FAQs About Cover-More Travel Insurance

Yes, our policies can provide cover for one-way trips provided you are not staying overseas for longer than 12 months.

No. The maximum duration of our single trip policies is 12 months.

Cover commences at the time you leave your home and ceases at the time you return to your home.

Travelling for business? Our Comprehensive+ Plan includes a Business Pack, which offers many benefits to business travellers, such as:

• Cover for the loss, theft, or damage of business equipment
• Business equipment hire in the event your equipment is lost, stolen or damaged
• Alternative staff replacement if you must return home because of a disabling injury, sickness, or disease
• Kidnap and ransom cover
• Stolen business money cover

This Business Pack is available on both international and domestic policies under the Comprehensive+ Plan. See the Policy Wording for policy limits, sub-limits, exclusions, and conditions that apply.

We also offer a dedicated Business Policy, which offers annual cover designed for business travellers who go away multiple times during the year. The policy:

• Can protect travellers up to 74 years
• Provides cover for an unlimited number of trips throughout the year up to the maximum duration you’ve selected
• Gives you the choice of 30, 60, or 90 days for the maximum duration of any one trip (the longer the duration you choose, the higher the premium)
• Provides protection where the destination is more than 100km from your home
• Includes up to six weeks of leisure travel during the year

To decide if this cover is suitable for you and your business travels, please consult the Policy Wording.

To purchase our Cover-More Business Policy please contact our Customer Service team on (0800) 500 225.

The maximum number of accompanying children on our leisure policies is 10, if they are your own children or grandchildren, and they have the same itinerary as yourself.

Accompanying children are defined as your own children or grandchildren, who are identified on the certificate of insurance, travelling with you on the journey, under 21 years of age, financially dependent on you and not in full-time employment.

We provide two different types of protection for rental vehicles:

• Rental vehicle insurance excess – available on our Comprehensive and Comprehensive+ Plans
• Rental vehicle comprehensive cover – available on our Comprehensive+ Plan only

Rental vehicle insurance excess cover

When you hire a rental car, you will typically receive a rental car agreement that lists an excess amount you are liable to pay if there is damage to the rental vehicle. It is the reimbursement of the excess amount you have paid to the rental car company that our Cover-More comprehensive policies can provide cover for, if you need to make a claim for rental car insurance excess and it is approved.

Remember to read the exclusions and limitations listed in the Policy Wording as these will apply. We will not pay for:

• any payment or any claim for which you are not liable under the vehicle rental agreement for loss or damage to the rental vehicle
• any payment or any claim where you have not met the terms of your vehicle rental agreement
• any payment or claim where the rental vehicle is not driven by you or in your charge or is driven by a person not named on the vehicle rental agreement and policy.

Please refer to the Policy Wording for coverage limits.

Contact our Customer Service team on (0800) 555 225 if you wish to increase your cover.

To help understand how much cover you may need, consider checking with your rental car company and check what their standard insurance excess amount is.

Rental vehicle comprehensive cover

This rental vehicle cover includes benefits beyond the insurance excess, such as misfuelling, lock out, cancellation of Rental Agreement fees, and more.

This cover applies if you:

• have purchased a Cover-More Comprehensive+ policy;
• hire a rental vehicle;
• are the nominated driver on the rental vehicle agreement; and
• have comprehensive motor vehicle insurance for the rental vehicle for the hire period.

You must also:

• take all reasonable steps to protect the rental vehicle against loss and damage;
• ensure the rental vehicle value does not exceed $200,000 and that it is not more than 10 years old.

Please read the Policy Wording for full details and coverage limits.

Yes, we can provide cover for snow sports. This cover is available when you add one of our Snow Sports Cover options to your travel insurance policy for an additional premium.

We offer two types of cover so you can choose the cover that suits you best:

• Snow Sports: this provides cover for on-piste snow skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. This cover is suitable for travellers spending their time at ski resorts, as off-piste or backcountry skiing is not covered.
• Snow Sports+: this cover includes the above activities as well as off-piste snow skiing/boarding and guided heli-skiing/boarding tours. This is suitable for more advanced skiers or those planning more adventurous activities.

