Grab launches travel insurance coverage

For a limited time, get travel insurance from S$1/day, and earn 4 mpd while you're at it.

In the surest sign that we will all one day be drinking Grab cola while talking on a Grab mobile plan en route to our Grab psychiatrist (who will be calibrating our Grab neuro-implant), Grab has added yet another service onto its platform: travel insurance.

The insurance policy, also known as Travel Cover, is underwritten by Chubb. You can find it on the home screen of your Grab app, under “insurance”

How much does it cost?

The regular price for Travel Cover is listed below:

RegionPrice per day
ASEANS$2.50
APACS$3.25
Worldwide excluding USA, Canada, CubaS$4.40
Worldwide excluding CubaS$4.90

To mark the launch, the first 20,000 customers can purchase Travel Cover at S$1/day until 29 Feb 2020, for trips within the Asia Pacific region. Asia Pacific is defined as Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Macao, Mongolia, New Zealand, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Timor-Leste. Curiously, ASEAN countries are excluded from this promotion.

What does it cover?

Here’s the policy limits on Travel Cover.

BenefitCoverageSum Insured
1.Personal AccidentUp to S$200,000
2.Overseas Medical Expenses
– Maximum S$750.00 for Traditional Chinese Medicine Expenses
Up to S$150,000
3.Medical Evacuation and RepatriationUnlimited
4.Repatriation of Mortal RemainsUnlimited
5.Overseas Hospital VisitUp to S$4,000
6.Overseas Compassionate VisitUp to S$5,000
7.Loss of or Damage to Personal Property and Baggage
– Maximum S$150 per Article or set of Article
– Maximum S$300 for Money
– Maximum S$1,000 for Laptop
Up to S$3,000
8.Baggage Delay
– S$200 per 6 consecutive hours
Up to S$400
9.Travel Delay
– S$200 per 6 consecutive hours
Up to S$400
10.Journey CancellationUp to S$1,000
11.Journey CurtailmentUp to S$1,000
12.Credit Card IndemnityUp to S$5,000
13.Personal LiabilityUp to S$500,000
14.Child Education GrantS$2,500
15.Home GuardS$5,000
16.24-Hour Travel AssistanceIncluded
17.24-Hour Medical AssistanceIncluded
18.Terrorism ExtensionIncluded

The areas of coverage are pretty standard as far as travel insurance goes, but the absolute coverage amounts are lower, perhaps on account of the policy’s price.

Only S$200K is covered for accidental death and disablement, compared to S$1M which is quite standard even on the complimentary travel insurance policies that come with credit cards (so tell your next-of-kin which policy to claim on, in case something happens to you).

Medical expense coverage is S$150K, lower than the S$250K+ you usually see on entry-level policies for other providers. On the plus side, extreme sports are covered without needing to purchase an additional rider.

I don’t see any coverage for rental car excess, which may be an issue if you’re planning to drive while overseas. Likewise, it’s not explicitly mentioned whether miles and points are covered; we know that other Chubb insurance policies do, but I’m checking whether similar coverage applies on this one.

Update: A Chubb spokesperson provided the following quote: “In the event of trip cancellation, if the customer experienced a loss of frequent flyer miles/points, he/she can submit a claim based on the retail value of these points, up to the cancellation benefit limit of $1,000. The customer will be required to provide supporting documentation on the retail value of the frequent flyer miles/points.”

Think of Travel Cover as basic coverage. It’s good enough should the odd travel disruption happen, but if you want complete peace of mind, consider getting something more comprehensive.

A way to earn 4 mpd on insurance…for now

Most credit cards don’t earn points or cashback on insurance payments. To my knowledge, only the BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard, HSBC Revolution (for online payments) and American Express cards do.

In that sense, this presents an opportunity to earn 4 mpd on travel insurance, albeit indirectly. Insurance purchases can be paid with GrabPay credits, so it’s simply a matter of identifying a card which still earns 10X on GrabPay topups.

Truth be told though, you could earn 4 mpd on any insurance policy simply by buying it with your GrabPay Mastercard. As I mentioned before, how long this continues depends on how long banks are willing to extend rewards to top-ups, so make hay while you can.

Conclusion

S$1/day travel insurance is hard to argue with, if you’re looking for basic coverage. It’s also a way to earn a few additional miles on travel insurance purchases, provided you use the right card for GrabPay top-ups.


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Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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Eric tan

It seems that Citibank reward mastercard no longer give any miles for grab top up. Verified with the cso after topping up grab pay without saving the card when the points was not credited.

Financialmtc

woo~~~!!!

Adam

Mastercard changed the MCC for Grabpay. Amex too.

Happy Camper

Thanks for the info, @EricTan.. What a bummer.. back to back bad news with first losing $3k a month with UOB Lady’s Solitaire and now $1k a month with Citi RMC.. ☹️

Zhong

Crmc only $500 loss. If you have been topping up 1k per month, I feel for you

Lenny

Kindly note, $1 per day promo only for one time use. Subsequently raised to $1.75 per day.

Hsiao Yun

I managed to get it for Thailand.

freedom

How? have a trip around CNY.

freedom

got it. Though Thailand is not listed as one of countries in AP, it can be quoted the same $1 price.

Edison

On the part insurance premium counts for certain cards, does this include making insurance premium via cardup?

Bayle Quek

Let’s see if Grab starts pushing travel insurance to people taking trips to the airport.

James

Also doesn’t cover medical incurred back in Singapore which usual travel insurance has

Jeff

Isn’t HSBC Revolution just 2mpd?

JACK

Underwhelming crappy product.

Can’t believe they took more than 1.5 years to launch this

Only good for random quick trips to JB

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