Southern Cross travel insurance review 2026: cancellation at A$2,500

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Southern Cross travel insurance in 30 seconds

Expert rating 4.1 out of 5. Southern Cross Travel Insurance is part of a New Zealand group founded more than 40 years ago, and has been selling travel coverage to Australians since 2009. The policy is issued by Southern Cross Benefits Limited (ABN 99 133 401 939, AFS Licence 331058), and every limit in its wording is set in Australian dollars. The brand quotes from two national sites, scti.com.au and scti.co.nz, so a traveler living anywhere else has no quote form to fill in. The headline is genuinely strong: overseas medical treatment, evacuation and repatriation are unlimited on the Comprehensive, Annual Multi-trip, Working Overseas and Medical Only policies, personal liability runs to A$1,000,000 with no excess deducted, and you can set your excess to A$0 at quote time. The catch is the shape of the policy around that ceiling. Cancellation starts at A$2,500 and is a limit you buy upward, the Medical Only policy carries no baggage and no cancellation coverage at all, the Domestic policy carries no medical coverage, and travel delay pays a A$40 digital voucher rather than a cash benefit. Best for an Australian or New Zealand resident who wants a very large medical ceiling from an insurer with a 4.7 out of 5 record across 3,497 reviews. Least suited to a traveler whose main worry is a canceled trip, and to everyone who lives outside those two countries.

Expert score

What does Southern Cross get right, and what does it leave to you?

Southern Cross travel insurance scores 4.1 out of 5 in our review: unlimited overseas medical, evacuation and repatriation on four of its five policies, A$1,000,000 of personal liability with no excess, but cancellation that starts at A$2,500 and a Domestic policy with no medical coverage at all.

The strength is easy to state and easy to check. On the International Comprehensive, Annual Multi-trip and Working Overseas policies, the medical and evacuation section shows no dollar ceiling: medical treatment, medical evacuation, medical repatriation and the 24-hour assistance line are all written as unlimited, and the person who has to stay with you is unlimited too. Very few insurers put that word in a benefits table and leave it there. Around it sit A$1,000,000 of personal liability with no excess, A$10,000 of rental vehicle excess coverage with no excess, and an excess you can take down to A$0 instead of the A$200 that applies by default.

The weakness is everything that is not the hospital bill. Cancellation on a Comprehensive policy begins at A$2,500, which is less than one long-haul fare for two, and the larger amounts are options you pay for. Baggage looks generous at A$25,000 until the per-item caps appear: A$1,500 for an ordinary item, A$3,000 for a laptop or a camera, A$1,500 for a watch, with depreciation deducted. Travel delay is not a cash benefit at all but a A$40 TravelCare Delay Assist voucher, capped at A$640 for the whole policy, and only after a registered flight runs two hours late. Nothing is automatic on an existing medical condition: you declare it, you complete an assessment, and the insurer then decides what it will cover and at what price.

Who it suits: an Australian or New Zealand resident taking an ordinary overseas trip who wants the medical ceiling to be the one number they never have to think about, and who will read the cancellation options before clicking buy. Who it does not suit: a traveler whose trip is mostly prepaid and who needs real cancellation coverage from the base price, anyone taking a cruise, a ski week or a moped without adding the matching coverage, and any reader of this page who lives outside Australia and New Zealand.

