Know what you want to be covered for and your budget
Cheap Travel Insurance
Taking out travel insurance is dependent on a lot of factors for Australians. Price, exclusions and a speedy claims process is usually what most travellers opt for when taking out travel insurance. Not every insurer can offer cheap travel insurance and still cover you for things like medical and luggage so doing your research is important!
Travel insurance for travellers on a budget
An unlimited amount of money to spend on travel is the dream of all travellers isn’t it? Realistically though, most of us travel on a pretty tight budget.
If you're looking for budget travel insurance that offers a high level of cover, you've come straight to the right place!
Fast Cover provides affordable travel insurance options for every type of traveller, with flexible options so that you can tailor the policy to cover what's most important to you without blowing out your travel budget.
Planning to travel overseas or need to be back for a special event? If your booked transport is delayed or cancelled, you can be covered for the cost of booking another mode of transport to ensure you get to your special event on time.
What does my budget insurance cover?
Overseas emergency medical and hospital expenses
Your unexpected medical expenses, including doctor’s consultations, prescription medication, medical treatment and hospital stays can be covered under this benefit.
Medical Evacuation and repatriation expenses
If you’re seriously sick or injured, the medical evacuation and repatriation benefit can cover you to be flown straight home to Australia or to get you directly to the nearest hospital for treatment.
Medical cover with repatriation and evacuation is a part of all our overseas policies. Why? To be straightforward, depending on where you’re travelling to, the cost of a hospital stay, or a quick trip to the doctor can cost you thousands of dollars. Did you know that the average cost of a 3 day hospital stay in the USA is about $30 000? At that price, it won’t be a low-cost holiday after all!
24 hour emergency assistance
Getting a cheap travel insurance policy doesn’t mean you’ll get less assistance from our Emergency Assistance team. In fact, you can contact them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and they can manage your transport to a medical facility, fly a relative from Australia to be with you if you’re seriously injured and even arrange to transport you home to Australia if it’s required.
With medical cover directly taken care of, it’s up to you to determine the other benefits that you want to be covered for on your holiday, just in case something does go wrong, including:
Your luggage and belongings are lost, stolen or damaged? Your budget travel insurance policy can provide cover if your phone is stolen from you, or your camera is accidentally damaged.
If something has been stolen from you, make sure you get a police report as soon as practicable, but preferably within 24 hours to submit with your claim.
It’s not ideal, but it can happen; you may need to cancel your holiday because you, your travelling companion or your close relative become unexpectedly sick or injured in Australia before you leave for your holiday.
With cancellation cover, your budget travel insurance policy can reimburse you for prepayments you’ve already made for your trip, including payments for cruises, hotels, flights, tours and activities.
If you’re sick or injured during your trip and not able to continue travelling, you can also claim for the cancellation costs for the remainder of the holiday!
If you can’t continue your holiday because there’s a natural disaster or severe weather; you, your travelling companion or a family member back home is sick or injured; or your travel documents have been stolen, you may be able to claim for your additional accommodation and transport expenses.
Sports and activities like bungee jumping and riding a bicycle are covered. However, thrill seekers can add the Adventure Pack to their policy to cover adrenaline-pumping activities like scuba diving to 30m.
Delays can be frustrating, and the cost of a travel delay may not be something that you’ve budgeted for. If your planned transport is delayed for more than 6 hours, this benefit provides cover for extra expenses including accommodation, food and transport that you incur because of the delay.
In addition to your medical and hospital cover, your budget policy may be able to provide you with some extra cash if you’re hospitalised for more than 48 continuous hours. This cash can cover daily hospital expenses like phone calls home, TV rental, or avoiding hospital food by ordering takeaway!
This benefit covers the cost to buy emergency supplies like extra clothing and a toothbrush if your luggage is lost or misdirected.
Thieves probably aren’t concerned if you’re on an expensive or cheap holiday when they decide who to rob. If money is stolen from you, you should report the theft directly to the police and you can be reimbursed up to $250.
Losing your travel documents doesn’t necessarily mean the end of your holiday. This benefit provides cover for your travel documents, including passports and credit and debit cards if they’re lost or stolen, including the costs of your phone calls to get them replaced!
If you become disabled on your overseas holiday after suffering an injury, such as from an accident, you may be entitled to a weekly benefit upon your return to Australia.
A death benefit can be paid to your estate if:
- You become injured during your budget holiday and die within 12 months, or
- If you’re travelling, your transport sinks, crashes or disappears, you’re presumed dead, and your body isn’t found within 12 months.
The personal liability benefit may provide cover for settling or defending a claim directly against you, or the payment of compensation if you’re involved in a legal case regarding someone’s death, injury or damage to property.
