When you buy a travel insurance policy, you want to know what you’re covered for.
You’ll probably want a good quality policy too, not just the cheapest option.
So how do you find this out when you’re comparing travel insurance policies? One way is the Defaqto rating for travel insurance.
We explain what the Defaqto rating means, and how it works for travel insurance.
What is Defaqto?
Defaqto evaluates financial products using a star rating. The company specialises in financial products, ranging from travel insurance to credit cards.
You might be wondering how Defaqto is different from other review sites.
Most sites base their reviews on customer opinion or feedback. Defaqto bases its reviews on an analysis of the product’s features and benefits.
Drawing on over 25 years’ experience, Defaqto has analysed more than 43,0000 financial products and rated them from one to five. To ensure they always remain up to date, Defaqto ratings are updated each year.
The Defaqto ratings could help you to make an informed decision on the quality of the financial product you’re buying. You should also get a good idea of what features and benefits come with the policy.
Defaqto is an independent company too, so all product ratings are unbiased.
What is Defaqto travel insurance?
Defaqto ratings for travel insurance enable you to make meaningful comparisons between different policies.
This can be crucial if disaster strikes and you need to make a travel insurance claim.
The Defaqto star ratings could help you work out which policies offer the most comprehensive cover. This could be particularly reassuring as the travel industry starts to recover post lockdown and our appetite to holiday abroad increases.
Compare travel insurance
What is the Defaqto rating?
When Defaqto looks at a financial product, the company evaluates what the product offers.
With travel insurance, Defaqto looks at the level of cover the policy provides. For example, whether the policy you’re buying offers cancellation cover or not, or how much baggage cover is included.
To do this it has identified the 50 most important features of travel insurance. Defaqto then scores each policy against those features and gives it a rating from one to five.
What does the Defaqto star rating mean?
| Star rating | Features |
|---|---|
|
One star
|
"Covers the basics, but the features the product provides aren’t great."
|
|
Two stars
|
"The product is below average, and the features are ok."
|
|
Three stars
|
"An average product with adequate features."
|
|
Four stars
|
"This is an above-average product and has a good level of features."
|
|
Five stars
|
"A high-quality product with a comprehensive level of features."
|
Keep in mind that Defaqto rates the product. The provider, customer service or the price of the product aren’t taken into account.
How are Defaqto ratings decided?
Defaqto ratings are based on the quality and comprehensiveness of the product. A panel of 60 experts look at a number of features of the products available, and the benefits analysed could change each year.
Defaqto looks at market trends and customer research to determine what features of a travel insurance policy are most important. This is what they then use to give their star ratings.
One star products are the worst, rising to five stars, which is the highest available rating.
Ratings are updated every year.
What’s missing with Defaqto ratings for travel insurance?
It’s important to be aware that the Defaqto star ratings for travel insurance don’t include customer service - which is subjective - in its analysis.
It also doesn’t take price into account, meaning it’s down to you whether the level of cover you are getting is good value for money.
If a five star product is cheaper than a four star, your decision should likely be a no-brainer. But if a five star policy is more expensive than a four star, it’s down to you to decide it’s worth shelling out more for the highest level of cover.
How does Confused.com use Defaqto to help you choose travel insurance?
We use the Defaqto rating to help you evaluate the insurance policies we compare.
Once you’ve entered your details for a travel insurance quote, you get a list of prices for your travel insurance policy.
You can then see the Defaqto rating, which gives you an indication of the quality of cover you get with the policy.
If you want to go for quality over price, you can filter your results by Defaqto rating. Once you have your prices list, select the Defaqto star rating you want your policy to be. It then sorts your results accordingly.
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