  • Unlimited overseas medical, evacuation and repatriation: Written with no dollar ceiling on the Comprehensive, Annual Multi-trip and Working Overseas policies, and on Medical Only.
  • A$1,000,000 of personal liability with no excess: On every international policy, and A$2,500,000 on the Domestic one, with nothing deducted from an accepted claim.
  • An excess you can take to zero: A$0, A$100 or A$200 per unexpected event, chosen at quote time instead of imposed, where most insurers only let you buy the excess upward.
  • Dependent children travel free: Children under 21 at the policy start date are covered under your own premium on eligible policies, with no extra line on the quote.
  • A customer record that holds up: 4.7 out of 5 across 3,497 reviews on ProductReview.com.au, 94% of them positive, and Best Comprehensive Travel Insurance at the 2026 Finder awards.
  • Cancellation starts at A$2,500: The default limit on a Comprehensive policy. A$5,000, A$10,000 and unlimited are options you pay for, and Medical Only has no cancellation coverage at all.
  • The Domestic policy pays no medical costs: The wording is explicit: domestic travel insurance does not cover medical expenses, including on a domestic cruise. Medicare or your health fund carries that risk.
  • Baggage is capped item by item: A$25,000 in total, but A$1,500 for an ordinary item, A$3,000 for a laptop or camera and A$1,500 for a watch, with depreciation deducted from every payout.
  • Travel delay is a voucher, not a benefit: A A$40 TravelCare Delay Assist voucher per person, capped at A$640 for the policy, and only after a registered flight is delayed two hours or more.
  • Nothing is automatic on an existing condition: The policy wording lists no automatically included conditions. You declare, you complete a medical assessment, and the insurer then prices or declines the coverage.
Our methodology

Every year, our experts audit each plan against its binding policy wording: coverage, limits and exclusions, cross-checked with real customer feedback and live market prices. The analysis is fully independent, with zero paid placements and no insurer able to pay to influence a rating. We compare travel insurance across every country and currency, using the plans, prices and cover actually offered in your country, not a single guide translated.

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Five policies

Which Southern Cross policy actually fits your trip?

Southern Cross sells five policies, and only four of them carry the unlimited medical coverage the brand is known for: International Comprehensive for a single overseas trip, Annual Multi-trip for a year of them, International Medical Only for a traveler who wants the hospital bill covered and nothing else, Working Overseas for a stay that includes work, and Domestic, which covers an Australian trip with no medical coverage whatsoever.

Policy
What it is
Headline coverage
Who it is written for
International Comprehensive
Single trip
The full policy: medical, cancellation, baggage, liability, rental vehicle excess
Unlimited medical, evacuation and repatriation
An ordinary overseas holiday, one journey at a time
Annual Multi-trip
12 months
The same coverage, unlimited return trips over a year, each capped at 30, 60 or 90 days
Unlimited medical; cancellation from A$2,500
A traveler who goes abroad three or more times a year
International Medical Only
Medical and evacuation alone, with liability attached
Unlimited medical, but no baggage and no cancellation
A traveler whose trip costs little and whose only fear is a hospital bill
Working Overseas
A long-stay policy that allows approved work, working holidays included
Unlimited medical, plus optical A$1,000 and maternity A$3,000
An Australian living and working abroad for a season or longer
Domestic
An Australian trip: cancellation, baggage A$15,000, rental excess A$6,000, liability A$2,500,000
No medical coverage at all, not even on a domestic cruise
A prepaid trip inside Australia where Medicare already covers the medical side
Source: the Southern Cross Travel Insurance policy pages for Comprehensive, Annual Multi-trip, Medical Only, Working Overseas and Domestic, read in full on October 19, 2026. Amounts are in Australian dollars, as the insurer sets them.

Two eligibility rules sit outside the table and decide whether any of this is available to you. The first is residence: the brand quotes from scti.com.au and scti.co.nz, so the policy is written for people living in Australia or New Zealand, and no third quote form exists. The second is age, which is unusually relaxed rather than restrictive. Finder records the comprehensive age limit as 118, and the only hard age band in the wording is the personal accident section, which runs from 16 to 80 (18 to 80 on Working Overseas). Dependent children under 21 at the policy start date are included under your own premium on eligible policies.

The schedule

What is actually written in the Comprehensive benefit table?

Overseas medical treatment, medical evacuation and medical repatriation are unlimited on an International Comprehensive policy, and so is the 24-hour assistance line. Everything else is a number, and the numbers below are the ones that decide most claims.