Optional extras
We know that every traveller’s idea of a budget holiday will be different. With that in mind, we offer optional add-ons that allow you to customise your travel insurance policy to suit the budget that you’ve got for your type of trip. This way, you don’t have to pay for what you don’t need.
Optional extras include:
If you want to do water skiing, scuba diving to 30 m and hiking, check out what activities we cover, and what you need the Adventure Pack for.
Planning to ride or be a passenger on a motorcycle, moped or scooter? Make sure you have the relevant licence to be able to ride at your overseas destination and take out the Motorcycle Pack to ensure you’re covered just in case you’re injured in an accident.
Driving a rental car on your budget holiday? You can add on cover for the rental vehicle insurance excess. If your rental car is stolen or damaged in an accident, this travel insurance benefit may allow you to claim for the excess you would need to pay on your rental car insurance policy.
If you’re bringing expensive items with you, you can choose to cover your valuable items for more than what they’re automatically covered for.
If you need to submit a claim, a $200 Standard excess applies for every claimable event. This means that the excess will need to be deducted from your total claim amount when you make a claim, therefore reducing the amount of your claim.
For an additional premium, you can reduce the Standard excess on your policy to $100 or $0. So, if you reduce your excess, you can save some money if you end up needing to make a few claims. A medical excess applies for travellers aged 80 and over and it’s not possible to reduce this.
4 simple steps to purchasing cheap travel insurance:
Start researching – be creative. Check google, word of mouth, comparison sites…
Compare a few quotes against one another – speaking with travel insurance specialists if possible.
Purchase the policy that is right for your trip and within your budget
Is budget travel insurance worth getting?
It can prove to be very worthwhile. At the very least, even if it’s just for overseas medical cover, you’ll be able to claim for your medical expenses if you have to see a doctor or are admitted to hospital.
However, even if you plan on travelling cheaply, there will always be costs involved. Have a think about the money that you’ve already outlaid for your trip:
- Have you booked a tour?
- Are you taking flights?
- Do you have accommodation which you need to pay for up-front?
- Have you already paid for your cruise?
If you’ve said “yes” to any or all of the above, you’ve already invested a sum of your money on this holiday. And if you get sick before or during your trip? Or there’s a natural disaster and you can’t travel anymore as a result? If you don’t have travel insurance, there goes your money - and you didn’t even get to travel!
The cost of affordable travel insurance is usually just a small fraction of your overall holiday budget and can be worth it if something unexpectedly goes wrong.
Some of the common unexpected situations you may experience whilst travelling, and for which you can be covered for, include:
Unexpected illnesses while overseas
You may need to see a doctor for a consultation, go to hospital for treatment or purchase medication.
If you’re unable to return home as planned because you’re seriously sick, contact the Emergency Assistance team. You may be able to claim for the medical expenses and extra cost of your accommodation until you recover, and your policy may also be automatically extended until you return home.
Injuries
You might trip over while sightseeing and end up with a fracture or broken bone, or become injured in an accident. Your budget travel insurance can provide assistance if you’re injured during your overseas trip.
Emergency medical repatriation
If you’re seriously injured or sick while overseas, the Emergency Assistance team may arrange your transport home to Australia accompanied by a registered nurse.
Your belongings being lost, stolen or damaged
Losing your belongings while you’re trying to have an affordable holiday can put a dampener on your trip.
In many cases, your travel insurance policy may be able to provide cover if your belongings are lost, stolen or damaged. Just remember to obtain a police report when you are reasonably able to and preferably within 24 hours of the theft to submit with your claim.
Experiencing complications with pre-existing medical condition
If you have a pre-existing medical condition and experience complications while you’re travelling overseas, you may be able to claim for the medical and hospital expenses that you incur if it’s a condition that’s covered under our policies.
Always check the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) to find out if your pre-existing medical condition is covered.
Natural disasters
Natural disasters can directly result in flight delays and cancellations to all or a part of your trip. If this happens, you may have to spend more than expected on your trip, including extra accommodation, or having to cancel holiday completely.
If a natural disaster occurs after you’ve purchased your budget travel insurance policy, you may be able to be reimbursed for these expenses if your trip is disrupted.
Personal liability
Your budget travel insurance policy also includes Personal Liability Insurance. Should a claim be made against you for the death or injury of a person, or the physical loss or damage to property, your travel insurance policy may be able to assist in the payment of compensation and legal expenses.
5 Things you need to know about our budget travel insurance
- Cancellation cover can reimburse you the money that you’ve already paid for your holiday, including accommodation, flights and tours, if something unexpected happens and you can’t travel.
