Starr TraveLead Travel Insurance—MoneySmart Review (2025)

Starr’s travel insurance, Starr TraveLead, is one of the more popular budget-friendly travel insurance options in Singapore. With their competitive prices and comprehensive coverage, it’s not difficult to see why.

On top of that, Starr’s travel insurance is one of the most customisable I know. Going on a cruise? Simply add Starr’s cruise vacation add-on benefit. Are you also planning on jumping in for a dive at one of the stops? No problem, just add their scuba diving coverage too. Mix and match these add-ons seamlessly to suit your travel needs.

With this level of personalisation, you know you’re only paying for what you need with Starr TraveLead travel insurance. But are you paying a fair premium for the coverage you’ll get? Let’s take a closer look in this Starr travel insurance review.

Learn more about our travel insurance rating system.

 

Starr TraveLead Travel Insurance Review (2025)

1. What plan tiers do they offer?
2. Is the coverage worth the price you pay?
3. COVID-19 coverage
4. Adventure sports travel insurance coverage and other leisure add-ons
5. What to look out for in their terms and conditions
6. Claims process
7. Starr TraveLead vs FWD travel insurance
8. Starr TraveLead travel insurance promotion
9. Final thoughts

 

1. Starr TraveLead travel insurance—What plan tiers do they offer?

Starr offers 3 tiers of travel insurance for both single trip and annual travel insurance:

	TraveLead Bronze	TraveLead Silver	TraveLead Gold
Single trip	✓	✓	✓
Annual	✓	✓	✓

While Starr’s single trip plans are applicable for people anywhere from 18 to 99 years old, do take note of the tighter age restriction for their annual plans. According to their policy wording (page 20), it’s up to 70 years old, renewable up to the age of 75.

As you can guess, both the plan premiums and coverage amounts go up from Bronze to Gold. All come with COVID-19 coverage already included.

After you select single or annual trip insurance, you can select how many persons you want the insurance to cover:

	Individual	Group	Family*
Single trip	✓	✓	✓
Annual	✓		✓

Family plans are applicable to families comprising at least one parent and their legitimate child(ren) below 18 years old. Note that Starr requires the parents to be a legal couple, i.e. married. If you select a family plan, the coverage for your child(ren) is free.

Currently, Starr doesn’t offer travel insurance plans for those with pre-existing conditions. 

 

2. Starr TraveLead travel insurance review—Is the coverage worth the price you pay?

How does Starr price their TraveLead travel insurance plans?

Starr divides the world up into 3 main areas and charges you travel insurance premiums accordingly. From lowest to highest priced premiums, we have:

• South East Asia: includes Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam
• Asia Pacific: includes all SEA countries as well as Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China (excluding Tibet), Fiji, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Japan, N. Korea, S. Korea, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Macau, Maldives, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, E. Timor, Taiwan, as well as other Pacific nations
• Worldwide: Anywhere in the world except Singapore.

Now let’s look at how the price you pay compares with the benefits you receive.

Starr TraveLead travel insurance—Summary of coverage and benefits

Starr TraveLead Insurance	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Price (ASEAN)	$58.34/week	$70.36/week	$90.95/week
Price (Asia)	$58.34/week	$75.50/week	$97.81/week
Price (Worldwide)	$72.07/week	$101.24/week	$130.42/week
Medical expenses (overseas)	$200,000	$500,000	$1,000,000
Emergency medical evacuation	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Accidental death and disablement	$150,000	$300,000	$500,000
Travel delay	$500 ($100 for every 6 hours)	$600 ($100 for every 6 hours)	$800 ($100 for every 6 hours)
Trip cancellation	$5,000	$10,000	$15,000
Baggage delay	$400 ($100 for every 6 hours)	$800 ($100 for every 6 hours)	$1,200 ($100 for every 6 hours)
Baggage/ belongings loss	$3,000	$5,000	$7,500
COVID-19 cover	Automatically included
Adventure activities	Some amateur sports and activities covered include bungee jumping, hiking, and hot air ballooning. Add-ons available for scuba diving and snow sports.

