Student travel insurance

What is travel insurance for students?

There isn't a specific product called student travel insurance – but there are a bunch of budget-friendly travel insurance options out there. A very basic policy (sometimes known as medical-only travel insurance) will cover you for unlimited medical expenses and personal liability (e.g. if you get into some legal trouble while you're away) but that's about it.

If you want a little more, you can also get covered for trip cancellations, delays and theft.

Studying abroad

For longer trips, such as a semester or full university degree studying abroad, you should look at getting a long-term travel insurance policy. Some policies can cover you for up to 18 months. If you're staying longer, you will need to take out cover again after 18 months. This can cover you for the entire time you're away – for medical expenses, lost or stolen personal belongings and more.

To get covered for the entire year or longer, pop your details into the Finder engine to get quotes from a bunch of providers.

Reciprocal health care agreement

Before you head overseas, it's worth seeing if the country you're travelling to has a reciprocal health care agreement with Australia. If so, you might be able to get some or all of your medical expenses covered.

What should student travel insurance cover?

These are some of the essential things it's worth having included in your policy:

• Medical expenses including evacuation. A really basic policy will cover this. Sometimes it can cover repatriation as well if you get sick or injured and need to be flown back to Australia.
• Accidental death. If the worst was to happen, travel insurance can pay to get your remains flown home.
• Cancellation and amendment fees. For example, if you need to cancel or rearrange your trip for reasons outside of your control. Not all basic policies cover this.
• Luggage and personal belongings. For example, if your luggage or personal items are lost, stolen or damaged during your trip, travel insurance can reimburse you to replace them.
• Personal liability. This pays your legal fees and penalties if you accidentally injure someone or damage their property while travelling.

Travel tip for students

I spent as much time as I could travelling as a student. I was always on a very slim budget so travel insurance felt like an annoying additional expense. But it's really worth it if something goes wrong. It's worth noting too – you won't be covered if your insurer finds you were under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Gary Ross Hunter
Finder's insurance and innovations editor

Study abroad travel insurance

If you're studying abroad, travel insurance can be helpful for a bunch of reasons. It can provide:

• Cover if you get injured or become ill. Let's say you take a side trip to the Alps and break your ankle. Your travel insurance will cover your medical treatment, ambulance rides and daily spending money while you're in the hospital. It also includes dental cover.
• Cover if you go exploring outside your host country. It's pretty common for students to go travelling during spring break or on the weekends when you're on exchange. Most travel insurance will cover these trips as well as long as you've let the insurer know. If you're lucky, you might be able to get this cover without additional costs as well.
• Cover if your money or belongings get lost, damaged or stolen. Just as studying in a new city gives you invaluable memories and experiences, you're not a local, which can make you a little more vulnerable and less prepared. If a pickpocket takes your wallet, a storm damages your passport or an airline loses your luggage, travel insurance will pay for you to replace what's lost.
• Cover if a family emergency calls you home. If a family member dies and you need to return to Australia, travel insurance will pay to send you home and even pay for you to get back to your new country.
• Cover if you have to cancel your trip (or any side trips). Travel insurance will pay you back for any non-refundable tickets or fees if you have to unexpectedly cancel your trip. For example, if you fall ill with the flu before you are due to travel, you can get reimbursed for the money you've spent on booking the trip.
• Cover if you damage something or injure someone. If you injure someone or damage something, you could be on the hook for thousands of dollars. Travel insurance will help cover your legal fees and any money you owe.

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Best value travel insurance for students: Fast Cover Travel Insurance

Fast Cover is a good option if you're looking for good value. It was the cheapest comprehensive policy out of 28 international policies we analysed. You get COVID cover, cancellations, unlimited medical, travel delay expenses, lost luggage and more.

• Pros and cons

  • Extensive COVID cover (including trip rearrangement and cancellation costs and repatriation – many others don't offer this).
  • Cheapest international policy on average out of 28.
  • Best Value Finder Award winner and Finder Innovation finalist.

  • Lots of other travel insurers also cover COVID-19 now.
  • Rental car excess cover is an optional extra. It's automatically included with most comprehensive policies.
  • $750 cap on delayed luggage. SCTI and Cover-More have a $1,000 and $1,100 cap.

