Travellers Urged To Consider Offshore Insurers for Travel Cover

BANGKOK - Oct. 31, 2014 - PRLog -- “Where is the logic in taking out travel insurance from a company located in the only place (your home country) that isn’t covered under the plan? Some specialist offshore travel insurance companies possess a number of distinct advantages when it comes to the provision of international travel insurance, and travelers should always consider this option when they are planning their travel”

Offshore international specialist travel insurance providers such as ClickTravelCover can have a number of distinct advantages over domestic travel insurers, often giving them the ability to provide surprising value to customers.

So says David Christensen, Asia Pacific insurance veteran and the person responsible for project managing the development and launch of the ClickTravelCover international travel insurance sales portal.

“The first advantage an offshore travel insurer may have – and is certainly true in the case of ClickTravelCover – is scale; the second and related advantage is specialization; and the final leg of this particular trifecta is simplicity,” says Mr Christensen.

In the case of ClickTravelCover, the association is with parent and sister companies Pacific Cross Insurance – a respected specialist offshore medical and travel insurance provider and part of a group with more than 40 years’ experience in managing international medical and travel covers, and International Administrators Limited, Hong Kong based Third Party Administrator specializing in global medical and travel insurance management.

“We have the benefit of being able to leverage the cost efficiencies associated with significant scale, and the investment over the years in the necessary skills, processes, and finely tuned systems that really only occur when a company has had many years to concentrate on developing best practice in its area of specialization,” says My Christensen.

“Simplicity comes with having a single currency environment (US dollars) and as an offshore insurer we are able to offer the same product to a market that consists of more than half the world’s international travelers, something that local domestic insurers can only dream about, even in the largest markets,” he says.

Mr Christensen explains two further significant advantages that an international offshore travel insurer may be in a position to take advantage of – the first of these being greater distribution flexibility (and lower distribution cost), and finally the absence of local taxes such as GST, VAT or sales tax.

“Most domestic travel insurers face the legacy issue of distributing travel insurance through face to face advice channels – whether this is an agency force, or partners such as travel agencies or banks. Commission levels and distribution costs in most cases really reflect the past and it can be a huge challenge to lower these expensive sales costs, so they end up adding to the price the consumer is asked to pay – whereas on the other hand ClickTravelCover isn’t locked into these legacy costs and can use the internet, passing on the cost savings to clients in the form of more competitive premiums.

“The final advantage we have is that as an offshore insurer with ClickTravelCover products administered in the tax-friendly location of Hong Kong, there is no need for the addition of local taxes such as Sales Tax, VAT or GST – and to a customer who is unable to claim the costs of these taxes as a business expense that is a straight-out cash saving,” continues Mr Christensen. “And in any case many people feel that it’s immoral for the government of a customer’s home country to apply tax on a travel insurance product that does not provide any value in the home country and is exclusively used outside the home country.

“Charging local taxes on travel insurance is like expecting a traveler to keep notes and when returning home stroll into the tax department and offer a wad of banknotes for all the food and entertainment he or she enjoyed while away, because if that had been done at home it would have attracted local consumption tax.

“Taking all of these things into consideration it’s not surprising that an insurer like ClickTravelCover can offer really attractive international travel insurance deals, and we encourage international travelers to check this out before they commit to their travel insurance arrangements for their next business or leisure trip.

Travellers can obtain a quote for single trip and annual multi trip travel insurance by going to http://www.clicktravelcover.com/