Smart Travel Protection review: the $5.16 a day plan that carries no medical coverage until you add a bundle

This Faye travel insurance review covers the Smart Travel Protection plan, and the finding that matters is structural: the base plan pays only for trip delay, travel inconvenience and baggage. Medical expense, evacuation and trip cancellation are optional bundles you buy on top.

Every figure on this page is in US dollars and comes from the plan's own binding wording, which we read in full: individual travel insurance policy form T7000IP, Faye Travel Protection International, edition 2.28.22, 36 pages plus amendatory endorsements for California, Colorado, Michigan and Texas. Read on September 12, 2026. Where our own catalogue and that document disagree, the document decides, and this page publishes the document's figure.

We score Smart Travel Protection 3.4 out of 5. The architecture is honest and unusually flexible for the US market: there is no deductible on any benefit, no coinsurance split, no age cap written anywhere in the wording, and the medical benefit is the one part of the contract that pays before your own health plan rather than behind it. It loses points because the base plan a first-time buyer sees is not travel insurance in the sense most people mean, because the cancel-for-any-reason option only refunds 75% and only stacks on another paid bundle, and because the baggage benefit starts at $750 with a $150 per-article limit.

It also loses nothing for the problems we found in our own records, because those are ours. Our offer card for this plan currently shows $250,000 of hospital coverage and $500,000 of repatriation as though they were included. They are not. They sit inside optional medical bundles, and the whole of the next section exists to show you where the line falls.

Nine. The wording states the rule in one sentence at the top of the plan summary: we only cover you for the optional upgrade benefits that you elect during the enrollment process, provided you paid the required additional premium. Everything else on the enrollment screen is an add-on, and the base plan underneath is short enough to print in a single table.

That is the entire base plan. No hospital bill, no air ambulance, no refund if you cancel, no personal liability, no accidental death benefit. Read it next to the nine bundles and the shape of the product becomes obvious: Faye sells a delay and baggage policy, and lets you build a travel insurance plan on top of it.

There are four medical bundles and only one can be selected per plan. All four carry exactly the same $500,000 of emergency medical evacuation and repatriation of remains, and the same $100,000 of political, security and natural disaster evacuation. What separates them is the hospital number and whether adventure activities are inside or outside.

Each bundle carries a $750 sublimit for emergency dental treatment, and that is a sublimit inside the medical maximum rather than a benefit beside it. Dental is only covered for accidental injury to natural teeth and only while you are on the trip, so a crown that cracks on a bread roll in Lisbon is not what this pays for.

The $250,000 is the figure our comparison card shows, which means the card is describing bundle 1B or 1D without saying so. For an American traveling in Europe or Asia that ceiling is comfortable. For a long stay somewhere you would be treated as a private patient, and for anyone who wants the ceiling to be the last thing they think about, it is a real number rather than a theoretical one, and this plan offers nothing above it.

One, and it is the important one. The general provisions of form T7000IP say that insurance provided by this policy shall be in excess of all other valid and collectible insurance or indemnity, except for the optional accident and sickness medical expense benefit. That single exception makes the medical benefit primary coverage and leaves every other benefit in the contract secondary.

This is worth more to an American than it first sounds. Most US travel plans are secondary on medical bills, which means presenting them to a foreign hospital, then billing your own insurer, waiting for the denial, and only then claiming. Making the medical benefit primary removes that step. The wording also has no deductible and no coinsurance split anywhere in the schedule of benefits, so covered medical expenses are reimbursed from the first dollar up to the bundle ceiling.

There is a cash-flow service on top of it. If you need admission to a hospital or treatment at a clinic, the assistance provider will arrange advance payment directly to the provider, up to the maximum benefit amount, provided you agree to reimburse the insurer if the claim turns out not to be covered. That is not the same as a promise to pay, and it only applies once you hold a medical bundle. If you want to compare plans built specifically around the hospital rather than the booking, our guide to travel medical insurance for US travelers sets out what the US shelf actually offers.

Three things, and all of them are lost on day fifteen. The wording defines the time sensitive period as insurance purchased within 14 days of the date your initial payment or deposit for the trip is received. Miss it and the plan still works, but the pre-existing condition waiver, the cancel-for-any-reason option and the single supplement benefit are all gone.

