NIB Travel Insurance International Comprehensive

*** BEWARE ANYONE WITH A FAMILY MEMBER WHO HAS A CHRONIC CONDITION, NIB WILL NOT COVER YOU*** Don’t use NIB if you have elderly relatives with a chronic condition. It has taken 12 weeks to reject our claim, not 10 days as advertised. My 80+ year old mother in law had chronic cancer for over 5 years. She was treated for an acute hospital… Read more

admission when we went away, she became worse after a few weeks and was transferred to palliative care. We cut our O/S holiday short by 2 days, and put in a claim for costs for new flights. Basically if you have a family member with a chronic condition do not think you might be eligible for a travel claim if they become unwell and you wish to return early to see them before they pass. As a health care worker of over 30 years I am appalled at this business.

During a recent trip to Ireland I had a mini trip planned to the Isle of Man. [Name Removed] cancelled the flight from Belfast to Manchester, which meant I could not make the connecting flight to Isle of Man. As I purchased the ticket through an… Read more

online agent [Name Removed] will not allow me any compensation or ability to confirm the nature of the cancellation. NIB travel insurance are hiding behind this and threatening to deny my claim in full. I have provided evidence from the agent that the flight was cancelled, but again NIB travel continue to claim I need a letter from [Name Removed]. NIB travel have several advertisements on their website promoting quick and easy claims. I have spent over 10 hours submitting the claim with several times being asked for the same documents, (which seems to be a common problem with other review on this website), I have also lost time replying to follow-up requests from NIB travel requesting documents that I have said cannot be provided. At no time have I felt that NIB travel's advertised claims of customer care, simple claims process etc have come close to being in existence. I would not recommend NIB travel insurance to anyone, but would consider becoming a shareholder as they are 100% focused on profit. Also the review was not able to be submitted unless I clicked at least 1 star. My true rating is much lower than that. I have rated the value for money as bad as I thought it was good value at the time of purchase, but no longer hold that view given the claims experience.

I give it zero star rating, seniors stay away, a substandard policy, inexperienced staff that don’t advise properly and give misinformation. This company is in serious need for investigation. Show details

Health problems – Recently overseas and my wife fell ill and also had a fall. contacted NIB Travel Ins ,gave them details and went above and beyond to help it was fantastic. We had to rearrange flights etc and NIB done it all. When arrived home there was a document to fill out for out of pocket expenses. this was paid as well Show details ·  1

Fast efficient service, clearly explained – From the first call with a young lad called Jeremy, till the final correspondence with claims officer, it was a stress free experience, well explained and detailed. Claim received and processed within 48 hours. Absolutely first class. Show details ·  1

Best insurance experience ever! – Nib were absolutely amazing. They were prompt with our international claim response and could not help us enough. We are extremely grateful! Show details ·  1

We needed to come early from India after receiving a phone call from a family member saying 'dad' had probably only 72hours. We have been turned down our claim as saying his condition was pre existing. He died of cancer and UTI. We haven't got a crystal ball to predict when someone might die and many many cases patients with cancer go on for… Read more

years . He was told 2-3 years. When we left Australia then was NO sign of his health deteriorating and he was still doing everything he always did eg. Mow lawns and support veterans widows. NIb requesting info which l still believe to be private ( that is 2years of his medical records, copy of will to show who was executor) and was a nightmare to obtain under privacy laws. We didn't even get offered ANY compensation at all. Sure won't be recommending them to anyone.

I’m deeply disappointed with NIB Insurance’s handling of my recent claim. Despite providing all the necessary documentation right from the start, they’ve made the entire process a drawn-out ordeal by repeatedly asking for information that was already provided. It’s as if they haven’t bothered to read a single document I sent. On top of that,… Read more

they’ve asked me to jump through unnecessary hoops, like contacting the consulate in Bangkok to confirm details that the Australian government’s own website clearly states: you cannot get an emergency passport if you qualify for a full passport. This is something they should know well, yet they’re making me do the legwork.

