Yonder joins competitors Revolut and Monzo in the travel insurance space

The challenger credit card is looking to rival the likes of Revolut, Monzo, Curve and Amex.

As covid restrictions lift and people flock back to flights, travel insurance has never been more important, with stories of cancelled flights, delays and baggage losses filling the news.

After a few weeks of beta testing, Yonder is launching travel insurance for all its members, to support its customers “at a time when they need it most”.

The insurance covers covid, both before departure and at their destination, missed flights and cancelled or delayed departures.

It also covers holidays with the UK that are over 100km from their home.

“Credit card insurance policies can be fraught with loopholes that catch consumers out in their moments of need,” Yonder co-founder and CEO Tim Chong said.

“Insurance is one of the core benefits of a lifestyle credit card, but the credit industry is shockingly outdated. Just as it’s harder than ever to spend rewards points on something you actually want, policy coverage has also fallen behind the times.”

The new offering will be included in the price of membership (£15/month) and has been valued at £175/year.

Yonder hopes that the new offering will help strengthen its position in the lifestyle credit card market and lure customers over from legacy providers.

“We’re determined to rebuild consumers’ relationship with credit, and show that Yonder is a company they can trust,” Chong added. 

“Together with AXA, we’ve built a travel insurance policy around our members’ needs, so they can hit the road with peace of mind.”

Yonder has built out its travel insurance offering to rival the likes of Revolut metal, Monzo premium, Curve metal and Amex premium.

The challenger comes out on top when it comes to excess (zero, compared to £50 across the board).

It also covers winter sports up to £500 where the rest don’t, other than Monzo, which covers slightly more at £750.

Yonder has also specifically included covid cover, whereas its rivals haven’t specified their coverage.

In almost all other areas, the new insurance sits about level with its rivals – it’s slightly higher on personal money, about level on luggage cover, personal belongings and departures, slightly lower on baggage delays and much lower on medical expenses (£1m versus a max of £15m for Curve and £10m for Monzo and Revolut).

Of course, all of these cards have a range of offerings beyond travel insurance, be that crypto, savings, buy now, pay later or just about anything else in between.

So this might be the travel insurance option you’ve been waiting for – and if you’re already a Yonder customer it will be added on to your existing card at no extra cost – but that really depends what you’re looking for.

In all likelihood travel insurance is a happy bonus to each of these company’s other features, and not the sole reason to choose one over the other.

But, then again, maybe Yonder’s covid cover, lack of excess when you claim and winter sports coverage is enough to give it an edge over its more established competitors.