Jul 6, 2017
considering the option of getting international/traveler’s insurance over us health insurance bc i’m betting i’ll pay the same but only one of these will actually look out for my welfare.
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considering the option of getting international/traveler’s insurance over us health insurance bc i’m betting i’ll pay the same but only one of these will actually look out for my welfare.
Is anyone else finding that the world nomads ads are opening super easily? Like I’m scrolling normally and every time I go past one it opens?? Maybe I’m just heavy handed with my scrolling? But it’s getting irritating having to close the tab and switch back
Traveling to the United States from Canada can be an exciting adventure filled with new experiences and unforgettable memories. However, along with all the
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West Papua Indonesia: An Insider's Guide
West Papua Indonesia: An Insider’s Guide
West Papua is a province of Indonesia with many unique and exotic cultures, amazing scenery and challenging trekking terrain in the world. You will not find any discussion about Free West Papua evil propaganda in this article. In contrast, you will find informative stories about visiting West Papua from Alex Hatton, a contributor travel writer for World Nomads.
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WE WANT YOU TO KNOW WORLD NOMADS
For someone who travels so often or earns a living by traveling, travel insurance is of utmost importance. A lot of unexpected events can happen during the trip and it helps to know that there is an insurance to back up in case a refund will be necessary. Somehow, important trips or vacation can be altered by unintentional delays or medical conditions. Surely it pays to have the best travel insurance like the World Nomads to reimburse the fare tickets, pre-booked hotel accommodations, medical bills and more.
There are a lot of travel insurance in the market today, so it is important to choose wisely an insurance that has more rewarding features and can be depended upon to work fast in answer to whatever need may surprise a traveler. Depending on the frequency of the trips one usually takes, it is imperative to see the fullness of the coverage the insurance has. World Nomads travel insurance offers a wide range of coverage and can arrange a plan that suits the needs of individual traveler in fairness to the money he is willing to invest for his peace of mind.
Losing a baggage and even important travel documents can happen even to the best of people. Sometimes, some things happen to cause a change of plan. Even a well-planned trip can be subjected to certain problems that are beyond control. World Nomads travel insurance can also answer for lost baggage and rebooking fees in case a trip is cancelled. It is not that we expect all this to happen; we only deem it wise to be prepared in case it happens. Try the World Nomads today and travel with less worries.
Travel Insurance Review and Where to Buy Cheap Travel Insurance
Hindsight is 20/20. After 8 months on our RTW trip, I can safely say, I'm damn happy that we paid to get travel insurance through World Nomads. While it turned out that we spent more money for insurance than we got out of it benefit wise, having the policy in place gave us peace of mind that if something serious happened, we had cover for key unexpected situations we knew we could not afford to cover ourselves.
That's kind of the whole point of insurance anyway.
This article may come off sounding a bit like an advertisement (and to be transparent, we are now an affiliate partner with World Nomads based on our experience with their service). As with any product we feature on our site, if it's good, we tell you so. If the product or service is hot garbage, we'll destroy it faster than a Thai snorkel tour can wreck a reef.
We had an overwhelming positive experience with travel insurance through World Nomads. However, I want to be completely transparent on our experience-both the good and the bad. Plus, we should tell you upfront that the policy we bought from World Nomads was for US residents and everything in this article relates to our personal experience. We understand that the cover available for plans from World Nomads depends on your country of residence, when you buy your policy, any options or upgrades you buy and finally your own personal circumstances and what happens to you on the road. We can’t guarantee that you’ll have the same cover, so you should read your policy cover carefully before you assume your World Nomads policy will work the same way ours did.
Price
Before we left we paid $1,976.00 for travel insurance through World Nomads. The plan we chose was the Explorer insurance policy for US residents to cover us from September to May. Keep in mind that prices can and do change, and will vary depending on your country of residence, length of travel, etc. For our policy, to be covered for exactly 9 full months, it turned out to be slightly over $7.33/day for both Finney and I. Now what is it exactly that $7.33 a day bought us?
Baggage and Personal Effects Coverage
One consistent thing we heard from many travelers both online and in person, is that almost anyone who had traveled claimed to have been pick-pocketed or had something stolen. Since we're overloaded with gadgets, cameras, and tech, I wanted to buy the peace of mind knowing that if someone pulled an Oceans 11 on us, I wouldn't end up crying in my cereal.
When we left we purchased the Explorer Plan for US residents from World Nomads. The Explorer Plan for US residents offered an increased Personal Effects coverage of $3,000.00 -That's the coverage per person by the way. If you don't think you'll have $3,000 worth of goods on you while you travel I urge you to sit down and actually make a list. You'll be surprised how much the clothes you have on, the clothes in your backpack, and the backpack itself are worth. By the time you add in a smartphone or a camera you'll be closer to $3,000.00 than you probably thought you were.