- Customise your policy to cover the activities that you’re planning on doing, so you’re not paying for what you don’t need. You can add cover for snow sports, adventure sports, rental vehicle insurance excess, motorcycle, scooter and moped riding and more.
- We cover 43 pre-existing medical conditions.
- You can be covered in case of theft, loss or damage to your luggage, passport and credit or debit card.
- Medical repatriation and evacuation directly back to Australia is covered if you’re seriously sick or injured.
Do I need budget Australian domestic travel insurance?
Simply travelling around Australia? Any medical expenses will already be covered by Medicare and your private health insurance anyway, so why do you need budget domestic travel insurance?
While your medical expenses may be covered by Medicare and your private health insurance if you’re sick or injured, there are other reasons why you should take out Australian domestic travel insurance:
- What about the direct flights, accommodation and tours you’ve already booked for your trip? Will you be able to recoup that money if you’re not able to travel, or your trip is cut short? The cancellation benefit on our Domestic Plus policies can reimburse you for the payments that you’ve already made.
- If a natural disaster or severe weather results in your trip not going ahead, can you afford to lose the payments you’ve already made? Again, the cancellation benefit can provide you with cover in these situations.
- If you hire a rental car and damage it while on your Australian holiday, you can claim the rental vehicle insurance excess that you had to pay on your rental vehicle insurance policy up to $5000.
- Cover for special event transport expenses and travel delays is also included in our Domestic Plus policies.
What is not covered in budget travel insurance?
Your budget travel insurance policy won’t be able to provide you with cover in the following situations:
Emergency assistance isn't just for medical emergencies. They can also help if you:
- Are stranded because your flights have been cancelled and there is no reasonable means of finding your way
- Have been robbed, assaulted or need assistance
- Are in a dangerous and fatal situation such as a flooding town
- Need translation assistance
Exclusions in your policy
There are some events that your travel insurance policy can’t cover you for, regardless of the type of policy that you have, and even if you purchased your policy before the event happened. These type of events are listed in the “General Exclusions” section of the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), and the best example is the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you are breaking the law
You may not be covered for your hospital and medical expenses if you become injured while breaking the law. This includes riding a motorcycle without a helmet or relevant licence, or while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Remember, using drugs or selling them can land you with a long prison term or the death penalty in some countries.
If you are intoxicated or have taken illicit drugs
It’s not illegal to have a drink during your travels, but if you’ve drunk alcohol excessively and alcohol has a direct impact on the reason for your claim, there will be no cover under your travel insurance policy. That means if you’re under the influence of alcohol and you stumble and hurt yourself, you may not have cover for the medical expenses. The same goes for taking drugs (which have not been prescribed by your doctor).
Leaving your belongings unattended
There’s no cover if your belongings are stolen because you’ve left them unattended or unsupervised. For example: If you leave your bag behind on the train, or your sunglasses on a table in a bar, walk away to go to the toilet or order your meal, and the bag or sunglasses are stolen, this will be considered leaving your belongings unattended. Make sure you keep your belongings with you at all times or keep them in a secure location.
If you do an activity that isn’t covered by your policy
If you’re injured in an accident while riding a moped overseas and you didn’t add the Motorcycle Pack to your budget travel insurance policy, you’ll be responsible for paying your medical and hospital expenses. Ensure you have cover for the activities that you plan to do, otherwise you won’t be able to claim for the expenses that arise.
Disappointing holidays
Pouring rain the whole two weeks of your holiday? Your accommodation looked much better online? Or that church you had always wanted to visit was closed for renovations? While your budget travel insurance policy covers you for unexpected emergency events, it can’t compensate you if you didn’t enjoy it.
Routine medical or dental check-ups
Your overseas medical cover is for medical emergencies only. There’s no cover for regular check-ups or filling regular prescriptions as they’re not considered medical emergencies. Make sure you bring enough of what you’ll need for your budget holiday before you leave Australia.
Ignoring official warnings
If the Australian Government releases a warning on smartraveller that certain regions or countries are no longer safe to travel to, and you still choose to travel there, your budget insurance policy may be void.
Events that are already happening
Known events are serious situations which can affect your budget holiday plans and also your budget travel insurance policy. These events include natural disasters like the Bali volcano eruptions in previous years, to the terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka in 2019.
If you buy your budget insurance after an event is deemed a “Known event”, the cover on your policy may be directly affected. You should check for any Travel Alerts that may have been issued for the places that you plan to travel to, so you know where you stand with regards to the cover that you will have on your budget travel insurance policy.
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)
All of our travel insurance policies exclude cover for medical expenses related to Sexually Transmitted Infections or diseases.
Do I need travel insurance for my cheap holiday?
You may be able to control your initial holiday budget, however, whenever you travel, no matter what you do and how cheaply you do it, there’s still the potential for your plans to deviate and something unexpectedly go wrong.
