Starr TraveLead Travel Insurance Review: Flexible, Comprehensive and Affordable

Starr TraveLead Travel Insurance combines flexibility, high sums assured, comprehensive coverage and low premiums, making it a strong choice for your go-to travel insurance shortlist. 

Starr TraveLead Travel Insurance may be the new kid on the block, but it is well worth checking out. 

This is a travel insurance plan that has flexibility built into it, offers comprehensive coverage and sums assured on par with the best of them, and tops it all off with highly affordable premiums.

That certainly sounds like an attractive combination, but naturally, you want to know the gritty details. 

Read on for an in-depth look at this travel insurance plan, covering:

• Product summary
• Pros and cons
• List of exclusions
• Plan types
• Pricing
• How to make a claim

SingSaver Exclusive Promotion: Get up to S$48 via PayNow, a 35% discount PLUS an exclusive Agoda promo code when you apply using the promo code SSVTL35. Valid till 31 March 2023. T&Cs apply.

Plus, score a ReboundTAG (worth S$31.90) + a BRONZE ticket (1x chance) in our March Madness Grand Lucky Draw when you apply, for a chance to win your share of over S$20,000 worth of prizes! Valid till 2 April 2023. T&Cs apply.

Enjoy additional coverage by adding Trip or Baggage coverage for an absolute peace of mind. Increase COVID-19 medical expenses coverage and protection against trip cancellations due to COVID-19 when you select either the Gold or Silver plans. T&Cs apply.

Product summary

COVID-19 coverage

Comes bundled with COVID-19 coverage for overseas medical expenses (up to S$65,000), as well as for COVID-19-related trip cancellation or curtailment (up to S$500, for Silver and Gold only). 

Do note that from 18 January 2023, China, Macau, Hongkong, and Taiwan have been excluded under its COVID-19 coverage.

Variety of plans and benefits 

Offers a high degree of customisability with three plan tiers, three components and four optional riders, allowing you to mix-and-match according to your needs and budget. 

Up to S$1 million in medical benefits 

Provides up to S$1 million worth of overseas medical expenses coverage, with follow-up medical treatments in Singapore included. An array of treatment options are also covered, including physiotherapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine and chiropractic. 

Personal accident cover of up to S$500,000

Covers you for accidental death and disablement arising within 12 months of an accident, up to an assured sum of S$500,000. Also included is up to S$5,000 compassionate death cash benefit in the event of death due to serious bodily injury. 

Robust suite of trip and baggage benefits 

Includes cover for trip cancellation or curtailment, travel delays, misconnections and overbooking, loss, damage or delay of baggage, loss of personal documents, and many more useful features.

24/7 worldwide emergency assistance

Comes with round-the-clock global emergency assistance that policyholders may tap on as required during their trip. 

Pros and cons

Perhaps the biggest pro worth highlighting in Starr TraveLead Travel Insurance is its flexibility.

At its most basic configuration, this policy offers only overseas medical coverage. This forms the foundation of the policy, and is required to be included in your plan. 

There are two other components that you can choose to include or not, and these are trip coverage, and baggage coverage. This means you can choose medical coverage alone, medical plus trip and/or baggage, or all three components. 

As you’d expect, trip coverage provides benefits for trip delays, cancellations and such, while the baggage coverage covers you against loss or damage to your baggage, personal belongings and travel documents.

And on top of all that, there are also four optional riders available that you can use to add protection for specific activities or events, creating an even better fit for your overseas trip. 

As for cons, Starr TraveLead Travel Insurance doesn't cover pre-existing conditions, pregnancy and childbirth. Cover for professional sports also isn’t available here. 

To be fair, these types of exclusions are common among travel insurance, and help make lower premiums possible. 

Policy exclusions

Before signing up, take note of the following exclusions. This policy does not cover: 

• Pre-existing medical conditions
• Acts of war
• Suicide
• Pregnancy & childbirth
• Professional sports

For the full list of exclusions, please refer to the sample policy. 

Types of plans

In the following table, we’ve listed the three plans available and a brief summary of the benefits offered. For the full list of benefits, please refer to the product brochure.

Starr TraveLead Travel Insurance is available in three tiers — Gold, Silver and Bronze — with a similar selection of benefits and features throughout.

The main difference are the limits of the claims offered in each.

One thing to note though is that while COVID-19 coverage is offered in all three tiers, the Bronze tier plan doesn’t provide benefits for trip cancellation and trip curtailment due to COVID-19-related reasons.

Hence, if this benefit is important to you, it is preferable to choose either the Silver or Gold plans. 

Also, as mentioned above, China, Macau, Hongkong, and Taiwan have been excluded under its COVID-19 coverage.

Pricing

The table above displays the premiums quoted for a single-trip policy for travel to Southeast Asia over a four-day weekend — Friday to Monday.

All three components — medical coverage, trip coverage and baggage coverage — were included, but optional riders were not.  

As you can see, this plan is quite affordable, starting from S$25 for individuals. Families travelling together won’t feel the pinch either — for a family of four, the premiums are merely doubled. 

SingSaver Exclusive Promotion: Get up to S$48 via PayNow, a 35% discount PLUS an exclusive Agoda promo code when you apply using the promo code SSVTL35. Valid till 31 March 2023. T&Cs apply.

Plus, score a ReboundTAG (worth S$31.90) + a BRONZE ticket (1x chance) in our March Madness Grand Lucky Draw when you apply, for a chance to win your share of over S$20,000 worth of prizes! Valid till 2 April 2023. T&Cs apply.

Enjoy additional coverage by adding Trip or Baggage coverage for an absolute peace of mind. Increase COVID-19 medical expenses coverage and protection against trip cancellations due to COVID-19 when you select either the Gold or Silver plans. T&Cs apply.