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  The pre-existing medical condition waiver: The exclusion is waived only if your premium and enrollment form are received inside the 14 days and a physician's assessment finds you medically able and not disabled from travel at the time you pay.
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  The cancel for any reason bundle: It can only be added inside the same window, it requires the trip cancellation and trip interruption bundle to have been bought as well, and it refunds up to 75% of what you cannot get back.
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  The 48 hour rule that comes with it: Even inside the window, a cancel-for-any-reason claim only pays if you cancel no later than 48 hours before your scheduled departure date.

The pre-existing rule behind that first line deserves reading closely, because it is narrower than our card suggests and wider than most people assume. A pre-existing medical condition here means an illness, disease or other condition during the 180 days immediately before your coverage is effective, for which you, a traveling companion, a business partner or a family member received or were recommended a test, examination or treatment, or took or were prescribed medication.

A condition controlled entirely by a stable prescription across the whole 180 days does not count, and neither does a switch between a brand name and a generic at comparable dosage. A dosage that was raised, lowered, stopped, or added to because the underlying condition worsened does count. Note also where the exclusion bites: the wording attaches it to the optional trip cancellation and trip interruption benefits, not to the medical expense benefit, which carries its own separate exclusion list.

Nine places, and eight of them make the plan look better than the contract allows. We publish the list rather than quietly fixing the card, because the card is what a visitor sees today and this page is where we can say what it should read.

The trip interruption row is the one that changes a number in front of a customer today. Our newer catalogue field holds the right answer, 150% of the insured trip cost, and the older field the comparison card actually reads holds a flat $10,000. Where the two disagree, the visitor sees the older one. On a $3,000 trip that overstates the benefit by more than double. On a $12,000 trip it understates it by $8,000.

The base plan, and nothing else. Our comparison card shows Smart Travel Protection at $5.16 a day, which is the lowest per-day figure on our entire US shelf. It is also the cheapest thing on the shelf for a reason that no card can express: at that price you are buying trip delay, travel inconvenience and $750 of baggage, with no hospital coverage and no way home.

That figure is a fixed starting price stored against the plan, not a quote returned by Faye. It does not move with your dates, your destination, your age or your trip cost. A 14 day trip prices at $72.24 whether you are 24 or 74, going to Lisbon or to Lagos. Three of our own live pages currently headline that same $5.16 a day as the entry price for US travel insurance, which is accurate as arithmetic and misleading as a purchase, because the plan behind it has no medical benefit at all.

If the trip cost rather than the hospital is what brought you here, our guide to travel cancellation insurance sets out which reasons the US market actually refunds, and our guide to cancel for any reason travel insurance compares the plans that sell the 75% option and the deadlines each one sets.

The wording names 22 activities and calls them adventure or extreme activities. Participation in any of them is a general exclusion across the whole policy, and it is waived only if medical bundle 1C or 1D is elected and paid for. Ordinary skiing and snowboarding are not on the list. Heli-skiing and heli-snowboarding are.

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  Anything airborne by choice: B.A.S.E. jumping, bungee jumping, hot air ballooning, parachuting, skydiving, cliff diving, fly-by-wire, paragliding, hang gliding and wingsuit flying.
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  Mountains, with an altitude line: Heli-skiing, heli-snowboarding, rock climbing without equipment, and mountain climbing above 9,000 feet, which is 2,700 meters.
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  Under water, with a depth line: Free diving, and scuba diving deeper than 131 feet, which is 40 meters. Recreational scuba above that depth is not named.
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  Speed, contact and endurance: Bull riding, running of the bulls, bodily contact sports, motor sport and motor racing, multi-sport endurance competitions, parkour, and anything materially similar to the activities above.
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  Racing and paid competition: Riding or driving in any race, and any speed or endurance competition except as a spectator. Competing under contract for a salary or agreed compensation is separately excluded, though athletes competing for a scholarship or tuition are explicitly not caught.

Read that list next to what our card says and two things follow. Our card marks ski coverage as not available, and on this plan that is the correct label, because no ski benefit exists in the wording at all: there is no piste rescue, no lift pass refund and no equipment benefit. But our quote engine is separately flagged as covering extreme sports, which means a traveler who ticks that box in our funnel can be shown a plan whose card says extreme sports are not available and whose contract excludes them unless a specific bundle is paid for. That gap needs testing in the live funnel before anyone buys on it.