Starr travel insurance is reasonably priced, at around $58 to $91 per week for a trip to an ASEAN country. Based on our comparison of 60 travel insurance plans from 22 different providers, the price of its mid-tier Silver plan is the median in Singapore. Plus, these prices are before discounts. Starr travel insurance is currently going at 60% off!

As for coverage, Starr shines in areas like overseas medical expenses, trip cancellation, and baggage loss. Starr travel insurance’s Silver plan sits at the median mark for these areas, just like its pricing component. As far as value for money goes, these components pass with flying colours.

One area where Starr’s travel insurance is a bit more modest is in travel delay coverage. Across all 3 plans—Bronze, Silver, and Gold—compensation ranges from $500 to $800, which is a little below the median of $1,000 in Singapore.

When it comes to baggage delay, Starr offers $400 (Bronze), $800 (Silver), and $1,200 (Gold). While the Bronze and Silver plans fall just short of the median, the Gold plan exceeds it. Starr also provides $100 for every 6 hours of delay, which is in line with most other insurers. So if your luggage is delayed by 12 hours, for example, you’d receive $200—half of the Bronze plan’s total limit.

While the delay benefits may not top the charts, Starr is overall still priced reasonably and offers solid protection for typical travel hiccups.

 

3. Starr TraveLead travel insurance—COVID-19 coverage

Starr travel insurance automatically covers you for expenses related to COVID-19, so you don’t need to fork out extra just to safeguard yourself from the virus. Here’s what Starr’s COVID-19 coverage includes:

Starr TraveLead travel insurance: COVID-19 coverage
	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Price	No extra cost—automatically included in all plans
Trip cancellation	–	$250	$500
Medical expenses (overseas)	$15,000	$30,000	$65,000

Do note that while Starr will cover you for the COVID-19 expenses above, it normally doesn’t for other pandemics, epidemics, or infectious diseases that are publicly announced and require quarantine. As stated in their policy wording on page 17, losses or expenses related to these are not covered:

• Any Infectious Disease*, virus, bacterium or other microorganism (whether asymptomatic or not); or
• Any pandemic or epidemic, as declared as such by the World Health Organization or any governmental authority

* Starr defines an infectious disease as: “any kinds of infectious diseases that are caused by infective microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi; the diseases can be spread, directly or indirectly, from one person to another, which are publicly announced and require quarantine by the government.”

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ALSO READ: Travel Insurance for Infectious Diseases: What You Need to Know (2025)

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4. Starr TraveLead—Adventure sports travel insurance coverage and other leisure add-ons

Starr TraveLead automatically covers adventure sports such as bungee jumping, hiking, hot air ballooning, and skydiving. These should be at an amateur level—meaning that they won’t cover these activities if you do them professionally.

You also have the option of adding on scuba diving and snow sports coverage, or other leisure add=ons such as golf and cruise protection.

Optional leisure add-ons	Price	Coverage
Cruise Vacation	$20.28	Additional Trip Cancellation or Trip Curtailment or Extension Cruise Missed Connection Excursion Tour Cancellation Satellite Phone Fee
Golf Protection	$3.12	Golf Baggage Hire Golf Equipment Loss of Green Fees
Scuba Diving	$7.80	Dive Tour Cost Equipment Hire
Snow Sports	$14.04	Missed Booking Piste Closure Snow Sport Equipment Hire Ski Equipment

Since you only need to pay for these add-ons if you’ll be taking part in these activities, you only pay for what you need. This level of customisation is one of Starr TraveLead’s strengths.

 

5. Starr TraveLead travel insurance exclusions—What to look out for in their terms and conditions

No one hopes to make a claim while travelling, but if the need arises, it’s always good to be prepared. Every person, trip, and claim situation is different—and that means the benefits, processes, and required documents can vary too.

