World Nomads Travel Insurance - Standard Plan

LOST? – World Nomads are the last travel Insurance Company I would use after my experience with them. They refused to look at my situation nor listen to my story. I had previously had travel insurance with 1Cover and they were so helpful. I should not have changed. My claim was minor as my backpack was put on the wrong bus and I tried to get it back but… Read more

couldn't find the company. I put in a claim for replacement of the phone charger and ear pods and this was refused as they said it was lost and they didn't cover that. So what is the point of insurance if you can't claim lost items (that isn't your fault)??

Login broken – I used WorldNomads for close to 30 trips over 10 years, but it looks like this company has gone downhill in the last couple of years. Their website doesn't even let me login any longer, and yes I tried different browsers and even different laptops. It accepts username and pw, but no longer shows previous insurance policies or even user name. I… Read more

also reset password to make sure that wasn't the problem, but still the same issues. Thank god I never had to make a claim as it seems this would have likely been unsuccessful based on all the other user reviews.

For Scuba divers joining a Liveaboard!! – If you are a scuba diver joining a liveaboard and looking to get your equipments covered by this insurance, LOOK someplace else. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME and MONEY getting it from World Nomads!!! I'm extremely disappointed with World Nomad’s / AIG’s handling of my claim for my damaged scuba diving equipment which is a Seac BCD. The whole point of… Read more

purchasing insurance was to ensure that I would be covered in case of such incidents. However, when I filed my claim, they denied it, asking for the BCD receipt from which I purchased years ago. Ridiculous! This experience has left me feeling frustrated and cheated, as I specifically chose their policy for the coverage it promised. I will definitely be looking for a more reliable and transparent insurance provider in the future. I should have chosen DiveAssure instead. Pay a little bit more and GET covered for accidental damage to your gear.

Claim denied – Claim denied after trip cancellation due to an emergency presentation the day of the flight. The insurance claim is denied because the condition is pre-existing despite never having been treated or diagnosed. Symptoms of abdo pain existed prior to going into Hospital therefore it was considered pre-existing. I am disappointed as I have used World… Read more

Nomads many times and will now carefully review all travel insurers PDS. The old saying "Insurance is great until you make a claim". The funny thing is the claim was approx $2000 in total and I usually spend $500 on travel insurance most years. I love travel and adventure and this was my first ever claim. I will invest my money elsewhere to ensure cover when I need it. Happy travels and please always read the PDS thoroughly

Massive Loophole Warning – Conditions that are "similar", but unrelated to, a condition that was subject to a previous claim ARE NOT COVERED.  In their own words: "If you were to develop a new stomach condition not related to the previous stomach issue but a similar condition you would not be covered due to it would be considered pre-existing unless it was due to an… Read more

injury or something totally unrelated." 

This is a shocking and appalling loophole, especially for a policy that is marketed towards long term travellers, who are likely to get separate but "similar conditions" - such as stomach issues, the most common travelers' ailment.  This company is unethical and anyone who promotes it without mentioning this loophole is irresponsible.  I can only assume they didn't know.  World Nomads will not provide any further details on how they define a "similar condition", so maybe save your one claim for any condition for something life-threatening/expensive.  Of course they don't issue any refunds after policy holders have discovered this loophole the hard way - it certainly is not explicitly stated anywhere in the policy!!  Who would buy it if it was?  I have confirmed this loophole multiple times, so I know it wasn't just one agent giving incorrect information.

They will not actually help you. They did nothing – When I try to make a claim online (at the world nomads website), I kept getting the following message: "Download & complete a claim form. Unfortunately, this type of claim is not yet supported online." So then I tried to find a phone number to call and tried to call this number twice: 1-844-207-1930 But both times I was told by the TripMate… Read more

agents that they can't help me make a claim through World Nomads. (They don't have access to the membership dashboard.) They also said that World Nomads doesn't have a phone number.

I tried finding every email I could and reaching out to them. Eventually, 3 days later, someone from TripMates got back to me. I told that correspondent about my claim and attached all my files. Then, when I hadn't heard back from them for 46 days, I sent another email asking for anyone to help me. Then 2 days after that, someone finally replied and told me to forward the required documents. I had already attached all the documents in a prior email, but I sent all of them along again anyways. Then, 23 days later, I received an email that attached a document, which said the following: "After careful consideration, we have determined the reason provided for your claim is not covered under the post departure benefits (i.e. trip interruption, travel delay or missed connection) underwritten by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company."

There is no further information provided. They did not explain why they determined my claim was not covered.

(If you've done the math, I spent over 75 days trying to get help before finally just getting my claim rejected.)

This is pretty unreasonable considering my travels and trips were in fact interrupted and delayed due to a stolen passport.

(You can review the plan policy I was given in their PDFs available online at their website.)