Because Faye does not carry the risk. Three separate companies appear on this plan and the one whose name is on the website is the one least involved once something goes wrong. The policy is signed for United States Fire Insurance Company by its chairman and its secretary, and its administrative office is given as 5 Christopher Way, Eatontown, New Jersey 07724.

Our own offer record names Faye as the insurer, which is the same shape of error we have found on other listings in this batch and which we have reported. It matters for one practical reason: if you ever need to check a carrier's financial strength rating, or file a complaint with a state insurance department, the name that counts is United States Fire Insurance Company, not Faye.

The assistance services are also worth naming for what they are. Telemedicine, hospital admission guarantee, translation, prescription and eyeglass replacement, emergency cash advance, bail bond and concierge are all listed in the contract as non-insurance services provided by an independent organization, expressly not by the insurer. They are genuinely useful and they are not benefits. Our card ticks several of them as though they were.

On the claims side the deadlines are short and they are the part travelers miss most often. Notice of a claim must be reported within 20 days after a loss or as soon as reasonably possible, proof of loss must be provided within 90 days after the date of the loss, and in no event later than 12 months from the time it was otherwise required. If claim forms are not sent to you within 15 days of your notice, a written statement of what happened satisfies the proof of loss requirement instead.

Anyone who is a citizen or resident of the United States, is booked to travel, and pays the premium. That is the whole eligibility rule, and it is unusually open: the wording sets no age limit anywhere, and the definition of a trip carries no minimum distance from home and no requirement to leave the country. The catch is in the sentence that follows it.

For the wider picture of what an American can buy on our comparator, and how this plan sits against the rest of it, our guide to travel insurance for Americans compares the whole US shelf.

• Is Faye travel insurance worth it?

  It is worth it once you add a medical bundle. We score Smart Travel Protection 3.4 out of 5. The base plan on its own covers trip delay, travel inconvenience and $750 of baggage, and nothing else, so at the $5.16 a day our card shows it is not a substitute for travel insurance. With medical bundle 1B added you get $250,000 of hospital coverage that pays before your own health plan, $500,000 of evacuation, no deductible and no coinsurance, which is a genuinely competitive package for an American.

• Who actually underwrites Faye travel insurance?

  United States Fire Insurance Company. The policy is form T7000IP and it is signed for that company, whose administrative office is at 5 Christopher Way, Eatontown, New Jersey. Faye is the brand of Zenner, Inc., California license number 6006067, which sells the plan and runs the app. Active Care Management provides the 24 hour assistance. Our own offer record names Faye as the insurer, which is an error we have reported.

• Does Smart Travel Protection include medical coverage?

  Not in the base plan. Accident and sickness medical expense is sold in one of four optional medical bundles: 1A and 1C pay up to $50,000, 1B and 1D pay up to $250,000, and all four include $500,000 of emergency medical evacuation and repatriation of remains. Only one medical bundle can be selected per plan. If you do not elect one, you have no hospital coverage and no evacuation coverage at all.

• Does this plan pay before or after my own US health insurance?

  The medical benefit pays first. The excess insurance clause in Section XIII says the policy is in excess of all other valid and collectible insurance, except for the optional accident and sickness medical expense benefit. That exception makes medical primary. Every other benefit, including evacuation, cancellation, baggage and delay, pays after whatever else you hold.

• Is there a deductible on Smart Travel Protection?

  No. The word deductible appears in form T7000IP only in the definitions, and no benefit in the schedule of benefits carries one. There is no coinsurance split either, so covered expenses are reimbursed from the first dollar up to the ceiling of whichever bundle you bought.

• Are pre-existing conditions covered?

  Only through a waiver, and only on the cancellation and interruption side. The exclusion is waived if your premium and enrollment form are received within 14 days of your initial trip deposit and a physician’s assessment finds you medically able and not disabled from travel when you pay. The look-back is the 180 days before your coverage is effective. Our card lists pre-existing conditions as included with no conditions attached, which is wrong, and we have reported it.

• How much does Faye trip cancellation cost, and how much does it refund?

  Trip cancellation is an optional bundle rather than a price, and it is sold together with trip interruption. The cancellation half refunds up to 100% of your non-refundable insured trip cost for a covered reason. The interruption half pays up to 150%. Cancel for any reason is a further bundle on top, refunding 75%, available only if you also bought the cancellation bundle, only if you buy within 14 days of your first deposit, and only if you cancel at least 48 hours before departure.

