What's covered by Essential Travel Insurance?

  • Amendment or cancellation costs (e.g. for non-refundable, prepaid travel and accommodation expenses) – Up to $5,000 (or the amount you choose) per policy
  • $Unlimited* overseas medical expenses benefit, including COVID-19 related medical expenses. Cover will not exceed 12 months from onset of the illness, condition or injury.
  • Overseas dental expenses – Up to $1,000
  • If you are diagnosed with COVID-19 self-isolation expenses if you are too sick to travel – Up to $2,500^^
  • Luggage and personal effects – Up to $5,000 (sub limits apply)
  • Personal liability
  • Cruise cover (Must be added if doing a multi-night cruise outside Australia)
  • Activities (e.g. surfing, bungee jumping, zip lining)
  • Travel delay

*Where ‘$Unlimited’ is used here, it means that there is no capped dollar sum insured.

What's not covered by Essential Travel Insurance?

  • Amendment or cancellation costs due to COVID-19**^^
  • Additional transport and accommodation costs due to missed connections.
  • Adventure activities (e.g. skydiving, water skiing)**
  • Snow sports (e.g. skiing, snowboarding)**

** Cover is available to buy via options to vary cover. Additional premium applies.

^^ A special excess applies.

Medical cover will not exceed 12 months from onset. Terms, conditions, limits, sub-limits and exclusions apply. Please check the Combined Financial Services Guide and Product Disclosure Statement for further details.

Cover Multiple Trips for Frequent Travellers

Our Comprehensive, Essential and Domestic Travel Insurance plans are available for you to buy as a Single Trip or Annual Multi-Trip policy. With an Annual Multi-Trip policy, you can choose a maximum trip duration and be covered for an unlimited number of trips within 12 months to your chosen destination/s, up to the chosen maximum trip duration for each trip. 

Learn more about our Annual Multi-Trip Travel Insurance.

Benefits Included in Essential Travel Insurance

COVID-19 benefits

We cover $unlimited overseas medical expenses if you are diagnosed with COVID-19 during your trip overseas. “$Unlimited” means no dollar capped sum insured. Cover will not exceed 12 months from onset of the illness. 

Additional expenses up to $2,500 are also covered during your trip if you're diagnosed with COVID-19 and required to self-isolate and incur additional transport and accommodation expenses after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Cover is $Unlimited in the case where you require hospitalisation. “$Unlimited” means no dollar capped sum insured. Cover will not exceed 12 months from onset of the illness. 

Please note that COVID-19 Amendment or Cancellation Costs cover is NOT automatically included but is available for you to buy as a separate option if you wish.

For claims related to COVID-19, sub-limits and a special excess may apply.

Amendments and cancellations

This benefit provides cover for costs associated with rescheduling your trip or the cancellation of your non-refundable prepaid travel tickets, hotels, tours or other travel related expenses so that you're not left out of pocket. Cover for rescheduling your trip is limited to the amount it would have cost to cancel your trip.

Please note that COVID-19 Amendment or Cancellation Costs cover is NOT automatically included but is available for you to buy as a separate option if you wish.

Overseas medical and dental expenses

If you need medical treatment, you'll have $unlimited cover (for up to 12 months from onset of the illness, condition or injury) for the cost of emergency overseas hospital and medical treatment. “$Unlimited” means no dollar capped sum insured.

You’ll also have cover for emergency dental treatment up to $1,000. This means you can focus on staying healthy while you're away from home.

Existing medical conditions

You can still get cover for travel insurance, if you have an existing medical condition

Budget Direct travel insurance covers a range of existing medical conditions automatically (subject to the criteria).   

For others, you can complete a health assessment at the same time you get your quote. If approved, an additional premium may apply.

Check the Combined FSG & PDS for more information about existing medical conditions and what the policy covers.

Rental vehicle insurance excess

If you rent a car while you're travelling and it is damaged or stolen, you'll be covered for the lower of the rental vehicle excess or the repair costs for the vehicle, which you become liable to pay (excluded from our Basic plan).

