RACV Travel Insurance - Annual Multi-Trip

I have used RACV Travel Insurance on a trip before, and while it's quite easy to purchase a policy, making a claim is a completely different story. I submitted a claim in September 2024, and as of now, I am still waiting for it to be finalised. I suffered a horrific accident while travelling in Portugal last year. RACV made it extremely difficult… Read more

to contact them from overseas. As echoed in other reviews, they don’t respond to emails in a timely manner, you cannot call them via WhatsApp, and they don’t accept any other forms of calls that are not from an Australian number.

If you don’t have family in Australia to help you contact RACV, I strongly advise against purchasing their policies, they genuinely do not care. It took an excessive number of calls and emails just to get me back to Australia. RACV resists assisting you every step of the way, even when you're at your most vulnerable. Though they did finally budge and arrange a flight home.

Additionally, the underwriter and third parties RACV works with are far from ethical and employ the same stalling tactics to delay the claims process. Things were so bad that I had to involve the Australian embassy to help get me home. Despite that, RACV still delayed for two weeks while I remained in hospital.

To this day, RACV has not confirmed whether they paid for my surgery overseas, nor will they address the lost income that were both covered under policy. They consistently delay the process by requesting unnecessary information and impose an automatic two-week delay on all email responses.

To start with - I would not give them one star. As frequent travelers, we started using RACV a few years ago. So for our next two trips, we booked our insurance again with RACV. I had what I thought was just a stomach upset that we seem to have from time to time due to various reasons. This was six days before we purchased the policy. After… Read more

visiting the doctor, he suggested I do some tests - which unfortunately came back with a gut condition (that I had never heard of before). I was then hospitalized a 10 days later due to the condition, and the doctor advised that I do not take the trip, until I saw specialists and obtained a diet. Much to our disappointment we did not go on our cruise.

The underwriter for RACV (Tokio Marine) after taking 2 months and requesting the same documentation multiple times, refused my claim using some obscure ambiguous clause in the fine print. This clause does not have anything to do with my condition! They take ages to respond and do not return phone calls.

While I understand that the RACV is just selling their policies for which they receive a commission, they need to ensure that their members are treated fairly in times of difficulty. I look forward to the RACV reviewing this case, as we should not have to go through these lengths.

23/04: So after lodging a complaint with the RACV about the insurance, I received a reasonably call from an RACV representative. She was pretty sympathetic to start with, but all she had to say in effect was they would forward my feedback to Tokio Marine, and that would be the end of it as the RACV does not have a "claims license" - they only sell this insurance, and that's it. If I felt that the response I receive from Tokio Marine is unacceptable, I would have to approach AFCA. LESSON LEARNT: RACV put a name and a face to this insurance, but one is at the mercy of Tokio Marine!

13/05: So another month has almost passed, I have received an email from Tokio Marine indicating they are going to take another month. As you can see this unacceptable situation still continues. They seem to be determined to spend their resources in time and money uselessly trying to defend claims and losing goodwill, rather that of maintaining the RACV customer base.

17/05: So after sending them an email admonishing them for delaying, they responded on time, denying the claim. I'm now off to AFCA. Proceed with CAUTION with RACV insurance. Don't say you have not been warned!

I will update any progress on the status.

The RACV employee was excellent – The underwriters were not so accommodating My case was different we purchased a policy but were already overseas. We were renewing a visa which required medical insurance, but then was not needed when it came time to cancel this policy it was like going through hell and high heaven. But the RACV customer care sorted it! Show details ·  2

the only way to go – great product, great service, RACV great to deal with the experience people Show details ·  1

RACV Travel Insurance Refund Rip Off – As with countless of others who recently received notification that a full or partial refund would be made for travel insurance not required due to cancellation of all travel plans etc (in 2020) during the Covid Pandemic, we were extremely disappointed that only $357-54 of $658-57 originally paid was refunded. We find this most unsatisfactory as… Read more

NO claims were made under the travel insurance policy and that in the circumstance a full refund should have been provided.