Frankly, the experience feels like they’re just dragging their feet and pushing back on the claim by creating obstacles. If you’re looking for an insurer that actually reads what you send and doesn’t make you run in circles, I’d strongly suggest looking elsewhere.

Do not use NIB Travel Insurance – I want to share my experience with NIB Travel Insurance, which was incredibly frustrating and stressful during a challenging time. Do not purchase this product. I wish I had of read the reviews BEFORE I went and purchased this annual policy. Firstly, they are Impossible to contact via phone or WhatsApp when you… Read more

are in a 3rd world country. Who can call from a landline? Give us a WhatsApp number. I sent an email with a full description of my accident and photos. Just asked them to get me home 1 day earlier. But no, blah, blah …. Initially, when I needed assistance, I was met with minimal communication. Sorry, here is an incident number, send us some more details and we will assign a nurse. How can we best assist you? Meanwhile I could be dying. What’s the best step moving forward. I clearly outline the accident, sent many photos of the blood and injuries and said get me home a day earlier. They did nothing to help me except a few useless emails like this was a joke. I found NIB's support to be actually negligent. I urge anyone considering their travel insurance to think carefully, as the service I received was far from satisfactory.

Do not do NIB Travel Insurance – Warning Do not take NIB Travel Insurance they are an absolute disgrace want your money but will definitely not approve your claim all me and my sisters yes 3 So no refunds on 3 policies after being supplied with all the information and more showing no compassion as we did loose our Mother reason for cancellation of policy was expected them to ask… Read more

for proof we buried Mum they asked for so much personal information that was not required all for only 3 airfare oh and less their excess and their premiums whoops it's all probably about $200 each what an absolute disgrace never again I should go to current affair Patricia Roberts

Very difficult to deal with NIB – I had to cancel my trip because my son was admitted to ICU, the day before I was due to travel, I found the whole process of the claim quite difficult. I submitted all documentation that was required and It took two months to finally get a result and not before NIB wanted full medical records of my son, which I think was a total invasion of his privacy Show details

NIB Insurance: Masters of Taking Premiums, Dodgers of Claims – NIB Insurance excels at collecting premiums but fails miserably when you actually need them. My experience with them following a car break-in and luggage theft was nothing short of frustrating. Their claims process appears deliberately obtuse - from buggy software that makes lodging claims needlessly difficult, to claims assessors who either miss… Read more

crucial information or deliberately misinterpret it. Despite multiple requests for callbacks, none were ever received.

Their tactics seem designed to wear claimants down: first demanding receipts for stolen items, then pivoting to vague policy exclusions when pressed. After making me jump through hoops collecting additional documentation, they still refused to honour the claim.

The pattern is clear: easy sign-up, impossible claims. Their behaviour fits a troubling pattern that's evident in other reviews - a systematic approach to avoiding payouts through bureaucratic obstacles and ambiguous policy interpretations.

Pros: None

Cons: - Deceptive claims handling - Poor customer service - Buggy claims software - Inconsistent communication - Policy terms used to deny claims

Save yourself time, money, and frustration by choosing another insurer. NIB's approach to insurance appears to be: take premiums eagerly, avoid payouts.

It seems they start from a position of rejecting your claim and work backwards – Much against my better judgement I took out this policy. They lived down to my very low expectations. Show details

Do not use NIB Travel Insurance – I want to share my experience with NIB Travel Insurance, which was incredibly frustrating and stressful during a challenging time. Do not purchase this product. My husband suffered a serious injury while we were abroad, and we found NIB's support to be actually negligent. Initially, when we needed assistance, we were met with minimal… Read more

communication. We were repeatedly told that "the claim had not been accepted," leaving us feeling stranded. There was no offer of a translator in a foreign country so again communication was late, non-existent or inconsistent. My husband sat for days in a foreign hospital awaiting the NIB medical team to make a decision even though the surgeon was adamant he required this surgery urgently. Each interaction felt like an uphill fight, and we often felt like our concerns were brushed aside. In one instance, they even attempted to arrange our flight home before my husband received full medical clearance from his surgeon, which was deeply concerning. We did go through a complaint management process which did finally resolve the monetary concerns however the phycological trauma they caused will take a lot longer to heal and I wish no-one else to go through what we did. I urge anyone considering their travel insurance to think carefully, as the service we received was far from satisfactory.

