Dear bargainers,
My wife and I are travelling to New Zealand in August. I have booked tickets using Coles Mastercard which does not provide any travel insurance.
Should I take travel insurance despite the fact that Medical expenses are covered by Medicare?
If yes, can you suggest some good insurance providers/plans?
TIA
can you pay your hotel booking using a credit card with travel insurance? if not then i'd get one. NZ is expensive :/
I've never heard of this Newzealand
Is it new?
Yes it's New. New Zealand.
If you wouldn't get travel insurance if going interstate then I would say don't bother getting any if going across the ditch. NZ and OZ have reciprocal medicare agreements. http://www.health.govt.nz/new-zealand-health-system/eligibil…
Also, NZ is very safe and has very low crime rates compared to places like USA.
Personally I avoid insurance as much as possible and have saved $1000s over the years. People may think I'm stupid but I tell them I'm self-insured.
Do you insure your car? why not yourself? You must be lucky. I know people personally who have been caught up in earthquakes, tsunamis, accidents and terrorist attacks. In 2 cases it resulted in death so travel insurance covered most of the expenses but not all.
I'm self insured. I just drive a beaten up bomb, but even if I hit a luxury car I am in a financial position to pay for it.
Insurance is basically hiring a middle man to get people's misfortunes paid for by everyone else. So far I haven't had to pay for anyone else's misfortunes, except through CTP.
I would recommend travel insurance for peace of mind. Free medical treatment in NZ is great but having travel insurance covers medical treatment in private medical institutions (private hospitals and specialists), specialised medical services that does not fall under normal free healthcare (eg. some diagnostic testings) and so on.
Outside of medical cover, there's always handy coverage for certain things like baggage, rental vehicle excess cover, personal liability cover (if you negligently caused property damage or injury to a third party), travel cancellation and so on.
Here's a little something to help you out: https://aigtravel.com.au/mates
The link is usually for employees of AIG but they do not mind outsiders using this. It gives 50% off the premium, applied automatically. The coverage should be top of the range. As always, read the Product Disclosure Statement as this forms the basis of your insurance contract.
Disclosure: Insurance Broker, not affiliated with AIG. This is not to be considered personally tailored advice to you.
EDIT: Feel free to shop around with TID, Covermore and other insurers, some of them have great coverage. Credit card travel insurance is hit or miss.
If you are worried about medical I think we do have reciprocal rights but there's also theft, damage to property etc. If you are doing snow sports then definitely. If you look around for some codes on here you can usually get it 20% off as well.
get a credit card with travel insurance.
Too late now, you have to book your travel with said card to be valid, the trip is already booked.
Yes! Travel Insurance is a must. "Its better to have it and not need it than …."
My mate went to Manila for a week with his wife & child, he thought why take travel insurance, its just a week. His 3yr old knocked a hot coffee cup onto herself, ended up having minor burn injury on her hand. He took her to the local hospital and ended with a bill of $5k approx.
Also, protection again theft and other things
Yes, always need it.
My friend's family went to NZ ages ago when we were kids. A drunk driver crashed into their car and injured them very badly. A few of them were medevaced back to Australia.
I'd buy travel insurance.
YES!!!! The medical evacuation costs alone are rediculously high. Why risk all of that for $100…..
Plus there's flight delays, losing stuff and on and on. Had 2 weeks for 2 people and it costs $85 through TID.