Please note you will NOT be covered if:

• You are racing.
• You are participating in a professional capacity. “Professional” means undertaking any activity for which financial payment is received from another person or party.

Please refer to the Policy Wording for specific coverage options.

Unfortunately travel insurance can’t cover absolutely everything. Our travel insurance – including additional cover such as Snow Sports Cover and Adventure Activities Cover – offers cover only when you are engaging in sports and activities in a non-professional capacity.

“Professional” means undertaking any activity for which financial payment is received from another person or party.

Please refer to the Policy Wording for more information.

It’s important to understand situations that may affect your Cover-More travel insurance claim before you travel.

As outlined in the Policy Wording under General Exclusions, we will not pay for:

• claims which in any way relate to your:
  1. chronic use of alcohol;
  2. substance abuse, drug abuse (whether over the counter, prescription or otherwise); or
  3. ingestion of any non-prescription drug or substance (e.g. marijuana, ecstasy, heroin).
• claims involving, arising from or related to your impairment due to you drinking too much alcohol:
  1. which is evidenced by the results of a blood test which show that your blood alcohol concentration level is the equivalent of 950 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath or above. (As a point of reference, a breath alcohol limit of 950mg/l is almost four times the legal driving limit range in New Zealand which is currently 250mg/l or 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood); or
  2. taking into account the following, where available:
     1. the report of a medical practitioner or forensic expert;
     2. the witness report of a third party;
     3. Your own admission; or
     4. the description of events you described to us or the treating medical professional (e.g. paramedic, nurse, doctor) as documented in their records.

If you cancel your policy within a cooling-off period of 21 days after you are issued your Certificate of Insurance, you will be given a full refund of the premium you paid, provided you have not started your journey, or you do not want to make a claim.

After this period, you can still cancel your policy, however, we will refund you a proportion of the premium for the unexpired period of cover (less any non-refundable government charges and taxes that we have paid and are not recoverable).

You are not entitled to a refund if you have started your journey, you want to make a claim, or exercise any other right under your cover.

If you purchased your policy from our website and you want to cancel your cover, please contact our team by calling (0800) 500 225 (within New Zealand) or +64 (0) 9 308 212 (from overseas) or by emailing [email protected].

To complete the cancellation of a policy, you must be the policyholder and you will need to provide your policy number to our team.

Any refunds will be paid onto the card used for purchase.

If you purchased your policy through a travel agent and wish to cancel it, please contact your agent directly.

For any changes to your policy including:

• Change of personal details (name, address, date of birth, etc.)
• Changing travel dates
• Including optional cover within your policy to vary your cover (e.g. Cruise Cover, Snow Sports Cover, Adventure Activities Cover, and Motorcycling/Moped Riding Cover)
• Updating your pre-existing medical conditions information

…please contact our Customer Service team to assist you on (0800) 555 225.

If you have lost your copy of your Certificate of Insurance (COI), please check the email that you would have received confirming the purchase of your policy. A copy of your policy certificate will be attached.

If you cannot find that email, please call our Customer Service team on (0800) 500 225 and provide your name, date of birth and address and we will send you a copy. If you purchased your policy through an agent or broker, you can also request a copy of your documents from them.

When you purchase your policy, you need to make sure that the travel dates you enter cover the entire journey: from the date you leave your home in New Zealand to the date you return home after your journey.

“Home” means your usual place of residence in New Zealand.

“Journey” means the period commencing at the time you leave home and ceasing at the time you return home.

On an Annual Multi-Trip policy, the destination/s within your journey must be more than 100 kilometres away from your home, or, if they’re less than this distance, your journey must include at least one night of paid accommodation booked with an accommodation supplier or provider (such as a hotel, Bed & Breakfast, serviced apartment, or peer-to-peer service such as Airbnb).