Love RACV – Always positive to deal with and helpful. May not be the cheapest, but if things go wrong they are always easy to get hold of. Show details ·  1

Sloppy programming makes buying insurance more difficult than it should be and creates problems o/s – Surely the RACV has enough money to prepare letters specifically for the Covid inclusive Comprehensive Policy instead of leaving us to explain to immigration officials that it is a Comprehensive policy (see see here) and then explain the covering letter which says only some policies provide Covid cover. Sloppy and lazy RACV. Similarly the… Read more

programming for annual multi trip policy and vague unhelpful scritpted call centre operators saw me avoid an annual multi trip policy because the dumb programming required a date within 2 months of the start date to operate - you really think I am going to buy an annual policy with an expiry date within 60 days. Dumb and dumber RACV and the call centre operators had no idea how to deal with the issue other than to say "it should be ok". And that is after seeing my policy cost double overnight - I had a birthday! Why not a reduced rate with health report or is that ageist exploitation? If policy cost can be adjusted up for risk why not adjusted down for less risk? 70 is the new 50 - get with it RACV. And to top off the laziness and sloppiness the review form asks for the invoice number - see if you can find an invoice number - I guess they mean the Policy Number. So why not say what is meant? Invoice Number (optional) Your answer will only be visible to the company representatives. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ This can be an Order, Invoice, Contract, Receipt, Customer, or Job number, or any other unique identifying code. Overall a very sloppy operation for a top dollar product. Time to hunt for a different insurer for my other 3 international `trips this year.

Wonderful service – Man who assisted me over the phone was friendly professional and very helpful. Highly recommend. Show details

Cancelled – Got a better policy from another insurer and RACV did not address Covid appropriately Show details

Perfect one should not travel without it – Because of COVID we were unable to travel and able to get all our deposits and travel expenditure back and had a full refund for our RACV travel insurance policy, well done RACV. Show details ·  2

Unbelievable – Worst thing I’ve ever done. I take out annual insurance each year as I do at least 2 international trips and more domestic. I changed to racv because I would be going to Bali a couple of times as my daughter was holding her wedding there, and some of the activities I may have undertaken would have been better covered under their policy.I have… Read more

been trying since April to get my claim settled. I was able to cancel most of the accommodation I had prebooked except for a villa. As it was a large villa they tried to get me to have my receipt altered to make out it was shared accommodation in which other people would be staying and paying. Wth. When that didn’t work they wanted official flight cancelation notice which I couldn’t even contact the travel agent to get a response from because of all this COVID issues. I have finally accepted a flight credit so that I can complete my claim for accommodation and am still waiting for a response. Looks like the ombudsman is going to have to get in on this one

ZERO support in global pandemic – We bought a $2,900 policy in November 2019 (way before COVID-19 was considered a global threat). The policy was to cover us for our 12 Month trip around South America. We left for our destination on the 26th February and on the 21st March we were back in Melbourne because of the orders from the Australian government to return. We spent about… Read more

$4,000 to urgently get home including expensive last minute flights. At returning home, we put in a claim to cover these costs. We were denied our claim twice because we had not pre-booked anything including a flight home - obviously had nothing pre-booked because we were travelling for 12 months. And of course, RACV has nothing about a pandemic on their policy. So we can't claim anything on COVID-19, even though we bought our policy way before the known pandemic. At this stage, we had spent $2,900 on a service that would give us nothing and $4,000 getting home on Government Orders (which if we hadn't followed - RACV wouldn't have covered us anyway). So that is $6,900 out of pocket. So I decide to ask if we can get a refund, on my first call, a nice lady said "yes" that would be possible even after I said we had already made a claim. In calling back to ask a clarifying questions, I am told that, in fact, whoever i spoke to was wrong and I can't get a refund because the policy is considered used because we travelled (3 wks out of 12 months!!) and made a claim (twice denied). So we pay top dollar for a service we expect to protect us, and get absolutely NOTHING in return! No help, no empathy. Nothing. Yes our situation in unique, but these times are unique and RACV in not responding well enough to the awful things customers have gone through. In times of great loss for everyone, you would think RACV would have some heart.

As smarttraveller has stopped ALL travel overseas, this policy is useless !!! – Your email tells me to enjoy the trip - but the trip is Cancelled !. I should be getting a 100% refund ! Not impressed. Please reconsider the refund, and get it to me ASAP Show details

Efficiency – I have had no claims. People have l have dealt with been very efficient and pleasant. Queries have been very promptly answered Annual policy good value. I have used RACV Insurance three times Show details ·  1

Disappointing Rip Off – I have used RACV travel insurance for many years and, during that time, have only ever made one tiny claim so I was really shocked at their response to the following: In October 2019 I booked a 3.5 week trip having taken out the insurance policy in August 2019. The trip was due to start April 30th but, due to coronavirus, I couldn't travel so I… Read more

took credits from the company I was due to travel with which have to be used before December 2021. I asked RACV if 3.5 weeks of the multi could be applied to the rescheduled trip I intend making next year OR if the remaining months on my multi could be refunded. I was told no on both counts even though it is painfully clear that applying either of these options is way cheaper for the RACV than giving me a refund of thousands for a cancelled trip. And it would be good customer service.

