Speaker 1: You're listening to a CNA podcast.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Money Talks podcast. I'm Andrea Heng. Now,
Speaker 1: how many of us have booked travel plans? In advance,
Speaker 1: of course, because we want to lock in the best deal,
Speaker 1: only to remember this one important thing to book at
Speaker 1: the very last minute because we often overlook it.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about travel insurance. Why is it so low
Speaker 1: on our priority list when we are excited about our
Speaker 1: travel plans? What happens when we leave it to the
Speaker 1: night before we fly or worse, when we are right
Speaker 1: there in the boarding room waiting for our flight? What's
Speaker 1: the benefit of buying travel insurance early then? Well, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get some help in answering these questions. Sherri Wang
Speaker 1: is with me. She is the co-founder of Planner B.
Speaker 1: Hi Sherry.
Speaker 2: Hi Andrea, thank you for having me today.
Speaker 1: It's our pleasure, but confession from you first, Sherry, have
Speaker 1: you ever left travel insurance to the very last minute?
Speaker 2: I
Speaker 2: would say definitely once or twice it has happened to
Speaker 2: me like we care about other people and they're like,
Speaker 2: oh dear, I forgot by myself. Oh,
Speaker 1: so it's yours was because you weren't complacent, you were
Speaker 1: just taking care of other people first. Yeah, and I
Speaker 2: was like, 00 dear, I forgot about mine. I thought
Speaker 2: it it was ongoing and I had to check and
Speaker 2: I always have this paranoia because of the work and
Speaker 2: I was like,
Speaker 2: OK, actually I think I should do a double check
Speaker 2: and true enough, thankfully I checked before we bought because
Speaker 2: otherwise it will be very challenging getting any coverage because
Speaker 2: usually they don't allow you to buy any coverage the
Speaker 2: moment you board your plane. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's true. I must have been quite lucky that one
Speaker 1: time that I did it right before takeoff. OK, so
Speaker 1: when you do pick travel insurance, Sherry, what are your
Speaker 1: go to? Do you hit the basic one or do
Speaker 1: you go max like all the way?
Speaker 2: We definitely don't go for the basic one.
Speaker 2: That's because most of the time they have shifted down
Speaker 2: the prices to provide you with a low-cost travel insurance,
Speaker 2: but with a lot of things excluded and that's the
Speaker 2: last thing you want. You want to get coverage, you
Speaker 2: don't want to be subpar about that. So we often
Speaker 2: look for at least the mid-tier or the higher tier plans,
Speaker 2: depending on any activities that you will be doing, for example, skiing, snowboarding,
Speaker 2: then you might want to just get the better coverage
Speaker 2: for those.
Speaker 2: Trips and never depend on the free credit card ones. Oh,
Speaker 2: why is that? Those are given free for a reason.
Speaker 2: They are very limited in coverage. They would pretty much
Speaker 2: do nothing if there is an emergency. If there is
Speaker 2: a medical emergency overseas that could cost easily 100,000. Giving
Speaker 2: you 50,000 free is not going to really solve the
Speaker 2: entire problem actually.
Speaker 1: That's true. Have you ever had to take out like
Speaker 1: a travel insurance policy in those situations and like what's
Speaker 1: the most extreme situation you've had to make a claim
Speaker 2: for pre-existing.
Speaker 2: Conditions are not covered in almost all travel insurance policies
Speaker 2: with the exception of a few. If the person does
Speaker 2: get like a heart attack and he's already with that
Speaker 2: condition prior to that travel, that is when we have
Speaker 2: to tell people the bad news. Yeah, but if they're
Speaker 2: covered under their own medical insurance in Singapore, we could
Speaker 2: always activate that for those situations.
Speaker 1: OK, what about you? What have you personally faced an
Speaker 1: extreme situation where you've had to take out this travel
Speaker 1: insurance claim? Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: we haven't really had
Speaker 2: Too many claims rejected before, but in that situation that
Speaker 2: I've mentioned to you, that unfortunately was the case. Thankfully
Speaker 2: he got most of his medical bills covered under the
Speaker 2: integrated shield plan that he has in Singapore, but the
Speaker 2: evacuation from where he was to Singapore was something we
Speaker 2: could not cover, which would otherwise be if the travel
Speaker 2: insurance was covering something that's non preexisting. OK,
Speaker 1: we'll get into
Speaker 1: the nitty gritty of that. I'm just wondering also because
Speaker 1: I realized that I have a lot of friends who
Speaker 1: are into snowboarding.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden like they're going to Japan to
Speaker 1: do it. I know the yen dropping as well. So
Speaker 1: I'm just wondering about the trends, whether you can tell
Speaker 1: us about the kinds of trends in terms of travel
Speaker 1: insurance lately. What are you seeing more or less of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think before COVID definitely people are less aware
Speaker 2: of the importance of travel insurance. Post COVID we do
Speaker 2: see a huge, a much bigger intake on even short trips. Yeah, however,
Speaker 2: I think people are just more aware.
