Insurance after moving to Taiwan?

Having registered for the NHI a couple of days ago, I’d like to use this as an opportunity to think about my situation regarding insurances in general.

I know that some people see insurances as a waste of money while others want to insure themselves against all possible and impossible risks. I feel like I am somewhere in between: I don’t want to spend tons of money, but I still value the “peace of mind” some insurances can bring.

As I am no longer residing in Europe, most insurance companies do not allow me to simply keep the contracts after moving away and cancelled them when I told them about my move.

At the moment, I am thinking about the following insurances:

  1. General liability insurance: Still have one in Europe (around €80/year, so about NT$2500) which is valid world-wide for up to five years (so can just leave as is for some time). However, because I am now living outside Europe, certain exclusions apply. Is this type of insurance common in Taiwan and do insurance companies offer policies also to foreigners? Would it be cheaper getting this insurance here and ending the European one?
  2. Supplementary Health Insurance: Not sure about that one - NHI seems to cover most things and I don’t mind needing to pay for additional dental work and stuff out of pocket. However, I am not sure if it makes sense getting some basic policy which also covers care during hospital stays and/or access to private hospitals or doctors (which do not seem to be covered by the NHI).
  3. Travel health insurance: When I visit my home country or going to another country for vacation, I also want to have some sort of travel health insurance. Previously, I paid €12 per year (< NT$500) for unlimited trips per year up to 60 days each. Looking for something similar again. Not sure, maybe also some credit cards offer this protection (not as US citizen, so US cards are not an option for me unfortunately and most European ones are impossible to get without residing in Europe).
  4. Supplementary Insurance for rental cars: I sometimes rent cars and are actually a bit worried that all the rental companies only provide the legal minimum of liability insurance. Some cars around here are quite expensive and I don’t want to pay someone else’s Ferrari even if I am at fault at a collision… Any good options? I know some credit cards offer this kind of protection but same issue as with 3… The only option I found so far was getting an individual policy per rental - at the cost of €6.50 per day (around NT$200) - I am looking for some kind of policy where I maybe pay less than NT$ 1500 per year and then all rentals in the year world wide are covered (had something similar before - was a real money-saver when travelling around the US in a rental car).
  5. Anything else? Any special insurance I should consider which is really common or important in Taiwan?

What kind of insurances do you have?
Are you still insured in your home-country? Or did you face the same issue as I did and had to get local policies?
Or are there any trustworthy international companies which offer these kinds of insurances but don’t charge crazy amounts of money?

Looking forward to your ideas!

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Is this for you personally? What does it cover? Why do you need it?

At the moment I’m covered by a relatively new company called saftywing.com I haven’t done any claims yet so can’t tell you much about them. I use them because they cover covid. The travel part policy like delayed luggage or delay transport etc is not very good. But for longer trips they are extremely reasonable.

I have one mastercard and one amex that cover rental car. Probably cheapest and easiest to find a bank in Europe that can offer this service. If you have a preferred airline in your home country, have a look at what kind of card they offer. Often this cards has better cover for travel than the bank has.

Thank you for the replies!

Covers andy kind of third party liability. Accidentally flooding my apartment and the landlord coming after me for damages, dropping my bag in the middle of an intersection and causing an accident, bumping into someone and causing them damage, … - those kinds of things.

I am especially looking for something to cover trips between 2-4 weeks without having to get a new insurance for every trip individually. And they seem to be rather expensive too for a travel insurance (homepage said something like USD 40 for 4 weeks).

In which country did you get them? Which banks?
Almost all banks canceled my credit cards when I told them that I gave up my residency in Europe. They don’t do business with people living abroad.

Taiwan is not sue happy like they are in the West, and so I have not seen any general liability insurance here. You won’t damage apartments here by flooding it accidentally as the construction here is basically waterproof. So if the house is unfurnished no court would ever take your landlord coming after you for damages seriously.

What I have seen is comprehensive insurance. This is life, supplementary health, and a few others.

But I am not even sure if liability insurance exist here, except for cars/motorcycles.

These are the types of insurance offered by Cathay United for example…

I never seen liability insurance except for cars/motorcycles or product liability (protection from lawsuits due to faulty product design and all that).

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I signed up for supplementary insurance last year. I haven’t had to use it yet so I’m not sure how it works. From my understanding though NHI will only cover the basic stuff to keep you alive. While supplemental insurance will give you better stuff. For example if I stay in the hospital then my policy will cover a 2 person room, where NHI I think is a 4 person room. Also in my policy is that if I break any bone they will immediately pay me 300k NTD. I believe this coverage was cheap which is why I kept it. Never know if you’ll get in an accident while riding a scooter. I’m sure there are other benefits for it, but as I said I haven’t had to use it yet, and can’t remember my policy.

I pay around 30k NTD a year for my policy. It’s actually through my wife as the insurance lady said that they don’t want to insure foreigners, because they are risk of just canceling their policy and moving back to their country. I personally don’t see the logic behind that reason as I am still paying for the policy while I am living here.

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It‘s kind of a bad situation when insurance companies and banks in the home country say they don’t want to do business with non-resident citizens, but around here, companies don’t want to do business with resident aliens… :roll_eyes: