OLD MUTUAL’STRAVEL INSURANCESHOULDN’T BE ANAFTERTHOUGHT

As international travel picks up again, insurers across the region are drawing attention to a product many travellers still overlook until it’s too late: travel insurance. Old Mutual, one of the largest financial services groups operating across Southern and East
Africa, is among the companies encouraging travellers to buy cover as a standard part of trip planning, not as an optional extra.
According to Old Mutual Zimbabwe, the years since the pandemic have brought a rise in the number of people travelling abroad for business, leisure, or recreation, with China, Dubai, South Africa, Mozambique and the United Kingdom among the most common destinations for Zimbabweans. More trips mean more exposure to the everyday risks of being far from home — missed connections, delayed luggage, and sometimes medical emergencies. Old Mutual’s travel insurance is built to cover these situations.

The company describes its policy as one that covers lost luggage, cancelled flights, and unexpected medical expenses, whether the
trip is for business or leisure and whether the traveller is heading overseas or elsewhere in Africa. Businesses sending staff abroad
can take out similar cover for corporate travel. Medical costs abroad are usually the main reason people buy travel insurance in the first place, and Old Mutual’s policy documents reflect that. Under its travel assistance benefits, the insurer covers the usual, necessary, and reasonable costs of hospitalisation, surgery, medical fees, and prescribed medication when an insured person falls ill or is injured outside their home country, for trips of up to 92 consecutive days. In more serious cases, cover also extends to emergency medical evacuation and emergency dental care — benefits that can matter a great deal to a family with no other support abroad. The case for travel insurance generally comes down to how bad things can get if something goes wrong, not how likely it is to happen. A lost bag or a delayed flight is a nuisance. A medical emergency in a country where the traveller has no
local insurance, no regular doctor, and unfamiliar hospital billing can turn into a serious financial problem fast. That’s the basic
argument insurers make for buying cover at all, regardless of which company a traveller chooses.

Still, travel insurance has limits worth knowing about. Policies usually come with exclusions, waiting periods, and claim procedures that travellers should read before they leave — pre-existing medical conditions, high-risk activities, and certain destinations are common areas where cover can be reduced or excluded altogether. It’s worth comparing providers, checking claim limits against real medical costs at the destination, and confirming what proof is needed to file a claim, since these details differ between insurers and policy types. Old Mutual has also made its product easier to buy, with the option to purchase travel insurance online and receive the policy right after payment. Whether travellers choose Old Mutual or another insurer, the message from the industry is the same: the cost of a policy is usually small next to the cost of travelling without one.

From Destination Issue 27