We all love to travel - see new places, try new food, escape the daily grind - the list goes on and on Before travelling, many Hong Kongers buy travel insurance to give them peace of mind as they face of regular delays, lost bags or personal injury. This article explores the most common places people buy insurance in HK, and the pitfalls and costs of each.
Most of people will buy from HSBC, Hang Seng, or Bank of China ATM’s. The next biggest segment are those buying travel insurance from the airline, tour operator, direct from the provider (via website or agent) and finally the growing segment using comparison platforms like MoneyHero.com.hk. However, the coverage of each channel is totally different and we urge consumers to take care to check what they are buying before buying the wrong policy and getting unsuitable cover or paying more than they should .We compare all channels below in terms of convenience, pricing, ease of application and cover as a guideline to help compare Hong Kong's top 10 ways for buying travel insurance and point out the best way to buy travel insurance!
In this article , we will use a popular trip of Hong Kong people- Japan 6 days 5 nights as a case study. Moreover, many people would like to purchase single trip of travel insurance and cover with phone. Hence, We compare all of purchasing travel insurance ways beyond prices, benefits, convenience of purchase, ease of application and degree of protection.
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Index of the article：
Smart tips ：Travel Insurance
It is recommended that to buy travel insurance once you have booked your flight tickets and hotels to get better coverage.
MoneyHero, an one-stop comparison platform, help you to compare and purchase the travel insurance within 3 mins. Enjoy year-round discount of selected single insurance plan via us. Check out the best fit travel insurance plan for you now!
1/ Purchasing in HSBC、Bank of China and Heng Seng ATM
The channel of choice for the last minute shopper, buying Travel insurance at the airport (remember to buy before check in - as after you pass passport control, travel cover is void!). Although it is very convenient, the travel insurance via ATM has less coverage than standard policies. Additionally, it is difficult to read the terms in detail before you buy.
However, you take only 3 minutes to purchase insurance at MoneyHero.com.hk. it can be tailor- made for your trip. More than that, all of the terms will be listed out on the webpage as well as terms and conditions understand easily. We have a customer services team to answer any questions.
Convenience：✦✦✦✦✧
Discount level：✦✦✧✧✧
Degree of protection ：✦✧✧✧✧
| Comparison categories | MoneyHero.com.hk@ | HSBC ATM* | Bank of China ATM^ | Heng Seng ATM # |
| Price | HK$87.5up | HK$155.76up | HK$97.9up | HK$156up |
| Discount | 30%off | 10%off | 32%off | 25%off |
| With phone protection / loss | ✓ | X | ✓ | X |
| Application (directly buying the insurance) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Provide different levels of Plan | 15 | 1 | 12 | 1 |
| After sales support (Independent inquiry) | ✓ | X | X | X |
| Insurance coverage (transparency) | high | low | low | low |
| Insurance coverage (Comprehensiveness) | high | low | low | low |
| @30% discount for the whole year, providing travel insurance companies such as Chubb, Allied World, Zurich, Starr and AxA. Each company offers about 2-3 different levels of Plans that total 15 Different level of Plans, 8 plans with mobile coverage. *provide one kind of plan, offer 10% offer ^provide their own plan , offer 32% off including 12 level of insurance plan #provide one kind of plan , offer 25% off. | ||||
2/ Purchasing in MoneyHero.com.hk
We try to buy travel insurance in different comparison platforms. We find that MoneyHero.com.hk just have to answer few questions before payment. After Clicking on the “ phone lost ” button, MoneyHero.com.hk will give you different 15 levels of plan within 1 mins. It is simple, quick and convenient, additionally there is a 30% off discount throughout the year. Although other comparison platforms purchase travel insurance are convenient, no more discount and provide few insurance in order to limited choice for customers.
