2010 Media Releases

 

Southern Cross Travel Insurance (SCTI) CEO Craig Morrison has weighed in on the Australian market debate about the cost of online travel insurance versus buying travel insurance through a travel agency. He agrees with consumer advocacy group, Choice, that a large chunk of policy premiums travellers pay are simply commission.

 

“The question has to be asked, why would you buy insurance through a travel agent and pay what is rumoured to be up to 40 per cent more in commission? Travel agents are experts at itineraries, I’ll give them that – but no more qualified when it comes to advice on insurance, so why such high charges? You could buy through a travel insurance specialist like SCTI and pay no commission for the same information. It just doesn’t add up.

 

“To my knowledge SCTI is the only travel insurance product offered in Australia that is commission-free. Our model is unique as we are the underwriter, manager and distributor of our products.” 

 

Due to competitive pricing, SCTI has seen a dramatic increase in the number of Australians buying insurance online over the last 18 months.

 

Mr Morrison says he doesn’t expect this trend to slow. “Customers are increasingly making their travel arrangements online so it makes sense they can purchase their insurance this way as well.

 

“Many if not most travellers are very savvy. They know what they want in a trip abroad, they know their way around the internet, and they are more than capable of researching, choosing and reading an online travel insurance policy.

 

“Every year millions of people throughout the world successfully take out online travel insurance policies. At SCTI we deal with several hundred thousand of them. Our experience in this industry for the past 28 years is that our customers are overwhelmingly happy with the coverage they’ve received from an online product.”

 

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