Citibank travel insurance is one of the most popular travel insurance options in Singapore, perhaps because you can get complimentary Citibank travel insurance if you charge your travel fare to selected Citibank credit cards.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the free travel insurance coverage and see if it’s adequate, or whether you should pay for an upgrade (by opting for paid Citibank travel insurance).
Contents
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- Citibank Travel Insurance: Summary
- Citibank Free Travel Insurance (Credit Cards)
- Citibank Free Travel Insurance: Covid Coverage
- Citibank Free Travel Insurance: Extreme Sports
- Citibank Travel Insurance: Coverage
- Citibank Travel Insurance: Promotion
- Citibank Travel Insurance Claims
- Should I get Citibank Travel Insurance?
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1. Citibank Travel Insurance: Summary
There are two ways you can get travel insurance from Citibank:
- Buy it from Citibank’s website
- Complimentary travel insurance from your Citibank credit card
When you buy travel insurance from Citibank’s website, you will notice that the travel insurance plans are provided by Direct Asia. However, these are not the same travel insurance plans that Direct Asia sells directly to consumers. You’ll notice that the plan names are vastly different:
| Basic Plan | Middle Plan | Premium Plan | |
| Direct Asia Travel Insurance | DA150 | DA200 | DA500 |
| Citibank Travel Insurance | DirectAsia TripSaviour – Classic | DirectAsia TripSaviour – Deluxe | DirectAsia TripSaviour – Platinum |
For those of you who are Citibank credit cardholders, here are the Citi credit cards that will get you complimentary travel insurance:
| Citibank Credit Cards | Complimentary Travel Insurance |
| Citi Rewards World Signature Card | Pay full travel ticket with card, activate travel insurance online |
| Citi Cash Back World Signature Card | Pay full travel ticket with card, activate travel insurance online |
| Citi Cash Back+ World Signature Card | Pay full travel ticket with card, activate travel insurance online |
| Citi Lazada Visa Signature Card | Pay full travel ticket with card, activate travel insurance online |
| Citi PremierMiles Card | Charge full airfare to card, travel insurance auto-activated |
| Citi PremierMiles AMEX Card | Charge full airfare to card, travel insurance auto-activated |
| Citi Prestige Card | Charge full airfare to card, travel insurance auto-activated |
| Citi ULTIMA Card | Charge full airfare to card, travel insurance auto-activated |
How does the usual Citibank travel insurance differ from the complimentary travel insurance that Citibank credit cards offer? Is Citibank travel insurance’s coverage any good, and does it cover Covid-19 at all? Let’s find out.
2. Citibank Free Travel Insurance
You can get complimentary Citibank travel insurance if you hold any of these 8 Citibank credit cards:
- Citi Rewards World Signature Card
- Citi Cash Back World Signature Card
- Citi Cash Back+ World Signature Card
- Citi Lazada Visa Signature Card
- Citi PremierMiles Card (auto-activate travel insurance)
- Citi PremierMiles AMEX Card (auto-activate travel insurance)
- Citi Prestige Card (auto-activate travel insurance)
- Citi ULTIMA Card (auto-activate travel insurance)
Depending on the Citi credit card you hold, your Citibank free travel insurance will either need to be activated online or will be automatically activated.
There are some caveats you must take note of:
- Your return trip travel ticket must be charged to your eligible Citibank credit card
- You must travel within 6 months from the travel ticket’s purchase date
- Trip Length: Maximum of 90 days
- Citibank’s free travel insurance is provided by AIG travel insurance
- Your Citibank credit card has to be in “good standing order” aka don’t owe the bank money etc.
- Your spouse will only be covered by this free Citibank travel insurance if his or her travel tickets were charged to the same Citi credit card, too
- Your children will only be covered if he or she is unmarried, a full-time student, and aged between 15 to 25
- Your claims will be submitted to, and assessed by AIG
Since the travel insurance is free, the coverage must also be quite bare bones and minimal, right?