“Period of Insurance” means:

1. in respect of Single Trip Policies: from the time you commence the journey or the travel start date shown on your Certificate of Insurance (whichever is later) until the time you complete the journey or the travel end date shown on your Certificate of Insurance (whichever is the earlier).
2. in respect of Annual Multi-Trip Policies: from the time you commence each journey, or the travel start date shown on your Certificate of Insurance (whichever occurs last) until the earliest of the following times:
   1. the time that you complete the journey; or
   2. the expiry of the maximum insured duration per journey (this maximum duration is shown on your Certificate of Insurance); or
   3. 12 months from the travel start date shown on your Certificate of Insurance.

If you are delayed from returning home due to no fault of your own, your policy will automatically extend until you are able to return home by the quickest and most direct route.

However, if you arrive home later than the return date on your Cover-More travel insurance policy and this is not because of the above, cover will cease from the return date listed on your Certificate of Insurance.

You can contact Cover-More before the expiry of your policy to discuss options you may have.

If you think we have let you down in any way, or our service is not what you expect (even if through one of our representatives), please let us know.

We will put you in contact with someone who can help to resolve the complaint.

See our guide to lodging a complaint for details, which includes our complaints form.

Most of our travel insurance plans include luggage and travel documents cover, which can protect items such as your phone, camera, laptop, jewellery, watch or one item specified by you.

The benefit limit per plan can be seen below, however, item limits do apply.

Please refer to the Policy Wording for coverage limits.

If you’re travelling with expensive luggage, you may be able to increase your luggage item limit for an additional cost when you apply for a quote. The extra cover can then be added to your policy for an additional premium.

If you make a luggage claims, receipts or valuations no more than 24 months old must be available if requested by our team.

Our benefit limits for luggage and item limits that apply to any type of luggage claim vary between plans, items and the level of coverage you choose.

You should check the Policy Wording to find out the exact limits that apply to luggage items when considering our plans.

While you can claim up to the luggage section limit for multiple items that have been lost, stolen or damaged, each individual, pair or set of items (such as a set of golf clubs vs. each individual club) will have a limit as well.

If a transport provider overseas delays all pieces of your checked luggage for more than 12 hours, there may be provision to claim for the purchase of essential items of clothing and toiletries.

Make sure you keep all receipts for the essential items you purchase.

You must also get a written report from the transport provider confirming the delay and how long it was for.

Please refer to the Policy Wording for coverage limits.

For luggage items aged 0-24 months, we do not apply or deduct depreciation to approved Cover-More travel insurance claims.

For luggage items aged more than 24 months, a percentage of depreciation will be applied depending on the item’s age.

Read more about depreciation on our Policy Wording.

If you have any questions about how the amounts have been calculated during a claim, please contact our office directly on (0800) 500 225.

You must advise us of any claim or occurrence that may result in creating a travel insurance claim as soon as possible and within 60 days of the return date shown on your Certificate of Insurance. You can do this by sending us a completed claim form.

If you are still within the 60-day time frame but believe you may exceed it, please contact our Customer Service team on (0800) 500 225 to alert them to the fact.

If you believe you may exceed the time frame because you are awaiting documentation relevant to your claim, please submit your claim in the meantime and provide us with your documentation once available.

Visit our Claims page for further information.

Claims can be submitted both during and after travel. Our Online Claims Portal allows you to submit your claim from anywhere in the world.

If you would like to make a new Cover-More travel insurance claim, you can do so by visiting our Claims page here.

You can lodge a claim through our Online Claims Portal and upload copies of any supporting documentation that supports your claim. This is the quickest and easiest way to lodge a claim.

You may also download a copy of our paper claim form and lodge a claim through the post or email if you would prefer. You will receive an email notification when your claim has been received and registered.

If you would like to check the status of an existing claim, you can log onto the Online Claims Portal, which will show you the status of all the claims associated with your policy. You can also contact our Customer Service team on (0800) 555 225.

We aim to respond to all claims within 10 working days.

If we need to request more information from either you or a third party (such as your doctor or travel agent) to make a decision on your claim, then your claim could be delayed.

