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A Little Insurance…Travel Insurance with World Nomads

2 December 2009 Comments

The initial plan for this post was to research all of the different travel insurance options out on the market for budget backpackers and round the world travelers. And I did all of the research, but rather than providing a compare and contrast of the key travel insurance companies, I really came to the conclusion that World Nomads is simply the best on the market for gap-year or RTW travel.

After sussing out all of the negative and positive reviews on other backpacking and travel sites, it’s pretty clear that the while every single insurance company has some negative reviews, there are far more raves and success stories for World Nomads. That being said, at the bottom of this review I’ll list the three other travel insurance companies that made the cut, right below World Nomads.

World Nomads’ Credibility?

Three reasons why I believe that World Nomads has a lot of credibility in the market:

The only travel insurance recommended by Lonely Planet
Backed by very strong, trusted, and reliable licensed underwriters; the underwriters are recognizable names in all 150 countries where the insurance is offered.
I used it for my 2009 RTW travels and I know for a fact a vast majority of the travel community of bloggers also use World Nomads.

Adventure Activities Covered

Before I left on my own RTW trip I made a list of all of the crazy and wild adventure activities that I wanted to participate in while traveling – then I used the site’s A-Z List of Adventure Activities to find out if they were covered in a World Nomads policy; each and every one was. While not all of yours may be covered, the complete list is comprehensive, online, and broken down by country.

Covering the Important Things (and smaller things too)

A World Nomads policy provides levels of coverage for five key areas: overseas medical care, medical evacuation (Medevac), baggage claims, theft on some belongings and electronics (read the policy details!), trip cancellation coverage, and more. The company even has a Travel Safety Alerts subscription service.

Making Insurance Claims Online

A huge selling point for me was the fact that all of the process can be done online; the internet is ubiquitous and I loved knowing that all of the information I needed was laid out for me on the World Nomads site. And since I thoroughly read through my policy before I bought it, I sent the support team an email asking for clarification (those policies can get confusing!); they emailed me back within a day with a detailed answer. In addition to buying a policy online, you can extend your insurance policy indefinitely or even buy one when you’re already traveling.

Here’s a little post I wrote when I first made the choice to go with World Nomads for my travel insurance –all the reasons still hold true today.

Other Options and Tips

And if you decide that you want to check out a few other great options first, here are a few other companies that are heavily used within the industry: Global Travel Shield (the insurance company used by American Express), TravelGuard, and Travelex.

Below are several tips to consider when buying travel insurance:

Don’t buy “travel protection,” this term is a sneaky way for unlicensed companies to offer travel insurance – it’s likely not valid, so move along.
Only buy from your travel agent if he/she is low-pressure and offers you several choices. If it’s a high-pressure situation they are likely receiving hefty commissions to sell you what could be an inferior product.
Take your time, research, read the policies and ask every question you want answered before you buy.
Ask if the insurance is primary or secondary insurance; you want primary. Secondary insurance means you must file an insurance claim with your homeowners or medical insurance first.

While all of the information in this post is correct to my knowledge, I strongly encourage you to do your own research and verify all aspects of your travel insurance; I cannot be held responsible for your use of any of the information provided here.

For more tips and travel stories you’ll want to subscribe to my RSS feed…it’s free and I promise I don’t bite!

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adventurerob

Nicely written Shannon, I've been meaning to do a similar post as I too am with World Nomads and haven't a complaint so far. Although I've not made a claim myself I met someone who has and they said it went through fine, and they paid up promptly, that's all you need to know when it comes to insurance companies at the end of the day.

ShannonOD

Precisely! And there are those few odd negative reviews out there from people, but I really did find that WN had great feedback from other RTW travelers and backpackers :-)

CandiceW

This is killer advice, thanks Shannon. I know nothing about insurance and the whole process is daunting. Will definitely keep this in mind for the future.

Mark H

World Nomads do seem to be the popular choice among travellers. I've used them and they seemed fine though I've never had to make a claim. My understanding is that insurance is at times an agent's biggest earner so you do need to check prices to make sure you are getting a fair deal.

ShannonOD

So true, thanks for that tip Mark, I rarely go through agents, but a few people have told me that some agents can be really high pressure as they try to make a commission.

Brian

Thanks for the comprehensive review Shannon. World Nomads is the one most people seem to recommend when traveling. Good questions to ask and ideas to think about when picking a company.

Do you know if you have to pay and then they reimburse or can they pay the medical clinic/hospital directly? Do they have a list of places you can go for medical treatment, or is it wide open?

ShannonOD

Hey Brian, based on what I've read and what I understand, it depends on the level of the emergency. If you are in and out for something small, then you pay and submit for reimbursement. But, in the case of a medical emergency, they ask that you contact them immediately, or have the hospital do it, and they will pay - same for med evac, they will arrange if it is necessary. No specific places to go, but once they are talking with your hospital, they will help determine the next actions (transfer to a diff hospital, etc). I'm pretty sure that's how it goes down! :-)

Audrey

We've been using World Nomads insurance for the three years of our rtw journey...and I just renewed it again. While we have fortunately not had to make much use of this insurance, the two claims we did file were quickly addressed and money arrived in my bank account within a week of a decision.

One piece of advice if you can't get a police report for stolen equipment - you can get a statement from your hotel, tour company or someone in authority instead.

ShannonOD

Ooo - that's such a great tip - I'm going to add it to the article actually (w/attrib ;-) Thanks! I was pretty lucky to not have to make any claims w/them yet so it's nice to hear from other travelers that their claims have been paid out, and timely too. :-)