’t covered by travel insurance.

For a travel insurance policy to include coverage for COVID-19, such as medical expenses or expenses related to quarantine, you must ensure the policy specifically lists COVID-19 as a covered reason. If not, you may need to add Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) insurance. This is an optional add-on available for some policies, and adding it to yours will include additional costs.

Make sure you read the terms of any policy you’re considering so you know what aspects it does and doesn’t cover related to COVID-19.

Luckily, TravelSafe treats COVID-19 like other sicknesses rather than exempting it from coverage as a known pandemic. That means testing positive or getting sick can be covered by your policy without needing any special additions. Further details on the covered reasons, such as the threshold for testing types sufficient for a positive test, can be found online.

Why Purchase Travel Insurance From TravelSafe

Before choosing a travel insurance company, ensuring the company is reliable and reputable should be your first consideration.

TravelSafe has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, an average rating of 4.3/5 on the travel insurance website Squaremouth (from 1,499 reviews), and a 4/5 average rating on consumeraffairs.com. Moreover, it is backed by the United States Fire Insurance Company, which has an A (Excellent) rating from financial rating company A.M. Best. Based on this, you can infer TravelSafe is reliable and worth considering for your next travel insurance purchase.

TravelSafe offers general and specific policies, providing options more likely to meet your needs. TravelSafe also offers CFAR (Cancel for Any Reason) insurance for those who need it. Let’s look at the possibilities.

Types of Policies Available

TravelSafe offers several types of travel insurance. Let’s look at the options within each type separately, as knowing what is included and what isn’t is important when evaluating your options.

Trip Protection Plans

These plans are available only for U.S. citizens or residents; coverage applies to domestic and international trips. Coverage within the Basic and Classic plans is divided into protecting your travel arrangements and coverage for your health and belongings. Here are the details of travel arrangement protections:

The key differences between the Basic and Classic plans include maximum coverage amounts and what the Classic plan offers that the Basic plan doesn’t. The Classic plan reimburses itinerary changes, pet kennel fees, and the option to add CFAR coverage. It also offers higher maximum payouts in every category.

These are the maximum coverage amounts for health and belongings:

Travel Medical Plans

These plans are offered through Trawick International. By providing information about your origin, destination, start and end dates of your coverage, and age(s) of the traveler(s), you can compare plan options.

These primarily focus on medical coverage, such as sickness, dental, death, evacuation, and dismemberment. Plans also should provide primary medical coverage. However, they include some travel-focused, non-medical coverage, such as baggage delay and loss protections, trip delay, and trip interruption.

Policies for Golfers

GolfSafe plans are underwritten by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. To see pricing and plan details, you’ll start by providing your origin and destination, trip dates, the date of your first deposit, the age(s) of the traveler(s), and the cost of the trip.

It’s important to note that both the Secure and Secure Plus plans provide excess coverage secondary to what may be provided by an airline, your homeowner’s insurance, or other providers. Both plans can provide the coverage you usually associate with travel insurance — such as trip cancellation, trip interruption, itinerary change fees, trip delays, and more — but rental car damage and accidental death and dismemberment are optional add-ons.

Coverage maximums are the same in all categories, which is surprising. The real difference is the addition of CFAR coverage to the Secure Plus plan; this protection applies if you purchase your plan within 21 days of your first trip deposit (not available to NY or WA residents).

Interestingly, while these plans cover what you might think of for golfers — such as needing to rent clubs if the airline doesn’t deliver yours on time or lost prepaid green fees if your flight is delayed — you also can be reimbursed for the cost of buying drinks at the clubhouse if you or a traveling companion gets a hole-in-one.

Policies for Canadians

The Basic and Classic plans detailed above are only available for U.S. citizens and residents. For Canadians, provide your destination country, age(s) of traveler(s), and trip cost. Two plan levels exist: Elite and Elite Package with optional CFAR.

Both plans provide the same coverage and coverage amounts in all areas but one: CFAR. The more expensive option offers Cancel for Any Reason coverage of up to 75% of your nonrefundable insured costs with a maximum of $100,000.

How To Obtain a Quote

Getting a quote from TravelSafe is relatively simple. Head to travelsafe.com and click the GET A QUOTE button under the type of plan you want.

