Which travel insurance provider?

[Lindaapple]

We have some travel insurance through our Avion card but need to get medical insurance. Looking at RBC, Carlson Wagonlit (manulife), or CAA and just thought I'd ask opinions to see if anyone recommends one over the other. Thanks!

 

[efrant]

If by "medical insurance" you mean out of province/country emergency medical insurance, the Avion card covers you for the first 15 days of your trip, and you can add top-up coverage if your trip extends beyond 15 days.

 

[Sue M]

I use Blue Cross. If you use Avion insurance make sure that’s the card you use to pay for your trip.

 

[efrant]

I use Blue Cross. If you use Avion insurance make sure that’s the card you use to pay for your trip.

Emergency medical insurance provided by most (if not all) credit cards, including the Avion card, does not require you to charge the cost of your trip to the card. You, your spouse and dependent children are covered by virtue of you being the cardholder, not by having charged the cost of the trip to your card.

 

[Sue M]

Emergency medical insurance provided by most (if not all) credit cards, including the Avion card, does not require you to charge the cost of your trip to the card. You, your spouse and dependent children are covered by virtue of you being the cardholder, not by having charged the cost of the trip to your card.

Obv. didn’t know that! I have travel medical on my Visa Infinite but always prefer Blue Cross, for being first payer, and I have Blue Cross Extended Medical from work.

 

[spacecanada]

We always get Manulife insurance through our travel agent because it includes a 'cancel for any reason' benefit, as well as no stability period for medical conditions. Their claims service is pretty quick and painless too, when we've had to use it.

 

[xlxo]

I use Blue Cross.

Agreed. First Payer is a concern.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/buy...ess-coverage-a-couple-s-hard-lesson-1.3495864

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Emergency medical insurance provided by most (if not all) credit cards, including the Avion card, does not require you to charge the cost of your trip to the card. You, your spouse and dependent children are covered by virtue of you being the cardholder, not by having charged the cost of the trip to your card.

My BMO World Elite says my trip needs to be paid in part or in full by the credit card for the travel insurance.

 

[isabellea]

I'll have to read ore about this first payer thing and lifetime coverage. We never buy extra travel insurance because DH's insurance from work has a travel insurance of 1 or 2 millions. We always assumed it was enough...

 

[efrant]

My BMO World Elite says my trip needs to be paid in part or in full by the credit card for the travel insurance.

If by "travel insurance" you mean trip cancellation or trip interruption or lost/delayed baggage, flight delay, etc coverage, then yes, most credit cards require at least 75% (if not 100%) of the trip to be paid by the card. If you are talking about emergency medical coverage, you are covered by your World Elite emergency medical insurance solely by virtue of being a cardholder. You do not need to charge any part of your trip to the card. And I believe emergency medical is what the OP was asking about.

Here is the direct quote from the BMO certificate of insurance: "Please note: You do not need to charge Your Trip to Your Mastercard to be eligible for Out-of-Province/Out-of-Country Emergency Medical coverage, providing Your Mastercard Account is in Good Standing"

Source: https://www.bmo.com/pdf/World_Elite_Cardholder_Agreement.pdf

This is the case with every card (that I have seen) that offers emergency medical coverage.

 

[Blackadder337]

The first thing I always recommend now is to check with your employer / union (if applicable) . I didn't know it originally but through my union, they had a great deal for vacation cancellation and medical insurance with Johnson / MEDOC insurance. For 2 adults, 1 child, it was quite a decent package for about $270 . It wasn't limited to one trip either, it was for up to 10 vacations (each one not exceeding 15 days). But I then realized if I could afford 10 15-day vacations a year, I probably wouldn't care what insurance cost

Aside from that, prior to my workplace discovery, I always had good experiences with CAA's travel insurance.

 

[kerreyn]

We have and annual travel insurance plan through TD. We pay approx. $160 per year for the two of us, and it covers cancellation, emergency medical and dental, etc. In addition to the TD insurance, both my hubby and I have our own Avion cards, so we have insurance there too. IMO, you can never have too much insurance.

 

[bcwife76]

We use BCAA/CAA, they always seem to have the most competitive rates.

 

[MoreTravels]

Any good plan for those 65+ year old?

 

[efrant]

Any good plan for those 65+ year old?

If you are looking for coverage through a credit card, the best emergency medical coverage for those over 65 is from Desjardins' credit cards, which cover you for up to $5M for trips up to 15 days (ages 65-75):

Odyssey Gold Visa: $110 annual fee

Odyssey World Elite Mastercard: $130 annual fee

Odyssey Visa Infinite Privilege: $395 annual fee

If you are interested here is a comparison list of credit card insurance coverage (though it's far from complete), that I'm in the process of compiling: https://goo.gl/aEGuDB