Etiqa Travel Insurance Singapore Review 2018

April 3, 2018

Unless you regularly try to sniff out good travel deals and buy your travel insurance from MoneySmart, you might not be very familiar with the Etiqa brand. It’s actually the insurance arm of Maybank and it’s a relatively new player in travel insurance. Read between the lines: it’s cheap because it’s unknown. But is Etiqa travel insurance cheap AND good? Let’s find out.

Etiqa travel insurance price and coverage

Travel insurance plan	Etiqa eProtect Travel Basic	Etiqa eProtect Travel Economy	Etiqa eProtect Travel Business
Price for one week in…	ASEAN: $36.50 Asia: $40.59 Worldwide: $61	ASEAN: $54 Asia: $66 Worldwide: $91.63	ASEAN: $72.94 Asia: $88.88 Worldwide: $134.20
Promotion	Currently 51% off single-trip plans
Medical expenses (overseas)	$200,000	$500,000	$1,000,000
Emergency medical evacuation	$1,500,000	$1,500,000	$1,500,000
Personal accident (death & TPD)	$200,000	$300,000	$400,000
Travel delay ($50 every 3 hours)	$300	$500	$800
Trip cancellation	$5,000	$10,000	$15,000
Baggage delay ($100 every 6 hours)	$200	$200	$200
Baggage loss/damage	$2,000	$3,000	$5,000
Adventure activities covered?	Yes

Etiqa travel insurance price comparison

Thanks to their constant promotions, Etiqa is one of the cheapest travel insurance brands in Singapore and often vies with FWD for top spot on the MoneySmart travel insurance wizard. Of course, they lose that competitive edge once you take away the generous promos… so let’s hope the promos are here to stay.

Etiqa travel insurance coverage comparison

Etiqa’s medical and emergency coverage actually looks pretty good. Personally I feel that the basic plan is already quite sufficient as $200,000 and $1.5mil are comfortable limits for medical expenses and evacuation respectively.

Etiqa plans automatically cover quite a range of leisure outdoor activities, including: scuba diving, hiking up to 3,000m, hot air balloon rides, parachuting, skydiving, bungee jumping, hang-gliding, paragliding, skiing, snowboarding and other winter sports.

Some of you are going to look at the limits for travel delays and shake your head though. Etiqa’s major weakness is in its very poor benefits for travel inconveniences. Also, it pays out $100 for every 6 hours of baggage delay whereas other brands pay out $200. Maybe it’s their way of keeping prices down by trying to prevent Singaporeans from gaming the system.

How to make Etiqa travel insurance claims

Emergency hotline: Call the Allianz Global Assistance emergency assistance hotline at +65 6327 2215 (Allianz is Etiqa’s emergency support provider)

Online claims: Fill in and submit documents through this travel claim form here.

Hard copy claims: You can download a claim form from the offline forms download centre and mail with supporting documents to Etiqa Insurance Pte Ltd, One Raffles Quay, #22-01 North Tower, Singapore 048583.

Things to note: You can opt to open a TiqConnect e-wallet for faster claims turnaround. Etiqa claims that their travel claims can be processed and paid as quickly as one day through this instant payment service, as opposed to a cheque which takes 2 to 4 weeks.

Summary: Pros & cons of buying travel insurance with Etiqa

PRO: Cheap basic travel insurance with good emergency coverage. So long as Etiqa’s promotions are still running, the basic plan is hard to beat if your primary concern is adequate medical and emergency coverage.

PRO: Adventure activities are automatically included. There’s nothing I hate more than seeing a long list of activity exclusions hidden in size 6 font in the policy wording. Etiqa is upfront about what activities are covered.

PRO: Fast and easy purchase and claims experience. Like FWD, Etiqa is great for the digitally savvy because its processes are optimised for mobile and pretty painless to use. The super-fast claims settlement via e-wallet is also an awesome innovation that I wish more insurance companies would take up.

PRO: Great for big families and older kids. Etiqa’s family plans cover up to 8(!) children. “Children” even encompasses young adults up to 25 years old as long as they are full-time tertiary students in Singapore.

CON: Poor benefits for travel and baggage delays. Maybe try flying carry-on only with this one?

Is Etiqa’s claims settlement really that fast? Share your experiences with us in the comments.