• Does the plan refund me if my visa is refused?

  No. Visa refusal is not among the covered cancellation reasons in Section IV. What is covered is a documented theft of the passports or visas specifically required for your trip, substantiated by a police report, which is a different event. The general exclusions also rule out any loss attributable to failure to maintain required documents or visas. Our card lists a visa refusal refund as included, which is not in the contract, and we have reported it.

• How much baggage coverage does Smart Travel Protection give?

  $750 in the base plan, with a $150 limit on any single article and a $200 combined limit on jewelry, precious metals, watches and furs. Baggage delay pays up to $300 after 12 hours. The optional baggage upgrade raises the belongings benefit and adds sports, golf and business equipment: the plan summary describes the result as a total of $2,000, while the schedule of benefits shows the upgrade itself as up to $1,250. Our card shows $2,000 as though it were the base figure.

• Does Faye cover skiing and extreme sports?

  Ordinary skiing and snowboarding are not in the excluded list, but there is no ski benefit either: no lift pass refund, no rescue benefit, no equipment benefit beyond the baggage limits. Heli-skiing, heli-snowboarding, mountain climbing above 9,000 feet, scuba below 131 feet and 18 other named activities are excluded across the whole policy unless you buy medical bundle 1C or 1D.

• Is there an age limit on this plan?

  None is stated anywhere in form T7000IP. Eligibility is simply being a US citizen or resident who is booked to travel and pays the premium, and our quote form prices ages 0 to 99. That makes the plan unusually open to older travelers compared with most US trip-cost plans, which commonly cut off in the sixties or seventies.

• Can I change my mind after buying?

  Yes, within 14 days. The policy carries a 14 day free look period: cancel within 14 days of the effective date of coverage and the premium is refunded, provided you have not incurred a loss, have not departed on the trip and have not filed a claim. After that the coverages are in force and the premium is not refundable.

• How long do I have to file a claim?

  Notice of claim must be reported within 20 days after a loss, or as soon as reasonably possible. Proof of loss must follow within 90 days of the date of the loss, and no later than 12 months from the time it was otherwise required. If claim forms are not sent to you within 15 days of your notice, a written statement of what happened will do instead.

Below are the plans our comparator returned for a US resident on a 14 day trip to France in November 2026, captured on September 8, 2026. Read them against Smart Travel Protection on one question: whether the medical ceiling is included in the price you see, or waiting behind an enrollment screen.

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

When Smart Travel Protection is the right buy, and when it is not

Buy it when you want to choose your own shape. You are covered for emergency hospital care abroad with no deductible and no coinsurance, and with the medical benefit paying before your own health plan rather than behind it, which is rarer than it should be on the US shelf. Add medical bundle 1B and you have $250,000 of hospital coverage with $500,000 of evacuation, no age cap to fail, and a 14 day free look if you change your mind. The app-based claims flow and the telemedicine access are real advantages if you travel often. Do not buy it on the cheapest daily rate our card shows, because that price is the base plan and the base plan has no medical coverage at all. And if you want a single number on a card to be the coverage you actually get, Atlas International costs somewhat more but comes with a medical maximum you pick up front rather than assemble, and it is the plan we would point a first-time buyer to instead.

Go ExploreUnderwritten by MGEN

From$65.48

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses$270,000

Direct billingIncluded

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full

24/7 worldwide assistanceUnlimited

See all 23 benefitsGet a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

Go Explore +Underwritten by MGEN

From$86.86

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses$550,000

Direct billingIncluded

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full

24/7 worldwide assistanceUnlimited

See all 23 benefitsGet a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

Real quotes captured on September 8, 2026 on hellosafe.com: 1 traveler aged 34, 14 days in France (November 10 to 24, 2026), residence United States, no cancellation option, in US dollars. Smart Travel Protection, Atlas International, Atlas International Premium, Standard Plan and Epic Plan are shown at their per-day starting rate, which their partners return unchanged whatever the trip length, the age or the destination. Go Explore and Go Explore + are the two plans that price the trip itself, so their figures are the full cost of these 14 days. Smart Travel Protection is shown first because it is the plan this page reviews, not because it is our top pick. Its $5.16 a day buys the base plan only, which carries no medical expense and no evacuation benefit until you add a medical bundle.