Let’s assume you’re looking for a standard travel insurance plan as a U.S. resident or citizen. You’ll provide information about your state of residence, the dates you want the policy for, when you made the first deposit on your trip, and your destination country. You’ll also indicate the number of travelers, their ages, and the trip cost.

On the next page, you’ll see the Basic and Classic plans compared side by side. This will show you the difference in cost for the 2 plans and the differences in coverage types and payout maximums. With drop-down menus, you can also add optional coverage, such as rental car damage or sports equipment rental in case the checked bag with your scuba equipment is delayed.

After choosing a plan, click Select this plan next to the price. You’ll be taken to the checkout page, where you’ll provide your details and then pay for your policy.

The Value of Travel Insurance Comparison Sites

Numerous travel insurance companies exist, each with multiple offerings. Comparing TravelSafe insurance policies against one another is relatively simple, but what if you want to compare these against other travel insurance companies? Enter the comparison websites.

Best for Comprehensive Travel Insurance Plans

• Squaremouth — Use this site to search for single-trip, annual, group, and sports/adventure travel insurance plans. While some plans may include medical coverage, you can’t use this site to search for medical-only coverage.
• TravelInsurance.com — Use this site to compare travel insurance plans that include travel medical insurance. However, no stand-alone travel medical plans are available.

Best for Travel Medical Plans

• InsureMyTrip — Use this site to compare single and multi-trip travel medical policies; you also can search for comprehensive travel insurance plans.

How TravelSafe Travel Insurance Compares — Summary

TravelSafe vs. Other Travel Insurance Companies

To compare TravelSafe against competitors, we used Squaremouth to obtain a quote for 2 travelers from California, ages 35 and 34, going to Colombia for a week in March 2024. We estimated the trip cost as $800 per traveler, with the first trip deposit made in the last 24 hours.

Here’s how TravelSafe’s Classic plan compares to Trawick’s Safe Travels First Class and WorldTrips Atlas Journey Preferred:

TravelSafe’s plan is the most expensive at $126, while WorldTrips is charging $109 and Trawick is charging $113.43. Beyond the cost difference, let’s review the key differences in the plans.

Trawick offers $150,000 of emergency medical coverage, while WorldTrips and TravelSafe offer only $100,000. However, only TravelSafe’s plan provides primary coverage here. Moreover, only TravelSafe’s plan offers evacuation for non-medical reasons, such as political instability at your destination. But TravelSafe is also the only provider not allowing coverage extension if you’re forced to spend extra time at your destination through canceled flights or COVID-19-related quarantines.

Trawick provides the highest daily limit ($200) during travel delays, but it has the lowest maximum payout ($1,000) and requires a 12-hour delay. WorldTrips and TravelSafe provide up to $100 per day and up to $2,000 maximum, with WorldTrips providing coverage after a 5-hour delay and TravelSafe at 6 hours. All 3 plans provide baggage delay benefits after 12 hours, but TravelSafe’s coverage of $250 per person is the lowest. Conversely, TravelSafe has the highest maximum payout for lost luggage at $2,500 per person.

TravelSafe also has the highest maximum payout for 24-hour accidental death and dismemberment ($25,000 per person), but only Trawick automatically includes death and dismemberment coverage on a common carrier (up to $25,000 per person). And when it comes to sports and activities on your trip, TravelSafe is the only provider that does not include coverage for these activities.

Regarding trip delays from weather, Trawick is the worst, requiring a 48-hour delay.

Trawick also requires you to be at your job for 5 years before the layoff coverage kicks in if you lose your job and can’t go on your trip.

However, many aspects of these plans are the same, such as trip cancellation and interruption benefits, coverage for COVID-19 sickness, the ability to cover preexisting conditions (if specific terms are met), medical evacuation, and the option to add CFAR coverage.

TravelSafe vs. Credit Card Insurance

You may have a credit card that provides travel insurance. Many travel-focused credit cards offer coverage sufficient for straightforward vacations, inexpensive trips, or those without significant nonrefundable costs. However, this type of coverage doesn’t include everything a comprehensive travel insurance policy might offer.

