When choosing travel insurance, it is important to take into account all the nuances, so that without problems and additional investments you will receive emergency assistance abroad. You can buy a policy online on the website of any insurance company, but the conditions, range of services and prices are different for all of them.
In order not to waste time (and it will take a lot of time if you study the issue thoroughly), use aggregator sites that collect offers from several insurance companies. This is convenient because the price of the aggregator does not differ from the prices on the insurer’s website, but you can often find exclusive options with better terms. For example, at Cherehapa all policies have no deductible — that is, the minimum amount that the traveler must pay for treatment in an insured event. And most insurance companies will specify a minimum deductible when buying directly.
On aggregator sites it is quick and convenient to compare offers of different insurance companies by key criteria. The policy is issued in a few minutes, and after online payment the insurance document is instantly delivered to your e-mail. According to my personal experience of buying insurance and using it abroad, in addition to the deductible, you should pay attention to the company-assistance and insurance conditions. Let me tell you more about it.
- The assistance company is your contact with whom you will communicate when an insured event occurs. The assistance company enters into a contract with clinics and directly arranges assistance for travelers abroad. Before buying a policy, I recommend reading reviews of the assistants in the country you plan to visit. For example, for travel to Europe , the best reviews are from European companies: Allianz Global Assistance, Europ Assistance, Euro — Center Holding. Russian companies have good ratings: Savitar Group (official partner of Euro-Center Holding) and Class Assistance .
- The deductible is the amount that you will have to pay yourself if an insured event occurs. For example, treatment costs 70 € and the deductible in the insurance contract is 50 €. This means that you will have to pay 50 € from your own pocket, and the insurance company will pay only the remaining amount — 20 €. I recommend choosing insurance without a deductible, their cost is not much more expensive, but the costs will be fully covered by the insurance company.
- Exclusions from the insurance program. Important if you have a chronic illness or are traveling with children who are often sick. To avoid being in a situation where you will be denied payment for treatment, read this paragraph carefully.
- Amount of insurance coverage and additional risks. For a Schengen visa, the minimum amount of coverage for medical expenses — 30,000 € — is sufficient. And since this is a fairly safe region for travelers, this amount is enough in almost any case. But if you are going to a country where medicine is expensive, traveling with children or have chronic diseases, I recommend not to save a couple of thousand rubles on insurance and choose insurance with a larger amount of coverage and additional options. It is also worth increasing the amount if you plan to engage in extreme sports, including alpine skiing — it is worth breaking a leg on a slope, and one evacuation by helicopter may exceed the amount of insurance coverage.
I will tell you about my list of sites that are convenient to choose and buy insurance and the nuances of working with them.
Strahovkaru (Strahovkaru)
Strahovka.ru is a website where you can choose insurance from several companies and find options that other aggregators do not have. However, the choice of offers is not great, for example, for Schengen there are only four insurance organizations with coverage of 35,000, 50,000 or 100,000 €.
Conveniently, on strahovkaru you can see for each offer the name of the assistance company, the included risks and download the full insurance rules for review (here you can learn about exclusions from the program). It takes a few minutes to issue a policy, online payment by bank card.
Keep your passport handy when filling in your personal information. You will have to fill in the traveler’s name in Cyrillic and Latin characters, indicate the passport number, contact phone number and e-mail address.
Compare (sravni)
Although the site is called sravni.ru, it does not offer a visual comparison of insurances by price and additional options. After filling in the country, travel period and number of tourists, the site gives a long list of offers from insurers with prices and terms of insurance.
The details include the main and additional options with coverage amounts, the assistance company, a link to the full insurance program and a sample policy. But there is no information about the presence or absence of deductible. When buying a policy, it is not necessary to fill in the data of the passport, it is enough to enter the surname, name, date of birth and contact information (phone number and e-mail) of the insured.
The site is different in that it contains the maximum number of offers from different insurance companies. For example, for Schengen countries there are 18 of them.
Cherehapa.
The most convenient aggregator site for me is Cherehapa. It contains offers from most insurance companies, for example, for Schengen countries there are 12 of them. The site is convenient for comparing insurance programs by price and availability of additional options. Just tick the box «to compare» in several programs and you will clearly see the difference in the options included in the insurance.
In one window you can see the details of each offer: assistance, deductible, limitations, read the full terms of insurance and see a sample policy. Here you can also add additional options, change the amount of health insurance (minimum — 30 000 €, maximum — 100 000 €). Be careful, by default, the site gives offers for a coverage amount of 50,000 €.
If the trip is canceled or you find a better deal with another company, the policy can be returned before it starts — Cherehapa will refund the full price.
Tripinsurance
Tripinsuranceis not an aggregator, but a site where you can buy insurance on special terms. There are programs with coverage for medical expenses up to one million roubles. You will not be able to choose among the offers of several insurance companies. After filling in the country, travel dates and number of travelers you will be offered four exclusive insurance options from a single company — Absolut Insurance. Such conditions cannot be found even on the insurer’s website.
- Base (Base) with a minimum set of services and medical coverage of 35,000 €. An economical option for those who buy insurance for the purpose of obtaining a visa.
- Standard with an increased limit of up to 500,000 € and an extended insurance program. The price increases by approximately 50%.
- Million with a maximum limit of one million € for medical care and additional trip cancellation insurance.
- 365 days (365 days). The validity period is one year, but each trip must not exceed 91 days. The amount of coverage is 35,000 € and the set of services is minimal.
Filling in the insured person’s data is convenient and quick: you will need to write your first and last name, date of birth, contact phone number and e-mail address in Latin letters. There is no need to remember the data of the passport, when buying insurance on tripinsurance they are not needed. You can pay for the policy by bank card or Yandex. Money.
Important things to know about buying a policy on tripinsurance:
- You can get your money back within three working days of buying the policy. For example, if your trip is canceled and you do not need the insurance.
- The unconditional deductible of 50 € applies to policies with a validity of more than 21 days for non-Schengen countries and if the policy was purchased during the trip.
- Assistance is tripinsurance' s in-house service, with good reviews from travelers.
- Any insurance gives you access to an online consultation with a general practitioner or pediatrician. The service works around the clock via the tripinsurance app.
Where to buy insurance?
On aggregator sites you can familiarize yourself with the offers of various insurance companies and buy a policy in a few minutes. I recommend looking at programs on all aggregators and then making a choice.
For my trip to Schengen, I choose insurance for one adult (35 years old), for 14 days, with an amount of coverage — 35,000 €.
Minimum prices by aggregators as of the date of writing:
- Strahovkaru — 781 rubles.
- Compare — 675 rubles.
- Cherehapa — 598 rubles.
- Ttripinsurance — 1351 rubles.
However, insurances differ in the number of additional options and insurance conditions. Therefore, I recommend you to focus not only on the price, but also on the insurance program, and choose the one that suits you. And if you just need insurance to get a Schengen visa, buy the cheapest one.