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Travelex Travel Insurance: What You Need to Know
Travelex offers travel insurance plans, post-departure coverage and flight insurance policies to its customers.
After spending seven years in the U.S. Air Force as an Arabic linguist, Carissa is now a freelance writer using points and miles to fund a four-year (and counting!) adventure. She previously worked as a reporter for The Points Guy. Her writing has since been featured in numerous publications, including Forbes, Business Insider, and The Balance. When she's not flying, you'll usually find her in a Priority Pass lounge somewhere, sipping tea and cursing slow Wi-Fi.
Meghan Coyle is an editor on the Travel Rewards team and the co-host of the Smart Travel podcast. She covers travel credit cards, airline and hotel loyalty programs, and how to travel on points. Meghan is based in Los Angeles and has a love-hate relationship with LAX.
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Top-tier plan doesn’t break the bank and provides more customization opportunities.
Offers a plan specifically for domestic travel.
Sells a post-departure medical coverage plan.
Cons
Fewer customization opportunities on the Basic plan.
Though perhaps a plus for domestic travelers, keep in mind the Travel America plan only covers domestic trips.
Travelex is an insurance provider offering a variety of plans to travelers, including coverage for things like medical expenses, trip delays and issues with your flights. Travelex is more affordable than its competitors and offers flexible plans for any type of traveler.
What is Travelex?
Headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, Travelex has been providing insurance to travelers for more than 25 years. Zurich American Insurance Co. is the underwriter for Travelex and holds an A+ rating from AM Best.
What does Travelex cover?
Travelex travel insurance coverage varies based on the plan you purchase. Generally speaking, you can expect to enjoy Travelex travel insurance medical coverage as well as benefits such as trip cancellation coverage and baggage insurance.
Travelex health insurance coverage: Covers expenses related to accidents and illnesses that happen during your travels.
Trip cancellation and trip interruption: Reimburses prepaid, nonrefundable costs in the event your trip is canceled or interrupted for a covered reason.
Baggage insurance: Replaces the value of your lost luggage and reimburses you for costs in the event your luggage is delayed.
Emergency medical evacuation and repatriation: Covers the costs of moving you from one location to another during a medical emergency.
Note that not all of Travelex’s policies offer the same protections. For example, Travel Med Go, Travelex’s post-departure plan, doesn’t include trip cancellation coverage but does provide protection for medical emergencies as well as reimbursement for lost or delayed luggage, among other benefits.
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Travelex policies
Travelex has six policies from which to choose.
Trip cancellation
Trip interruption
Medical coverage
Luggage
Essential
100% of trip cost (up to $10,000).
100% of trip cost (up to $10,000).
Up to $25,000.
Up to $750 for lost, $200 for delayed.
Advantage
100% of trip cost (up to $10,000).
125% of trip cost (up to $12,500).
Up to $50,000.
Up to $1,000 for lost, $200 for delayed.
Ultimate
100% of trip cost (up to $50,000).
150% of trip cost (up to $75,000).
Up to $250,000 ($50,000 for NH residents).
Up to $2,000 for lost, $500 for delayed.
Travel Med Go
-
Up to $1,000.
Up to $50,000.
Up to $1,000 for lost, $500 for delayed.
Flight Insure
-
-
-
-
Flight Insure Plus
-
-
Up to $10,000.
Up to $1,000 for lost, $500 for delayed.
Add-on options
Travelex allows you to customize your policies in many different ways. While some of these are limited to the Ultimate plan, the Essential and Advantage plans also have customization options available.
Additional flight accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D).
Pet care.
Rental property security deposit.
Cancel for business reasons.
Additional baggage.
What’s not covered by a Travelex plan
Travelex plans have plenty of options for customization, but there are certain situations that won’t be covered by your policy, no matter which plan you purchase.
Known storms (ones that have already been named).
Reasonably foreseeable events.
Dangerous activities.
Acts of war.
Any unlawful acts.
How Travelex compares to its competitors
On a five-star scale, NerdWallet rated Travelex four stars. This beats out many competitors, especially when you consider that a Travelex policy is relatively affordable.
Company
Star rating
Basic plan cost
Premium plan cost
Generate a quote
Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection
4.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula takes into account consumer complaint and customer satisfaction data.
These star ratings are based on a separate analysis of each travel insurance provider’s offerings. For more detailed scoring, see our recommendations for the best travel insurance companies, read each individual provider's NerdWallet review or view our methodology at the end of this article. Pricing is subject to change based on your specific trip details. You can verify the latest price by clicking through to Squaremouth (a NerdWallet partner).
How much is Travelex travel insurance?
How much does Travelex travel insurance cost?A sample trip for a 36-year-old traveler from Indiana to Canada for five days found that the cheapest Travelex plan cost $130. If you were to spring for the premium plan, which increases your coverage limits, expect to pay $176.
