Cedar Tree Travel Insurance Review: The Cover You Need?

Cedar Tree Travel Insurance Review: The Cover You Need?

Good prices and optional Gadget cover to protect devices like your mobile phone and tablet.

Good for

  • Attractive prices
  • Can buy Direct or from Comparison Site
  • Emergency Medical, Cancellation, Baggage, Personal Liability on all plans
  • Some gadget cover included
  • Optional £1,000, £2,000 or £3,000 Gadget Extension

Bad for

  • No catastrophe cover when buying from comparison site

Editor's Rating

4.0/5.0

The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.

Cedar Tree offers competitive pricing on travel insurance plans underwritten by market giant AXA. You can buy their three cheaper plans via a travel insurance comparison or their three higher-coverage plans direct from their website. All plans include medical, cancellation & curtailment, baggage and personal accident & liability. Depending on which plan and options you choose, Cedar Tree can also cover gadgets but they've removed their cover for financial failure.

And after you click the blue "Apply Now" button above to get a quote, be sure to use the promo code they've given us for our readers to get 5% off: CT5TREE.

In This Review

Read our review to learn about features and prices of Cedar Tree travel insurance—plus we'll explain the main differences between buying direct direct from the Cedar Tree website versus buying through a travel insurance comparison engine, to help you decide where to buy. Choosing the best travel insurance for you will depend on factors like price points and features that you desire. Please use the information in this review to decide if Cedar Tree is right for you.

Compare Cheap Travel Insurance for Your Travels

Quick quotes from 20 insurers including Cedar Tree.

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Cedar Tree Travel Insurance Review: What You Need to Know

Cedar Tree offers travel insurance from a reliable underwriter (AXA) at a good price, and their customer reviews are pretty fantastic. Those seeking a cheap travel insurance plan for trips costing less than £5,000 should be able to find good deals for Cedar Tree's Lite, Classic or Premium plans at a comparison site. Those with more valuable trips, or who want higher cover levels for other features like Baggage, may find a more suitable plan direct from their website—but expect to pay more for the direct plans (Silver, Gold and Platinum). We won't get into these differences yet, but we discuss them further along in the review.

We like that all policies include some level of cover for Trip Cancellation, Emergency Medical, Legal Assistance, Personal Accident and Baggage. Those seeking catastrophe cover to protect against natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes will need to buy direct and pay a bit extra for Travel Disruption cover, as shown in the table below. Travel Disruption is not available on the discounted comparison site plans.

Cost of Cedar Tree Travel Disruption

Additional PremiumSilverGoldPlatinum
Single Trip Plans£2.25£2.50£3.00
Annual, Multi-trip Plans£3.75£4.50£6.00

Are Gadgets (e.g., Mobile Phones) Covered? Gadgets including mobile phones are covered up to £750 on direct plans (they've recently upped this from £250, which is great). Anyone wanting more cover can pay extra for the Gadget Extension, which is an option on all plans. If you travel with multiple gadgets or more expensive gadgets, you might want to consider adding this optional gadget cover to your Cedar Tree policy. You have your choice of coverage levels—£1,000, £2,000 or £3,000—and you can add the Gadget Extension to your policy when you buy direct and when you buy from a comparison site.

Optional Extended Gadget CoverExtended Cover 1Extended Cover 2Extended Cover 3
Accidental Damage£1,000 £2,000 £3,000
Malicious Damage£1,000 £2,000 £3,000
Theft£1,000 £2,000 £3,000
Loss£1,000 £2,000 £3,000
Unauthorised Calls/Data£1,000 £1,000 £1,000
Single article limit£500£750£1,000
Approximate Cost of Optional Gadget Cover:
Single Trip Plans£8.25 - £10.50£11 - £13.75£13.25 - £16.75
Annual, Multi-trip Plans£14.75 - £34.25£22.25 - £51.75£29.75 - £65

To see a list of other companies that offer a gadget travel insurance add on please see our article, Travel Insurance Companies with Optional Gadget Cover.

Cedar Tree Discounts: As part of the buying process, you'll be asked if you'd like to auto renew your policy. By doing so, you can secure a discount between 10% and 20% on your renewal. Cedar Tree will contact you with details of your renewal 21 days in advance of the renewal.

Coronavirus Cover

Policies sold via the Cedar Tree website come with a decent amount of coronavirus protection. All Cedar Tree policies provide their basic COVID cover subject to the terms and conditions. Provided you do not travel against medical/regulatory authority advice, they will essentially cover you for:

Cancellation:

  • You or a close relative are diagnosed with or have contracted COVID-19.
  • You are required to self-isolate, subject to a positive test result/confirmation from a GP.
  • Someone you were due to travel with or stay with on your trip needs to self-isolate.

