Travelex Travel Insurance: What You Need to Know

Travelex is an insurance provider offering a variety of plans to travelers, including coverage for things like medical expenses, trip delays or issues with your flights. Travelex is more affordable than its competitors and offers a variety of flexible plans for any type of traveler.

Headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, Travelex has been providing insurance to travelers for more than 25 years. Its policies are underwritten by two companies.

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance is one of the underwriters and holds an A++ financial strength rating (FSR) from AM Best, an insurance company rating firm. A++ is the best rating possible.

Zurich Insurance Group is the other underwriter for Travelex and holds an A+ rating from AM Best.

Travelex travel insurance coverage varies based on the plan you purchase. Generally speaking, however, 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, 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.

Travelex has six policies from which to choose.

Add-on options

Travelex allows you to customize your policies in a few ways. Most of these apply exclusively to the Travel Select plan, though Travel Basic policyholders can opt to add on rental car insurance:

• Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR).

• Rental car insurance.

• Additional medical coverage.

• Adventure sports exclusion waiver.

• Additional flight accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D).  

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. 

On a five-star scale, NerdWallet rated Travelex four stars. This beats out many competitors, especially when you consider that a Travelex policy is among the cheapest available.

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 $135. If you were to spring for the premium plan, which increases your coverage limits, expect to pay $198.

The same sample trip costs $10 to $202 when looking across multiple providers. Note that price isn't the only differentiating factor. Coverage is not identical across plans; each company offers various levels of scope, limits and exclusions.

» Learn more: The best travel credit cards right now

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.

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.

Travelex offers 24/7 emergency assistance on all its plans.

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:

• Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Co.: 

  • Phone: 855-205-6054.

  • Email: [email protected].

• Zurich Travel Claims Administration: 

  • Phone: 800-501-4781.

  • Email: [email protected].

Yes, if you're looking for an affordable plan. While it doesn’t provide the most comprehensive coverage around, it has solid policy options and won’t break the bank.

Note that many travel credit cards also offer complimentary travel insurance. Before buying travel insurance, do your due diligence to decide which option is the right move for you.