Purchasing a Travelex policy can be done online. To do so, you’ll first want to navigate to Travelex’s website. On the homepage, you’ll be able to generate a quote using your travel information.
Once you’ve put in your information, you’ll be presented with all the plans available to you as well as their costs.
You can then pick a plan that suits your needs and go through the checkout process.
Consider comparison shopping
If you're not 100% sold on purchasing a plan from Travelex, you can use a travel insurance aggregator to compare policies across multiple companies at once.
Which Travelex travel insurance plan is best for me?
Because there are so many Travelex options, it’s important to figure out which ones best suit your needs.
To do so, you’ll want to consider what type of vacation you’re planning. Do you need comprehensive coverage? Are you renting a car? Do you want to save as much money as possible? Answering these questions will help you decide on a Travelex plan.
Does Travelex offer 24/7 travel assistance?
Travelex offers 24/7 emergency assistance on all its plans.
How to file a claim with Travelex travel insurance
Filing a claim with Travelex can easily be done online through the site’s self-service portal. Otherwise, you can call or email to file a claim:
Travelex is especially affordable, but many travel credit cards also offer complimentary travel insurance. Before buying travel insurance, do your due diligence to decide which option is right for you. While Travelex doesn’t provide the most comprehensive coverage around, it has solid policy options and won’t break the bank.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Travelex cover flight cancellation? Does Travelex cover flight cancellation?
If your flight is canceled due to a covered reason, you may have coverage via the trip cancellation or trip interruption on your Travelex policy.
How long does a Travelex refund take? How long does a Travelex refund take?
Travelex doesn’t publish a timeline for its refund process, but to make it go as smoothly as possible, be sure to provide all requested documentation upfront.
Is Travelex travel insurance primary or secondary? Is Travelex travel insurance primary or secondary?
Travelex insurance is primary.
Does Travelex cover COVID-19? Does Travelex cover COVID-19?
Yes, Travelex medical insurance covers COVID-19.
Star rating methodology
Travel insurance rating and review methodology Travel insurance rating and review methodology
Travel insurance
NerdWallet's ratings for travel insurance companies take into account the following details about each insurer:
Scope of coverage.
Customizability.
Consumer experience and complaints.
Cost.
The best travel insurers excel in all of these categories. They provide the information people need to make a purchase without any surprises along the way. They offer insurance at a fair price and allow customers to customize plans to meet their coverage preferences. They're also able to keep their customers happy throughout the relationship.
Data collection and review process
NerdWallet collects over a dozen data points for each insurer we analyze from their public-facing websites and third-party analyses. These data points are then compared against one another and against NerdWallet's standards for good travel insurance companies to determine a star rating.
Data is collected on a regular basis and reviewed by our editorial team for consistency and accuracy. Final star ratings are presented on a scale of one to five stars, where a one-star score represents "poor" and a five-star score represents "excellent."
The reviews team
The writers and editors behind NerdWallet's travel insurance reviews are insurance specialists who have had their work featured by or appear in The Associated Press, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Chicago-Sun Times, U.S. News & World Report and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Each writer and editor follows NerdWallet’s strict guidelines for editorial independence.
In addition to travel insurance, the team covers travel rewards programs, airlines and hotels.
Rating specifics
Our star ratings are weighted based on our editorial and professional opinions. We use the following weightings when rating travel insurers:
Scope of coverage (25%).
Customizability (25%).
Consumer experience and complaints (25%).
Cost (25%).
Scope of coverage ratings are based on assessments of a company’s standard protections, including:
Travel medical insurance.
Trip cancellation.
Trip interruption.
Trip delay.
Baggage and personal belongings, lost luggage.
Emergency medical assistance.
Emergency medical evacuation.
Emergency medical repatriation.
Accidental death and dismemberment insurance.
Rental car coverage.
Customizability ratings factor in whether coverage limits are fixed prices or a percentage of the trip cost (the percentage is generally better), whether a policy has customizations available, and the number of bonus features.
24-hour assistance.
Pre-existing medical conditions coverage.
Extreme sport coverage.
CFAR add on availability.
Travel health insurance.
Interruption for Any Reason.
Travel Inconvenience.
Cancel for Work Reasons.
Electronics coverage.
Consumer experience ratings are based on provider reviews on Squaremouth.com. If the company is not in the Squaremouth database, we default to Google reviews.
Affordability ratings are based on the percentage of total trip cost a plan costs a policyholder. Less than 4% is considered excellent, whereas over 9% is considered poor.
NerdWallet writers are subject matter authorities who use primary,
trustworthy sources to inform their work, including peer-reviewed
studies, government websites, academic research and interviews with
industry experts. All content is fact-checked for accuracy, timeliness
and relevance. You can learn more about NerdWallet's high
standards for journalism by reading our
editorial guidelines.