Benefit
International Comprehensive
International Medical Only
Medical treatment, evacuation and repatriation
UnlimitedUnlimited
Accompanying person
UnlimitedUnlimited
Emergency dental treatment
A$2,000
A$2,000
Cash allowance in hospital
A$100 a day after 3 days, to A$3,000
A$100 a day after 3 days, to A$3,000
Funeral expenses or return of remains
A$50,000, no excess
A$15,000, no excess
Claims related to terrorism
A$100,000
A$100,000
Cancelling your journey
A$2,500 by default, options to unlimitedNot covered
Changes once you have left
A$50,000
Not covered
Travel interruption
A$30,000
Not covered
Baggage and personal items
A$25,000 total
Not covered
Phones, laptops, tablets and cameras
A$10,000, A$3,000 an item
Not covered
Jewelry and watches
A$2,500, A$1,500 an item
Not covered
Baggage delay
A$1,000
Not covered
Lost or stolen cash
A$500
Not covered
Rental vehicle excess
A$10,000, no excess
Not covered
Personal liability
A$1,000,000, no excess
A$1,000,000, no excess
Travel delay
A$40 voucher a person, A$640 policy capNot covered
Personal accident, ages 16 to 80
A$50,000, loss of income A$6,500
A$25,000, no loss of income
Excess per unexpected event
A$0, A$100 or A$200, A$200 by default
A$0, A$100 or A$200, A$200 by default
Source: the Southern Cross Travel Insurance International Comprehensive and International Medical Only benefit tables, read on October 19, 2026, with the Product Disclosure Statement for policies issued on or after July 12, 2025. All amounts per person unless stated, in Australian dollars as the insurer sets them. These figures are never converted into US dollars anywhere on this page: Southern Cross sells only to Australian and New Zealand residents, so there is no like-for-like exchange to make.
Three rules sit on top of every number in that table

The excess is deducted per unexpected event, not per claim and not per policy, so a trip that goes wrong twice costs you the excess twice unless you chose A$0 at quote time. Depreciation is applied to baggage payouts, which means a three-year-old laptop is settled at what it is worth today and not at the A$3,000 item cap. And the Medical Only policy excludes medical costs incurred on a cruise, and any treatment given in Australia, so a trip that ends in an Australian hospital falls outside it.

Two figures in the table are better than they look. A$50,000 for the return of remains is roughly double what a mid-market policy carries, and personal liability with no excess means an accepted liability claim is paid in full rather than after a deduction. One is worse than it looks: travel delay. A A$40 voucher is a meal, not compensation for a missed connection, and the A$640 policy cap applies to everyone on the certificate together.

Cancellation

Why does the default cancellation limit stop at A$2,500?

Because Southern Cross sells cancellation as a level you choose rather than as a fixed benefit: A$2,500 is what the quote gives you if you do not change it, and A$5,000, A$10,000 and unlimited are the three paid upgrades above it. The same choice governs the companion benefits, so changes before you leave and a delayed journey to a special event also sit at A$2,500 until you move the slider.

That default is the single most expensive thing a buyer gets wrong on this policy. A$2,500 covers a short-haul fare and a few nights of accommodation. It does not cover two long-haul fares, a prepaid tour or a cruise deposit, and the shortfall is yours. The insurer is not hiding it: the cancellation section names the options in plain language on the policy page. It is simply a default that flatters the premium, and the premium is what most people compare.

  • A$2,500: the level applied when no selection is made, on both Comprehensive and Annual Multi-trip.
  • A$5,000: enough for one long-haul return fare plus a modest prepaid stay.
  • A$10,000: the realistic level for a couple with prepaid flights and accommodation.
  • Unlimited: the only option that removes the arithmetic entirely, and the only one that matches the medical side of the same policy.

One more clause belongs here. Cancellation caused by an existing condition of a relevant person, someone not traveling whose health could cancel your trip, is capped separately at A$2,500 on the Comprehensive policy. Raising your own cancellation level does not automatically raise that one on every variant, so read the schedule you are quoted rather than the headline you selected.

The gaps

Which costs does this insurer never pick up?

The general exclusions section of the Product Disclosure Statement is titled “things we never cover”, and the gaps that catch Southern Cross buyers most often are an undeclared medical history, a policy bought without the add-on the trip needed, and the costs the Medical Only and Domestic policies were never written to pay.