Convenience：✦✦✦✦✦
Discount level：✦✦✦✦✦
Degree of protection ：✦✦✦✦✦
| Comparison categories | MoneyHero.com.hk* | Other comparison Platform |
| Price | HK$87.5up | HK$106up |
| Discount | 30%off | 15%off(only few plan) |
| With phone protection/loss | ✓ | ✓ |
| Application (directly buying the insurance)) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Provide different levels of Plan | 15 | 4 |
| After sales support (Independent inquiry) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Insurance coverage (transparency) | high | low |
| Insurance coverage (Comprehensiveness) | high | high |
| *30% discount for the whole year, providing travel insurance companies such as Chubb, Allied World, Zurich, Starr and AxA. Each company offers about 2-3 different levels of Plans that total 15 Different level of Plans, 8 plans with mobile coverage. | ||
3/ Purchasing in Airline
Another common avenue people use to buy travel insurance is the airlines website whilst buying tickets, and this is primarily because of convenience. There are 3 airlines can provide travel insurance including Cathay Pacific (CX), Hong Kong Airlines and Hong Kong Express,. In fact, each airline partners with one insurance company to issue the policy and these policies can differ versus what the company may offer. Hence, there are more restrictions and lower flexibility typically for airlines. Also, airline policies are usually most expensive as they are priced on a fixed % of ticket price not policy price, so you end up overpaying. For example, if you buy a one-way ticket plus insurance, it only covers the one-day journey. MoneyHero.com.hk instead provides tailor-made insurance to customers through asking questions. Moreover, it provides more than 10 travel insurance providers on the platform and independent inquiry to customers.
Convenience：✦✦✦✦✧
Discount level：✧✧✧✧✧
Degree of protection ：✦✦✧✧✧
| Comparison categories | MoneyHero.com.hk@ | Cathay Pacific* | Hong Kong Airline^ | Hong Kong Express # |
| Price | HK$87.5up | HK$252 | HK$204 | HK$130 |
| Discount | 30%off | X | X | lX |
| With phone protection/loss | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Application (directly buying the insurance)) | ✓ | X | X | X |
| Provide different levels of Plan | 15 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| After sales support (Independent inquiry) | ✓ | X | X | X |
| Insurance coverage (transparency) | high | low | low | low |
| Insurance coverage (Comprehensiveness) | high | low | low | low |
| @30% discount for the whole year, providing travel insurance companies such as Chubb, Allied World, Zurich, Starr and AxA. Each company offers about 2-3 different levels of Plans that total 15 Different level of Plans, 8 plans with mobile coverage. *bound with Chubb ^bound with AIG #bound with Zurich | ||||
4/ Travel Insurance Company Official website &Purchase through insurance broker：
Everyone would like to buy trustable insurance before the trip. Some of them will buy through travel insurance company official website and broker. However, Customers have to compare each other one by one. Although Broker should help customers follow up all details, it necessary to spend time to deal with the broker.
On the other hand, MoneyHero.com.hk provides 15 different level of insurance plan with covering phone. In our website, the terms and conditions are clearly list out as well as offer annual 30% off discount . We compare with 7 travel insurance companies that Hong Kong residents love to searching for, including AXA, AIG, Starr, Chubb, Allied World and MSIG.
| Comparison categories | MoneyHero.com.hk* | AXA | AIG | STARR | CHUBB^ | Allied World | MSIG |
| Price | HK$87.5up | HK$158.06up | HK$132 | HK$87up | HK$109.2 | HK$189up | HK$163.9up |
| Discount | 30%off | 12%off | X | X | 30%off | 40%off | 44%off |
| With phone protection/loss | ✓ | ✓ | X | X | X | ✓ | X |
| Application (directly buying the insurance)) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Provide different levels of Plan | 15 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| After sales support (Independent inquiry) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Insurance coverage (transparency) | high | high | high | high | high | high | high |
| Insurance coverage (Comprehensiveness) | high | high | high | high | high | high | high |
| @30% discount for the whole year, providing travel insurance companies such as Chubb, Allied World, Zurich, Starr and AxA. Each company offers about 2-3 different levels of Plans that total 15 Different level of Plans, 8 plans with mobile coverage. | |||||||
5/Travel Group provide travel insurance
All of Travel Group should bound with a travel insurance company, but all of insurances only have basic coverage. It reminds tourist to pay more attention to the coverage. If you have any special needs for dangerous sport,please buy one more insurance for safe.
We test 4 travel group , namely EGL Tour , Wing On , Miramar Travel and Hong Tai Travel Services Limited . The first two have 6 days and 5 nights travel plan to visit Japanese. The latter two has five days and 4 nights travel plan.(no 6-day tour group) . We compare with these 6 travel group and MoneyHero.com.hk for purchasing Insurance.
