Monday, September 24, 2012

Travel insurance in Singapore


Many skip buying a travel insurance in Singapore before going to a nearby country in Asia. This is a big mistake since an unfortunate accident in one of the neighboring countries would cost you a fortune if you are not one of those minority whose health insurance covers foreign countries. If not, you should buy travel insurance every time you leave Singapore.

Unfortunately, my company's HR belongs to the group who does not care to buy travel insurance. Because of this, I again had to buy my travel insurance at the last minute (this is the third time). Luckily, you can easily buy travel insurance from internet. I personally use TravellerShield - Travel Insurance from DBS whenever I need to buy one. Call me paranoid but I always buy a medical insurance even if I am going to Batam or Johor (yes I know I should buy a yearly coverage plan but I cannot claim it from my company so I buy one by one).

TravellerShield is a comprehensive travel insurance plan from MSIG Insurance.The insurance covers flight diversions, accidents, medical treatments and travel inconveniences. It covers emergency medical evacuation up to S$1,000,000 (if it is required to evacuate you by helicopter who do you think will pay the cost? Your embassy?) and overseas medical expenses up to S$500,000 for.

I use TravellerShield - Travel Insurance page in DBS web site to buy it online. This will direct you to MSIG TravellerShield page where you can either buy a single trip or annual policy for you or for your family using your credit card. Check DBS travel insurance promotions from the DBS web page also. Currently they have 10% off + a $99.99 worth of Targus Backpack free for annual plan. Price? Last week, I have paid S$32.40 for a Premium cover for a 1 day trip to Vietnam (standard package is S$25.20).

Source - www.healthcarereformmagazine.com
Of course this is not the only travel insurance you can buy in Singapore. Almost all banks in Singapore provides travel insurances and you can buy most from internet. These will cover almost everything which can happen to a typical business or leisure traveller. But you need to look for answers to some basic questions before buying one otherwise you may fall into one of those fine prints:

What is being covered? (If for example you are planning to skuba dive, is it covered?)

If you over stay, can my coverage be extended?

What is the claim process?

etc. You can find out more here about Questions to Ask when You Buy Online Travel Insurance.

3 comments:

  1. Definitely important to make arrangements before you travel. A friend of mine once travelled without insurance and was unfortunate enough to run into difficulties. Everything worked out okay in the end, but others may not be so lucky. Well done for writing this blog and thank you for your insurance recommendations. I will look into these before flying off to my Singapore apartment in November :) All the best.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Like most forms of insurance you might feel that you'll never have issues, so can afford not to be covered. Yet the consequences if you do have a problem can be so serious that it's worth the small outlay to protect yourself from them. Check out DirectAsia Travel Insurance as a great alternative to those suggested here - you can get a quote and buy online in minutes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Even if we travel near to our countries, we should have a health insurance in case of everything... we can't be sure that everything will be okay and better to be covered up! When we have in plan to travel, this should be the first thing that we do! :)

    ReplyDelete