AARDY

What AARDY is

AARDY is an online travel insurance marketplace for US travelers, run by a licensed insurance agency. It does not insure anyone itself. The licensing page says "AardvarkInsure.com Corporation is a Florida company and is a licensed insurance agency in all US states," gives its national producer number as NPN 17635737, and lists a license number state by state. The site describes itself in its own words: "Trip Insurance Comparison is what we do; we are a Travel Insurance Agency." The company's address is in Plantation, Florida.

The homepage explains the model. AARDY takes a traveler's trip and personal details, pulls "policies and rates from all our insurers," and lets the shopper compare and filter them. It says it compares "rates from over 30 plans," and that the service is free to the shopper, with no charge for using it. When a traveler buys, the policy belongs to the carrier that wrote it; AARDY is the agency that sold it. The site says "Your trip insurance policy is issued immediately upon purchase."

How pricing works on the site

AARDY's central claim is about price. The homepage says "Prices are regulated by law. You won't find a lower travel insurance price anywhere else for a plan found on AARDY," and explains why: travel insurers "'file' their insurance policies with each state insurance commission," so a filed plan costs the same whether it is bought from the carrier or through an agency. In its words, "a trip insurance quote from Travel Insurance Marketplace AARDY is the same price you would see from the trip insurance carrier direct." That is a statement about identical plans, not a promise that AARDY finds the lowest-priced plan overall.

On carrier quality, the site says each of its medical travel insurance carriers holds an A.M. Best rating of at least A (Excellent), and that "there is an A.M. Best rating in every quote box." It also says it shares time-sensitive information in each quote, so a shopper can see which plans carry a pre-existing condition waiver and how soon after the first trip deposit it has to be bought.

What its guides explain

Most of AARDY's pages beyond the quote form are consumer guides, and they carry the substance.

The underwriters guide explains that the underwriter "sets the premium rates for the insurance policy and decides whether to offer coverage," and that when a claim is made, "the underwriter will assess the validity of the claim and decide whether to pay the claim and how much to pay out." It then profiles the underwriters behind many US travel brands with their A.M. Best ratings, for example National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, rated "A" (Excellent), which it says "underwrites policies for AIG Travel Guard." The article is general education about the market and carries a note that it "does not suggest sponsorship or endorsement of AARDY by the trademark owner."

The pre-existing conditions guide explains how insurers look back at a traveler's health. It says the insurer "only cares about the time between when you purchased the policy, and 60-, 90- or 180-days immediately before purchase," which it calls the Look-Back Period, and that a waiver removing the exclusion must be bought in a "Time-Sensitive Period" that "is a short time, typically 14-21 days, after your Initial Trip Payment or Deposit." It lists the questions insurers ask to flag a condition: a change in medication dose, a new condition, a procedure, or recommended testing in the last 60 days. It walks through a worked example of a 59-year-old traveler whose medication changed within 60 days, and names two plans that still allow a waiver up to the final trip payment. It also states that "Medicare won't protect a traveler outside the US."

The evacuation guide separates medical evacuation from non-medical evacuation and quotes actual policy wording. For one plan it shows the benefit is triggered by "a formal recommendation in the form of a Travel Advisory or Travel Warning from the US State Department" to leave a country because of a natural disaster or "civil, military or political unrest," and that "Services rendered without the Assistance Service's coordination and approvals are not covered." Under that wording the Assistance Service "will arrange and pay for Evacuation from a safe departure point to the nearest safe location," and the traveler must contact it as soon as possible after the host country declares a disaster. The homepage adds that long-range medical evacuations "can cost in excess of $100,000." The guide contrasts that with a second carrier's security evacuation wording, where all arrangements must be made by the carrier's assistance team.

The homepage adds a short primer on cancellation types: standard cancellation for a death or serious illness, Cancel for Work Reasons cover, and Cancel for Any Reason, which it describes as allowing, "subject to certain booking conditions," a 75% refund on non-refundable costs.

Buying and help

A quote starts with trip details and traveler details, and the homepage says an anonymous quote comes back "in seconds." The customer comments on the homepage repeatedly name individual AARDY agents who answered questions by phone, so a shopper who wants help can get it from a person. Claims, once a plan is bought, go to that plan's carrier, since the carrier decides and pays them, as AARDY's own underwriters guide explains.

The homepage shows a "TrustScore 4.9" line with a count of 50,119 reviews. It says it donates every year to charity partners through AARDY Kids of Heroes, currently the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

Who it suits, and who it fits less well

AARDY fits a US resident who wants to see many carriers' comprehensive trip and travel medical plans side by side, with the A.M. Best rating and waiver timing shown in each quote, and who may want a licensed agent on the phone before buying. Its guides explain look-back periods, waiver deadlines and evacuation triggers using the policies' own wording.

It fits less well for a traveler outside the US, since the licensing covers US states, and for anyone who wants a long-term expat medical plan rather than trip-based travel insurance. The site publishes no single price or benefit table of its own; figures appear only inside a quote for a named carrier's plan.