Travel and Cruise Insurance Ratings and Reviews

Ratings and Reviews

We are often asked what the ratings are for a particular travel insurance company.  This usually comes from knowledgeable consumers that are familiar with financial ratings agencies like  AM Best that rate the financial capability of insurance companies to pay claims.  It might also refer to any source of objective information concerning the customer service and claims paying satisfaction. 

Travel insurance companies that travelers commonly refer to are not reviewed by any of the financial ratings agencies.  The reason is that these travel insurance companies aren't insurance companies, but instead they are national insurance agencies that manage a travel insurance product(s) on behalf of an insurance company.  That insurance company is known as the "underwriter" and they are the entities that are reviewed by the ratings agencies.  It is the underwriting company that will have a rating that indicates their ability to pay future claims. 

This financial rating of the underwriter does not reflect on either customer service or claims paying satisfaction.  Customer service and claims paying are usually functions provided by the national insurance agencies who are acting on behalf of the underwriter.  If you are looking for trip cancellation/interruption, baggage, medical or emergency medical evacuation, you want to know how well the policy will work for you when you need it.  Some websites have developed ratings and reviews of travel insurance agencies.  However, we've found that most of these sites aren't very objective and usually only review the travelers purchase and not how well they are covered. 

Keep in mind while looking at reviews that the results might be distorted in two ways:

1. consumers are more motivated to write a review when things go bad while they are less apt to write one when things go as expected.
2. many good reviews only deal with the sales process and does not reflect claims handling.  The true proof of a travel insurance plan is when a claim is paid.

The most objective site that we know of is one that we help support - www.travelinsurancerating.org.  You can visit this site to see company reviews. 

Don't confuse this with our QuoteWright Coverage Ratings.  Our QuoteWright Coverage Ratings evaluates individual coverages on a comparative basis with other available plans.