Convenience︰✦✦✦✦✧
Discount level︰✧✧✧✧✧
Degree of protection︰✦✦✧✧✧
| Comparison categories | MoneyHero.com.hk* | EGL Tour^ | Wing On& | Miramar Travel# | Hong Tai% |
| Price | HK$87.5up | HK$330up | HK$222up | HK$270 | HK$265 |
| Discount | 30%off | X | X | X | X |
| With phone protection/loss | ✓ | X | X | X | X |
| Application (directly buying the insurance)) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Provide different levels of Plan | 15 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| After sales support (Independent inquiry) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Insurance coverage (transparency) | high | low | low | low | low |
| Insurance coverage (Comprehensiveness) | high | low | low | low | low |
| *30% discount for the whole year, providing travel insurance companies such as Chubb, Allied World, Zurich, Starr and AxA. Each company offers about 2-3 different levels of Plans that total 15 Different level of Plans, 8 plans with mobile coverage. ^Bound with Generali &Bound with Zurich #Bound with Zurich %Bound with Zurich | |||||
6/Rental wifi egg and purchase travel insurance together
Nowadays, most wifi egg rental companies should provide travel insurance to customers. Although it is very convenient, they just are middleman to sell the insurance. Hence, Choices are limited, the transparency of the insurance is relatively low as well as sufficiently coverage.
Convenience︰✦✦✦✦✧
Discount level︰✦✦✦✧✧
Degree of protection︰✦✦✦✧✧
| Comparison categories | MoneyHero.com.hk* | Wifibb^ | Vision Data# | Song Wifi& | |
| Price | HK$87.5up | HK$87.5up | HK$60.6up | HK$43.2up | |
| Discount | 30%off | 30%off | 40%off | X | |
| With phone protection/loss | ✓ | X | X | X | |
| Application (directly buying the insurance)) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Provide different levels of Plan | 15 | 1 | 4 | 9 | |
| After sales support (Independent inquiry) | ✓ | X | X | X | |
| Insurance coverage (transparency) | high | low | low | low | |
| Insurance coverage (Comprehensiveness) | high | low | low | low | |
| *30% discount for the whole year, providing travel insurance companies such as Chubb, Allied World, Zurich, Starr and AxA. Each company offers about 2-3 different levels of Plans that total 15 Different level of Plans, 8 plans with mobile coverage. ^Bound with STARR #Bound with Chubb %Bound with Chubb, AIG and FWD, Chubb Provides 4 levels of plans, AIG provides 3 levels of plans and FWD provides 2 levels of plans. | |||||
7/ purchasing in Bank official website
Hong Kong ‘s major banks also provides travel Insurance such as HSBC, Bank of China and Heng Seng Bank. Customers is looking for safety trip before the trip. We compare with these 3 banks and MoneyHero.com.hk . We discover that MoneyHero.com.hk has many coverage than those bank. Please notice below table.
Convenience︰✦✦✦✧✧
Discount level︰✦✦✧✧✧
Degree of protection︰✦✦✧✧✧
| Comparison categories | MoneyHero.com.hk* | HSBC^ | Bank of China# | Hang Seng Bank& |
| Price | HK$87.5up | HK$155.76 | HK$97.92up | HK$156up |
| Discount | 30%off | 10%off | 32%off | 25%off |
| With phone protection/loss | ✓ | X | ✓ | ✓ |
| Application (directly buying the insurance)) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Provide different levels of Plan | 15 | 1 | 12 | 1 |
| After sales support (Independent inquiry) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Insurance coverage (transparency) | high | low | low | low |
| Insurance coverage (Comprehensiveness) | high | low | low | low |
| *30% discount for the whole year, providing travel insurance companies such as Chubb, Allied World, Zurich, Starr and AxA. Each company offers about 2-3 different levels of Plans that total 15 Different level of Plans, 8 plans with mobile coverage. ^Bound with AXA #provides her own travel insurance, including 12 different levels of plans and six of them has phone coverage. &provides her own travel insurance,offers 25% off discount paying with Heng Seng credit card and cash dollars. | ||||
8/ Credit card provides free Travel Insurance
In recent year, some Credit cards should offer annual travel insurance including Citi PremierMiles, Citi Prestige, Amex Express Platinum, Amex Cathay Pacific Elite Credit Card, Amex Cathay Pacific and The Platinum card. Two of Citi card bound with Zurich and four of Amex card bound with Chubb. Although most of credit card provide free travel insurance, the requirement of those cards are relatively high. Both of them only provide one kind of insurance. Otherwise, MoneyHero.com.hk offers 8 different levels of insurance plan with covering mobile phone.
