Budget Travel Insurance for Australian Travellers
Go Insurance builds Australian travel insurance you can tailor — so a budget policy isn’t a cheaper, weaker product, it’s the same cover with the parts you won’t use taken out. Start a quote at goinsurance.com.au, choose the Basic plan level, and adjust from there.
Overseas Medical Expenses, Personal Liability and COVID-19 cover are always included and can’t be removed. Everything else is yours to keep or drop. Cover is always subject to the PDS, including its limits, conditions and exclusions.
How a Budget Policy Is Built
Cheap Cover and Tailored Cover Aren’t the Same Thing
Most budget travel insurance works by shaving the benefits down across the board — lower limits everywhere, whether or not you needed them. You end up with thinner cover in the one area that actually matters overseas, which is the medical bill.
Go Insurance works the other way around. Overseas Medical Expenses, Personal Liability and COVID-19 cover stay in the policy no matter what — they’re the parts you can’t sensibly self-insure. The optional modules around them are yours to keep or remove, so the saving comes from cover you were never going to claim on, not from the safety net.
A week in Fiji with nothing prepaid and no hire car is a very different policy from a fortnight of prepaid tours through Europe. Both can be priced honestly. That’s the whole idea behind how our cover works.
What Stays in Every Policy
Three parts of a Go Insurance policy can’t be removed at any plan level, including Basic. These are the benefits that protect you against costs you couldn’t realistically cover yourself.
What You Can Take Out
Four modules are optional. Remove one during the quote and your premium drops — but so does everything that module contains, so it’s worth knowing what sits inside each.
How to Build a Budget Travel Insurance Policy
Every one of these choices is made during the quote at goinsurance.com.au. You’ll see the premium move as you go, so you can find the balance you’re comfortable with before you buy.
Start at Basic
Basic is the entry plan level. It covers the essentials rather than the highest sums insured, and it’s the natural starting point if you’re building down to a budget rather than up to comprehensive cover.
Remove What You Won’t Use
Not hiring a car? Legal cover includes the rental vehicle excess benefit. Travelling with nothing valuable? Property may be doing very little for you. Take out whole modules rather than paying for benefits your trip can’t generate a claim against.
Right-Size Your Cancellation
Cancellation cover should match what you’ve actually prepaid and genuinely can’t get back — not the total cost of the trip. If your flights are refundable and your accommodation is pay-on-arrival, a lower cancellation amount costs less and still reflects your real exposure.
Choose Your Excess
Selecting a higher excess lowers your premium, because you’re agreeing to carry more of any claim yourself. Choose an amount you could comfortably pay overseas at short notice, then check it’s shown correctly on your Certificate of Insurance.
How Choosing Your Excess Changes the Price
The excess is the amount you contribute towards a claim before we pay the rest. Move it up and the premium comes down; move it to nil and the premium rises.
When a Budget Policy Makes Sense
Stripping a policy back is a good decision on some trips and a poor one on others. A budget build tends to work well when:
What Each Saving Actually Costs You
We’d rather you knew this before you travelled than after. Every module you remove removes all of its benefits — here’s what that means in practice:
Your Budget Policy Checklist
Budget Travel Insurance — Frequently Asked Questions
What Australian travellers most often ask about building a lower-cost policy with Go Insurance.
What is budget travel insurance?
Budget travel insurance is a policy stripped back to the cover you’ll actually use, so you’re not paying for benefits your trip can’t generate a claim against. With Go Insurance it’s not a separate product — it’s a standard policy at the Basic plan level with optional modules removed, a cancellation amount matched to what you’ve prepaid, and an excess you’ve chosen. The medical, liability and COVID-19 cover stays in either way.
How can I make travel insurance cheaper?
There are four levers, and you control all of them during the quote. Choose the Basic plan level rather than a higher one; remove optional modules you won’t use; set your cancellation cover to your real non-refundable exposure rather than the whole trip cost; and select a higher excess. The premium updates as you go, so you can see the effect of each change before you commit.
What cover can’t I remove from a Go Insurance policy?
Overseas Medical Expenses, Personal Liability and COVID-19 cover are always included and can’t be removed at any plan level. These are the benefits that protect you against costs most travellers couldn’t absorb themselves — an overseas hospital admission or medical evacuation in particular. Everything else is optional.
Does choosing a higher excess make travel insurance cheaper?
Yes — a higher excess lowers your premium, because you’re agreeing to pay more of any claim yourself. On single-trip policies you can select an excess between $0 and $300, with $200 as the standard. On Annual Multi-Trip policies the excess is fixed. Pick a figure you could comfortably pay at short notice while overseas, not simply the highest one available.
Should I remove cancellation cover to save money?
Only if you have little or nothing prepaid that you’d lose. Cancellation and Curtailment covers the money you’ve already spent on flights, accommodation and tours if illness, injury or a family emergency stops you travelling or forces you home early — so removing it makes sense on a trip booked with refundable fares, and very little sense on a prepaid tour or cruise. If you’re unsure, lowering the cancellation amount is usually a better move than removing the module entirely.
Is budget travel insurance worth it?
It’s worth it when the cover you’ve removed genuinely doesn’t apply to your trip. A short beach holiday with refundable bookings, hand luggage only and no hire car is a poor fit for a full comprehensive policy — you’d be paying for benefits you can’t claim on. A prepaid multi-country itinerary is the opposite. The test isn’t the price, it’s whether the removed cover was ever going to be useful to you.
Can I get budget travel insurance with a pre-existing medical condition?
Yes — existing medical conditions are assessed separately and aren’t affected by which optional modules you keep or remove. You’ll need to declare your conditions during the quote so they can be assessed, and an additional premium may apply. Our medical conditions page explains how the assessment works and what to have ready.
What happens if I need to claim on a budget policy?
The claims process is exactly the same as on any other Go Insurance policy — the only difference is the range of benefits available to claim against. Your Certificate of Insurance shows which modules you kept, your plan level and your excess, so it’s the first thing to check. You can start a claim on our claims support page, and for anything urgent overseas the 24/7 emergency assistance line is +61 7 3481 9880.