Cutting your trip short:

  • The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) or other regulatory authority in a country in which you are travelling in advise you to evacuate or return to your home area.
  • You have been denied boarding at your UK departure point because you have COVID-19 symptoms.
  • If you need to come home early because a close relative has COVID-19.

Emergency medical cover for COVID-19

  • Emergency medical treatment, repatriation and other expenses.
  • Additional transport and accommodation if you are unable to return home as planned.

However, any new policy will not cover any cancellation due to government or other regulatory authority restriction on travel due to Coronavirus^ or any future pandemic.

Cedar Tree Customer Reviews

Cedar Tree Ratings & Customer Reviews
Trustpilot customer service rating4.8 out of 5

Is Cedar Tree Insurance any good? Cedar Tree travel insurance rates well for features, in particular their top tiers, but how do their customer reviews compare? We've read through hundreds of reviews to see what real customers have to say about prices and the claims experience. Here's what we found:

Cedar Tree Insurance Trustpilot

Cedar Tree has earned 4.8 stars out of 5 at Trustpilot, with more than 3 out of 4 customers giving Cedar Tree a 5-star rating indicating an "Excellent" experience. Here is a sample of the more common complaints and comments:

"Excellent value for money and customer service."

"After having to make a claim last year I will ALWAYS use Cedar Tree for travel insurance, they were fantastic from start to finish and have just used them to take out a trip policy for next year."

"I had a straightforward claim for around £500 of travel expenses (I was stuck abroad with Covid) that took five months to process and pay out. I won't be renewing!"

"I have used Cedar Tree many times before and needed to make a claim once, which was a smooth process. I feel confident using them for travel during Covid times and the latest policy I have taken out has met all my requirements."

"Had to claim for cancelled trip due to Covid19. I recieved excellent advice from Cedar tree customer service to enable my claim to be processed without any delay."

"I previously gave this company a very good review as they processed my claim quickly and efficiently however, my renewal this year has increased by 96% and they are simply offering no valid explanation as to why. I made an extremely minor change to one of my medical answers..."

"I have been with Cedar Tree for around 3 years now, not having to claim until half a year ago when my trip to Mexico was cancelled because of COVID by the airline. The airline only gave an option of a voucher which wasn’t a choice for me as wouldn’t know if I can travel soon... Cedar Tree made a point there that I should take the voucher... Before Cedar Tree even starts considering your claim, you need to seek refunds yourself with other sources like your credit card, Pay Pal or directly with the company."

Regarding the last complaint, we'd like to point out that this it is quite common for policyholders to be asked to accept an airline voucher as the first recourse in event of cancellation like this, with a travel insurance claim kicking in if you aren't offered anything by the airline.

Cedar Tree Price Comparison

According to our pricing research, Cedar Tree travel insurance prices were especially competitive for Annual, Multi-trip plans and when buying Lite, Classic and Premium plans, which are available through a comparison site and sported prices lower than the average cost of travel insurance.

Cedar Tree Annual, Multi-trip Prices

PlanEuropeWorldwide, ex USA/Can/Mex/CaribWorldwide
Comparison SiteLite£16£21£30
Classic£23£35£43
Premium£32£42£65
DirectSilver£35£45£65
Gold£55£65£78
Platinum£60£80£92
Market Average£42£61£67
chart showing Admiral multi-trip travel insurance prices compared to market averages

As for single trip travel insurance plans, all but Cedar Tree's top-tier Gold and Platinum plans cost less than average, offering solid value for holidaymakers across a range of destinations.

Cedar Tree Single Trip Prices

PlanEuropeWorldwide, ex USA/Can/Mex/CaribWorldwide
Comparison SiteLite£5£7£10
Classic£10£14£20
Premium£14£20£32
DirectSilver£12£15£26
Gold£24£29£38
Platinum£32£44£55
Market Average£17£32£38
chart showing Admiral single-trip travel insurance prices compared to market averages

Buying Direct vs Using a Comparison Site

There are a number of notable differences between obtaining a Cedar Tree policy from a comparison site and buying directly from their website. The most obvious difference is price. As you can see in the price comparison charts above, the comparison site plans (Lite, Classic and Premium) typically cost less than the direct plans (Silver, Gold and Platinum).

Cedar Tree is able to offer discounted prices on comparison sites by structuring policies with lower limits and/or less coverage. Take a look at the coverage and limits in the next section to see which plan is most suitable for your travel needs.

Another way in which comparison site plans differ is a higher excess. Should you ever need to claim on your policy, you'll typically pay a higher excess when you buy through a comparison site—this enables them to offer better pricing deals.