Luggage and personal effects

We can cover the cost of repairing, replacing or reimbursing you for your belongings if they're lost, stolen or damaged (limits and sub-limits apply). Depreciation only applies to items more than 2 years old.

Personal liability

Personal legal liability provides cover if you accidentally damage someone else's property or injure someone else during your trip and as a result of your negligent act, you become unintentionally legally liable to pay compensation. For full details regarding Personal Liability cover, please read the Combined FSG/PDS. For example, there is no cover for personal liability claims arising from using a mechanically propelled vehicle such as a car or motorcycle.

Adventure Activities

We cover a range of adventure activities when you're travelling including surfing, bungee jumping and zip lining. This means you can experience the activities you love, while you're travelling overseas or interstate.

Some adventure activities and snow sports may not be automatically included in the cover. Cover is available to buy for certain adventure activities and snow sports. Please read the Combined FSG/PDS to learn more about which activities you'll be covered for.

Get cover for even more activities with Adventure Activities Cover, Snow Sports Cover and Motorcycle/moped riding Cover.

Cruise cover

If you're taking a cruise holiday, our Travel Insurance policies can cover you during your cruise overseas or outside Australian Coastal Waters with Cruise Cover available on our international Comprehensive, Essential and Basic plans. 

With Cruise Cover we cover $unlimited medical expenses (for up to 12 months from onset of the illness, condition or injury), and dental expenses (up to $1,000) when you receive treatment onboard a cruise ship outside Australia by or on the advice of a qualified medical practitioner. “$Unlimited” means no dollar capped sum insured.

You'll also be covered for ship to shore emergency transportation, sea sickness cover, missed ports and shore excursions and cabin confinement up to the specified policy limits.

And more

Compare all benefits, features and benefit limits.

Not all benefits apply to all levels of cover. Terms, conditions, limits, sub-limits and exclusions apply. For full details, please read the Combined FSG/PDS (PDS).

Upgrade Your Essential Travel Insurance Cover

For an additional premium, you can add one or more of the following covers to your Essential Travel Insurance policy:

Snow Sports Cover

There are two levels of Snow Sports Cover:

  1. Snow Sports includes On-Piste snow skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling, and cross-country skiing only.

  2. Snow Sports+ includes everything covered in Snow Sports, plus Off-Piste snow skiing and snowboarding (conditions apply) as well as heli-skiing/boarding.

See the full list of snow sports included in Snow Sports and Snow Sports+ cover.

Adventure Cover

There are two levels of Adventure Cover:

  1. Adventure cover includes  paragliding/parascending/parasailing (over land), sailing, water skiing and more.

  2. Adventure+ includes everything covered in Adventure, plus BMX riding, horse jumping, trekking the Kokoda track and more.

See the full list of activities included in Adventure and Adventure+ cover.

COVID-19 Amendment or Cancellation Costs

You can purchase the optional COVID-19 Amendment or Cancellation Costs cover to be covered for costs associated with rescheduling your trip or the cancellation of your non-refundable, non-recoverable prepaid travel tickets, hotels, tours or other travel related expenses of up to $5,000 per policy on the Essential plan:

  • if you or your travelling companion are diagnosed with COVID-19 before your trip and can't travel

If you include the optional COVID-19 Amendment or Cancellation Costs cover on your policy and it is purchased within 21 days of your scheduled trip departure date, we will only cover the travel costs you paid for:

  • in the 48 hours prior to buying the policy; and
  • after buying this policy.

(What that means is, for example, if you booked and paid for your trip in full 6 months ago and then bought this policy a week before your departure date, there will be no cover available if you cannot travel because you or your travelling companion are diagnosed in Australia with COVID-19.)

You’ll also receive Amendment or Cancellation Costs cover during your trip in case you or your travelling companion are diagnosed with COVID-19 and your trip is cancelled.

A COVID-19 special excess applies to the scenarios above only.

