Personal liability covers you if you injure or kill someone or damage their property.
Personal liability cover is typically included in all travel insurance policies.
Personal liability will not cover you for intentional damage or car accidents.
What is personal liability in travel insurance?
Personal liability travel insurance covers third-party insurance claims. In other words, it pays for the cost of damages, loss or injury to someone or their property that you or a member of your travelling party is personally responsible for causing. If you get into trouble while you're overseas, it can help out with the associated legal costs.
It is typically included in all travel insurance policies, even basic medical-only options.
What does travel insurance personal liability cover?
The death and/or bodily injury of another person.
Physical loss of or damage to another person's property, caused by an accident (intentional harm or damage is not covered).
Legal expenses for settling, defending or acting on your behalf.
What personal liability insurance won’t cover you for
While most insurance policies offer similar cover, there are differences in what each insurer will and won’t cover. When it comes to personal liability, most insurance companies won’t cover claims in the following situations:
Losses to you or your travelling party. Injuries or property damage caused by you to you or your travelling party won’t be covered.
Losses involving cars and other vehicles. Injuries or damage from the use, ownership or custody of a mechanical, aerial or water-propelled vehicle won’t be covered.
Work and profession cases. Injury, loss or damage that relates to your profession or personal business won’t be covered.
Unlawful acts. You won’t be covered if the injury, damage or loss was caused by an illegal act.
Sexually transmitted diseases. Communicable diseases transmitted by you won’t be covered.
Non-monetary claims. Claims in any form other than monetary compensation are not included.
Intended conduct. You won’t be covered if third-party losses occur because you are wilfully neglectful and intend to cause harm or damage.
Personal travel liability insurance exclusions for any loss, damage or expenses are not limited to this list. It’s imperative that you read your insurance policy carefully before travelling and before making a claim with your insurance provider.
Receive a travel insurance quote
Got a quote before?
Why you can trust Finder's travel insurance experts
You pay nothing. Finder is free to use. And you pay the same as going direct. No markups, no hidden fees.
You save time. We spend 100s of hours researching travel insurance so you can sort the gold from the junk faster.
You can trust us. We say it like it is. We aren't owned by an insurer and our opinions are our own.
Frequently asked questions
How much cover you will need depends entirely on the situation. However, most travel insurance policies can cover personal liability costs for up to $2 million.
Personal liability covers you for claims made against you for bodily injury, death or physical loss of, or damage to, another person's property. For example:
Injuring someone while playing sport. If you pick up a game of soccer with some teenagers in the back streets of Buenos Aires and get a bit too aggressive contesting the ball, you could be liable for another person’s broken leg.
Falls due to spilled liquids. If you get careless in your shared hostel accommodation and leave water on the bathroom floor, someone could slip and hurt themselves.
Accidentally burning down your accommodation and injuring patrons. If you’re helping out with the barbeque in the shared hostel area and mishandle the gas cooker, things could go wrong.
Breaking hotel facilities and equipment. If you accidentally short-circuit the power in your hotel room and damage the audio system, the hotel may seek compensation for the equipment on top of the bond you paid.
No. Most travel insusnrance policies do not cover car accidents. You can usually find this mentioned in the policy’s list of general exclusions or personal liability-specific exclusions. However, you should be covered by the hire car company's insurance. Travel insurance can cover the hire car rental excess if you do get into an accident.
Was this content helpful to you?
Thank you for your feedback!
To make sure you get accurate and helpful information, this guide has been edited by Joelle Grubb as part of our fact-checking process.
Gary Ross Hunter was an editor at Finder, specialising in insurance. He’s been writing about life, travel, home, car, pet and health insurance for over 6 years and regularly appears as an insurance expert in publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian and news.com.au. Gary holds a Kaplan Tier 2 General Advice General Insurance certification which meets the requirements of ASIC Regulatory Guide 146 (RG146). See full bio
Gary Ross's expertise
Gary Ross has written 725 Finder guides across topics including:
Jessica Prasida is a travel insurance expert for Finder. She lives and breathes travel, having worked as a travel agent and branch manager at STA Travel for over 4 years, then writing about travel insurance with Finder for another 5 years. Jess has a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Tier 1 General Insurance qualification. See full bio
Compare Travel Insurance Direct policies online to save time and money. Travel Insurance Direct offers various policies including Annual multi-trip, The Works, The Basics and Domestic travel.
If time is valuable to you, Travel Insuranz may be suitable for you. With its fast online processing process, Travel Insurance provides easy access to protecting yourself for travel. Read its policy online.
Domestic travel insurance can provide cover for trip cancellation (domestic flights), loss or damage to luggage and expensive items, car rental excess charges and much more. Find out why domestic travel insurance is worth getting and compare policies from Australian insurers.
Feedback
How likely would you be to recommend Finder to a friend or colleague?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Very UnlikelyExtremely Likely
Required
Thank you for your feedback.
Our goal is to create the best possible product, and your thoughts, ideas and suggestions play a major role in helping us identify opportunities to improve.
Important information about this website
finder.com.au is one of Australia's leading comparison websites. We are committed to our readers and stands by our editorial principles
We try to take an open and transparent approach and provide a broad-based comparison service. However, you should be aware that while we are an independently owned service, our comparison service does not include all providers or all products available in the market.
Some product issuers may provide products or offer services through multiple brands, associated companies or different labeling arrangements. This can make it difficult for consumers to compare alternatives or identify the companies behind the products. However, we aim to provide information to enable consumers to understand these issues.
We make money by featuring products on our site. Compensation received from the providers featured on our site can influence which products we write about as well as where and how products appear on our page, but the order or placement of these products does not influence our assessment or opinions of them, nor is it an endorsement or recommendation for them.
Products marked as 'Top Pick', 'Promoted' or 'Advertisement' are prominently displayed either as a result of a commercial advertising arrangement or to highlight a particular product, provider or feature. Finder may receive remuneration from the Provider if you click on the related link, purchase or enquire about the product. Finder's decision to show a 'promoted' product is neither a recommendation that the product is appropriate for you nor an indication that the product is the best in its category. We encourage you to use the tools and information we provide to compare your options.
Where our site links to particular products or displays 'Go to site' buttons, we may receive a commission, referral fee or payment when you click on those buttons or apply for a product. You can learn more about how we make money.
When products are grouped in a table or list, the order in which they are initially sorted may be influenced by a range of factors including price, fees and discounts; commercial partnerships; product features; and brand popularity. We provide tools so you can sort and filter these lists to highlight features that matter to you.
Please read our website terms of use and privacy policy for more information about our services and our approach to privacy.
We update our data regularly, but information can change between updates. Confirm details with the provider you're interested in before making a decision.