A Basic Guide to Swiss Travel Insurance

Travel insurance can prevent you from losing a lot of money if circumstances force you to cancel a trip or to cut your travels short. This moneyland.ch guide answers the most important questions about travel insurance.

What is travel insurance?

Travel insurance is a blanket term that covers many different insurance coverages related to travel. Which losses are covered depends on the specific coverages that are bundled into your travel insurance policy.

• Luggage damage and loss insurance: This insurance reimburses you if your luggage is damaged, lost, or stolen while it is being handled by airlines or other common carriers.
• Luggage delay insurance: This insurance reimburses money that you have to spend on essential items like clothing and toiletries if your luggage is delayed and does not arrive for a longer period of time.
• Medical emergency insurance: This insurance covers medical costs when you have an accident or an unexpected illness while traveling.
• Missed flight insurance: This insurance reimburses all or part of the cost of airline tickets when a covered hazard results in your missing your flight. Covered hazards may include public transportation failures or car accidents, for example. This insurance does not cover flights that are canceled by the airline, as those losses are compensated by airlines as per your airline passenger rights. Missed flight insurance is sometimes bundled with trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance.
• Rental car insurance: Some travel insurance offers include a collision damage waiver and loss damage waiver that cover your share of the costs when a car you rent is damaged or stolen. If you have this insurance, you do not need to buy the insurance offered by rental car companies.
• Roadside assistance insurance: This covers the cost of roadside assistance when you travel by road.
• Search and rescue insurance: This insurance covers the cost of search and rescue operations.
• Travel accident insurance: This combines life insurance with disability insurance. It compensates you for disabilities incurred in an accident on a common carrier (and airline, for example). It also pays out a death benefit to your dependents if you are killed in the accident.
• Travel legal insurance: This insurance covers legal costs incurred while traveling abroad.
• Travel liability insurance: This insurance covers legal liabilities that result from accidental injuries or damage to third parties or their property while traveling.
• Trip cancellation insurance: This insurance reimburses all or part of the cost of a trip that you are prevented from taking because of a covered hazard. These hazards vary between insurance offers, but typically include becoming ill or getting injured in an accident, or a person in your family dying. Trip cancellation insurance does not cover losses resulting from cancellations by the airline, as the airline is required to compensate you in keeping with airline passenger rights. You can learn more in the guide to trip cancellation insurance.
• Trip delay insurance: This insurance covers unexpected costs for meals, refreshments, and accommodations when your trip is delayed by the airline or other common carrier. For example, if you have to spend a long time waiting for a replacement flight after an airline cancels your flight, you can claim reimbursement for the money you had to spend on food and accommodations during the wait.
• Trip interruption insurance: This insurance covers losses that occur when you are forced to end a trip early due to a covered hazard. Typically, it covers the cost of returning to Switzerland, and reimburses you for bookings that you have paid for but are not able to use. Hazards generally include having an accident or becoming ill while you are traveling. Ending your trip early due to other hazards, such as the death of a family member, or a fire or burglary at your home in Switzerland, may also be covered. You can learn more in the guide to trip interruption insurance.

Do I need travel insurance?

Before you buy travel insurance, it is worth checking if you already have insurance that covers your travel risks.

• Many Swiss credit cards include some travel insurance coverages as a complimentary benefit for cardholders who pay for trips with their credit card. Before you buy travel insurance, take a moment to check if you are already sufficiently insured. You can find a list of possible credit card insurance benefits here.
• The coverage for medical emergencies abroad that you get with mandatory Swiss health insurance and accident insurance is sufficient for travel to countries where medical care is relatively cheap. Additionally, most Swiss supplementary health insurance offers include coverage for medical emergencies outside of Switzerland that adds to the mandatory insurance, and is generally sufficient to cover countries with expensive medical care. Some have additional travel insurance coverages, such as insurance for search and rescue operations abroad. You can learn more in the guide to Swiss insurance for search & rescue, ambulances, and repatriation.
• Swiss household insurance also covers your things while you are traveling, with the exception of coverage for simple theft (unless your policy includes insurance for simple theft away from home).
• If you already get roadside assistance insurance from your car insurance provider or an automobile club membership (TCS, for example), then getting this coverage from travel insurance may be unnecessary.
• If you already have legal insurance, check whether or not it already sufficiently covers legal expenses abroad.
• If you have Swiss personal liability insurance, you are generally covered against legal liabilities incurred while traveling.
• Swiss employer-based accident insurance (UVG) adequately covers loss of income caused by disabilities resulting from accidents, making the disability coverage you get with travel accident insurance somewhat excessive. If you also already have term life insurance, then the death benefits of travel accident insurance are also somewhat superfluous.

Should I get long-term travel insurance?

If you need travel insurance, then it is worth checking whether getting single-trip insurance or annual travel insurance makes more sense for your situation.

• Single-trip travel insurance: This insurance is offered by travel booking platforms and airlines when you make travel bookings. It only covers one trip, so you have to buy a new insurance for each trip you take.
• Annual travel insurance: A number of Swiss insurance companies offer annual travel insurance that covers an unlimited number of trips within one year. This insurance is normally renewed automatically at the end of the year unless you choose to terminate it in keeping with the required notice period. You can compare offers using the Swiss travel insurance comparison on moneyland.ch.

If you are just one person and only travel once or twice per year, then using single-trip travel insurance is generally a cheaper way to get insured. However, if you are a family or travel several times per year, then getting an annual travel insurance policy can be a good financial move, as the example in Table 1 shows.

Table 1: Cost comparison of single-trip and annual travel insurance

Date: August 27, 2024. Sources single-trip insurance: Booking.com, Ebookers, Hotelplan, Tui. Source annual insurance:  moneyland.ch.
Note: Premiums for single-trip insurance vary depending on the number of people traveling and the cost of the trip. Other insurance coverages in addition to trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance vary between offers. Limits on cover also vary between offers and individual coverages.

If you have annual travel insurance, there is no need to buy the single-trip insurance offered by travel platforms and airlines. As the example in Table 1 shows, annual travel insurance can, in some cases, cost less than single-trip insurance for just one holiday.

In addition to insurance premiums, it is also important to check whether a travel insurance offer includes the specific insurance coverages you need. Limits on how much you can claim also vary between insurance offers. Checking the limits is important, especially if you spend larger amounts of money on travel.

The interactive annual travel insurance comparison on moneyland.ch lets you filter and sort offers based on which coverages are included, and limits on cover.

More on this topic:
Compare Swiss annual travel insurance offers now
Travel insurance tips
Swiss airline passenger rights explained
Easy ways to save money at the airport