If you've been coasting on the 'free' travel insurance that came with your credit card, it's time for a reality check. From 1 October, NAB, ANZ, CommBank and Westpac are all winding back, restructuring or dropping their complimentary travel cover — and each bank is doing it on a different date.
The shake-up flows from the Reserve Bank's card surcharge reforms, but the practical upshot for travellers is messier: there's no single cut-off to diarise. NAB's changes apply to claimable events on or after 15 May 2026, with some cards losing international and domestic travel insurance plus Australian rental vehicle excess cover — though a few gain mobile phone insurance instead. CommBank trims or removes insurances across various cards from 29 September 2026. Westpac changes its policy from 1 October 2026 and, importantly, customers will need to actively activate cover before travelling. ANZ rounds it out on 9 December 2026, moving to a three-tier system where some cards see reduced benefits and others lose complimentary travel cover entirely.
The risk here is obvious: the traveller who assumes their card still covers them is the one most likely to fly uninsured. Even before these changes, compare-the-market experts warned that card-included cover often had gaps in the fine print. Chris Ford of Compare the Market points out that insurance bundled into a card with a high annual fee was never genuinely free — and if you were only holding the card for the insurance, a standalone policy was probably better value anyway.
That value gap is easy to see in real numbers. Compare the Market cites a standalone policy for a 30-year-old heading to Thailand for 12 days in December 2026 from around $83 — about $7 a day — with a $200 excess, $10,000 in trip cancellation cover and $5,000 for luggage. A six-day domestic cruise for the same traveller could be covered from as little as $43. Against flights and accommodation that can run into the thousands, that's cheap peace of mind.
There's a small silver lining for anyone booking through an agent: the Australian Travel Industry Association has secured an extension of the point-of-sale exemption to 2031, so advisors can still sell standalone policies at the time of booking.
The takeaway is simple. Check the specific card in your wallet against your bank's new policy — not all cards at the same bank are treated the same. If cover remains, note whether it needs activating before you travel. And get at least one quote for standalone cover before deciding your card is doing the job. A few minutes of admin now beats discovering a policy gap mid-claim.
