Trawick International Travel Insurance | Nasdaq

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While you may not have thought much about travel insurance before the COVID-19 pandemic, watching the ripple effect of lockdowns and flight cancellations probably got you thinking about the need to protect your future trips. If you’ve finally saved up for that dream trip and scoured travel booking sites to find the very best flights and hotels, it’s wise to ensure you have protection in place should unexpected events prevent or interrupt your trip.

Trawick International offers robust travel insurance options at a variety of coverage levels and price points — including for students studying overseas — and if you don’t have sufficient coverage through a travel credit card, it’s a great option to consider. We’ve outlined its pros and cons and reviewed its coverage, pricing and more to give you a jump start on finding the best travel insurance company to protect your vacation or study abroad experience.

Best for students

Trawick International really caters to students by offering insurance coverage for longer-term trips, including study abroad opportunities. For American students headed overseas, you can pick from one of its many travel insurance plans and customize it for the options and duration you need. For international students and scholars headed to the U.S. for study, teaching or research, Trawick International offers health coverage for you and your dependents. This unique offering’s robust coverage ensures that both your routine and emergency health needs are met during your stay in the U.S.

Trawick International travel insurance pros and cons

Pros

• Study abroad travel insurance coverage available
• Up to $2,000 in baggage loss coverage

Cons

• “Cancel for Any Reason” offer only available for some plans
• No side-by-side policy comparison of benefits on website

Pros explained

Study abroad travel insurance coverage available

Trawick International is a good option for students studying abroad since it offers plans to insure travel for students going overseas and health insurance coverage for students (and their dependents) coming to study in the U.S.

Up to $2,000 in baggage loss coverage

With baggage loss coverage of up to $2,000, Trawick International offers some of the best coverage around when it comes to protecting your belongings while traveling.

Cons explained

“Cancel for Any Reason” upgrade only available for some plans

While you might think of travel insurance as including the ability to allow you to cancel and get a refund on your travel, Trawick International only allows the “Cancel for Any Reason” upgrade on some of its plans. If this is important to you, be sure to choose a plan that allows for it, and be prepared to spend the high cost to add it on (about 1.7 times the plan’s price).

No side-by-side policy comparison on Trawick’s website

Trawick International’s website doesn’t have a tool to allow you to do a side-by-side comparison on the plans on its website, which makes it hard to distinguish between the features of the various plans. This means you have to make more of an effort to really research each plan and create a table of factors that are important to you in order to determine which plan to choose.

Trawick International travel insurance plans

To give you a sense of the coverage you can select, we’ve outlined some of the key features of seven of the 25 travel insurance plans that Trawick International offers.

Safe Travels First Class

Trawick International’s Safe Travels First Class plan covers delays (up to $1,000), interruptions (up to $22,500) and cancellations (up to $15,000) should things go wrong on your trip. Insured by Nationwide, the Safe Travels First Class plan also gives you up to $150,000 in emergency medical coverage and up to $1 million should you require emergency medical evacuation. This plan also includes a preexisting condition exclusion waiver that allows you to receive coverage if your medical issues are due to a preexisting condition.

The plan even gives you up to $2,000 in coverage for baggage and $5,000 for property damage and covers fees for getting back any frequent flier/traveler points or miles you used to book your trip. You can also take your trip protection one step further with this plan by adding $50,000 in rental car damage coverage (not available in New York or Texas) and the “Cancel for Any Reason” option to your plan, which allows you to get a refund for cancellations within 14 days of paying your trip deposit (not available in New York or Washington state).

Safe Travels Single Trip

With the Safe Travels Single Trip plan, you get several of the same types of coverage insured by Nationwide as with the Safe Travels First Class plan, but at a slightly lower level: up to $600 for delays, $21,000 or interruptions, $14,000 for cancellation and $1,000 for baggage, along with up to $75,000 in emergency medical costs and $350,000 in medical evacuation expenses. Like the First Class version of the plan, the preexisting medical condition exclusion waiver is included, and you can add up $35,000 in coverage for rental car damage. However, it does not provide coverage for property damage, nor can you add the “Cancel for Any Reason” upgrade.

Safe Travels Explorer

The Safe Travels Explorer plan is a budget-friendly option that gives you up to $2,000 in coverage for delays, 100{0b5b04b8d3ad800b67772b3dcc20e35ebfd293e6e83c1a657928cfb52b561f97} of the cost of your trip for interruptions or cancellations, $750 for baggage, $50,000 in coverage for emergency medical expenses and $200,000 for medical evacuation costs. It does not include coverage for property or rental car damage, you can’t “Cancel for Any Reason” and you can’t add a preexisting condition exclusion waiver.

Safe Travels Explorer Plus

This plan gives you almost the same coverage as the Safe Travels Explorer plan but adds the preexisting condition exclusion waiver. To get the waiver, you have to purchase the Safe Travel Explorer Plus coverage within seven days of paying the deposit for your trip. Coverage levels are slightly lower with this plan than the Safe Travels Explorer plan for delays (up to $500 in coverage), and it does not offer coverage for property or rental car damage or the ability to “Cancel for Any Reason.”

Safe Travels Journey

The Safe Travels Journey plan gives you similar benefits to the Safe Travels Explorer Plus plan plus extended coverage in some areas. You get up to $750 for delays, 125{0b5b04b8d3ad800b67772b3dcc20e35ebfd293e6e83c1a657928cfb52b561f97} of the cost of your trip for interruptions, 100{0b5b04b8d3ad800b67772b3dcc20e35ebfd293e6e83c1a657928cfb52b561f97} the cost of your trip for cancellations, $2,000 for baggage, $150,000 in emergency medical coverage and $500,000 in emergency medical evacuation coverage.The plan also gives you frequent travels rewards protection, which means that you get $250 to reinstate award points or miles that you spent on a trip if you have to cancel.

