FWD Travel Insurance Singapore Review (2024)

As a typical cheapo sinkie, I must confess to buying FWD travel insurance purely because it’s one of the most affordable travel insurance providers in Singapore.

Ask a bunch of random Singaporean travellers, and most of them would have at least heard of FWD for its value for money travel insurance plans. Their medical coverage ranges from about $200,000 to $1,000,000.

While many of us think of FWD as a no-frills, basic travel insurance option, you may not know that FWD also has coverage for pre-existing medical conditions, pet cover, sports equipment protection, car rental excess, and more. But will these come at a reasonable price?

Let’s take a closer look at what FWD travel insurance has to offer.

FWD Travel Insurance MoneySmart Review

1. 1. 1. FWD Travel Insurance: Summary
      2. FWD Travel Insurance Coverage
      3. FWD Travel Insurance: Covid-19
      4. FWD Travel Insurance: Extreme Sports
      5. FWD vs NTUC vs MSIG Travel Insurance
      6. FWD vs AIA vs Singlife Travel Insurance
      7. FWD Travel Insurance Promotion
      8. FWD Travel Insurance Claims
      9. Should I get FWD Travel Insurance?

1. FWD Travel Insurance Summary

You may have many questions about this young looking insurance company. What is it and where is FWD from? FWD is actually an insurance company founded by Hong Kong businessman, Richard Li – you might know him better as the Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing’s son. FWD’s headquarter is based in Hong Kong, but it operates insurance in numerous ASEAN countries in the likes of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and so on.

FWD insurance launched in Singapore in 2016, which means it’s been in operation here in Singapore for 6 years now. Some of the most popular FWD insurance plans in Singapore include the FWD car insurance, FWD travel insurance, and FWD life insurance.

FWD only offers 1 travel insurance plan, but with 3 plan tiers. In order of least to most coverage and premium:

• FWD Premium
• FWD Business
• FWD First

The most affordable FWD travel insurance plan is FWD Premium. It’s a great choice if you’re on a budget.

As with all travel insurance plans, your premiums (the price you pay) largely depends on the country you’re travelling to:

• ASEAN: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
• Asia including ASEAN: Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, East Timor, Fiji, India, Japan, Maldives, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Taiwan but excluding Hong Kong, China and Macau
• Worldwide excluding USA: All countries except USA
• Worldwide: All countries except the excluded countries below
• Countries not covered: Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Libya, Liberia, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, The territories of Crimea including Sevastopol, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson

Source: FWD FAQ, FAQ policy wording

 

2. FWD Travel Insurance Coverage

What does each tier of FWD travel insurance cover? And how much does each cost? Let’s compare them:

FWD Travel Insurance	Premium	Business	First
Price (ASEAN)	$33/week	$44/week	$57/week
Price (Asia)	$35/week	$54/week	$68/week
Price (Worldwide excluding USA)	$55/week	$75/week	$93/week
Price (Worldwide)	$57/week	$77/week	$103/week
Medical expenses (overseas)	$200,000	$500,000	$1,000,000
Emergency medical evacuation	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Personal accident (death, TPD)	$200,000	$300,000	$400,000
Travel delay ($100/6 hours)	$300	$500	$1,000
Trip cancellation	$7,500	$10,000	$15,000
Baggage delay ($150/6 hours)	$150	$600	$900
Loss/damage of personal baggage	$3,000	$5,000	$7,500
Car rental excess	NA	$500	$1,000
Sports & Adventure	Yes	Yes	Yes
Covid-19 Coverage	Add-On	Add-On	Add-On

Comparison of FWD travel insurance prices vs other travel insurance providers

As far as pricing goes, FWD’s travel insurance indeed is one of the best travel insurance plans in Singapore compared to other travel insurance companies.

Pulse check? Budget travel insurance provider, Direct Asia’s travel insurance plans range from $40 to $54 per week for an ASEAN trip, while AIG’s travel insurance plans cost $48 to $125 per week.

The same trip would cost $33 to $57 a week for FWD.

 

Comparison of FWD travel insurance coverage vs other travel insurance providers

Coverage wise, FWD’s travel insurance offers very good coverage for all things serious such as medical expenses, emergency medical evacuation, and personal accident death.