Beware do not purchase NIB Insurance – BEWARE DO NOT PURCHASE NIB Travel Insurance!! We were returning from Hawaii and then getting onto a Cruise in Sydney, however due to issues Qantas cancelled our flight resulting in us having to get our flight back to Australia the next day. Due to this we were too late arriving into Sydney and missed our Cruise Departure. We then took a flight to… Read more

meet the Ship on the first port day and NIB did not cover any of the costs at all!! No flights or accommodation to make it to the next part of our trip. Due to the fact we missed the cruise outside of our control we would assume this is what travel insurance is for but after multiple investigations they denied our claim. I would not recommend them to ANYONE!!

Do not use this company, disgraceful! – Prior to purchasing travel insurance I visited my gp for a pre travel health check, I was cleared as in full health. I suffered a cardiac episode in the USA which required I pay $12000aud before I could leave the hospital as it was going to take NIB 72 hours to provide the emergency payment in my policy. I was ensured this would be recouped in due… Read more

course. NIB finalized my claim and denied it without all information. I would not recommend NIB for any of our financial needs.

Missed Flight – Due to maintenance issues with our international flight, it arrived in Sydney 4 hours late, thus we missed our regional connecting flight. The international carrier would not pay, so I went to NIB who we had our travel insurance with. They referenced a clause that only delays of 6+ hours would be paid. So no refund on our original flight and no… Read more

refund on the additional cost of our new flight. I guess that is why they put in so many clauses in the contract that they can reference and not pay out.

Disgraceful even for insurance – You haven’t been ripped off properly until you’ve dealt with this mob of thieves , ring me to find out more 0245677260. On top of this they requested they would like to review our claim prior to lodgement and said they would respond in 48 hours , this was 28/9/23 of course we haven’t heard Show details

Denied Claim - what’s the point of insurance – We had international travel insurance for a cruise holiday. Our daughter was denied boarding on the cruise due to not having a COVID booster, despite not yet being eligible for it, yet NIB travel insurance did not pay our claim for loss of even our daughter’s fare. Out of our co trail and we were in line with national COVID policy, but didn’t meet… Read more

cruise liner company policy requirements. What a waste of money travel insurance is if it won’t refund you when your trip is cancelled for reasons out of your control.

Very easy, very happy with the service – My phone was stolen whilst travelling. I submitted my claim and the money was in my account within a matter of days. Very impressed with how easy this was. I also thought the customer service was impeccable when I was asking for advice as to which travel insurance I should get. Show details ·  1

Absolute rip off – We had a train trip cancelled with no notice by Deutsche Bahn due to track failure with down stream effects in additional accomodation due to all alternate options being booked and then a flight cancelled by Easyjet with 24 hours notice ... with no alternative carriers available resulting in having to buy more expensive tickets to an… Read more

alternative destination and hiring a car to get to the original destination . The response from NIB ... claim rejected .. reason .. cancellation only accepted if due to extreme weather event, riot, civil insurrection, insolvency etc ... so go whistle ... incompetent, overstretched airline and transport infrastructure is your problem

Avoid NIB – I went with NIB for travel insurance this year from 5th June to 30th June. I traveled Europe doing a Contiki bus tour. From the beginning of my trip, the airline Qantas misplaced my luggage in Singapore. They ensured that it would be delivered to my hotel in Paris. This did not happen with the airline dumping it at an airport in France and… Read more

expecting me to collect it, which was impossible due to the trip I was doing. They did not claim liability as it was not considered lost.