Refund – Thank you for your prompt refund of my multi-trip travel insurance premium due to Covid-19. I can’t believe how painless it was in this world of endless form filling and push button telephone calls where you are hand balled from one recorded voice to another. It’s great to be able to talk to a real person. Show details ·  1

Very happy customer! – Due to the challenging circumstances we all find ourselves in all my domestic and international travel plans have been cancelled before I could get out the door. RACV insurance were very efficient and cancelled my policy (not due to start until mid April) while the travel ban is in place and provided a full refund. A happy customer who appreciates RACV thoughtfulness and consideration. I will be back as soon as we can travel again Show details

Very satisfied long term customer – RACV have given us excellent service. We have been insured for our overseas trips for many years. Claim settled quickly about ten years ago. and now a refund of premium (paid in advance) because our policy commence date had not yet arrived and we didn't want to continue insurance in the current travel ban period. Show details ·  3

Happy RACV travelers – Took out new annual policy about 6 weeks ago to start mid April in time for first booked trip as all travel cancelled by government requested policy be cancelled and requested refund , full amount paid being refunded thank you Show details ·  2

Perfect – Good value for money. Haven’t used it as needed to cancel before cooling off period due to travel plans cancelled re Coronavirus. Helpful staff, excellent service, no pressure acted on immediately Show details ·  1

Our lucky escape Salespeople in stores NOT trained to sell this product – We have taken out a family yearly travel insurance policy many times through RACV. I buy the policies in-store at Southland in Victoria. I found out yesterday, after phoning to ask a question about a future trip, that my children were not covered for most of our months-long trip to Europe earlier this year because they flew separately from my… Read more

husband and I. My daughter also stayed on in Europe alone after the rest of the family flew home and she was not covered for a whole 5 weeks she was there! I outlined our trip IN DETAIL to the consultant in store, and she knew my children were meeting my husband and I after our departure, and that my daughter was staying on longer. To make matters worse, my daughter phoned RACV to add a country she was visiting to the policy, and no-one enlightened her then, either. Why buy a FAMILY policy? Why not buy 4 separate policies that actually do the job intended. We had a lucky escape - nothing went wrong, no-one got sick. However, I am truly horrified that an RACV consultant put us at such risk. In addition, the claims information consultant on the phone was incredibly condescending yesterday, which is really what has sparked this online review. I would have hated to be trying to lodge a claim! It’s as though they enjoy enlightening you AFTER the fact. The name of this policy is deliberately misleading. It is a single person’s policy with the added benefit of covering that person’s family if they are with you the entire time. Put that in plain language, emphasize it in bold print, and train your consultants, RACV. Never again. You have lost a loyal customer.

Disappointed with RACV Travel Insurance – We purchased an annual, multi-trip travel insurance policy through RACV and have been members with RACV for almost 25 years. We recently experienced a flight delay on an overseas trip due to mechanical issues with our aircraft which resulted in us missing a connecting flight to Melbourne. As a result, we had to purchase new tickets for our return… Read more

flight. We ultimately arrived back in Melbourne 18 hours after our originally scheduled arrival. These things happen…. After stage 2 assessment by Tokio Marine, RACV’s travel insurance underwriter, our claim was politely, but ultimately rejected. The basis for the rejection was that RACV travel insurance does not cover travel delays relating to mechanical problems. It was also stated to us that the delay of our flight was less than 6 hours, and this also fell outside the policy. Perhaps we have been naive, but we would have thought this was exactly the type of incident travel insurance should cover against. My brother traveled with us and he had an inexpensive $80, single trip policy with another provider which settled and paid his claim within 2 weeks. It’s clear that the policy re-sold by RACV is ultimately a low-cost, low inclusions policy with many caveats, one of which does not cover policy holders for flight delays relating to aircraft mechanical issues. We naively assumed that RACV would be offering a quality product, but we don’t believe this is the case. This incident has reduced our confidence in RACV’s travel insurance products, and we will cancel our annual policy as we have another trip planned later this year. We are understandably disappointed with our outcome and just wanted to warn others considering purchasing RACV travel insurance. Yes, we were warned to read the PDS, but there are just so many exclusions, conditions and caveats, you don’t necessarily consider every eventuality. We would have never thought that delays resulting from aircraft mechanical issues would have been excluded from the policy. We incorrectly thought that by purchasing an insurance policy from RACV, we would be protected through their experience in selecting the best and most comprehensive travel insurance offerings. Sadly, this is not the case.