You may have come across comments online about claims taking time; often, this comes down to incomplete forms, missing documents, or uncertainty about what’s covered. Understanding the exclusions and requirements upfront can make the process of claiming from Starr much smoother. Here are a few important terms and conditions to keep in mind:

• Report any incident within 30 days from when it occurred. That includes submitting all your necessary documentation.
• You must report any theft, robbery or burglary to the police at the sample place you lost your item within 24 hours after it happens. You must also get written documentation from the police about the loss in order for you to make a claim to Starr.
• Starr will only cover the loss of documents that are necessary to complete your trip—think things like (and I quote from page 10 of their policy wording) “Singapore Identity Card, passport, entry visa or other travel documents that are necessary for immigration clearance”. Other documents are excluded from coverage.
• Travel delays are only covered if they are due to events such as sudden strike, riot, civil commotion, hijacking, bad weather, natural disasters, equipment failure of the plane, or airport events.You also need to make sure you checked in on time.
• If you used air miles or other types of credit card rewards to pay for your trip, whether partially or in full, Starr will not compensate you for trip cancellation.
• Starr will compensate you if your flight is overbooked, but you must get written confirmation from the airline that states why you were denied boarding.

 

6. Starr TraveLead travel insurance—Claims process

To submit a claim to Starr, use their eClaim service within 30 days from the incident. Before you submit your claim, ensure you include all relevant claim documents. Missing some out will prolong how long it takes for you to receive your payout, as Starr can only process the claim once all documents are received.

If you have any questions regarding claims, call Starr’s claims hotline at +65 3158 7515. Their business hours are:

• Monday to Friday: 9 am to 12 30 pm and 1 30 pm to 5 pm
• Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays: Closed

Oh and PSA, don’t mix up Starr’s claim hotline with their 24-hour emergency services hotline: +65 3158 2536. Use the latter for emergencies overseas, including medical assistance, emergency evacuation, and compassionate visits.

 

7. Starr TraveLead vs FWD travel insurance

Starr TraveLead is a budget-friendly option. How does it compare to another popular budget travel insurance provider, FWD? Let’s take a look.

	Starr TraveLead travel insurance	FWD travel insurance
Price (ASEAN)	$58 to $91/week	$34 to $58/week
Price (Asia)	$58 to $98/week	$37 to $70/week
Price (Worldwide)	$72 to $130/week	$61 to $103/week
Medical expenses (overseas)	$200,000 – $1,000,000	$200,000 – $1,000,000
Emergency medical evacuation	Unlimited	Unlimited
Travel delay (overseas)	$500 – $800	$300 – $1,000
Trip cancellation	$5,000 – $15,000	$7,500 – $15,000
Baggage loss	$3,000 – $7,500	$3,000 – $7,500
Adventure activities cover	Yes, with add-ons for scuba diving and snow sports available	Yes
COVID-19 coverage	Automatically included	Yes, add on for $6.75 (ASEAN countries) to $12.38 (worldwide)

FWD travel insurance is the more affordable option, even if you add on the COVID-19 cover for about $7 to $12. In terms of coverage, FWD and Starr are quite similar. However, Starr’s lowest tier Bronze plan offers more coverage for travel delay ($500) than FWD’s lowest tier plan ($300), while FWD’s lowest tier plan offers greater coverage for trip cancellation ($7,500) than Starr’s ($5,000). You can decide which coverage area you’d like to prioritise.

If you plan on taking part in adventure activities like scuba diving or skiing, opting for FWD is more cost-effective. FWD automatically includes these activities in its coverage, whereas you need to pay an additional $8 to $14 for this add-on benefit with Starr.

 

8. Starr TraveLead travel insurance promotion

Currently, enjoy a generous 60% off Starr TraveLead when you apply via MoneySmart. Plus, get over $110 worth of rewards, including:

• Up to $50 via PayNow or an Apple AirTag (worth $45)
• $15 Revolut cash reward
• 3-month Revolut premium plan (worth $29.70)
• Eskimo Global 1GB eSIM (worth $9.50)
• $10 Trip.com Coupon

Gifts aside, you might also get lucky and score a dream holiday on us. You’ll be entered in our Great Holiday Jet-away Giveaway, from which you could win prizes such as:

• $1,800 worth of Flights, Hotel and Attractions Sponsorship (6x to be won)
• $100 Revolut cash reward when you are the 8th and 88th person to sign up for a Revolut Account each week. (8x to be won)

Valid till 31 Mar 2025. T&Cs apply.

