Travelex Insurance Review: A Great Value for Families

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Travelex Insurance offers a range of travel insurance products that are a great fit for many individuals and families. In fact, we ranked their Travel Select plan as our top travel insurance plan available. Since children 17 and younger are covered for free with this plan, we’ve also ranked this plan as the best travel insurance plan for families.

Of course, the Travel Select plan may not be right for every traveler. From other comprehensive plans to “Cancel for Any Reason” upgrades and flight-only travel insurance, Travelex offers several travel insurance products to meet your needs.

In this Travelex Travel Insurance review, we’ll explore their core plans and show you what they cover. We’ll also explain who should consider them and what types of activities and conditions may be excluded from coverage. Let’s get to it!

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Travelex Insurance at a Glance

• Travelex Insurance Services Inc.
• Founded in 1996
• Headquartered in Omaha, NE
• Available to U.S. residents
• Five travel insurance plans available
• Coverage for International and domestic travel
• “Cancel for Any Reason” available as upgrade to some plans
• Children under age 18 covered for free under Travel Select
• Insurance benefits are underwritten by Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company or Zurich Insurance Group Ltd.

Insure Your Trip with Travelex – Protect your travel dollars from a whole host of issues, including illness, trip cancellation, and more. Get a free Travelex quote here.

Travelex Travel Insurance Products

Travelex offers their customers five travel insurance plans to consider:

• Travel America
• Travel Basic
• Travel Select
• Flight Insure
• Flight Insure Plus

Travel Basic, Travel Select, and Travel America plans include trip insurance as well as post-departure benefits like emergency medical. Flight Insure plans focus on flight accident coverage. Keep in mind that coverage eligibility and reimbursement for any claims of loss is determined by the insurer.

All plans include Travel Assistance, which is a 24-hour telephone service that travelers can use to get help with medical emergencies, replacing lost travel documents, and even arranging event tickets.

It is also important to note that, for the plans which include it (Travel Basic, Travel Select, Travel America), trip cancellation and interruption insurance apply only to covered reasons. According to Travelex, examples may include:

• Illness, injury, or death
• Inclement weather and natural disasters
• Labor strikes
• Financial default (when plan is purchased within 15 days of first trip deposit)
• Business reasons (when plan is purchased within 15 days of first trip deposit)

With the exception of the Travel America plan, all plans provide primary coverage with no deductibles. Again, in the event that you file a claim, the insurer determines which claims are eligible for coverage and the amount for which they are covered.

Here is a comparison of the benefits provided by Travelex Travel Insurance plans from the Travelex website, followed by a detailed overview of each plan:

Travel America

Travel America provides secondary coverage for up to 7 people traveling within the United States. It is typically less expensive than the other options, however there is no coverage for emergency medical or medical evacuations. You will need to rely on your own health insurance for that.

Again, this plan is only available for trips within the United States and the District of Columbia. Therefore, it is not suitable for international travel.

Travel Basic

Travel Basic is another solution for the budget-minded traveler. Again, it is usually less expensive than the Travel Select plans and, consequently, is lighter on coverage and benefits.

This plan is recommended for students and backpackers. It does provide primary coverage as well as international coverage in most countries. Trip cancellation and interruption insurance cover the cost of your trip if your plans suddenly change, however the emergency medical coverage is considerably less than the coverage offered with the Travel Select plan.

Travel Select

We absolutely love the Travelex Travel Select plan. In fact, we ranked it as our top overall travel insurance policy on the market and our top travel insurance policy for families in 2021. (Compare the best travel insurance companies and see our rankings here.)

Travel Select is a more robust travel insurance plan that caters to families. All coverage categories see a boost relative to Travel Basic, with a significant jump for emergency medical coverage.

Perhaps the best feature of Travel Select is that kids under the age of 18 are covered for free provided they are traveling with a covered family member. This is a huge cost-savings for families traveling together – especially large ones!

Also important, the Travel Select plan includes an optional “Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR)” upgrade. As we’ve all learned during the coronavirus pandemic, travel plans can change for all sorts of reasons. That is why we are big fans of CFAR coverage!

If you’re planning an expensive trip, you want to protect your investment. By securing cancel anytime coverage, you know that if you have to change your plans for a reason that isn’t normally covered, you can get your non-refundable deposits back.

The Travel Select plan also offers upgrades for several other add-ons, including adventure sports coverage, car rental collision insurance, and more.

Flight Insure & Flight Insure Plus

Travelex offers two flight-only insurance plans: Flight Insure and Flight Insure Plus.

Flight Insure provides no-frills flight delay and accident coverage. Flight Insure Plus offers a wider range of coverage, but not as much as one of the comprehensive plans outlined above.