Speaker 2: aware that there are trip cancellations that can happen and
Speaker 2: that is something that we see a lot more claims
Speaker 2: on because you never know if you fall sick and
Speaker 2: you're unfit to travel. And the good thing is if
Speaker 2: you actually do get coverage while the best practice is
Speaker 2: to buy the travel insurance when you book your flight,
Speaker 2: so you won't forget and then if anything happens that
Speaker 2: result in like um inability to travel, for example, family emergency,
Speaker 2: medical emergency, your own medical emergencies then you could actually
Speaker 2: just
Speaker 2: Activate that to reimburse you for the losses that you
Speaker 2: could not get refund on. That would probably be one
Speaker 2: of the biggest awareness that people have now because COVID
Speaker 2: has resulted in a lot of cancellations of that trip.
Speaker 2: So I think that's a clause that people weren't aware
Speaker 2: of and now they are, but you have to buy
Speaker 2: your travel insurance at least 7 days before the departure,
Speaker 2: otherwise that won't be possible.
Speaker 1: Now, when I shop around for travel insurance, I tend
Speaker 1: to go for the cheapest one, which you told us
Speaker 1: what not to do, right, we should avoid that.
Speaker 1: But what about shorter trips? I'm going for a couple
Speaker 1: of days to JB, KL, maybe Malacca, something that's not
Speaker 1: too far away, but also you are overseas still in
Speaker 1: a different country. So we feel like, I don't think
Speaker 1: anything is going to happen. I'll just buy the cheapest one,
Speaker 1: I should be good. What's your take on
Speaker 1: that?
Speaker 2: Possibly OK. So the way we see it is the
Speaker 2: amount of risk that you are taking. What would the
Speaker 2: risk cost?
Speaker 2: So in Malacca, I assume it could be a drive there, right?
Speaker 2: The risk of transporting a person that's sick back, how
Speaker 2: much would that cost? If I'm sick, would the hospitals
Speaker 2: there be more expensive than the ones in Singapore? If
Speaker 2: the answer is that the cost is pretty low, then
Speaker 2: maybe the basic plan would help you sufficiently in those situations,
Speaker 2: but I wouldn't look at the length of the trip alone.
Speaker 2: I would look at the cost of living in that country. Yeah,
Speaker 2: because if we
Speaker 2: Go to Switzerland and then we end up in a
Speaker 2: ski accident. The cost of medical bills in Switzerland, Hong
Speaker 2: Kong and Singapore are notoriously expensive and the US. So
Speaker 2: in those four places, the bills are no joke. It
Speaker 2: will be a very long trip back home, then I
Speaker 2: would go for a higher tier plan,
Speaker 1: long and painful, not just for the person but for
Speaker 1: the pocket as well. Yeah. OK, so you talked about
Speaker 1: how at least
Speaker 1: At least a week before your trip, it's the best
Speaker 1: time to book your travel insurance, otherwise when you book
Speaker 1: your flight, correct? Can you do it on the plane
Speaker 1: if you forget what kind of situation would be OK
Speaker 1: for us to like, oh, I forgot I'm going to
Speaker 1: book it now and we're right at the boarding gate
Speaker 1: and we're
Speaker 1: like, ah,
Speaker 2: yes, strictly speaking you can, you can buy it before
Speaker 2: the flight, the insurance will still be honored, but the
Speaker 2: moment you leave the country just
Speaker 2: bother buying it because it will be voided anyway. But
Speaker 2: there is one insurer though last year they have launched
Speaker 2: a new feature where you could buy if you're one
Speaker 2: day into the trip. Yeah, so that's like good for
Speaker 2: people who forgot, but remember just in time, maybe they
Speaker 2: got off the flight and they immediately buy it. There
Speaker 2: are some exclusions on certain situations, but it's better than nothing.
Speaker 2: It
Speaker 1: is, it is better than no. Some coverage is better
Speaker 1: than none. So you can understand how shopping for travel
Speaker 1: insurance can be.
Speaker 1: A mind boggling experience. It's overwhelming. I mean, we're browsing
Speaker 1: online through a confusing menu of so many different tiers
Speaker 1: as you said, and then there are different insurers as well.