As a result of this, I had to buy toiletries, clothes, new suitcase etc. I requested the assistance of NIB for reimbursement of the expenses of the aforementioned articles which have amounted to over $500 (yes, Europe is expensive). I also requested they organise a courier service for them to retrieve my luggage.

My claim was submitted on 9th June with NIB not getting in contact with me until 19th June. I received an email stated they would reimburse me for the expenses within five days but had no mention regarding my luggage. After sending another email, NIB pretty much said that the luggage has been misplaced, not lost, therefore it was not their problem.

As of 28th June, my luggage has not been returned and have not been reimbursed by NIB for the expenses.

Overall, I've had a terrible experience with NIB and cannot recommend this product to anyone under any circumstances. Not only they were no help in assisting me during my trip but I found there customer service to be poor and distasteful. Not only where they extremely delayed in 'helping' me but all emails received by them felt like I was talking to a machine or robot. Unfortunately no numbers provided by them worked in attempting to contact them whilst overseas.

Please avoid NIB. Find another travel insurance company who will take care for you.

Terrible to deal with and will ask you to investigate instead them – I have got the top insurance with this company for international travel and my flight was delayed and I returned back home after one day . Called them to explain and was advised that I’m eligible for a refund and to lodge all documents. After couple weeks received an email to request for me to follow up with the airline and get written… Read more

information why the plane was delayed.Isn’t it for them to investigate instead the customer? So bad customer service they just swiped everything under the carpet and made it difficult for me to claim anything back . I have paid the top dollar for this insurance.

super disappointed, felt ripped off , will never use this company again ever .

They need to resolve this for people it’s just not fair ,I will take this further.

Worst Travel Insurance Company Experience - EVER!!! – December 2022 we flew to Vancouver, our connecting flight was cancelled due to extreme snow storms. We had no option but to stay in a hotel for 2 nights until we could get on a bus to travel the remainder of our journey (no flights available due to the extreme weather and backlog of stranded customers). When we returned home and lodged a claim… Read more

it took months to get a response. First we had to get written proof from the domestic carrier that the flight had been cancelled, Once that was finally provided we received a response from NIB refusing to pay for our hotel accommodation as it had not been 'pre booked'. Why would you pre book a hotel when you had no intention of staying in one! Seriously angry about this decision.

Do Not take this insurance! – They are the worst. They are happy to tell you how you will be covered for delays and expenses in your international travels. We are a party of 3 that got delayed in Auckland for 3 nights due to airline issues and then were waiting for 13 hours for connecting flights in Satiago de Chile. However, when we returned home to Australia and place a… Read more

claim for our expenses and loss of paid accommodation the claim was denied since it was not the right reason according to their policy. Basically, they will never pay you for any claims since they are lots of loop holes for them to fall back to. Better save your money just in case you have unexpected expenses.

Disgraceful company to deal with – On the advice of the travel agency, i purchased NIB Comprehensive Insurance for travel to Europe for September/October 2022. Half way through the trip my husband got Covid. I immediately contacted NIB and was told to return to Australia after the mandatory isolation period, which meant cancelling the rest of our trip. I lodged a claim in October. … Read more

Over the last six months, at least five different people have been looking after my claim, requesting further documentation or previously submitted documents. I sent numerous emails, none were replied to. Mid February, I received a request for more documentation, saying our claim would be finalised within 10 working days. Two weeks later, another request for documentation, again saying the claim would be finalised within 10 working days. At the end of March I contacted the NIB complaints department and was told an update would be provided within 3 days, but all i got was another request for previously submitted documents, with the same statement that the claim would be finalised in 10 working days.