| Comparison categories | MoneyHero.com.hk* | Citi PremierMiles^ | Citi Prestige# | Amex Express Platinum@ | Cathay Pacific Elite Credit Card& | Amex Cathay Pacific** | The Platinum card^^ |
| Price | HK$87.5up | free | free | free | free | free | free |
| Annual Free | / | HK$1,800 | HK$2,500 | HK$1,980 | HK$1,800 | HK$980 | HK$7,800 |
| Discount | 7折 | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| With phone protection/loss | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | X | X | X |
| Application (directly buying the insurance) | ✓ | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Provide different levels of Plan | 15 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| After sales support (Independent inquiry) | ✓ | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Insurance coverage (transparency) | high | high | high | low | low | low | low |
| Insurance coverage (Comprehensiveness) | high | high | high | low | low | low | low |
| *30% discount for the whole year, providing travel insurance companies such as Chubb, Allied World, Zurich, Starr and AxA. Each company offers about 2-3 different levels of Plans that total 15 Different level of Plans, 8 plans with mobile coverage. ^Bound with Zurich, provides 1 level of Plan #bound with Zurich, provides 1 level of Plan @bound with Chubb, provides 1 level of Plan &bound with Chubb, provides 1 level of Plan **bound with Chubb,provides 1 level of Plan ^^bound with Chubb, provides 1 level of Plan | |||||||
9/ Purchasing Travel Comparison Platform
In recent years, people would like to go travel comparison platform in order to buy flight tickets and reserve hotel before their trip. Although platform would provide travel insurance to customers, most of them will bound with travel insurance companies. Additionally, most of the websites will charge fee in order to pass to customers. We try to purchase insurance in their website. Finding that it is necessary to bundle the travel package together. Different travel comparison websites would adjust the policy prices in response to different factors (see the notes below). The charges are lesstransparency. However, The price of MoneyHero.com.hk is stable, offering a annual 30% off discount as well as highly transparency in every single insurance.
Convenience：✦✧✧✧✧
Discount level：✧✧✧✧✧
Degree of protection ：✧✧✧✧✧
| Comparison categories | MoneyHero.com.hk* | Expedia^ | Hutchgo# | Zuji@ | Ctrip% |
| Price | HK$87.5up | HK$272up | HK$199up | HK$1060up | HK$149.8up |
| Discount | 30%off | X | X | X | X |
| With phone protection/loss | ✓ | ✓ | X | X | X |
| Application (directly buying the insurance) | ✓ | ✓ | X | X | X |
| Provide different levels of Plan | 15 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| After sales support (Independent inquiry) | ✓ | X | X | X | X |
| Insurance coverage (transparency) | high | low | low | low | low |
| Insurance coverage (Comprehensiveness) | high | low | low | low | low |
| *30% discount for the whole year, providing travel insurance companies such as Chubb, Allied World, Zurich, Starr and AxA. Each company offers about 2-3 different levels of Plans that total 15 Different level of Plans, 8 plans with mobile coverage. ^bound with Allianz, provide 2 different level of insurance , but the price is floating. #bound with Allianz, provide 1 level of insurance, the price is fixed. @bound with Allianz, provide 3 different level of insurance , but not provide own price of insurance. %bound with STARR, provide 3 different level of insurance, the price of insurance will be shifted beyond airline and flight time. The price is only for reference. | |||||
10/purchasing in Wechat Pay
We could purchase travel insurance in Wechat pay wallet. It only provides 2 single-trip insurance in Wechat pay that are MSIG and China Citic Bank International ( bound with Zurich ). In fact ,both of them has not cover with mobile and no more customers’ support after sale.
Convenience︰✦✦✦✧✧
Discount level︰✦✦✦✧✧
Degree of protection: ✦✧✧✧✧
| Comparison categories | MoneyHero.com.hk* | MSIG^ | China Citic Bank-Zurich# | |
| Price | HK$87.5up | HK$163.97up | HK$89.1up | |
| Discount | 30%off | 45%off | 55%off | |
| With phone protection/loss | ✓ | X | X | |
| Application (directly buying the insurance) | ✓ | X | X | |
| Provide different levels of Plan | 15 | 2 | 2 | |
| After sales support (Independent inquiry) | ✓ | X | X | |
| Insurance coverage (transparency) | high | low | low | |
| Insurance coverage (Comprehensiveness) | high | low | low | |
| *30% discount for the whole year, providing travel insurance companies such as Chubb, Allied World, Zurich, Starr and AxA. Each company offers about 2-3 different levels of Plans that total 15 Different level of Plans, 8 plans with mobile coverage. ^Provides 2 levels of plan #Provides 2 levels of plan, not clearly state to cover phone | ||||
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