 

9. Starr TraveLead travel insurance review—Final thoughts

Overall, Starr TraveLead offers fairly priced coverage that is value for money, especially in the areas of overseas medical expenses, trip cancellation, and baggage loss. It’s a plus that COVID-19 coverage is already included in the price too, alongside amateur adventure sports like hot air ballooning and skydiving.

You will need to pay an additional $8 to $14 if you’re participating in adventurous activities like scuba diving and snow sports. On the flipside, this also makes Starr TraveLead very customisable—you can also choose to add on benefits for cruises and golf protection.

While we did find in section 7 above that Starr’s travel insurance costs slightly more than FWD’s, the ongoing 60% off promotion makes them almost the same price. Plus, you get to earn rewards—anything from an Apple AirTag to a Trip.com coupon. If Starr’s coverage meets your travel coverage needs, now is the perfect time to make your purchase.

 

About our scale and rating system

• We compiled the prices and coverage limits for 60 travel insurance plans from 22 different providers in Singapore in a massive spreadsheet.
• For each price/coverage category (e.g. trip cancellation, travel delay, etc.), we determined the minimum, median, and maximum values across all travel insurance plans. These values then form scales showing the lowest, highest, and average price/coverage amounts for different travel insurance plans in Singapore.
• Finally, we plotted where each travel insurance plan stands on those scales and assigned a star rating for the provider based on the results.
• To arrive at an overall score reflecting price versus coverage, we take the average of the 5 coverage components, then average that figure with the price. The final score is rounded to the nearest whole number.

Star rating and description	Example
★☆☆☆☆ 1 star: All plans under that provider perform lower than average, and one plan is the worst performing. If there is only 1 plan, it is the worst performing.	1 star:
★★☆☆☆ 2 stars: All plans under that provider perform lower than average, but no plan is the worst performing. If there is only 1 plan, it performs below average.	2 stars:
★★★☆☆ 3 stars: At least 1 plan performs average or above average, and the rest are below average. If there is only 1 plan, it performs average.	3 stars:
★★★★☆ 4 stars: At least half (e.g. 2 out of 3) of the plans perform average or above average, but not all are above average. If there are only 2 plans, both perform average, or 1 performs average and the other above average. If there is only 1 plan, it performs above average.	4 stars:
★★★★★ 5 stars: All plans under that provider perform average or above average. If there is only 1 plan, it is the best performing in Singapore.	5 stars:
Overall: (Rating for price + Average rating across coverage components) / 2	Rating for price: 2 Average rating for coverage: 4 Overall rating: (2+4)/2 = 3

Notes:

• The star ratings are flipped for the Price component—for this, the lower the better.
• For all components, we will also award bonus or penalty stars to recognise special features of plans that may be non-quantifiable, as well as the best and poorest performing plans in Singapore:
  • Add a bonus star if one of the plans is the best in Singapore.
  • Deduct a penalty star if one of the plans is the worst in Singapore.
• For travel delay, most insurers offer $100 for every 6 hours.
  • ADD a star if the compensation rate for all plans under an insurer is higher. For example: a shorter time interval ($50 for every 3 hours) or larger compensation amount ($200 for every 6 hours)
  • DEDUCT a star if the compensation rate for all plans under an insurer is lower. For example: a longer time interval ($100 for every 8 hours) or smaller compensation amount ($50 for every 6 hours)
• For baggage delay, most insurers offer $200 for every 6 hours.
  • ADD a star if the compensation rate for all plans under an insurer is higher. For example: a shorter time interval ($100 for every 3 hours) or larger compensation amount ($250 for every 6 hours)
  • DEDUCT a star if the compensation rate for all plans under an insurer is lower. For example: a longer time interval ($200 for every 8 hours) or smaller compensation amount ($150 for every 6 hours)

 

Still undecided? Use our travel insurance comparison tool to browse and compare travel insurance plans in Singapore.