Citibank complimentary travel insurance’s coverage:
| Citibank Free Travel Insurance | Citi Cashback, Rewards, Lazada | Citibank PremierMiles, Prestige, Ultima |
| Insurance provider | AIG | AXA |
| Medical expenses (overseas) | $40,000 | $40,000 |
| Emergency medical evacuation | $100,000 | $100,000 |
| Repatriation | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| Personal accident (death, TPD while on transport) | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 |
| Trip cancellation | $500 | $500 |
| Trip interruption | $500 (after 5 days hospitalisation overseas) | $500 |
| Flight delay | $500 ($100/8 hours) | $500 ($100/8 hours) |
| Baggage delay | $500 ($200/8 hours) | $600 ($100/8 hours) |
| Baggage loss | $1,000 | $1,000 |
| Sports & Adventure | Some | More |
| Covid-19 | No | No |
So, is Citibank’s free travel insurance good enough?
Compared to reputable travel insurance providers such as AIG, Citibank’s complimentary travel insurance offers slightly lesser coverage. While AIG’s basic overseas medical expenses limit is $50,000, Citibank’s is $40,000. However, AIG’s basic travel insurance offers $2,500 and $3,000 in trip cancellation and baggage loss respectively, while Citibank offers $500 and $1,000 respectively.
However, you should note that the Personal Accident component only covers you while you’re on a common carrier (i.e. a mode of transport, e.g. train, plane, bus). So you won’t get a payout in, say, a tragic trekking accident. You can only claim for evacuation or medical expenses in that case.
3. Citibank Free Travel Insurance: Covid Coverage
Another limitation of the free travel insurance plans is the lack of Covid-19 coverage. In the event of travel inconveniences or testing positive before or during your holiday, you will not be covered by the free coverage plans. A big boo-hoo especially if you’re travelling in the time of a pandemic – you want to cover all your bases.
Citibank’s complimentary travel insurance has very low coverage limits compared to even basic travel insurance plans. It would have been sufficient in a pre-Covid world, but sorely lacks Covid-19 coverage today. You may want to boost your coverage by opting for a good travel insurance plan with comprehensive Covid-19 coverage.
4. Citibank Free Travel Insurance: Extreme Sports
Does Citibank’s free travel insurance cover extreme sports and outdoor adventure? Leisure and recreational outdoor activities are covered if for the Cashback and Rewards plan, such as:
- white water rafting (below grade 4)
- scuba diving (PADI, max 30m, guided)
- trekking (under 6,000m, guided and licensed)
- skiing (guided, on trail, no off-piste skiing)
- yachting (no ocean yachting or potholing)
The free travel insurance you get with Citi PremierMiles, Prestige, and Ultima, which is provided by AXA, is slightly better. It even covers stuff like skydiving, bungee jumping, rock climbing and parachuting. Both policies cover the basic stuff like hiking up to 3,500m and scuba diving with a license.
5. Citibank Travel Insurance: Coverage
Citibank does not sell “house brand” travel insurance (like DBS does with DBS TravellerShield Plus), but it does distribute Direct Asia under Citibank travel insurance.
Unlike the typical travel insurance plans that are categorised into 3 different tiers, Citibank’s Direct Asia Trip Saviour travel insurance plans are offered in 3 plan tiers:
- Classic (cheapest, not available)
- Deluxe
- Platinum (most expensive)
| Citibank Travel Insurance | Deluxe | Platinum |
| Price (ASEAN) | $50 | $60 |
| Price (Asia) | $62 | $76 |
| Price (Worldwide) | $83 | $105 |
| Medical expenses (overseas) | $500,000 | $1,000,000 |
| Emergency medical evacuation | $1,500,000 | $1,500,000 |
| Personal accident (death & TPD) | $500,000 | $500,000 |
| Trip cancellation | $15,000 | $15,000 |
| Travel delay ($100/6 hours) | $1,500 | $2,000 |
| Baggage delay | $2,500 | $2,500 |
| Personal belongings loss | $5,000 | $7,500 |
| Sports & Adventure | N0 | No |
| Covid-19 | N0 | No |
Citibank’s travel insurance actually offers very high coverage for what it is – a whopping $500,000 to $1,000,000 in overseas medical expenses (way much more than Direct Asia‘s $150,000 to $500,000 medical expenses), and up to $15,000 in trip cancellations ($5,000 to $15,000 for MSIG travel insurance).