One caveat- the baggage coverage we bought has a $1,500 per article limit. That meant that our shiny new drone was potentially covered if it got swiped. However, if you're bringing a brand new $2,500 laptop with you may only be able to recover $1,500.00 if it were to get stolen. You should probably just bring a used $600 laptop instead. Even so, the peace of mind that we had coverage in place is well worth the price tag of the insurance.
How this saved our butts:
Luckily, we made it through 20 countries and the only items we lost were a pair of sunglasses left behind at a hotel. Obviously, I wasn't going to be making a claim on a scratched up pair of shades that I was at fault for leaving behind. Coverage on our personal effects was the primary reason we took out a policy in the first place though.
Baggage Delay
Although our Chase Sapphire card would have covered us up to $100 for baggage delay, travel insurance from World Nomads covered us as US residents up to $150 a day with $750 total coverage. Your bag only needs to be delayed 12 hours before you can start collecting on this.
How this saved our butts:
We were in dire need of this coverage when we arrived in Queenstown, New Zealand after flying in from Bali. New Zealand was a bit on the chilly side and I didn’t follow any of my own travel advice for flying- I didn't wear long pants, I didn't wear shoes, and I didn't bring my toiletries as carry on.
That left a shoe-less, shivering, hygienically challenged man standing at the airport in Queenstown. As you well know, clothing can be quite expensive in New Zealand, so I was happy to be able to replace key essential items to help out in this jam.
A bag delayed by one day can be annoying- my bag was delayed for just under four days. That meant I was out camping in a van with only what I purchased after touching down. If I didn't have insurance I would have been either 1.) really uncomfortable or 2.) really broke. Having insurance made a bad situation much easier to live with.
Collision Damage Waiver (Car Insurance)
The policy we bought with World Nomads included a Collision Damage Waiver that covers in the event that your rental car is damaged due to collision, theft, vandalism, windstorm, fire, hail, flood or any cause not within your control while it's in your possession. Our policy covered us up to a very healthy $35,000.00
Why does this coverage rule? Easy- you can wave insurance coverage on rental cars and save money while you're actually traveling. Not all travel insurance plans work this way this though – so make sure you check out your policy carefully first before you waive the car rental cover. In addition, there are many vehicle types that are excluded from coverage. We are actually still working our way through a claim because of damage to our Wicked Campers.
How this saved our butts:
While parked at the Divide parking lot for the Key Summit hike, someone clipped the side of our car, leaving a sizable dent and broken taillight. We are still waiting for Wicked Campers to assess the damage and let us know what the total will be but it’s good to know that we have the collision damage waiver with our World Nomads policy. We'll be sure to update this piece to reflect how the process went-from damage assessed by Wicked Campers to what was covered under our policy.
Emergency Accident & Sickness Medical Expense
What if you get sick while you're on vacation? Not just “I ate bad Pad Thai” sick. I mean “woke up in the morning and your leg is falling off” sick. Not something that would happen when you're at home and know how to take care of yourself.
When you're overseas, you're going to be a lot less prepared should you fall ill and need medical attention. Finding a hospital or doctor, bridging the language gap...there are going to be a lot of more pressing issues than how you're going to pay for your treatment.
That being said, you'll also be surprised how cheap it is to treat yourself while overseas, especially in South East Asia. Antibiotics, steroids (not the Arnold kind), birth control, etc are all available over the counter. So if you have strep throat, it’s possible you can take care of yourself without ever visiting the hospital or a doctor.
Something that many people aren't aware of is that your health insurance from home may not cover you while abroad. Coverage varies from provider to provider and by policy, but it's difficult to find a health care policy in the United States that will cover you while on your trip for a competitive price.
How this saved our butts:
After dealing with two red eye flights and a missing bag, I woke up in a campervan with half of my face swollen up. Nothing like this has happened to me in 33 years of living so of course it would happen to me in a place where I didn't know how to find a doctor, let alone do it on the cheap. I did end up finding the town clinic after visiting two different hospitals that kindly sent me away.
After the wonderful Pleasant Point Medical Centre took care of me I only got hit with a $75 NZD bill. Keep in mind that this insurance policy does not cover you for any previously existing conditions or for any non-urgent treatment which can wait until your return home. Basically, you're not going to be able to see a dermatologist while you're abroad for a small pimple right before prom and expect your insurer to pay the bill. Why are you going to prom in Bangkok anyway?