• How Fast Cover Travel Insurance compares

  Provider	Example quote	Excess	Overseas medical	Cancellation fees and lost deposits	Rearrangements costs for COVID-19	Customer satisfaction rating
  Fast Cover - Comprehensive	$141.99	$200	Unlimited	Unlimited	Included	★★★★★ 4.01/5
  Cover-More - International Comprehensive	$253.00	$250	Unlimited	$2,000	Included	★★★★★ 4.16/5
  NRMA - Comprehensive	$175.75	$250	Unlimited	$4,000	Included	★★★★★ 4.24/5

  *Example quote based on a single 40-year-old travelling to Bali for 2 weeks. Data collected in August 2023.

• What you're covered for

  • COVID-19 Medical Expenses:
  • Rearrangement costs if you get COVID-19:
  • Theft or damage to luggage: up to $15,000
  • Cancellation and amendment fees: up to Unlimited
  • Luggage delay: up to $750
  • Theft of cash: up to $250
  • Rental car excess insurance: Optional
  • Cooling off period: 25 days
  • Travel Delay: up to $2,000
  • Special Events: up to $5,000
  • Travel Documents: up to $5,000
  • Personal liability: up to $5,000,000

• Why we picked it

  Good-value award-winning cover

  Fast Cover is Finder's 2023 Best Travel Insurance - Value winner. According to our research of 28 policies, it's typically the cheapest insurer. You get a lot for your money though. It covers you for the essentials including some types of cancellations, medical expenses and up to $5,000 for COVID-related medical expenses and rearrangement costs.

  As part of the awards research, we looked at over 100 international travel insurance policies. We narrowed this number down to 28 based on an eligibility criteria put together by our insurance specialists. For example, an eligible brand must offer some type of COVID cover and be open to customers up to 79 years old.

  We then gathered over 300 quotes to get an average price and scored the same 18 features for every policy out of 10. These included COVID medical benefits, COVID rearrangement costs, theft or damage to luggage, hospital cash allowance, cancellation and amendment fees, luggage delay and rental car excess insurance. The final score for the value rating was a 30/70 blend of features and price. Fast Cover won largely because it offered the cheapest policy on average, according to our pricing research.

  Top 5 policies in travel insurance - Value

  1. Fast Cover International Comprehensive Travel Insurance
  2. Southern Cross International Comprehensive - Single Trip
  3. Medibank International Comprehensive Travel Insurance
  4. InsureandGo Gold One Trip
  5. NRMA International Comprehensive Travel Insurance

  Its COVID cover

  Its COVID cover goes further than most. Fast Cover's comprehensive policy can pay up to $5,000 for additional travel expenses related to COVID. For example, if you catch the virus while you're on holiday and need to delay your flight home, it can pay for staying in accommodation longer. It can even cover additional expenses associated with childcare. Similarly, it can also cover medical evacuation. Many other insurers don't offer this.

  Keep in mind, most major travel insurers in Australia, including Cover-More, InsureandGo and SCTI, cover some COVID-related costs now, including rearranging your trip. However, we selected Fast Cover because it has a more detailed list of events and situations it will cover.

Cheap travel insurance for students: Tick Travel Insurance

Just want cover for the basics? Tick does that. It's consistently one of the cheapest travel insurers on the market. It covers you for medical expenses and is highly rated by customers. Our research shows it's typically the cheapest basic travel insurance for popular destinations including Bali, Italy and the UK for under-30s.

• Pros and cons

  • Highest rated travel insurer on Finder (4.42/5) and 95% recommendation rate.
  • The cheapest travel insurance cover for 7 out of the 9 destinations we got quotes for.
  • 10% off your travel insurance policy, using the code Finder.

  • Only covers the basics e.g. unlimited medical expenses, up to $2,000 for stolen luggage and personal liability cover.
  • No cover for COVID-19.
  • No cover for cancellations or travel delays.