That unexpected something may simply mean that you don’t get to visit a museum or art gallery. In other times, that something may be more complicated, and you end up getting a bill for unexpected expenses. Expenses which may turn your budget holiday into the most expensive trip you’ve ever taken! And that’s where travel insurance for your budget holiday can come in handy. Your budget travel insurance policy can potentially save you hundreds and thousands of travel related costs including:
- The fee for an overseas doctor’s consultation or your hospital stay because you ate the wrong food and got food poisoning, or you trip over while sightseeing and break your ankle.
- The deposits that you’ve already paid for your trip if you’re not able to travel due to an unexpected sickness of injury.
- Replacing your belongings because they were stolen from you while sightseeing, or from your hotel.
- Extra expenses due to an unexpected sickness, severe weather or natural disaster results in you deviating your plans and needing to stay at your destination for a longer period of time than you had planned for.
- Having to organise a replacement credit / debit card or passport because they were stolen from you.
Does budget travel insurance cover trip cancellation?
Yes it can! Trip cancellation cover can reimburse you for the payments that you’ve already made for your trip due to an unexpected:
- Sickness or injury to yourself, your travelling companion or close family member
- Natural disaster
- Severe weather
The cancellation benefit can cover you before you’ve left for your trip, and also partway through your trip in the event of an unexpected emergency. So when you’re looking for budget insurance, check to see if it includes trip cancellation cover.
Can I get affordable seniors travel insurance?
The cost of travel insurance for seniors can cost more than younger travellers, and that’s mostly based on age. However, it’s still possible to get budget seniors travel insurance with Fast Cover.
Here are a few tips to get affordable travel insurance for seniors:
- Seniors travel insurance premiums increase as you get older. Consider buying your travel insurance before your next birthday, as it may turn out to be cheaper.
- Did you know that if your grandkids are travelling with you, you can take out a family policy. It’s true!
- Not going skiing and snowboarding or doing extreme sports? Then don’t pay for it! You can customise your budget seniors travel insurance policy to just include the activities that you plan to do, including cruising.
- Buy your budget travel insurance direct and cut out the middlemen (for example: travel agents and tour operators). Doing this can lower the cost of your travel insurance policy because you're not paying their commissions.
What is the best budget travel insurance company in Australia?
The best Australian travel insurance policy for your budget trip is one that’s going to be able to cover you for the type of holiday that you’re taking. It may not be the cheapest, or even the most expensive.
If you’re looking for the best budget insurance policy for your trip, you should firstly research directly with the travel insurance company. Secondly, you should consider what you’re going to be doing and what you want to be covered for. Some considerations can include:
- Have you booked your holiday in advance to take advantage of early-bird fares, and need cancellation cover in case you can’t make the trip due to an unexpected sickness or injury?
- Are you concerned that a natural disaster will delay your travel or even cause your budget trip to be cancelled?
- Do you want luggage cover just in case your belongings are lost or stolen while on your trip?
- Do you need cover in case you’re injured while riding a scooter or moped?
Knowing what you want to have cover for can assist you when looking for the best travel insurance policy for your budget holiday, because you can make a more informed choice.
Budget Travel Insurance FAQs
Yes you can - fact it can be cheaper to book together and can be faster and simpler!
Group policy options:- Family policy where the parents or grandparents are travelling with up to 10 children or grandchildren who are under the age of 21 and not in full-time employment.
- If you want to buy insurance for 3 or more adults or you have any questions, contact us for assistance:
- Email info@fastcover.com.au
- Phone 1300 409 322
When considering travel insurance, the cheapest or the most expensive policy may not be the best for you. it is more important to check the policy coverage to see if it adequately covers you for your needs, rather than just basing your decision on price.
Any advice that is provided to you is general in nature and does not take into account your individual objectives, financial circumstances or needs.
Before you make any decisions about the product you should read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) to ensure that it is suitable to you.
We have created a dedicated Coupons, Discounts, Vouchers and Promo codes Travel Insurance page on our website that is designed to answer your specific questions regarding finding discounted travel insurance.
- How do you find cheap travel insurance?
- What are promo and coupon codes?
- How do you use a Fast Cover travel insurance coupon code?
- What travel insurance coupon codes are currently valid?
- Where do you find coupon codes for travel insurance?
- More...
Click Here to read the Coupons, Discounts, Vouchers, and Promo codes Travel Insurance Guide, find answers to your questions or get a discounted Travel Insurance Quote.
Things you need to know
^ Price as at 20/03/2024 compared to the price calculated today for this policy.
* See Product Disclosure Statement for full terms and conditions and exclusions and limits that apply.