Finder’s travel insurance methodology

What is the Finder rating?

The Finder travel insurance rating is designed to give you a better understanding of how comprehensive a policy is. Each policy is scored out of 10. The higher the score, the more comprehensive the policy.

To get our rating, Finder's insurance specialists analysed 18 commonly covered benefits. These include medical expenses, rearrangement costs for COVID 19, cancellation and luggage cover. Each benefit is ranked based on a unique algorithm.

Each benefit is then given a percentage weighting. This is how we calculate the final score. Certain benefits are weighted higher than others based on what our insurance experts believe is more important. For example, cancellation cover makes up a larger proportion of the final score than say, dental expenses because it is a much more common reason for claims.

Keep in mind, the Finder travel insurance rating does not take price into account. It only look at what's included in the policy itself. You can see how much a policy will cost for your next trip by using our travel insurance engine.

What are the Finder travel insurance awards?

Finder's travel insurance awards are based on a rating method that compares both price and features across 50+ domestic and international travel insurance policies.

To determine the ratings, we gathered 300+ travel insurance quotes based on 13 different travel profiles.

We use the final scores from our insurance awards to inform the top picks on our best travel insurance page.

Finder's travel insurance awards criteria

The criteria for our travel insurance awards was determined by our insurance experts and insights team.

Travel insurance eligibility criteria

• The travel insurance provider must be in the market for at least 12 months
• The policy must be available in Australia
• The policy must be available to buy online
• The brand must have an accessible product disclosure statement
• The brand must have an online quoting engine or tool
• The brand must offer some type of COVID cover
• It must be comprehensive policy
• It must be available to customers up to 80 years old

Finder's travel insurance awards methodology

1. How we calculated our price score for travel insurance

To get a fair estimation of how much each provider charges for a travel insurance policy, we got prices for 13 travel profiles.

We got quotes for two different age groups, 30 year-olds and 79, and for a 2 week trip to a number of popular destinations including:

• Australia
• New Zealand
• Indonesia
• USA
• Europe

We then calculated the average price for domestic and international trips. We also had a separate category for seniors. To get this price, we calculated the average cost of an international policy for a 79 year-old.

2. How we calculated our features score for travel insurance

The features score takes into account 18 different benefits commonly covered by a travel insurance policy. These were:

• COVID medical benefits
• COVID rearrangement costs
• Theft or damage to luggage
• Hospital cash allowance
• Cancellation and amendment fees
• Luggage delay
• Theft of cash
• Rental car excess insurance
• Total permanent disability
• Accidental death
• Optional add-ons
• Age limits
• Cooling off period
• Travel delay
• Special events
• Travel documents
• Dental expenses
• Personal liability

Each feature is allocated points out of 10. For example, a policy that offers up to $2,500 cancellation cover may receive 10 points, while another that offers $1,000 may receive 8 points.

3. How we calculated our final scores for travel insurance

There are 4 travel insurance award categories: value, comprehensive, seniors and domestic. Each category was scored slightly differently:

What are the Finder customer satisfaction awards?

The Finder customer satisfaction awards recognise Australia's favourite brands across a huge number of categories. We survey thousands of Australians to understand how they feel about their recent product purchases to help you make a decision about what product to get. It's an independent awards program calculated by our data and insights team. Commercial partnerships do not influence the results in any way.

Travel insurance customer satisfaction awards criteria

To get our customer satisfaction award winners for travel insurance, we asked a total of 1,201 customers how they felt about their current travel insurer. To be eligible for inclusion in the final results, we had to get a minimum of 45 responses for each travel insurer. To qualify, policies must be available to buy online.

We asked each customer to rate the following out of 5:

• Features and benefits
• Customer service
• Ease of application
• Value for money
• COVID coverage
• Overall

Respondents were also asked whether they would recommend the brand to a friend. The final score was calculated as an average of all metrics scored.

In total, 3 awards were given out:

• Winner
• Highly commended
• Highly commended.

Frequently asked questions

• How often are policies reviewed for the Finder awards?

  The 2023 travel insurance awards are based on domestic and international policies that were available to take out during the 2022-23 period.

• Do we rate all products available in the market?

  We work to assess the majority of products in the market but this isn't always possible and it may be that not every product or brand in the market was included for judging. For our travel insurance awards, we looked over 100 travel insurance policies. We narrowed the final number down to just over 50 once we applied our eligibility criteria.

• Why aren't some insurers included in the final results?

  Sometimes we aren't able to include an insurer in our final results because we were unable to get enough quotes from them or they didn't meet our eligibility criteria.

To make sure you get accurate and helpful information, this guide has been edited by James Martin as part of our fact-checking process.

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

Gary Ross's expertise

Gary Ross has written 644 Finder guides across topics including:

• Health, home, life, car, pet and travel insurance
• Managing the cost of living