• How Tick Travel Insurance compares

  Provider	Example quote	Excess	Overseas medical	Cancellation fees and lost deposits	Discounts available	Customer satisfaction rating
  Tick - Single trip	$93.19	$200	Unlimited	$20,000	10% off with coupon code: Finder10	★★★★★ 4.42/5
  Medibank - Comprehensive	$147.05	$250	Unlimited	Unlimited	15% off for members (included in price)	★★★★★ 4.13/5
  NRMA - Comprehensive	$175.75	$250	Unlimited	$4,000	5% off for members (included in price)	★★★★★ 4.24/5

  *Example quote based on a single 40-year-old travelling to Bali for 2 weeks. Data collected in August 2023.

• What you're covered for

  • COVID-19 Medical Expenses:
  • Rearrangement costs if you get COVID-19:
  • Theft or damage to luggage: up to $2,000
  • Cancellation and amendment fees: No
  • Luggage delay: No
  • Theft of cash: No
  • Rental car excess insurance: $0
  • Cooling off period: 14 days
  • Travel Delay: No
  • Special Events: No
  • Travel Documents: No
  • Personal liability: up to $1,000,000

• Why we picked it

  It's hard to beat on price
  We used the Finder travel insurance engine to determine our budget-friendly top pick. We got 30 quotes on 18 August for a 25-year-old for the following destinations: Bali, USA, Italy, UK, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, Spain and a multi-destination option. Tick was the cheapest policy for 7 of the 9 destinations. In the 2 cases where there was a cheaper option, it was only marginally more expensive: 1c for the US and $3 for Bali.

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Travel insurance discounts and deals

These are all of the current discounts Finder has on offer to help you knock a little more off your student travel insurance.

Store	Discount
InsureandGo	Save 10% on InsureandGo policies with Finder Use this coupon code to save 10%. Ts&Cs apply. Last verified 2 Sep 2024	Show code
Qantas Travel Insurance Deals	Protect your trip with Qantas Travel Insurance Earn up to 10,000 Qantas Points for every policy. T&Cs apply. Last verified 2 Sep 2024	Get deal Deal ends 26 Nov 2024
Kogan Travel Insurance Exclusive	Get 10% off Kogan travel insurance policies Use this promo code to get a 10% discount. T&Cs apply. Last verified 2 Sep 2024	Show code
Tick Travel Insurance	Get 10% off on Tick travel insurance policies Use this code to get a 10% discount. T&Cs apply. Last verified 2 Sep 2024	Show code
ahm Travel Insurance deals	ahm and Medibank members get 10% off travel insurance Get this discount if you're an ahm or Medibank Private member and save. Last verified 2 Sep 2024	Get deal
CoverMore Travel Insurance	Earn Velocity Points with Cover-More Get 3 Virgin Velocity Points for every $1 spent on travel insurance with Cover-More. Last verified 2 Sep 2024	Get deal
Wise and Silent Exclusive	Get 8% off your Wise and Silent policy Use the promocode to get 8% off travel insurance. T&Cs apply. Last verified 2 Sep 2024	Show code
Medibank Travel Insurance Deals	15% off travel insurance for Medibank Private members Get this discount if you're a Medibank Private member and save. Last verified 2 Sep 2024	Get deal

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Frequently asked questions

• How is student travel insurance different to normal travel insurance?

  It isn't different at all, but as a student, you're likely on a budget, so you may just want cover for the essentials like medical expenses, luggage and cancellations.

• Does travel insurance cover students studying abroad?

  Yes. It usually covers things like medical expenses while you're overseas, replacing lost or stolen luggage and repatriation costs if you get injured or sick and need to come back home. Depending on where you travel, you might be required to have some form of insurance in place.

• Do you need travel insurance as an international student?

  It depends on where you travel. Some universities may require you to have some form of insurance in place to cover things like medical bills.

• When should I get travel insurance?

  We always recommend getting travel insurance as soon as you start booking your trip. This is because you can be covered for pre-departure benefits such as cancellation.

  As an example, say you just booked and paid for a 1-month trip to Asia, you booked your flights, your accommodation and a few tours in between. Soon after, you accidentally take a fall and break your leg, the doctor informs you that you can't travel.

  If you have travel insurance, you would be reimbursed for all your travel expenses. If you don't have travel insurance, you'll have to deal with pursuing refunds and will be charged the cancellation fees.

• What is an excess?

  An excess is the out-of-pocket expense that needs to be paid if you end up making a claim. Excesses often range between $0 and $250.