Here is a screenshot from the Travelex website comparing select policy details from both Flight Insure plans

Exclusions from Coverage

As with any insurance policy, Travelex Insurance plans come with a list of items that are excluded. Here are some of the most important exclusions to know about:

• Preexisting medical conditions (subject to 60 look-back period)
• Extreme sports and professional sports
• Mental disorders
• Losses related to the use of drugs and/or alcohol
• Routine medical treatment
• Anything related to pregnancy and childbirth that isn’t unexpected and unforeseeable
• Losses associated with doing anything illegal
• Riots, civil unrest, acts of war

Keep in mind this is not a complete list of exclusions nor does it guarantee coverage for things not listed. Please refer to your plan documents for plan information and direct questions to Travelex Insurance Services.

Eligibility for Coverage

Generally speaking, with the exception of the Travel America policy, only members living in the same household can be covered under these plans. Please check your plan documents for details.

Travelex Insurance also covers travelers of any age, provided they are medically able to travel at the time they purchase their policy. So, seniors are good to go – as long as they don’t mind paying extra.

As always, please check the plan documents for details about coverage and direct any questions or concerns to Travelex Insurance Services.

Travelex Insurance: Pros and Cons

Travelex Travel Insurance: Best Features	Travelex Travel Insurance: Where it Falls Short
Five plans to choose from	Travel Basic medical coverage is underwhelming
No deductible	No multi-trip or annual plans available
Preexisting medical condition exclusion waiver	Can be more expensive than other travel insurance companies
Short look-back period for preexisting medical conditions
Cancel for Any Reason upgrade available with some plans
Kids under 18 get free coverage with Travel Select
Coverage available for seniors

Who Should Consider Travelex Travel Insurance?

Families – The Travel Select plan is an excellent travel insurance policy for families. Kids under 18 traveling with an insured adult relative are covered for free – that’s a lot of savings for families, especially large ones. The plan itself offers decent coverage in all categories with the option to purchase upgrades. The Cancel for Any Reason and extra medical coverage are attractive add-ons for families to consider.

Seniors – Travelex covers travelers of any age, as long as they are fit to travel on the date they purchase their policy. That’s great news for seniors – some providers will not insure them past a certain age.

Anyone Looking for Comprehensive Coverage – If you’re looking for a travel insurance product that includes trip protection, emergency medical treatment and evacuation, repatriation, and all the other standard benefits like baggage loss and delay, Travelex has a solution for you. For most people, that solution is Travel Select.

Budget Travelers – If you’re on a tight budget, I understand the urge to skip travel insurance, but don’t! Travelex’s Travel Basic protects your trip while offering some medical coverage and other post-departure benefits. If you’re traveling as a family, just be sure to compare quotes for Travel Basic and Select, because depending on the number of kids you have, Travel Select could work out to be the cheaper of the two.

Who Should Skip Travelex Travel Insurance?

Anyone Looking for More Medical Coverage – Travel Select offers a standard emergency medical expense coverage that may be considered reasonable but not particularly robust. If you’re looking for emergency medical expense coverage beyond what is offered, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Adventure Travelers – If your travel plans involve some hardcore mountain climbing, Travelex isn’t going to cover you for losses related to that. For mountain climbing and other adventure sports, we recommend checking out World Nomads. They cover over 200 adventure activities, including mountain climbing up to 22,965 feet. Going higher than that? You might be on your own.

Frequent Travelers – If you travel several times per year, you might save money by considering another travel insurance provider that sells multi-trip or annual policies. Buying an annual plan might be cheaper than buying three single-trip plans in the run of a year. If that’s your situation, Allianz Travel Insurance has some options worth checking out.

How to Buy Travelex Travel Insurance

You can buy a policy quickly and easily on the Travelex website. Get a free quote here.

If you have any questions, you can email or call Travelex’s customer service team for friendly assistance.

How to File a Claim

To file a claim, enter your plan number into the online claim form. Then, simply download the forms you need to complete your claim and submit.

You can send in your forms electronically or by mail. The electronic route will get things done faster, of course.

Travelex Insurance: Final Thoughts

Travelex offers five plans, but for most people considering travel insurance, it’s going to come down to Travel Basic and Travel Select. Travel Basic appeals to budget-minded travelers, however, it does come with significantly less in emergency medical expense coverage than the Travel Select. This may turn off some travelers.

On the other hand, Travel Select is a relatively well-rounded plan that’s especially suited to families, given kids under 18 get free coverage. We also love that you can upgrade your plan to include Cancel for Any Reason coverage.

We hope this Travelex travel insurance review helped you decide if Travelex is right for you. No matter which provider you choose, make sure you protect yourself and your trip.

Thanks for reading and happy traveling!

Get a Free Quote – Protect your travel dollars with a travel insurance policy from Travelex! Click here to get a free quote!

*Sandra Parsons also contributed to this story.