The following scenarios are also included:

  • If Your non-travelling Relative or business partner residing in Australia or New Zealand becomes sick due to COVID-19 and the condition is life threatening.
  • If you are a pharmacist, nurse, doctor, paramedic or other health care professional and your leave is revoked by your employer due to COVID-19 related reasons and that means you can’t go on your trip.

Increase Luggage Item Limit

You can increase your luggage item limit on your travel insurance policy if you're carrying a valuable item that you want to insure for more (maximum limits apply). Make sure you also have receipts or valuations of that item on hand.

Motorcycle/Moped Riding Cover

With two levels of cover available, Motorcycle/Moped Riding covers riding a motorcycle or moped with an engine capacity of 250cc or less while Motorcycle/Moped Riding+ insures unlimited engine capacity. Conditions apply.

Increase Cancellation Cover

Available on the International Comprehensive and Essential plans and the Domestic plan.

You can increase the amount of cancellation cover to suit your travel needs such as particularly expensive flights and/or travel arrangements. Select an amount from the options available when you get a quote.

Typically, people look to choose an amount that will, in total, cover all prepaid travel tickets, hotels, tours or other travel related expenses, that are non-refundable in any other way, for all travellers on the policy.

For Amendment or cancellation costs due to COVID-19, cover is available to buy via options to vary cover. Additional premium applies.

How do I add these optional extras to my policy?

You can add one or more of these cover options when you get a quote and buy a policy.

If you've already bought a policy and wish to add any of these covers, call us on 1300 792 001 (within Australia) or +61 2 8907 5079 (from overseas) to discuss the options available to you.

Find out more

The information on this page is a summary only. For more details about Budget Direct Travel Insurance, including the terms, conditions, limits, sub-limits and exclusions that apply, please read the Combined FSG & PDS.

Travel Insurance FAQs

What does travel insurance cover?

Travel insurance can cover the financial costs of a wide range of unforeseen accidents or incidents on your trip.

Among the most important benefits provided by Budget Direct travel insurance are:

  • Overseas medical expenses – $unlimited cover amount (for up to 12 months from onset of the illness, condition or injury) for the cost of unforeseen emergency medical and hospital treatment overseas if you become sick, ill or injured. “$Unlimited” means no dollar capped sum insured.
  • Amendment or cancellation costs (up to the policy limit or cover chosen, whichever is the higher) – the cost of prepaid travel tickets, hotels, tours or other travel related expenses which are non-refundable in case you’re forced to call off or reschedule your trip due to an insured event (e.g. an unforeseen illness or injury). (Does not apply to the Basic plan.) 
  • Luggage and personal effects – the cost of repairing, replacing or reimbursing you for your belongings if they are lost, stolen or damaged. Limits and item limits apply. Depreciation may apply.
  • Additional expenses – extra transport and accommodation expenses – over and above what you budgeted for – if your trip is disrupted or cut short due to an insured event.

For full details, including the terms, conditions, limits, sub-limits and exclusions that apply, please read the Combined FSG & PDS.

Does travel insurance cover trip cancellation?

All Budget Direct Travel Insurance plans except the Basic plan, include cover for the non-refundable costs of cancelling (or amending) your trip due to circumstances outside Your control and unforeseeable at the Relevant Time. 

“Relevant Time” in respect of:

  1. a) Single Trip policies means the time of issue of the policy.
  2. b) Annual Multi-Trip policies means the first time at which any part of the relevant trip is paid for or the time at which the policy is issued, whichever occurs last.

Cover for amending your trip is limited to the amount it would have cost to cancel your trip.

Can I get travel insurance if I have an existing medical condition?

Budget Direct travel insurance covers a range of existing medical conditions.

Our travel insurance covers a range of existing medical conditions automatically (subject to the criteria).

For others, you can complete a health assessment at the same time you get your quote. If approved, an additional premium may apply.

Check the Combined FSG & PDS for more information about existing medical conditions and what the policy covers.