  • An existing condition you did not declare: The wording lists no automatically included conditions. You declare, you complete a medical assessment, and the insurer decides the coverage and the premium before the policy starts.
  • Medical costs on a Medical Only cruise: Medical and hospital costs incurred on a cruise are excluded from the Medical Only policy, as is any treatment given in Australia.
  • Any medical cost on a Domestic policy: The Domestic wording states plainly that it does not cover medical expenses, and that includes a domestic cruise.
  • Skiing, snowboarding, mopeds and cruises on the annual policy: Moped and motorbike cover, snow sports cover and cruise cover are optional add-ons on Annual Multi-trip, not part of the base price.
  • Work-related liability on a Working Overseas policy: Personal liability runs to A$1,000,000, but liability connected with work, an occupation, a business or a profession is excluded under section D.6 of the wording.
  • Hazardous work and professional sport: Working Overseas accepts office, education, healthcare and approved manual roles such as retail and hospitality. Hazardous work and professional sport are out.
  • The depreciated part of a baggage claim: Depreciation is applied to unspecified items, so the gap between what you paid and what the item is worth today is yours whatever the cap says.
The existing condition step is a gate, not a form

On most policies an existing condition is either automatically accepted or automatically excluded, and you find out by reading a list. Here there is no list. The assessment happens before the policy is issued, the insurer may accept the condition, load the premium or decline that condition specifically, and a claim traced to an undeclared condition is refused. Budget time for it: the step is simple online, but it is the step that decides whether your largest likely claim is covered at all.

COVID-19 sits in a supplementary document rather than the main wording. The supplementary statement extends coverage for claims arising from a diagnosis of COVID-19 under named sections only, and amends the change-of-plans exclusions for an epidemic or pandemic, or the threat of one. That is narrower than blanket pandemic coverage, so a trip canceled because of a travel restriction rather than a positive test is the case to check against the current wording.

Price

How much does Southern Cross travel insurance cost for two weeks away?

Southern Cross publishes no price list: every premium is quoted. No comparison site publishes a representative Southern Cross premium either, so the only figure you can rely on is the one your own quote returns, built from the policy, the cancellation level and the excess you select. For scale on the other side of the comparison, the reference trip used throughout this page, one traveler aged 34 going to Thailand for 14 days, drew real quotes on our own shelf from US$48.95 to US$92.75 for the whole trip on October 19, 2026, plus one plan quoted at a US$5.16 a day catalog rate.

What moves a Southern Cross premium is published even though the premium is not. The quote is built from your destinations, the length of the journey, the policy you select, the cancellation level you choose, the excess you choose, the number of people on the certificate and their ages, plus any add-ons and the usual government charges. Two of those are levers rather than facts: taking the excess from A$200 to A$0 raises the premium, and taking cancellation from A$2,500 to unlimited raises it again. A quote that looks cheap against another insurer is often a quote still sitting on both defaults.

What you are paying for
Southern Cross Comprehensive
Best equivalent on our shelf
A published starting price
None, quoted per trip onlyUS$5.16 a day catalog rate, Smart Travel Protection
Emergency medical inside the base price
UnlimitedAbout US$570,000, Go Explore +
Cancellation inside the base price
A$2,500, upgrades are paid optionsUp to US$40,000 of trip cost, Smart Travel Protection
An existing condition
Declared and assessed before the policy is issuedAccepted without an assessment on Smart Travel Protection
Search and rescue
Not a named benefitAbout US$6,840 an insured person, Go Explore +
Extreme sports inside the base price
Depends on the activity and the add-on chosenWritten into the wording on WorldSecure Platinum
Travel delay
A$40 voucher, A$640 policy capUp to US$2,100, Smart Travel Protection
Baggage
A$25,000, A$1,500 an item, depreciatedUp to US$2,280, WorldSecure Platinum
Who can buy it
Australian and New Zealand residents onlyPriced from your own residence and currency
Left column: the Southern Cross Travel Insurance policy pages and Product Disclosure Statement for policies issued on or after July 12, 2025, read on October 19, 2026, in Australian dollars as the insurer sets them. Right column: HelloSafe catalog and contract data, quotes captured on October 19, 2026 for one traveler aged 34, 14 days in Thailand, residence United States, in US dollars; ceilings for the pan-European plans are shown in US dollars at the same live exchange rate the offer cards use.The two currencies are never converted into one another on this page, because Southern Cross sells only to Australian and New Zealand residents and our own shelf was priced from a United States residence. Read this as a comparison of what each premium buys, not of two prices for one policy.