You also get the pre-existing conditions exclusion waiver included on your plan if you buy the travel insurance policy within 14 days of paying the deposit for your trip, and you can choose to add $35,000 in coverage for rental car damage.

Safe Travels Voyager

The Safe Travels Voyager plan is unique because it is the only one of Trawick International’s plans that covers accommodation expenses as part of its travel delay coverage if you’re not allowed to fly home and have to quarantine after testing positive for a covered illness. It offers some of highest levels of coverage of any of Trawick International’s plans, with up to $2,000 for delays, 150{0b5b04b8d3ad800b67772b3dcc20e35ebfd293e6e83c1a657928cfb52b561f97} of the cost of your trip for interruptions, 100{0b5b04b8d3ad800b67772b3dcc20e35ebfd293e6e83c1a657928cfb52b561f97} of the cost of the trip for cancellations, $2,500 for baggage and $35,000 for rental car damage, and includes the pre-existing conditions exclusion waiver but does not include property damage.

If you’re traveling with your pet, the plan even includes coverage to bring your pet home should anything happen to them. It also gives you trip cancellation coverage should you have to change your plans due to the death of your pet.

You can also add “Cancel for Any Reason” coverage to your policy and increase the plan’s trip delay coverage limits, which is something that’s not allowed under Trawick International’s other plans.

Collegiate Care Essential

This one is a bit different from the travel insurance plans above since it provides health insurance for students and scholars from other countries who are living in the U.S. for education or research purposes. Trawick International’s Collegiate Care Essential plan provides up to $150,000 per injury or illness and up to $300,000 in medical coverage for you, your spouse and any dependent children. This plan also includes up to $60,000 to cover emergency medical evacuation or repatriation expenses.

Trawick International travel insurance pricing

Pricing for Trawick International’s plans depends on the level of coverage, the length of the trip and the age of the traveler, ranging from $22 to upward of $2,800. Adding rental car coverage will set you back at least $10 a day, and adding “Cancel for Any Reason” coverage costs about 1.7 times the cost of the plan.

For the Collegiate Care Essential plan, rates start as low as $1.95 a day ($711.75 a year) for students ages 16 to 24 and climb to $13.30 a day ($4,854.50 a year) for dependents.

Trawick International travel insurance financial stability

Trawick International has strong financial backing and works with reputable underwriters like Nationwide. This means you don’t have to worry about whether the company actually has the resources to provide coverage should you need to file a claim.

Trawick International travel insurance accessibility

Here’s what you need to know on who’s eligible for coverage, how to reach Trawick International in case of emergency and what it’s like to get and use coverage.

Availability

With the exception of its Collegiate Care line, coverage is only available for U.S. residents, so if you live overseas, you will want to pursue another company.

Contact information

Trawick International offers 24-hour travel assistance services so you can reach someone anytime no matter where you are. By calling the hotline, you can get help with issues like translation, finding a hospital or pharmacy and even contacting the U.S. Embassy to replace a lost passport. You can also call the customer service line anytime to ask about policy options and pricing, or you can request a quote online.

User experience

Securing coverage is easy. You can get a quote for coverage right on Trawick International’s website, and after you buy a policy, it’s emailed to you immediately along with personal ID cards. The company offers round-the-clock customer service, and users say this high level of support, plus the unique offerings available on its plans, are what sets the company apart.

Trawick International travel insurance customer satisfaction

Trawick International has good customer satisfaction ratings, including 704 out of 1,000 from J.D. Power and Associates. Overall, customers have been happy with the service and coverage that Trawick International provided, saying the company’s customer service was responsive and their claims were processed quickly. Some customers, however, reported that their claims — particularly for quarantine expenses — were handed off to third parties and took months to process.

Trawick International travel insurance FAQ

Here, we answer some of the most common questions about Trawick International on the company’s reliability, claims process and user experience.

Is Trawick International a reliable travel insurance provider?

Trawick International is an established company that has been in business since 1998 and is a reliable travel insurance provider. It partners with Nationwide, another very reputable insurance company, to provide coverage on several of its plans.

What is the claims process like with Trawick International?

To file a claim with Trawick International, fill out the claim form associated with your coverage plan (different plans have different forms). Review in detail the supporting documents you have to submit with it so you can ensure you’re submitting a complete package. Then, mail or email the form and documents to Trawick International. Processing times vary, but a claims adjuster will reach out to let you know that the company is working on yours and ask for any additional information they might need.

Is Trawick International travel insurance worth it?

Trawick International provides robust coverage, which is good if you’re concerned something may happen to disrupt your trip. Spending thousands on a trip only to have the money gone with none of the fun is a depressing possibility, and travel insurance exists as a hedge against this. Like health insurance, you hope you won’t have to use it, but it’s there should the worst-case scenario transpire.

Before deciding whether to get coverage through Trawick International or any other travel insurance provider, check to see if you have travel insurance provided through one of your travel rewards credit cards. Likewise, check what coverage your health insurance provides during travel both domestically and abroad. You might be surprised to learn that you already have quite a bit of coverage, which could lessen what you might need from a company like Trawick International and save you money.

How we evaluated Trawick International travel insurance

To evaluate Trawick International, we looked at its range of plans, unique coverage options (including quarantine and medical options), pricing, customer service, claims process and user reviews.

Summary of Money’s Trawick International travel insurance review

Trawick International offers superior coverage when it comes to insuring your trip against practically any eventuality. The company particularly excels when it comes to emergency medical and evacuation coverage, offering some of the highest levels of coverage around. Its quarantine coverage is also timely as we continue to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. If you need travel insurance beyond what your travel credit card provides, Trawick International is worth exploring.

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