We will notify you within 10 working days if more information is needed to process your claim.

We will tell you about the progress of your claim every 20 working days.

Once we have all the documentation required, we will respond within 10 working days from the date we receive each document that is sent to us or have sufficient information to make a decision on your claim.

To reduce any delays, please send all the documentation mentioned in the Online Claims Portal and on the claim form for your type of claim. If you cannot provide something, please explain this clearly when submitting your claim.

For many large-scale events (e.g. terrorist attacks, major weather events, etc.) that occur around the world, we will prepare specific advice and publish this on our website. This advice will give you an understanding of the event and exactly what cover is provided for in relation to it.

All of our advice can be found on our Travel Alerts page.

If we do not have any advice on a specific event you want to know about, please contact our Customer Service team on (0800) 500 225.

If you are submitting your claim via the Online Claims Portal, please select the "Other" option when you are prompted for the section of the policy you would like to claim under.

The quickest option for your claim to be processed is to submit your claim and associated documents via our Online Claims Portal. Documents can also be submitted via email, fax, and mail.

While we do not require the originals of your documents, we may require them later for auditing purposes, so we ask that you keep the originals available if we request them.

We always ask for receipts in the first instance. This is a policy requirement and provides us with documentary evidence of purchase.

It is your responsibility to provide us with evidence to support your claim for an item. This is ‘proof of ownership’.

Please note:

• we will accept the original or a copy of a purchase receipt, invoice and/or bank statement showing the purchase, the date of the purchase and the amount paid
• we may consider valuation certificates (issued prior to the relevant time), ATM receipts and warranty cards with accompanying bank statement of purchases
• we will not accept photographs, packaging, or instruction manuals as proof of ownership

If you do not have the receipts, please indicate that on your online claim submission when prompted.

If you need to extend the period of insurance, we do not require the authority, just a policy number and new end dates.

If you would like someone to lodge a claim on your behalf, anyone can log onto the Online Claims Portal as long as they have your policy details. Our Claims team will contact you to make sure that we have all the correct details before assessing your claim.

If you need someone to act on your behalf to amend your policy coverage, we will require you to provide the authority.

If you wish to list someone as having authority to speak or act on your behalf, please contact us and provide the name and DOB or mobile number as a way of identifying the person.

You or someone acting on your behalf can contact us on (0800) 500 225.

Sometimes the size of a claim or the difficulties in gathering information can mean we might use an investigator who can gather information more quickly and accurately. This can help speed up the processing time of your claim and make sure that we have considered all factors before making a decision.

At times, we will be able to approve one part of a claim while we still need to continue to gather information on another part.

Rather than delay the entire claim, we usually elect to settle the parts we can.

This means you will be financially better off more quickly while we continue to assess the remainder of the claim.

Please contact our Claims team on (0800) 500 225 and we can contact our supplier to have the voucher re-activated.

Our international travel insurance plans can cover overseas emergency dental expenses to the limit of $3,000.

Our Inbound Plan (for non-New Zealand residents travelling to New Zealand) can provide cover for emergency dental expenses in New Zealand up to the limit of $3,000.

Cover is provided for the usual and customary cost of emergency dental treatment provided outside New Zealand by or on the advice of a qualified medical practitioner or dentist to relieve pain or temporarily restore function.

There is no cover for routine dental treatment, or dental expenses involving the use of precious metals, whitening, or involving cosmetic dentistry.

There is limited cover for medical expenses incurred in New Zealand if you are a New Zealand resident.

If you are travelling to New Zealand on our Inbound Plan, cover may be available.

If you have existing medical conditions that you want covered by your travel insurance policy, yes, for each new policy you buy we require you to complete a new medical assessment.

If you have an Annual Multi-Trip Policy and you are diagnosed with a new condition and make further bookings, you may be required to complete a new medical assessment.

Our travel insurance policies can automatically provide cover for some existing medical conditions (subject to the criteria outlined in the Policy Wording). Other existing medical conditions will require assessment and, if approved, an additional premium will be applicable.