Two published Southern Cross figures are worth knowing before you pay. The cooling-off period is 14 days from the issue of the policy, with the full premium refunded if you have not traveled and have not claimed. And the A$200 default excess is deducted per unexpected event, so the saving you make by leaving it alone disappears on the second claim of a bad trip.

Getting paid

Who handles a claim, and what does the paperwork look like?

Southern Cross handles its own claims rather than passing them to a third-party administrator: claims are lodged online at the insurer’s claims portal, the emergency assistance team runs 24 hours a day for anything happening mid-trip, and the Australian service line answers from 8:30am to 7pm AEDT seven days a week.

  1. Call the emergency assistance line before you commit to a hospital admission or an evacuation. The 24-hour team arranges and guarantees the treatment, which is what keeps the bill off your own card.
  2. Report a theft or a loss to the police, the airline or the hotel at the time, and keep the written report. A baggage claim without it is the most common refusal in the reviews.
  3. Lodge the claim online through the insurer’s claims portal, with your policy number and the dates of the unexpected event.
  4. Upload the evidence: receipts or proof of ownership for items, the medical report and the itemized invoice for treatment, and the carrier’s written confirmation for a delay or a cancellation.
  5. Answer the follow-up questions quickly. Reviewers who complain about slow settlements usually describe a second request for a document, not a refusal.
What a stolen laptop is really worth on this policy

Take a three-year-old laptop stolen from a hotel room on a Comprehensive policy. The A$25,000 baggage total is irrelevant; the item cap for a laptop is A$3,000, depreciation is applied to what you are paid, and the excess you chose comes off the settlement, A$200 by default. A machine that cost A$2,400 and is worth A$900 today therefore settles at around A$700, not A$2,400. The optional specified items benefit exists for exactly this: it raises the per-item ceiling to A$10,000 for things you name and value on the certificate.

Buyer sentiment

What do 3,497 reviewers say once the trip is over?

Southern Cross scores 4.7 out of 5 from 3,497 reviews on ProductReview.com.au, with 94% of them positive, and 4.5 out of 5 from about 2,700 reviews on Trustpilot. Transparency, customer service and value for money each sit at 4.5. For a travel insurer, where claim refusals usually drag a score toward three, that is a strong record.

The praise is consistent and specific rather than vague. Reviewers mention the price against the coverage they got, an online purchase that took minutes including the medical declaration, and claims settled quickly without an argument. Several describe small claims, a pair of glasses, a delayed bag, paid within days. The insurer also replies to reviews, including the critical ones.

The criticism clusters in two places, and neither is about refusals in principle. The first is paperwork: claims require proof of ownership, itemized medical reports and carrier confirmations, and reviewers who had not kept receipts found the process heavy. The second is contact from abroad, where some customers reported difficulty reaching the hotline or customer service while overseas. Both are worth planning around rather than worrying about: photograph your receipts before you leave, and save the overseas number in your phone before the trip starts.

Contact

Which number do you call when something goes wrong overseas?

From abroad, +61 1800 196 484 reaches Southern Cross, and the emergency assistance team behind that number operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for a hospital admission or an evacuation that cannot wait for business hours.

  • Australia: 1800 196 484, Monday to Sunday, 8:30am to 7pm AEDT, excluding public holidays.
  • From overseas: +61 1800 196 484. The emergency assistance team is available 24 hours a day, every day.
  • Email: info@scti.com.au, for policy questions rather than emergencies.
  • Claims: lodged online through the insurer’s claims portal, not by phone.
  • Complaints: Southern Cross is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, which is free for consumers, after its own internal complaints process.
Your refund

What happens if you change your mind after buying?

You have 14 days of cooling off from the moment the policy is issued, and inside that window the premium is refunded in full provided you have not started the journey and have not made a claim. That is the standard Australian cooling-off period rather than a feature of this insurer, but Southern Cross applies it without an administration fee.

