Travel insurance excess

How does a travel insurance excess work?

A travel insurance excess is the amount you agree to pay an insurer if you end up claiming on your policy. Take for example, a travel insurance policy for a week in Bali. The same policy could cost you $60 with a $200 excess, $72 with a $100 excess or $108 with a $0 excess. As you can see, choosing a higher excess can save quite a bit.

That's the good news. The bad news is that you'd have to pay that amount before you could claim anything. Say you lose your phone that's worth $500 and you have a $200 excess. Once your insurer approves your claim, you'll have to pay the excess amount, which means you'd only get $300 back. Another potential shortfall of this option is for lower value claims, where the claim amount would end up being comparable to that of the payable excess.

Choosing the higher excess option is slightly riskier if you end up needing to claim but if you're just looking to save some coin in the short term, it's not a bad way to go.

Compare policies by their default excess

When calculating your travel insurance quote, Finder uses the travel insurers default excess option, which means you can sort your results from lowest to highest excess option.

Compare your travel insurance quotes

Brand	Lowest excess option	Excess Option 2	Excess Option 3	Excess Option 4	Apply
	$0	$100	$250	n/a	Bonus Get quote
	$100	n/a	n/a	n/a	Bonus Get quote
	$100	$200	n/a	n/a	Get quote
	$0	$100	$200	n/a	Finder AwardBonus Get quote
	$200	n/a	n/a	n/a	Get quote
	$200	n/a	n/a	n/a	Get quote
	$0	$100	$200	n/a	Finder AwardBonus Get quote
	$0	$200	n/a	n/a	Finder AwardBonus Get quote
	$0	$100	$200	n/a	Get quote
	$0	$100	$250	n/a	Bonus Get quote
	$0	$100	$250	n/a	Finder Award Get quote
	$200	n/a	n/a	n/a	More info
	$200	n/a	n/a	n/a	More info
	$0	$150	$250	n/a	More info
	$0	$100	$250	n/a	Get quote
	$100	$200	n/a	n/a	More info
	$100	$200	$500	n/a	More info
	$0	$100	$250	n/a	Get quote
	$0	$100	$250	n/a	Get quote
	$0	$100	$250	n/a	More info
	$0	$100	$250	n/a	More info
	$100	$200	$500	n/a	More info

Note: This information was last updated August 2023

Types of travel insurance excess

Standard excess

A standard excess is the set amount stipulated by the insurer that you must pay if you make a successful claim.

Voluntary excess

Many insurers will give you an option to select the excess amount on your policy. The price of your premium (policy) will change depending on which excess amount you select. As mentioned earlier, the higher your excess, the cheaper your premium.

Additional excess

This isn't as common but can apply to certain benefits – for example, ski-related claims.

When do you have to pay your excess?

How and when you pay an excess will depend on the policy and the insurer. Some insurers require you to pay the excess upfront before they will pay the claim, while others will simply deduct the amount of the excess and pay out the remainder of the benefit.

Does multiple claims mean multiple excess charges?

Claiming on multiple sections of the policy does not generally mean you will pay multiple excesses. Most of the time you're charged one excess for an event even if you are claiming on multiple benefits.

The same goes if you're claiming on a family policy, even if that event impacts multiple travellers such as both parents and children; you'll only pay the excess once.

Get a free travel insurance quote

Travel insurance FAQs

• What is the excess on a travel policy?

  The excess is the amount that you need to pay towards a claim. For example, if you make a claim of $1,000 and the excess is $200, you will receive $800.

• Should you get excess on travel insurance?

  It's very uncommon for travel insurers to offer a no-excess travel insurance policy, so you will need to pay one in the majority of cases. However, you are often able to lower your excess to $50 or $100. This will increase your premiums but mean you are less out of pocket if you do need to claim.

• What should my excess be for travel insurance?

  The most common excess charge is around $200. However, some insurers allow you to lower it to around $50 or raise it as high as $500.

• How do I reduce my excess?

  Our quoting tool automatically applies the default excess given by the insurer. After you've chosen your policy and clicked 'Go to site', you can adjust your excess directly with the travel insurer. If you choose to lower or remove your excess, you'll probably pay more for your premium.

Written by

Gary Ross Hunter

Editor, Insurance

Gary Ross Hunter was an editor at Finder, specialising in insurance. He’s been writing about life, travel, home, car, pet and health insurance for over 6 years and regularly appears as an insurance expert in publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian and news.com.au. Gary holds a Kaplan Tier 2 General Advice General Insurance certification which meets the requirements of ASIC Regulatory Guide 146 (RG146). See full bio

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Gary Ross has written 644 Finder guides across topics including:

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