Extreme Sports and the Explorer Plan
Our upgraded travel insurance with the Explorer Plan also offered us coverage on a long list of adventure activities. It's worth noting that the Standard Plan for US residents through WorldNomads (as of August 2016) excluded these extreme sports (but not uncommon activities) listed below:
Ballooning
Caving
Cliff jumping
Hang Gliding
Scuba Diving to 50 metres
Skydiving
If you tried, you could do everything on this list during a busy day in Queenstown, New Zealand. We chose the Explorer Plan for that reason.
This coverage saved our butts when:
I could tell Finney I was covered anytime I jumped off a cliff. Which happens more often than you would think. Cliff Jumping in particular is an activity which is only covered by US plans.
Not all World Nomads plans cover cliff jumping- check out the full list of activities included here.
Emergency Evacuation & Repatriation
Under the Explorer Plan we bought, there’s cover for up to $500,000 for emergency transportation to the nearest, most suitable medical facility, transfer between hospitals if medically required, and finally, assistance to repatriate you home to the United States should your condition be so serious you’re unable to keep travelling. To qualify for this, a physician must certify that your injury or illness is severe enough to require emergency evacuation. You should also contact World Nomads’ insurer immediately to help to arrange your evacuation or repatriation and to handle all medical costs if you’re hospitalized.
This coverage saved our butts when:
We never had to use this part of our policy- but disaster struck while we were in Bali for another American that didn't have the proper insurance in place. Ryan Boerman of San Diego was bitten by a shark just two hours north of where we were staying. As the story developed, it turned out that Ryan's policy would not cover the cost of international medical transport from Bali to Singapore.
Ryan’s story ended well-After raising money through GoFundMe to cover his flight, he ended up making it to the hospital in Singapore. As far as I know, his hand was fully repaired and he is now a valid candidate for Most Interesting Man in the World.
That being said, the last thing you want to deal with after a shark nearly rips your arm off is hunting through fine print on your travel insurance policy. Make sure you're covered beforehand.
Check out this story where World Nomads covered a shark attack in Bali for an UK resident.
Other Benefits on the Explorer Plan for US residents:
Trip Cancellation
Trip Interruption
Trip Delay
Accidental Death and Dismembermant
One Call 24 Hour Assistance Services
One Call Non-Medical Emergency Evacuation Services
Pros:
Peace of Mind
Our gear was covered for theft up to $3,000 per person; $1,500 per article
Cost
World Nomads was the lowest price provider of the three I received quotes from.
Claims Process
Relatively easy online portal. Easy to check status on a claim and quick turn around.
Negatives:
Poor Phone Support from On Call – the assistance company for US plans from World Nomads
Finney got very bad strep throat while in Hanoi, Vietnam. She started to feel really sick at about 2AM so I attempted to use the On Call International phone support to help us find a hospital in the middle of the night.
What I ended up with was an email asking a bunch of questions not relevant to the situation and not being provided with a hospital until I answered them. Additionally, when they finally provided a hospital suggestions it was for hospitals that were not open for emergency 24 hours.
Based upon the terrible service On Call provided, I wouldn't bother ever trying to use it again. It was truly just a waste of my time.
Claims Process
Yes, it can be a negative too. In the case of the medical claim from my doctor visit for a swollen face, the insurer needed the medical documentation for my $75 NZD expenses. Even after turning in the receipt for my payment to the medical centre, World Nomads requested further documentation but could not be specific in what the medical document would be called, just that it should detail exactly what service the centre provided for me.
Since I held on to every receipt and piece of paper the centre provided me with, and after a quick online chat with my representative, they waived the need for the undefined form they requested and promptly issued a check.
Verdict:
After the experience we had, both good and bad, I would absolutely take out travel insurance from World Nomads on my next trip. The peace of mind knowing that our material possessions would be covered if stolen was reason enough to take out the policy.
More importantly, I know that Finney and I were covered for medical costs during our trip. While going to a hospital or a doctor might be confusing, the stress of finding out what the bill was going to be was drastically lowered.
After our experience, I trust World Nomads insurance and would be happy to answer any questions you might have about our experience. For any questions on coverage or plan details, please reach out to World Nomads directly. Let me know if you have any questions about our experience in the comments!
Otherwise, check out this little widget below to pull a quote together for yourself on travel insurance!
SUPER LEGAL DISCLAIMER
Do keep in mind, everything I’ve said here about travel insurance is a brief, general summary correct as of the date of publication. It doesn't take into account your personal situation, what you want or might need. Before you buy, it's important to consider what insurance product is right for you and you should carefully read all policy documents to understand what's covered, what's not covered and the limits, terms and conditions which may apply.