Dreadful. Be very wary – I would give zero stars if I could. Submitted a claim 22/12/22. After 2 months had passed we attempted to phone several times for an update however wait times on hold are way too long to remain waiting. Finally on 06/03/23 we received an email from a member of the claims team requesting further details which I provided the same day. 07/03/23 this… Read more

was acknowledged by email and we were advised our claim had been passed to the clinical team and a response was expected from them by the end of that week. Having heard nothing by 16/03/23 I followed up with an email to that same staff member asking if there was any update. No response. 24/03/23 I emailed again trying to elicit an update. No response. 28/03/23 I again requested an update and advised that I was about to lodge an official complaint. No response. 29/03/23 I lodged an offical complaint with NIB insurance which was acknowledged the same day with advise that the standard practise is to respond within 10 business days. Nothing. 15/4/23 I advised NIB Complaints Section that I will now be escalating this to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. And here we are on 18/04/23 and still no response. Simply unbelievable, disappointing and unprofessional. I’ve never had difficulties with any company in the past and am saddened that I have to go to these lengths even to to get basic courtesy from NIB let alone an actual resolution. No one likes to complain because we worry that will affect receiving a favourable outcome but we are four months since our claim was submitted and well past a month since we were advised our claim should be completed. It is ridiculous.

Paid for full coverage and got zero customer service in return – Rude customer service, asking 'what do you want from me?!' is not very professional nor sympathetic towards an already dire situation. I am happily using a different company with five star customer service. NIB travel insurance frankly sucks. Show details

Use at your discretion . Woeful service. No star from me – My airline didn't show up during my trip between states and I had no idea until I showed up at the airport so I did the right thing and booked another airline and kept all my receipts for another flight and an extra night stay in the city after being left stranded and NIB still didn't pay my claim because they wanted a letter from the airline that… Read more

left me stranded stating WHY they didn't show up! I have never in my life of travel heard of an airline having to do this and NIB did not care . I tried to get that letter from the airline and naturally got no response and even after contacting my travel agent she was astounded that NIB asked for such a request! They kept coming up with excuses and every time I tried calling them I was on hold for a minimum of 45 minutes. I have told every single person I know who travels including my travel agent to not use them and I am 4 figures out of pocket . I had a great holiday but NIB left a sour taste in my mouth the way they treated me. Stick to health insurance and leave travel insurance to the experts because you have no empathy for your customers whatsoever!! My claim took over 5 months to resolve and never did anyone from NIB call me. I always had to chase them up and I only received emails from them asking for all these ridiculous documents which I had never heard of in previous claims. I was very confident my claim would be paid but astounded it was declined . I have used them once but never again and no friends and family of mine will either .

Woeful 'on-line' claims capability – Took out travel insurance from Qantas underwritten by NIB. Tried to lodge a claim by downloading the and completeing the claims form, attaching evidence as required, then emailing to email address they provide. That was 4 months ago and four calls later and 4 resends of the email - nothing, crickets! Each very friendly claims person says they… Read more

haven't got the email or that the email protection software wont let it get through and that I should resend and they promise to get back to me (just like the person before them). Now told to mail it in. What is the point of a downloadable form that can't get past their email screens? As a business strategy to keep claims costs down this is absolutely brilliant!

Pathetic! This 'Comprehensive' plan is as useful as toilet paper! – Having purchased a product called comprehensive, I expected more. Whilst island hopping on our honeymoon in New Caledonia, our airline cancelled our flight due to a technical safety reason. This seems like a practical and common reason. We were delayed more than 6 hours and had to cancel our accommodation as we could not reach our next… Read more

destination. We also booked alternative accommodation at our own cost. Upon our return we lodged our claim, and after 3-4 weeks we were finally advised our claim was rejected. We were told we could not claim for travel delay, cancelled accommodation or our alternative accommodation as the PDS did not deem a technical safety issue as a valid reason. What a joke! NIB include superfluous reasons such as being summoned for jury duty, being retrenched from employment, or even the cancellation of a wedding, sporting event or concert?? However, if an airline makes a call for passenger safety to cancel a flight due to a technical reason... NIB don't deem this important! Avoid at all costs!!