Speaker 1: How do we navigate that? What are the top three
Speaker 1: things we need to think about when we are shopping
Speaker 1: for a travel insurance plan?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've looked at the database. I think we have
Speaker 2: something like 40 options in the system, so we have
Speaker 2: to nail it down, streamline the features down to the
Speaker 2: options down to about
Speaker 2: 6 for people to choose from, things that we look
Speaker 2: out for by ranking them, it's just like shopping for clothes,
Speaker 2: you filter them out. First, are there dangerous activities or
Speaker 2: adventurous activities that the person is doing, then that would
Speaker 2: be a very easy filter. If it's a no then
Speaker 2: you could go for options that don't cover those and
Speaker 2: save costs, right? The one important thing that we look
Speaker 2: out for that we think
Speaker 2: In all situations should be covered is medical evacuation. If
Speaker 2: that is anything under 1 million, we tend to exclude
Speaker 2: those two because we've seen the cost of flight from
Speaker 2: Australia being like a 250 million just to come back.
Speaker 2: If you go to the mountains like you like trekking,
Speaker 2: there is an additional step getting the person down the mountain.
Speaker 2: So that will cost even more. And apart from the
Speaker 2: cost of living in that country, if that place is
Speaker 2: more rural, because there is just the lack of equipment
Speaker 2: and facilities.
Speaker 2: that could actually even cost even more. So that would
Speaker 2: be something that we look out for at least 1
Speaker 2: million and then we'll ask people, do you care about
Speaker 2: your belongings being stolen and stuff like that? Do you
Speaker 2: carry expensive stuff? So if that is correct, then those
Speaker 2: are things that you could filter out based on your
Speaker 2: own personalization and then you'll see that there will be
Speaker 2: a few options left and then you could just filter
Speaker 2: from there. Lastly, of course, we do have internal data
Speaker 2: on the claims experience for some insurers, so we have banned.
Speaker 2: Certain insurers from being in the list because they have
Speaker 2: bad claims experience that unreasonable.
Speaker 1: That's a
Speaker 1: very big thing for claimants. OK, talk to me
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 2: The claims experience is most important, but thankfully maybe if
Speaker 2: you're not experienced with that means you've been lucky so far, right?
Speaker 2: But we know, so we're like, OK, this is good
Speaker 2: or upfront, but this is not very good at the
Speaker 2: back for some reason, we will be upfront.
Speaker 1: What constitutes a smooth claims
Speaker 2: experience? The time frame that understandably be high volumes at
Speaker 2: certain times we can manage.
Speaker 2: That with the insurer, but if they're excluding claims that
Speaker 2: are unreasonable for strange reasons, then we will highlight it
Speaker 2: to our customers in advance to say, hey, the claims
Speaker 2: experience has been unreasonably bad, you might want to exclude
Speaker 2: these options. So
Speaker 1: if it takes too long for a claim to be processed,
Speaker 2: or if they are rejecting it unreasonable basis. OK,
Speaker 1: interesting. I didn't know that there was a thing. So
Speaker 1: my dad is a business traveler, he's overseas as we speak.
Speaker 1: Right now, what kind of special inclusions do we need
Speaker 1: to look out for in a holiday travel insurance plan
Speaker 1: versus a business travel insurance plan?
Speaker 2: Is he covered under a company or he did buy
Speaker 2: it himself?
Speaker 1: He's covered under the company, but he does have the
Speaker 1: freedom to choose what he wants. So he chose to
Speaker 1: do an annual one. So I suppose that's one of
Speaker 1: the tips I would offer for someone who's a business traveler,
Speaker 1: or what else would you say should be included for
Speaker 1: a business
Speaker 1: traveler.
Speaker 2: So we do manage business.
Speaker 2: travels and personal travels, they can be different in a
Speaker 2: very specific way. The coverage are generally the same, but
Speaker 2: there is a clause where it says if this is
Speaker 2: a plan made for business travels only, if you extend
Speaker 2: your trip, which people tend to do prior or after,
Speaker 2: there is no coverage for that period. So if you
Speaker 2: are planning to go to say Australia for a work
Speaker 2: trip and you would like to extend it to see
Speaker 2: the place for another 3 days, maybe just a weekend,
Speaker 2: you have to buy a travel insurance for the end.
Speaker 2: Entire trip yourself to be covered for that 3 days.
Speaker 2: You can't just buy the 3 days.
Speaker 1: So I have to plan ahead. I know I have
Speaker 1: to do this before I leave as well,
Speaker 2: because the business travel insurance are often catering only for
Speaker 2: business travel days. The moment that engagement ends, even though
Speaker 2: you have not returned to Singapore and you have extended
Speaker 2: it on your own personal time, the coverage ends.