However, you’ll have to forfeit the minor and miscellaneous coverage such as travel delay (FWD from $300 vs Great Eastern from $1,200) and baggage delay (FWD from $150 vs MSIG from $600).

 

3. FWD Travel Insurance: Covid-19 Coverage

FWD travel insurance does not automatically include Covid-19 coverage. Instead, you’ll need to purchase an add-on Covid rider on top of your travel insurance policy.

Here’s the prices and what you will be covered for in the event that you decide to purchase the FWD Covid-19 rider for your holiday:

FWD Travel Insurance: Covid rider
Price (ASEAN)	$10.39/week
Price (Asia)	$11.30/week
Price (Worldwide excluding USA)	$18.56/week
Price (Worldwide)	$19.04/week
Medical expenses (overseas)	$200,000
Emergency medical evacuation	$200,000
Overseas hospital cash	$100/day (max 14 days)
Overseas quarantine allowance	$50/day (max 14 days)
Trip disruption	$5,000
Trip cancellation	$5,000
Automatic policy extension	21 days

Source: FWD COVID-19 Enhanced Travel Benefits insurance policy wording

At $10 to $19 per week, FWD’s Covid rider costs less than its competitors’. Direct Asia’s Covid rider costs $13.73 to $31.70 per week, while Etiqa Tiq travel insurance’s Covid rider costs a whopping $18 to $63 per week.

While prices for FWD’s and Direct Asia’s Covid-19 riders are similar, the former offers more value and coverage. FWD offers $200,000 in medical coverage for their most basic plan tier, while Direct Asia’s most basic tier, DirectAsia Voyager 150. caps COVID-19 medical coverage at $150,000. FWD gives you both hospitalisation and quarantine cash allowance while Direct Asia doesn’t all.

Etiqa’s Covid-19 coverage for its lowest plan is comparable to FWD’s; their Covid-19 coverage isn’t flat across all plans. They offers $100,000 to $300,000 medical coverage, $500 to $1,500 quarantine allowance, and $200,000 to $500,000 for emergency medical evacuation depending on which plan you opt for. If you want higher coverage for Covid, Tiq Luxury is one way to get it, albeit at a higher premium.

 

4. FWD Travel Insurance: Extreme Sports Coverage

While FWD travel insurance’s policy wording does not explicitly state if its coverage extends to outdoor adventure and extreme sports or not, there is a FAQ blog article found on the FWD website that tells us that FWD Travel Insurance covers most recreational and licensed outdoor adventure activities.

FWD Travel Insurance Outdoor Adventure	Covered
Hot air balloon	Yes
Scuba diving	Yes
Skiing and other ice, snow sports	Yes
Hiking, trekking	Yes (up to 3,000m)
Mountaineering, outdoor rock climbing	Yes (up to 3,000m)
Marathons and other competitions	No
Jet skiing	Yes
White water rafting	Yes
Skydiving	Yes
Paragliding, hang gliding, parachuting	Yes
Bungee jumping	Yes

Considering that most outdoor activities are covered, their lowest tier plan (FWD Premium) is very good value for money.

 

5. FWD vs NTUC vs MSIG Travel Insurance

If you were to compare FWD travel insurance against top-tier insurance brand names such as Income insurance and MSIG, you’ll realise that FWD is way less expensive at first.

However, we need to add in the Covid-19 rider cost to make a better comparison.

You’ll then realise that the highest tier FWD travel insurance, FWD First, is the most value for money plan that FWD has. At $122 for a week with FWD First travel insurance you get worldwide coverage with Covid-19, outdoor sports, and pretty high overseas medical coverage that’s on par with NTUC and MSIG’s.