Cedar Tree PlanExcess
Comparison SiteLite£150
Classic£95
Premium£50
Direct from Cedar TreeSilver£75
Gold£50
Platinum£0

Cedar Tree Travel Insurance Features and Limits

With Cedar Tree, you get the same level of Emergency Medical cover on all plans—£15 million. Other than that, plans vary in the amount of cover you get for features like Cancellation (ranging from £1,000 to £7,500) and Baggage (ranging from £1,000 to £3,000). Generally speaking, you get a bit less coverage/lower limits on plans bought from a comparison site—which explains why prices are typically cheaper on the comparison site offerings (Lite, Classic and Premium) than on plans bought direct from Cedar Tree (Silver, Gold and Platinum). Here is a recap of some features, but check the policy documents to see further details.

UPDATE: we just checked their policy document again and it looks like they've dropped the scheduled airline and end supplier failure coverages.

Comparison SiteDirect
Plan NameLiteClassicPremiumSilverGoldPlatinum
Annual, Multi-Trip Max Trip Duration18 Days32 Days32 Days32 Days45 Days92 Days
Medical Expenses£15,000,000£15,000,000£15,000,000£15,000,000£15,000,000£15,000,000
Cancellation & Curtailment£1,000£2,000£5,000£3,000£5,000£7,500
Baggage£1,000£1,500£2,500£1,500£2,000£3,000
Gadget Coveroptionaloptionaloptional£750£750£750
Personal Liability£1,000,000£2,000,000£2,000,000£2,000,000£2,000,000£2,000,000
Legal Expenses£5,000£5,000£20,000£5,000£20,000£30,000
Personal Accident£1,000£1,000£10,000£1,000£10,000£10,000
Hijackingn/an/a£25/24 hrs up to £250n/a£25/24 hrs up to £250£25/24 hrs up to £350
Delayed Departure£50 for each 12 hr delay up to £100£50 for each 12 hr delay up to £150£50 for each 12 hr delay up to £250£25/12 hr delay up to £150£25/12 hr delay up to £250£50/12 hr delay up to £500
Missed Departure£200£500£500£500£500£500

Extra coverages include:

  • Gadget cover extension
  • Winter sports cover
  • Travel disruption
  • Golf cover
  • Wedding cover
  • Cruise cover
  • Business travel

How does Cedar Tree Travel Insurance Compare to Competitors?

To better understand the value of Cedar Tree travel insurance you need to look at it in the context of other available options. We compared it to other plans in the market so you can see which may be more suitable for you.

Cedar Tree Travel Insurance vs Coverwise Travel Insurance

Coverwise travel insurance is another reputable specialist travel insurance provider known for offering good value. Cancellation cover ranges from £1,000 to £10,000 and Baggage from £750 up to £3,000, with prices starting from around £5 for a single trip to Europe. Emergency Medical starts at £5 million and goes up to unlimited cover on top tier plans. The Valuables extension upgrade may be useful if you want more cover for gadgets like mobile phones, laptops, etc. to provide £1k or £2k of valuables cover, starting at a cost of £5.90.

Bottom Line: Coverwise is another reliable option for travel insurance with the added benefit of optional gadget cover to protect mobile phones, tablets, etc., but this only goes up to £2,000 of cover.

Cedar Tree Travel Insurance vs AXA Travel Insurance

AXA travel insurance offers good value for money, with all plans including Insolvency, Baggage, Cancellation/Delay/Curtailment and Catastrophe.

Bottom Line: If you really want cover for End Supplier Failure and Catastrophes included as standard, then AXA might be a more comprehensive travel insurance option for you.

Cedar Tree Travel Insurance vs Sainsbury's Travel Insurance

Sainsbury's travel insurance offers solid travel cover at decent prices, especially when purchased through a comparison site. All plans include Baggage, Cancellation and Emergency Medical, but you also get Scheduled Airline Failure, Delayed Departure and Trip Abandonment. Extended Gadget cover can be added to all plans, to cover mobile phones, iPads, etc. Trip lengths are longer than average (notably up to 92 days on top-tier plans bought direct).

Bottom Line: Those needing cover for longer trips might find more suitable travel insurance from Sainsbury's Bank.

Other Useful Information: Policy Wording and Claims

Cedar Tree's 24-hour Medical Emergency or Repatriation Assistance Helpline can be reached on +44 1473 351 754. Use this number if you have a medical emergency while you're abroad or you're injured or become ill. If you need medical treatment, call this number first. Below are other important numbers for Cedar Tree policyholders, should you run into travel trouble.

Type of ClaimEmailNumber
Emergency Medicaln/a+44 1473 351 754
Airline/End Supplier Failure claims[email protected]+44 345 266 1872
Gadget claims+44 345 0744828
Other general, non-emergency claims+44 1473921257

Policy Wordings

Erin Yurday

Erin Yurday is the Founder and Editor of NimbleFins. Prior to NimbleFins, she worked as an investment professional and as the finance expert in Stanford University's Graduate School of Business case writing team. Read more on LinkedIn.

Comments

The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.

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