Speaker 1: OK. So now I wanted to talk about the Ts
Speaker 1: and C's, the fine prints which nobody likes to read.
Speaker 1: I'm
Speaker 1: going to ask you for a favor here and give
Speaker 1: us maybe 3 things that we should pick out from
Speaker 1: the Ts and C's that we need to pay attention to.
Speaker 2: OK, the number 11 would be that if because of
Speaker 2: trip cancellations, which is a high number of claims happening
Speaker 2: for that, just be sure that when you're buying the policy,
Speaker 2: if you are looking for a possibility of that claim,
Speaker 2: there is either a 30 days, 7 day or sometimes
Speaker 2: a 5 day waiting period. It can be as short
Speaker 2: as 3 if I remember.
Speaker 2: Correctly, but they do vary quite a bit from 30
Speaker 2: to 3 days. So if you're looking to get your
Speaker 2: trip cancellations, postponing your trip, those fees covered and you're
Speaker 2: like maybe on the 5th day from your travel date,
Speaker 2: you might want to look for a policy that is
Speaker 2: with an exclusion of 3 days instead of the 130 days,
Speaker 2: then you're not really helping yourself in that situation. That's
Speaker 2: one fine print. The second one, we see a lot
Speaker 2: of tests in certain countries in the world, especially Snatch
Speaker 2: and phones and stuff.
Speaker 2: There are some plans, especially the credit card ones that
Speaker 2: do not cover loss of mobile phones specifically. So that
Speaker 2: would be another cost. And then lastly, I think the
Speaker 2: pre-existing would be a big one. Although there are some
Speaker 2: plans that cover pre-existing, the limits are still pretty
Speaker 2: low
Speaker 1: because it's the type of pre-existing condition you have at
Speaker 1: what stage you're at these sorts of things, right?
Speaker 2: OK. And maybe one last one would be people with
Speaker 2: pets now, many people with pets, your furry babies might
Speaker 2: be in a boarding home hotel if there.
Speaker 2: Some delay while you're overseas, you'll have to extend the
Speaker 2: boarding period that could be covered too for some policies.
Speaker 1: OK, so I want to talk now about those unforeseen
Speaker 1: circumstances you've mentioned a few of them, right, which is
Speaker 1: really what travel insurance is all about. It's supposed to
Speaker 1: help us in need when these situations arise. Accidents happen,
Speaker 1: we get injured, we fall ill, but how do we
Speaker 1: activate our travel insurance in these situations? When does it
Speaker 1: kick in and what does it kick in for in
Speaker 1: those
Speaker 1: situations?
Speaker 2: In your situation,
Speaker 2: If that happens again, hopefully not, there is usually a
Speaker 2: 24 hour hotline. OK, you call that, they will arrange
Speaker 2: for evacuation. That's what I mean like the evacuation could
Speaker 2: also be from natural disasters and that is important and
Speaker 2: they will arrange, I suppose at that point a batch
Speaker 2: of people to come back to Singapore at the same time.
Speaker 2: That would be hyper-emergency. If it's a smaller thing like
Speaker 2: a flu, influenza A that's happening everywhere, you could just
Speaker 2: see the doctor for you first and then you have
Speaker 2: to pay for the bills and then the reimbursement comes
Speaker 2: when you come back.
Speaker 2: Singapore in between, if it's a hospital stay, in all
Speaker 2: policies they do indicate that you will have to pay
Speaker 2: for the bills
Speaker 2: first.
Speaker 1: I guess it's because
Speaker 1: there's no shared system.
Speaker 2: Yes, and they are unable to assess the claim until
Speaker 2: the discharge happens because the doctors will have to write
Speaker 2: like a discharge report and then they will assess the claim.
Speaker 2: So they will require people to pay for it first,
Speaker 2: but these bills could be very expensive. But you could
Speaker 2: also activate with that same hotline to tell the insurer
Speaker 2: this is happening and they can do a pre-assessment.
Speaker 2: And first, some hospitals would be nice enough to say, OK,
Speaker 2: we've got some sort of like agreement with the insurer,
Speaker 2: we could waive off a little bit of your deposit
Speaker 2: or something like that, then that could help with the
Speaker 2: financial cash flow. So travel insurance could help with that. Wow,
Speaker 1: OK, that's great to know. What about when a political
Speaker 1: crisis unfolds in a country, immediately I'm thinking about South Korea.