Total Premium
S$40.20
- Med. Coverage (Overseas)
- S$250,000
- Trip Cancellation
- S$5,000
- Loss/Damage of Baggage
- S$3,000
- Total PremiumTotal Premium
S$6740% Off - S$40.20
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However, the biggest drawback with Citibank travel insurance is the complete lack of Covid-19 coverage.
6. Citibank Travel Insurance Promotion
In the past, Citibank used to sell travel insurance from two of the most high-end travel insurers in Singapore, AXA and AIG. However, now, that has changed to Direct Asia who hold a reputation for their budget-friendly travel insurance plans. The AXA and AIG travel insurance plans have been reserved for their Citibank credit cardholders’ complimentary travel insurance instead.
There’s a current Citibank Travel Insurance promotion of 25% discount which shaves off the premiums even further.
| Citibank Travel Insurance Promotion | Deluxe | Deluxe – 25% off | Platinum | Platinum – 25% off |
| Price/week (ASEAN) | $50 | $37.50 | $60 | $45 |
| Price/week (Asia) | $62 | $46.50 | $76 | $57 |
| Price/week (Worldwide) | $83 | $62.25 | $105 | $78.75 |
However, this is not cheapest plan on the market given that it offers no Covid-19 coverage. For Citibank travel insurance, Covid-19 riders are not even an option. So, even if you wanted to top up your plan with additional coverage to protect yourself from travel inconveniences, you can’t.
7. Citibank Travel Insurance Claim Review
Scour through local forums such as Hardwarezone and you’ll find pretty good reviews about Citibank’s travel insurance claims process. Online users who used Citibank PremierMiles credit card to buy air tickets, and ran into situations overseas managed to successfully claim from their Citibank free travel insurance. However, the only caveat is the slow claims process which reportedly ran up to 3 months.
Citibank travel insurance emergency hotline: Depending on your plan, either call the AXA emergency hotline at +65 6322 2566 or AIG emergency hotline at +65 6733 2552 for your free credit card travel insurances. If you bought Citibank travel insurance directly, call Direct Asia at +65 6603 3699.
AXA claims procedure: Submit your claim through this online form or print the travel claims form and mail with your documents to AXA Insurance Pte Ltd, 8 Shenton Way #24-01 AXA Tower, Singapore 068811
AIG claims procedure: Submit your claim through AIG’s online form or download the hard copy claim form and mail them with your documents to Travel Claims Department, AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte Ltd, AIG Building, 78 Shenton Way, #07-19, Singapore 079120
Direct Asia: Submit your claim through their online form
8. Should I get Citibank Travel Insurance?
With Citibank, you have a choice between the free complimentary travel insurance (with a Citibank credit cards) or paying for a Citibank travel insurance.
Free things are always nice, but if you look at the coverage limits on the complimentary insurance plans, you’ll realise that the free Citibank travel insurance doesn’t cover Covid-19 at all!
What about the paid Citibank travel insurance? Citibank’s travel insurance coverage is pretty impressive with generous payouts for both the Deluxe and Platinum plans. From medical emergencies to travel inconveniences, it offers comprehensive coverage on all fronts. However, the Trip saviour plans do not come cheap. For instance, a week in Malaysia will add up to $50. The generous payouts do come with a hefty price tag.
To make things worse, Citibank’s travel insurance plans do not offer any Covid coverage at all. It’s not even an optional add-on.
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