After those 14 days the policy behaves like any other annual or single-trip contract: canceling it is possible, a pro-rata refund of unused premium is not guaranteed, and a policy that has already paid a claim is not refunded. The practical advice is to buy as soon as the trip is booked, which is also when the cancellation benefit starts working for you, and to use the cooling-off window to read the schedule you were actually issued rather than the options you thought you selected.

Alternatives

Which plans cover the same trip when Southern Cross is not open to you?

The honest test is not which brand is cheaper, it is which gaps you are being asked to fill yourself, and for most readers of this page there is a second test first: whether you can buy the policy at all. Southern Cross is not part of the HelloSafe comparison, so what follows is our own shelf, priced on the same reference trip and ranked by how well each plan answers the three things this insurer leaves to you: cancellation, an existing medical history, and a delay that costs real money.

If your trip is built around an activity, read the extreme sports travel insurance comparison before you choose, and if it is built around a ship, start from the cruise travel insurance page instead. Travelers weighing an annual policy against the Southern Cross Annual Multi-trip will find the equivalents on our annual travel insurance page, and anyone whose only worry is the hospital bill can compare ceilings on the travel medical insurance page. For the other Australian brands read the same way, see our 1Cover travel insurance review, our Cover-More travel insurance review and our Freely Overseas Explorer review.

A. Fruchard
Recommended for youA. Fruchard · Co-Founder & Travel Insurance Expert

Which of these we would put in front of a Southern Cross quote

Start from what Southern Cross asks you to choose and pay for separately, because that is where the real difference sits. Smart Travel Protection is the answer for most readers of this page: cancellation is already inside the policy, up to US$40,000 of trip cost and with a cancel-for-any-reason option that returns 75%, a declared existing condition is accepted without an assessment, delay coverage runs to US$2,100 instead of a voucher, and it keeps selling to travelers up to 99. It is also the cheapest of this shortlist. If the trip is remote rather than expensive, Go Explore + is the better pick: about US$570,000 of medical care, repatriation at actual cost with no ceiling to run out of, and about US$6,840 of search and rescue, which Southern Cross does not name as a benefit at all. WorldSecure Platinum is the middle road when an adventure activity has to be written into the wording rather than added as a pack, and it carries about US$10,260 of cancellation and roughly US$5,130,000 of liability. Two honest caveats: neither Go Explore plan refunds a canceled trip, and every ceiling here should be judged on your own dates, destination and age rather than on ours.

WorldSecure PlatinumUnderwritten by MGEN
From$84.36

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses$340,000
Direct billingIncluded
Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full
24/7 worldwide assistanceUnlimited
Get a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

Go Explore +Underwritten by MGEN
From$85.61

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses$560,000
Direct billingIncluded
Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full
24/7 worldwide assistanceUnlimited
Get a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

World TravelUnderwritten by Mutuaide
From$94.83

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses$340,000
Direct billingIncluded
Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full
24/7 worldwide assistanceUnlimited
Get a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

WorldSecure BasicUnderwritten by MGEN
From$50.05

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses$340,000
Direct billingIncluded
Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full
24/7 worldwide assistanceUnlimited
Get a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

Go ExploreUnderwritten by MGEN
From$64.54

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses$280,000
Direct billingIncluded
Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full
24/7 worldwide assistanceUnlimited
Get a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

Quotes captured on 19 October 2026 on hellosafe.com for the reference trip used throughout this page: one traveler aged 34, 14 days in Thailand (7 to 21 December 2026), residence United States, no cancellation option added, in US dollars. Read the two kinds of figure differently. Smart Travel Protection shows a per-day catalog rate its partner returns unchanged whatever the age, the destination or the trip length, so treat it as a starting point and take the real premium from the quote. WorldSecure Platinum, Go Explore +, World Travel, Go Explore and WorldSecure Basic price the trip itself, so their figures are the full cost of these 14 days. Southern Cross is not part of this comparison and is not sold on HelloSafe.

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HelloSafe is available as an app inside ChatGPT. Install it from ChatGPT’s Apps tab, then type @HelloSafe and pick “HelloSafe Travel Insurance”: give your destination and dates to compare travel insurance, or ask what your bank card covers.