Speaker 1: We actually knew some people who were in Seoul at
Speaker 1: the time of these protests and all that, they weren't
Speaker 1: violent but it's still an uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: situation to be in, not the kind of situation you
Speaker 1: want to be when you're on holiday. How might travel
Speaker 1: insurance help us get us to safety perhaps. Is that
Speaker 1: something that is
Speaker 1: covered?
Speaker 2: Yes, actually, and I would say most of the insurance
Speaker 2: policies in Singapore that would cover that situation if you
Speaker 2: have not left Singapore as well. OK, so if you
Speaker 2: need to cancel those plans because there is like riots
Speaker 2: or civil unrest that could be covered under the trip
Speaker 2: cancellation clause provided you buy at least say 7 days prior.
Speaker 2: To leaving and prior to the event happening. If the
Speaker 2: event has already been known, then most class would be
Speaker 2: known events are not covered,
Speaker 1: right?
Speaker 1: In this example, it would be me wanting to go
Speaker 1: to a war zone where something's already happening, a travel
Speaker 1: insurance will not cover me
Speaker 1: there.
Speaker 2: But in that situation that happened at that point with Korea,
Speaker 2: if you had bought your travel insurance prior to that
Speaker 2: event happening, then you could actually apply for a cancellation
Speaker 2: stating that there is now
Speaker 2: Unrest and you want to cancel those plans and you
Speaker 2: could make a claim on that. What about evacuations? Yeah,
Speaker 2: if you're already there, they will make an assessment whether
Speaker 2: the flights are affected and stuff. If it's not, then
Speaker 2: there's no claim to be made. Yeah of course thankfully
Speaker 2: in that situation wasn't the case, yeah.
Speaker 1: I
Speaker 1: just want to go back to the natural disaster bit here.
Speaker 1: I know there are clauses in many insurance plans, not
Speaker 1: just travel insurance, but just insurance in general, about acts
Speaker 1: of God. Now the thing is natural disasters.
Speaker 1: are acts of God if you want to frame it
Speaker 1: that way. So are there limitations there to travel insurance
Speaker 1: when it comes to these natural disasters that are acts
Speaker 1: of God?
Speaker 2: Perhaps another clause we should look out for. There are
Speaker 2: some that don't cover acts of God and actually most do. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so that's fine. Alright. Again, if it's a known event
Speaker 2: and you're just like, hey, I want to go look
Speaker 2: at the volcano, then
Speaker 1: no. But what about relief workers? So after the earthquake
Speaker 1: in Nepal.
Speaker 1: My husband went back a month later to help with
Speaker 1: relief work. Are there insurers that are willing to cover
Speaker 1: relief
Speaker 1: workers
Speaker 2: perhaps that would be quite a standalone situation, it would
Speaker 2: be a special request for coverage. Yeah, but it is
Speaker 2: underwritten as the usual travel insurance. Yeah, it is possible,
Speaker 2: but very unlikely. There are people who go on competitions
Speaker 2: now with the marathon and the triathletes. Those are not
Speaker 2: covered when
Speaker 2: You are in that situation because the common exclusion would
Speaker 2: be that if you're competing in any competition, that will
Speaker 2: not be
Speaker 2: covered.
Speaker 1: Right? So what insurance can I get though if I'm
Speaker 1: an athlete? Clearly I'm not, but you have to
Speaker 2: get your own medical insurance, those coverage would be limited
Speaker 2: to whatever that covers.
Speaker 1: But you have to be a professional to do it.
Speaker 1: I mean,
Speaker 2: as non-professionals not covered and if you go tracking above
Speaker 2: a certain limit, there are some insurers.
Speaker 2: That they kept it at 3000, 5000. I think the
Speaker 2: highest we've seen might be 6. Anything higher, you're on
Speaker 2: your own. Sherry,
Speaker 1: I feel like the number one tip from you right
Speaker 1: now to cover all of this that we've talked about,
Speaker 1: get it done early. I will promise not to be
Speaker 1: a last minute anymore after this. Thanks for sharing
Speaker 1: your tips.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Andrea.
Speaker 1: So let's not all be complacent about travel insurance, especially
Speaker 1: after this episode.
Speaker 1: Uh, if you've got any comments or questions, we welcome
Speaker 1: them as always. You can head on over to YouTube, Spotify,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts as well, and leave us a message. You
Speaker 1: can also leave us a rating if you enjoyed this conversation.
Speaker 1: I carried it to the team, Christina Robert, Tiffany Ang,
Speaker 1: Junaini Johari, Joanne Chan, Hanida Amin, and Saa Wind. This
Speaker 1: has been the Money Talks podcast. Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: I'm Andrea Heng signing off.