Best Travel Insurance Companies of 2024
Squaremouth offers the largest travel insurance marketplace in the United States. By using our quote and comparison tools, travelers can easily find the most cost-effective travel insurance policy for their journey.
Squaremouth uses data from over 3 million insured travelers to determine the top travel insurance companies in 2024, according to annual sales figures.
Best Selling Travel Insurance Providers
What Benefits Do the Best Travel Insurance Companies Offer?
Top travel insurance companies offer comprehensive policies at competitive rates. Their policies typically cover the most common traveler concerns, including cancellation, medical, travel delay, and lost luggage benefits, among others.
Many of the leading travel insurance companies offer multiple policies and provide 24-Hour Assistance for their customers in the event of a travel disruption or medical emergency. Below are some of the most common benefits offered by leading travel insurance providers.
Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance
The most common reason travelers buy travel insurance is for Trip Cancellation coverage. Roughly 70% of travelers who buy travel insurance on Squaremouth purchase a policy that includes cancellation coverage.
The Trip Cancellation benefit can reimburse 100% of a traveler’s prepaid and non-refundable trip expenses if they need to cancel for a covered reason.
The most common covered reasons to cancel a trip include:
- An unforeseen illness, injury or death
- A hurricane or inclement weather
- A terrorist attack
- Other reasons such as financial default of an airline, a natural disaster, employment layoff, or others
Trip Cancellation is a benefit that covers travelers before they leave. Travelers who buy a policy with this benefit will also have Trip Interruption coverage during their trip. This benefit offers similar coverage as Trip Cancellation, but applies to travelers that need to end their trip early after they’ve departed for their trip. In addition to covering a traveler’s prepaid and non-refundable expenses, Trip Interruption can also reimburse their additional travel expenses to return home.
Travelers who want even more flexibility should consider adding the optional Cancel For Any Reason benefit upgrade to their policy. Cancel For Any Reason can provide partial reimbursement for travelers who need to cancel for reasons that are not otherwise covered by Trip Cancellation. While this benefit provides added flexibility, it does increase a policy’s premium by roughly 40%.
Travel Medical Insurance
Another important benefit for a majority of travelers is medical coverage. Because many U.S.-based health insurance providers don’t extend coverage overseas, travel medical insurance policies can be an inexpensive way to have coverage during international travel.
There are two main travel medical insurance benefits: Emergency Medical and Medical Evacuation.
Emergency Medical: The Emergency Medical benefit can reimburse the costs to treat a medical emergency during a trip. This benefit covers the cost of treatment for an unexpected illness or injury that occurs while traveling, including ambulance services, hospital and doctor bills, emergency dental services, and x-rays or lab costs. This benefit does not cover routine checkups, prescription refills, or any type of medical tourism.
Squaremouth recommends travelers taking international trips purchase at least $50,000 in Emergency Medical coverage. Travelers taking a cruise or visiting a remote destination should look for a policy with at least $100,000 in medical coverage.
Medical Evacuation: The Medical Evacuation benefit can provide coverage for transportation of a traveler to the nearest adequate medical facility in the event of a medical emergency during their trip. Most policies with Medical Evacuation coverage will transport a traveler to the nearest adequate medical facility. If the treating doctor determines they should go home for further medical attention, this benefit can also cover those transportation expenses.
Squaremouth recommends travelers taking international trips purchase at least $100,000 in Emergency Medical. For travelers taking a cruise or traveling to a remote destination, travelers should look for a policy with at least $250,000 in coverage.
Additional Benefits Offered by Top Travel Insurance Companies
Leading travel insurance companies offer policies that include additional benefits that cover trip delays, luggage, accidental death, and adventurous activities, among others. Most travel insurance policies are built to give travelers peace of mind by offering coverage for the most common concerns. In addition to cancellation and travel medical benefits, there are other key travel insurance benefits that travelers should look for in a policy.
Squaremouth provides a detailed breakdown of all travel insurance benefits, helping travelers find the specific coverage they need for their trip.
How Do I Find the Best Travel Insurance For My Trip?
Travelers should start by identifying the benefits that are most important to them. Typically, these are Trip Cancellation and Emergency Medical, but it varies by traveler. It’s important to note that most travel insurance plans cover many of the same benefits and events. However, the level of coverage, benefit limits, and total cost per plan can vary significantly. Because of this variance, Squaremouth always recommends the least expensive policy that includes the benefits a traveler needs and the coverage limits they are comfortable with.
The type of policy a traveler should consider depends on their specific trip details. While a single trip policy is the right choice for most travelers, some may be better suited buying other policy types, such as annual, group, cruise, and sports & adventure.
Find the Best Travel Insurance for Your Trip
We understand that every travel situation is unique, and that some trips require a slightly different approach to travel insurance.
To help you narrow down your search, we’ve created lists of the best travel insurance companies for specific kinds of trips:
How Much Should You Pay for Travel Insurance?
In general, a comprehensive travel insurance policy with Trip Cancellation will cost between 5% and 10% of the total trip cost. Travel medical policies without cancellation coverage are much less expensive.
The main factors that determine the cost of a travel insurance policy are the cost of the trip, the age of the travelers, the length of the trip, and the coverage amounts.
When Should I Buy an Annual Travel Insurance Policy?
Annual travel insurance policies are designed to offer affordable coverage for frequent travelers who take multiple trips per year. The best annual policies will provide medical coverage for one calendar year, in addition to other benefits. Some annual plans offer Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption, but most do not include these benefits.
Visit our Annual Travel Insurance page to learn more and quote annual policies.
When Should I Buy a Group Travel Insurance Policy?
Group travel insurance policies allow organized groups of 10 or more travelers to buy one policy at a group rate. A group policy offers comprehensive coverage at an affordable rate for large groups, with coverage for the main traveler concerns.
Visit our Group Travel Insurance page to learn more and quote group policies.
How Do I File a Travel Insurance Claim?
If your trip is impacted by a disruption covered by your policy, and you believe you are eligible for reimbursement, it’s advised to get in touch with your provider as soon as reasonably possible. The best travel insurance providers will be able to offer advice, inform you on coverage options, and help guide you through the start of the claims process.
When you’re ready to file a travel insurance claim, you will need to provide supporting evidence. This can include receipts, cancellation notices, airline correspondence, medical bills, and any other documentation that relates to your claim.
Once you’ve contacted your insurance provider and collected all relevant documentation, you can formally submit your claim. Top travel insurance companies will allow policyholders to file a claim over the phone, through an online claims form, or through their app if they have one.
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