Canstar’s Best Value Travel Insurance NZ

Holidays promise carefree relaxation away from work pressures and domestic chores. However, plenty of unforeseen events can ruin the best-laid vacation plans, from illness and accidents to the loss or theft of possessions.

If the worst does happen, a dream holiday can turn into a financial nightmare, especially if you’re left facing bills for medical treatments overseas or for life-saving repatriation. This is why ensuring you have adequate insurance cover before you jet off or sail away on your overseas adventure is a travel essential.

But trying to find the best insurance cover can be complicated. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, as policy details and costs vary, depending on your age and choice of destination. And comparing different levels of cover and costs can be complicated.

But that’s where Canstar can help. As part of our mission to inform Kiwi consumers about the best financial products in the market, each year we analyse a wide range of travel insurance products and award the best providers our prestigious awards and Star Ratings for Outstanding Value Travel Insurance.

What are Canstar’s Travel Insurance Awards & Star Ratings?

Canstar’s Travel Insurance ratings score travel insurance providers and their products, and awards the best our prestigious 5-Star Ratings. Each insurance product is assessed and scored for its price and array of features.

For this year’s Travel Insurance Star Ratings, our expert research panel compared 44 travel insurance products from 18 providers across a range of different age profiles, including seniors. To be eligible for our ratings, each product had to meet certain basic requirements, including cover for:

• $1 million overseas medical and hospital cover per international traveller
• Repatriation and evacuation services
• Luggage and personal effects
• Cancellation fees and loss of deposit

For ease of comparison, the different insurance products are judged across six geographical regions and two cruise types:

Canstar’s Travel Insurance Awards

On the back of our Star Ratings research, we also award the best travel insurance providers and products our prestigious awards for Outstanding Value.

To be eligible for an Outstanding Value Award, insurance providers have to meet extra policy requirements. These include:

• 24-hour emergency helpline
• Period of cover automatically extends if a medical claim requires traveller to remain overseas for treatment
• $5 million or more family overseas medical and hospital cover
• $5 million or more family cover for repatriation and evacuation services
• Included cover claims arising from cruising holidays in domestic and international waters (cruise only)
• Availability to travellers aged over 70 (senior only)
• Covers cancellation and medical claims arising from COVID-19 related events (domestic cruise only)

Canstar’s Outstanding Value Travel Insurance Award Winners 2023

This year, four providers earn Canstar’s Outstanding Value Travel Insurance Awards, across our four award categories.

Outstanding Value: International Travel Insurance

• House of Travel
• Southern Cross Travel Insurance
• Tower
• Worldcare

Outstanding Value: Trans-Tasman Travel Insurance

• House of Travel
• Tower
• Worldcare

Outstanding Value: South Pacific Cruise Travel Insurance

• House of Travel
• Tower
• Worldcare

Outstanding Value: Seniors Travel Insurance

• AMP
• Southern Cross Travel Insurance
• Worldcare

AMP

This is the second year in a row that AMP has earned an Outstanding Value | Seniors Travel Insurance Award. Our awards panel notes that AMP has achieved its back-to-back awards due to its consistently strong performance across all overseas regions, which is due to its competitive premiums for older travellers and above-average feature scores.

House of Travel

House of Travel once again earns three Outstanding Value Awards, in our International, South Pacific Cruise and Trans-Tasman travel insurance profiles. The insurer’s performance continues to be driven by its competitive pricings, as well as its high levels of cover.

Southern Cross Travel Insurance

This year, Southern Cross wins two Outstanding Value Awards, in our International and Seniors profiles. Our research panel notes that Southern Cross Travel Insurance performs particularly well in senior profiles due to its competitive premiums for older travellers. However, premium increases across the brand’s cruise insurances did see them miss out on our South Pacific Cruise Award this year.

Tower

A newcomer to Canstar’s Travel Insurance Awards, Tower joins our Outstanding Value Awards recipients in the International, South Pacific Cruise and Trans-Tasman profiles this year due to its increased price performance and comprehensive policy offerings.

Worldcare

For the second consecutive year, Worldcare is the only travel insurance provider to earn an Outstanding Value Award across all award profiles.

This is due to Worldcare’s consistently competitive prices and strong range of policy features across all regions and age profiles.

In awarding Worldcare, our research panel noted the insurance brand’s exceptionally strong price performance and levels of cover in both the Trans-Tasman and South Pacific Cruise profiles.

To find out more about the best travel insurance in New Zealand, check out Canstar’s full 2023 travel insurance ratings report.

Compare Travel Insurance with Canstar

About the author of this page

This report was written by Canstar’s Editor, Bruce Pitchers. Bruce has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in the UK and Australasia, including ACP, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. Prior to Canstar, he worked as a freelancer, including for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority, and for real estate companies on both sides of the Tasman.