How we write about travel insurance

What these guides are, and what they are not

Our guides explain how travel insurance works: what a benefit actually pays out, what an exclusion really means, and how to compare plans that look similar on a results page.

They are editorial explanation. They are never a statement of what a specific policy covers. Coverage, limits, exclusions and claims decisions are governed solely by the policy document issued to you, and where a guide and a policy disagree, the policy is right. If a guide has led you to expect something your policy does not do, tell us — that is a mistake on our side and we want to fix it.

Who writes them, and who is accountable

Every guide carries a named author and a publication date. Nothing is published anonymously or under a house byline, because a team name is not a person anyone can hold to account.

Where a guide has been reviewed by a second person, it says so and names them. Where it carries only a byline, the same person wrote and published it — we would rather tell you that than imply a review that did not happen.

How we use AI, stated plainly

We use AI tools to help draft and research. You are entitled to know that rather than discover it.

What AI never does here is publish. Every guide is read and approved by a named person before it goes live, and the system is built so that it cannot be otherwise: the credential our drafting pipeline uses is not permitted to publish anything. A machine can produce a first draft. It cannot take responsibility for advice about your trip, and responsibility is the part that matters on this subject.

Where our numbers come from

Figures about our own business — how many policies we have placed, how many travellers those covered — are counted from our own records, rounded down, and re-counted rather than carried forward. We previously published a larger traveller figure than our records supported. We corrected it downwards, and the numbers on this site now reflect what we can actually show.

Figures about coverage come from the insurers and their own policy documents, not from our summary of them. Where a guide gives a number that comes from our data, it is resolved from our systems rather than typed in by hand, so it cannot drift from the source.

How we make money

Travel Defend is a broker, not an insurer. We do not underwrite policies and we do not make claims or coverage decisions.

We are paid a commission by the insurer when you buy. The price you pay is the same as buying that policy direct from the insurer — you are not paying extra for the comparison, or for our help if you later need to claim. We also do not show every policy sold in the United States: we hold accounts with substantially every travel insurer and deliberately quote a short, curated list rather than everything. That is worth knowing when you read a comparison we wrote.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, we would rather hear it than keep it. Material corrections are made to the guide itself and the updated date changes, so you can see that it moved.

Report an error by calling us or using the contact form. Tell us which guide and what is wrong with it, and it goes to the person whose name is on it.

Keeping published guides current

Travel insurance changes: products are withdrawn, state rules differ, and a guide that is accurate today may not be in two years. Published guides are flagged for review on a schedule rather than left alone, and a guide that no longer reflects what is sold gets corrected or retired.