Our online medical assessment can be completed by generating a quote via our website and following the steps as prompted.

Please read the applicable Policy Wording for coverage details.

In most cases you will receive an outcome on completion of a Cover-More medical assessment online.

The medical assessment can be completed as part of generating an online quote via our website.

These are some of the existing medical conditions that can be automatically covered, subject to policy requirements (please refer to the criteria applicable to each condition below in the Policy Wording):

• Acne
• Allergy
• Bell’s palsy
• Coeliac disease
• Congenital blindness
• Congenital deafness
• Hip replacement
• Knee replacement
• Shoulder replacement
• Hip resurfacing
• …and more.

If your existing medical condition is not able to be automatically included, cover for existing medical conditions can be assessed by completing a Cover-More medical assessment during the online quote process.

Be sure to refer to the applicable Policy Wording for coverage details.

Note: if you do need to complete an online medical assessment, we need to assess all your diagnosed conditions, not just the ones you want covered.

If you have any questions about the online assessment or prefer to talk with a customer service agent, please contact us on (0800) 500 225.

All policyholders have access to our Emergency Assistance team, who are contactable 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can reach them by calling +61 2 8907 5240.

Our team of doctors, nurses, case managers and travel agents can provide the following services to all policyholders:

• Locate a doctor or hospital if you become ill or injured away from home – and help connect you with an English-speaking doctor too.
• Help you find a medical facility nearby and monitor your medical care.
• Paying bills - Becoming ill overseas can be expensive so significant medical expenses can be paid by us directly to the hospital if your claim is approved.
• Keeping you travelling or get you home – our team can decide if and when it is appropriate to bring you home and will coordinate the entire exercise.
• Help if passports, travel documents or credit cards are lost - If you need assistance in contacting the issuer of the document, our emergency assistance team can help.
• Help to change travel plans - If your travel consultant is not available to assist with rescheduling in an emergency, our team can help.

Note: certain services are subject to your claim being approved.

We may be able to provide travel insurance cover for pregnancy. If you know you are pregnant at the relevant time, you will need to apply for cover for your pregnancy if:

• There have been complications with this pregnancy or a previous pregnancy;
• You have a multiple pregnancy e.g. twins or triplets; or
• The conception was medically assisted e.g. using assisted fertility treatment including hormone therapies or IVF.

“Relevant Time” in respect of:

1. Single Trip policies means the time when the policy is issued.
2. Annual Multi-Trip policies means the time the policy is issued, or, for any subsequent trips, the time the first payment was made towards that trip.

Please complete additional questions in an online Cover-More medical assessment to determine eligibility and obtain a quote. If you have any questions about the online assessment or prefer to talk with a customer service agent, please contact us on (0800) 500 225.

Pregnancy restrictions

Whether or not you have to apply for pregnancy cover, the following restrictions apply to claims arising in any way from the pregnancy of any person:

• Cover is only provided for serious, unexpected pregnancy complications that occur up until the 24th week of pregnancy (i.e. up to 23 weeks, 6 days). Gestational age is measured in weeks and days and is calculated from the last known date of your menstrual period or calculated from staging ultrasound.
• Childbirth is not covered.
• Costs relating to the health or care of a newborn child are not covered, irrespective of the stage of pregnancy when the child is born.

Expectant mothers should consider if our travel insurance is right for them, as costs for childbirth and neonatal care overseas can be expensive.

Always read our Policy Wording before deciding on our travel insurance.

When you generate a quote for a travel insurance policy, we ask for the destinations you will travel to so that we can make sure we give you the best price.

To help us, in the quote box under “Where are you going?”:

• Enter or select every country you will be travelling to wherever possible.
• For each country you select, cover for travel to all other countries within that region are also included regardless of whether the countries are selected or not.

What to do if you do not know every single country you will be travelling to:

• If you are not sure of all your destinations, you can select a region instead. Cover then applies for travel to all countries within that region. (i.e. Europe or Africa.)

Have a question we haven’t answered here? Contact our Customer Service team on (0800) 500 225.