FAQ

Southern Cross travel insurance: the questions buyers ask before paying

  • We rate the insurer 4.1 out of 5, and the medical side is the part we have least reservation about. Medical treatment, evacuation and repatriation are written as unlimited on the Comprehensive, Annual Multi-trip, Working Overseas and Medical Only policies, the person who stays with you is unlimited too, and the 24-hour assistance team arranges and guarantees hospital treatment so the bill does not land on your card. The customer record supports it: 4.7 out of 5 across 3,497 reviews, 94% positive. The reservations are elsewhere, in cancellation, baggage caps and travel delay.

  • Southern Cross Benefits Limited, ABN 99 133 401 939, AFS Licence 331058, trading as Southern Cross Travel Insurance. It is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, so a complaint you cannot resolve with the insurer can go to AFCA free of charge.

  • No. The brand quotes from two national sites, scti.com.au and scti.co.nz, and both quote forms are written for residents of those countries. If you live anywhere else, compare the plans that are actually sold from your own residence and currency instead: the comparison on this page is priced that way.

  • The International Comprehensive and Annual Multi-trip policies cover cancellation, starting at A$2,500. That is a default, not a ceiling: A$5,000, A$10,000 and unlimited are paid options you select at quote time. The International Medical Only policy carries no cancellation coverage at all, and the Domestic policy covers unused prepaid travel costs at the level you select.

  • The benefit tables show no dollar ceiling on medical treatment, medical evacuation, medical repatriation or the accompanying person benefit. What limits a payout instead is the rest of the wording: an undeclared existing condition, treatment given in Australia on a Medical Only policy, medical costs on a cruise under that same policy, and the excess deducted per unexpected event. Read unlimited as no dollar cap, not as no conditions.

  • There is no list of automatically included conditions in the policy wording. You declare the condition when you buy, complete an online medical assessment, and the insurer then decides whether to cover it, load the premium or exclude that condition. A claim traced back to a condition you did not declare is refused, so the assessment is the step that decides whether your largest likely claim is covered.

  • Not automatically on the Annual Multi-trip policy, where moped and motorbike cover, snow sports cover and cruise cover are optional add-ons you select and pay for. On the Medical Only policy, medical costs incurred on a cruise are excluded outright. Check the activity against the schedule you are issued before you travel, because an add-on cannot be bought after the claim.

  • Dependent children under 21 at the policy start date are covered under your own premium on eligible policies, with no extra line on the quote. That is genuinely unusual: most insurers charge per traveler whatever their age. A child who turns 21 before the policy starts is a separate paying traveler.

  • A$200 if you make no selection, and the options are A$0, A$100 or A$200. The excess is deducted per unexpected event rather than per policy, so a trip that goes wrong twice costs you the excess twice. No excess is deducted from a personal liability claim, a rental vehicle excess claim or the return of remains.

  • Promotional codes do circulate through comparison and cashback sites, and the insurer runs its own offers from time to time. Treat any of them as a few per cent on a premium whose shape you have not checked yet. The two settings that move your real cost far more are the cancellation level and the excess, and a discount applied to a policy still sitting on the A$2,500 cancellation default is a saving on the wrong policy.

  • Up to A$25,000 in total on a Comprehensive policy, but the per-item caps decide the payout: A$1,500 for an ordinary item, A$3,000 for a laptop, tablet, phone or camera, A$1,500 for a watch or a piece of jewelry, with depreciation applied and your excess deducted. Items you name and value on the certificate under the optional specified items benefit are covered to A$10,000 each.

  • Yes, within the 14-day cooling-off period that runs from the issue of the policy, provided you have not started the journey and have not claimed. The full premium is refunded. After those 14 days a refund of unused premium is not guaranteed, and a policy that has already paid a claim is not refunded.

Last updated on October 19, 2026. Every Southern Cross figure on this page was read from the insurer’s own policy pages and its Product Disclosure Statement for policies issued on or after July 12, 2025, all read on October 19, 2026, and every HelloSafe price from quotes captured on hellosafe.com on October 19, 2026.

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