	FWD Travel Insurance	Income Travel Insurance	MSIG Travel Insurance
Price (per week)	$33 – $103	$68 – $215	$62 – $209
Covid-19 (per week)	$10 – $19	Included	Included
Medical Expenses (Overseas)	$200,000 – $1,000,000	$250,000 – $1,000,000	$250,000 – $1,000,000
Emergency Medical Evacuation	Unlimited	$500,000 to unlimited	$1,000,000
Trip Cancellation	$7,500 – $15,000	$5,000 – $15,000	$5,000 – $15,000
Baggage Loss	$3,000 – $7,500	$3,000 – $8,000	$3,000 – $7,500

 

6. FWD vs AIA vs Singlife Travel Insurance

Other popular contenders for FWD travel insurance include AIA and Singlife.

Again, when you add FWD’s core plan premiums to its Covid-19 rider premiums, you’ll realise that FWD’s prices are somewhat on par with its counterparts. However, the highest tier FWD First travel insurance plan offers the most value for money.

When compared against AIA travel insurance, FWD’s core medical coverage pales in comparison.

You may be looking at Singlife’s unlimited medical expenses coverage – do note that any emergency medical evacuation will be charged to the same limit.

	FWD Travel Insurance	AIA Travel Insurance	Singlife Travel Insurance
Price (per week)	$33 – $103	Contact AIA agent for a quote	$41 – $174
Covid-19 (per week)	$10 – $19	Included	Included
Medical Expenses (Overseas)	$200,000 – $1,000,000	$200,000 – $2,000,000	$250,000 – Unlimited
Emergency Medical Evacuation	Unlimited	$500,000 – Unlimited	(Under medical expenses)
Trip Cancellation	$7,500 – $15,000	$5,000 – $15,000	$5,000 – $20,000
Baggage Loss	$3,000 – $7,500	$3,000 – $8,000	$3,000 – $8,000

 

7. FWD Travel Insurance promotion

FWD is definitely one of the affordable brands and their prices are often competitive with ongoing promos. Always use MoneySmart’s travel insurance comparison page to get the best rates!

There is an ongoing FWD travel insurance promotion that gives you 25% discount off your travel insurance premiums, a S$20 iShopChangi e-voucher and Eskimo Global 1GB eSIM with every policy purchased.

Plus, stand a chance to win over S$11,000 worth of prizes in our Grand Draw! These include:

• Rolex Oyster Perpetual – 124200 34mm Silver (worth S$9,000)
• Samsonite Robez 68/25 EXP (worth S$550) weekly

Valid till 21 May 2024.

 

8. FWD Travel Insurance Claim Review

FWD has hands-down got the best claim reviews in Singapore at the moment. When you purchase your FWD travel insurance, there will be clear instructions telling you to keep your negative PCR departure test for documentation and so on. Listen, and follow. With FWD, online users with documentations done right got their claims smoothly.

FWD emergency hotline: +65 6322 2072

FWD Online claims: Fill in this FWD claim form online and upload the supporting documents online.

Things to note: Claims must be made within 30 days of the event or incident. Refer to FWD’s claims guide for what documents to submit for each type of claim. FWD will follow up to acknowledge your claim within 2 working days.

 

9. Conclusion: Should I get FWD Travel Insurance?

In general, the FWD travel insurance plans are good value for money, especially for Asia and Worldwide.

One of the best things about FWD travel insurance is that they automatically cover activities like scuba diving, rock climbing and skydiving.

It’s particularly useful for those planning to go for outdoor activities like skydiving and hot-air balloon rides—unlike some other insurance companies that claim to protect you on your travels, but sneakily classify all your planned activities as “dangerous” and therefore excluded.

Another boon is the good trip cancellation coverage. (Because the world is full of threats to your imminent holiday.) FWD Premium has an above-average benefit for trip cancellations, even if it’s due to a Zika outbreak or haze.

Maybe I have the attention span of a millennial, but when I buy insurance from FWD I don’t find it horribly tedious. I appreciate that the whole user experience is mobile-optimised, fast and relatively painless.

If we just look at the numbers, there isn’t a lot to dislike about FWD travel insurance. Who wouldn’t be happy with good coverage at an affordable price—even after you add the COVID-19 rider? The one negative thing I’ve heard about FWD travel insurance is that claims can be slow or inadequate for some of my friends. But then again, I also have a good number of friends who reported a speedy, seamless claim process.

 

Still looking to buy travel insurance? Compare all the best travel insurance in Singapore.