For comparison, let’s put TravelSafe’s premium policy (Classic) side by side with 2 premium cards offering robust insurance coverage: The Platinum Card^® from American Express and the Chase Sapphire Reserve^®. Before we get started, note that enrollment may be required for some of the Amex benefits described below.

It’s also worth noting that insurance policies on these cards are built-in, while purchasing a plan from TravelSafe will have an additional cost.

These cards look like they provide excellent coverage at first glance, but some coverage types are secondary. That means they kick in after your other coverage, such as homeowner’s insurance, auto insurance, or healthcare plan at home. You’d have to deal with those insurance companies first, meaning your auto insurance plan could be more expensive if you file a claim for a fender-bender on vacation. Travel insurance policies offering primary coverage mean you deal straight with them as your first point of contact. And while TravelSafe’s Classic plan doesn’t provide higher payouts for accidental death and dismemberment, it does provide higher maximums for emergency medical, emergency evacuation, and trip cancellation.

How To File a Claim With TravelSafe

It’s possible to file a claim online and by phone. You can call toll-free in the U.S. at 877-539-6729. It’s also possible to start your claim online.

You’ll start by providing your name and policy ID. From here, you’ll provide details about your claim, such as the reason and any costs you incurred, and attach relevant documents.

It’s important to provide as many documents as possible related to your claim. Receipts, doctor notes, a statement from the airline noting the delay and anything else you can gather will help claim evaluators process your claim more efficiently. You also should clearly explain what happened, focusing on facts and being brief. Anything you can do to help the claim evaluator understand what happened and assess your claim efficiently will benefit both parties.

While TravelSafe doesn’t provide a specific deadline for evaluating your claim and providing a decision, understand that this process typically takes 6 to 8 weeks with many providers. Thus, you should expect the same here.

Final Thoughts

Numerous travel insurance providers exist, and TravelSafe may not be the first name you think of. However, TravelSafe has a few advantages. Policies are easy to understand and compare when shopping through the website, additional policies focused on golfers and Canadians can help you get a tailored plan that fits your needs, and costs are similar to the competition when looking at comparable policies.

However, there are things you should consider before purchasing from TravelSafe. For example, other companies offer plans tailored to extreme sports; if you’re bungee jumping or scuba diving on your next vacation, you might look into these plans, as extreme sports are excluded from TravelSafe’s plans.

However, if you’re looking for a plan that provides the most common types of coverage, is easy to understand, and can be purchased at a fair price with just a few clicks, TravelSafe may offer what you’re looking for.

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For the car rental loss and damage insurance benefit of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, car rental loss and damage insurance can provide coverage up to $75,000 for theft of or damage to most rental vehicles when you use your eligible card to reserve and pay for the entire eligible vehicle rental and decline the collision damage waiver or similar option offered by the commercial car rental company. This product provides secondary coverage and does not include liability coverage. Not all vehicle types or rentals are covered. geographic restrictions apply. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company. Car Rental Loss or Damage Coverage is offered through American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

For the trip cancellation and interruption insurance benefit of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, the maximum benefit amount for trip cancellation and interruption insurance is $10,000 per covered trip and $20,000 per eligible card per 12 consecutive month period. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

For the trip delay insurance benefit of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, up to $500 per covered trip that is delayed for more than 6 hours; and 2 claims per eligible card per 12 consecutive month period. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

For the baggage insurance plan benefit of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, baggage insurance plan coverage can be in effect for covered persons for eligible lost, damaged, or stolen baggage during their travel on a common carrier vehicle (e.g. plane, train, ship, or bus) when the Entire Fare for a ticket for the trip (one-way or round-trip) is charged to an eligible card. Coverage can be provided for up to $2,000 for checked baggage and up to a combined maximum of $3,000 for checked and carry-on baggage, in excess of coverage provided by the common carrier. The coverage is also subject to a $3,000 aggregate limit per covered trip. For New York State residents, there is a $2,000 per bag/suitcase limit for each covered person with a $10,000 aggregate maximum for all covered persons per covered trip. Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.

For the premium global assist hotline benefit of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, eligibility and benefit level varies by Card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. If approved and coordinated by premium global assist hotline, emergency medical transportation assistance may be provided at no cost. In any other circumstance, card members may be responsible for the costs charged by third-party service providers.