Under the section entitled: NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY TRAVEL PROTECTION INSURANCE POLICY GENERAL DEFINITIONS

Hazard means: c) Any delay due to lost or stolen passports, travel documents or money, Quarantine, hijacking, unannounced Strike, Natural Disaster, civil commotion or riot;

Then, under the COVERAGES section, it says:

TRIP DELAY The Company will reimburse You for Covered Trip Delay Expenses, up to the Maximum Benefit shown on the Schedule of Benefits, if You are delayed, while coverage is in effect, en route to or from the Trip for six (6) or more hours due to a defined Hazard.

Covered Trip Delay Expenses: (a) Any pre-paid, unused, non-refundable land and water accommodations; (b) Any Reasonable Expenses incurred. You must provide the following documentation when presenting a claim for these benefits: a) Written confirmation of the reasons for delay from the Common Carrier whose delay resulted in the Loss, including but not limited to, scheduled departure and return times and actual departure and return times.

Surely changed flights due to a stolen passport should qualify under any reasonable travel insurance policy plan. But I am now out thousands of dollars in flight tickets due to this stolen passport and unreasonable travel insurance.

I would never recommend World Nomads to anyone. In fact, I would actively discourage everyone from World Nomads.

No point to the insurance, they won't help when needed. Better keep the money – I had used World Nomads (WN) in the past several times. Since I never had any problem in my travels, I never needed to activate the insurance. Well, everything changed this time. 1st I had an ear problem midway into my journey, my ear was completely shut after snorkeling and I lost almost all earning: anyone that experienced this before knows how… Read more

impairing this is. I decided to contact WN to go to a nursing facility. Well, the answer got back and they would only cover medical treatment in excess of 70 euros, needing me to go to a medical doctor. Suffice to say that since what I needed was a treatment in a nursing home that would be about 60 euros. There was no point.

Anyway, this was the small problem. I thought, maybe it was my fault since I didn't read all the legalese that said they wouldn't pay medical intervention up to 70 euros.

Now, the problem was coronavirus. I bought the trip and the insurance and started the trip when COVID 19 wasn't a pandemic. It was a disease constricted to a province in China. Well, oddly enough WN doesn't cover any expense related to it, since, according to them, the virus was already an epidemic in China when I bought the insurance. See, if there is an epidemic anywhere in the Globe, let's say in Brazil, and you are going to a totally place, let's say Russia. World Nomads will not pay you anything about it in case it becomes an epidemic.

I ended up having to pay all my extra flight expenses I incurred due to having to get an earlier flight before the borders closing.

Bottom line: There's no point to buy this insurance. They will get their way out of anything, so better keep the money to yourself.

Scam insurer – Scam company. The policy wording and agreement documents are misleading and should be illegal. I am making a formal complaint. This is the second time i have booked the first time i had no issue and i'm lucky because I was doing Everest. Had anything happened to me i'd probably be dead they wouldn't pay out and i now know that. The second time… Read more

they refused to pay me for items lost in checked luggage despite it being locked. Travel insurance is supposed to protect you!! DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS SCAM COMPANY. They will find any way not to pay you. My items were taken from my locked bag on a Qantas flight and somehow thats not covered??

One star just because zero is not an option – I am quite disappointed for the process I went through with claiming my damaged and lost items. I barely received feedback from World Nomads, all the communication was really slow and I have not received the assistance I needed or a reimbursement back. I have been talking with the customer service for 3 months and they were keeping asking me the… Read more

same kind of questions; in the last email they asked me details it was not possible to provide anymore. After all, I have to say that taking the insurance with World Nomads it was just a waste of money and I definitely will not take any deal anymore with this company. I feel I have been cheated, this is not the kind of assistance I was expecting. Important to know, if that is not a fraud: as normally happens with the insurances there is an excess applicable to your policy, but... World Nomads takes one claim per damaged/lost item and every time they count the excesses separately. Ofc the purpose is to make every claim under the excess amount. This is crazy, the excess amount should be exceeded just one time per package you buy. If my health insurance would follow the same philosophy of WN I would have died many times already.

Stay Away From World Nomads! – Stay Away From World Nomads! As I can see from previous reviews I'm not alone. DON'T buy insurance with World Nomads, they don't answer the phone, I left my number for a call back but they haven't, I've filled out online enquiries but they don't respond. Loads of bad reviews in the last few weeks for this insurer. STAY AWAY from world nomads. 15… Read more

years I have been paying for insurance with them, thankfully my first need to claim is not leaving me $1000s out of pocket . Stay Away From World Nomads!

Bad choice – As they are a recommendation of Lonely Planet I purchased travel insurance for years with them, did not need it until my last trip. I had problems with my visa in Africa when crossing the border from South Africa to Namibia, so I needed to organize another mean of transportation, but they refused to pay for it. On the same trip my brand new bag… Read more

got damaged, I filled out the claim, it took a while untill they reacted, finally I got a compensation of 5 USD for it, sent them a message if it was a joke but they did not bother to reply. Big disappointment, so I will check other insurance companies in the future.

Not satisfied AT ALL – I've signed a standard family policy for a 2 weeks sailing trip in the Caribbean. My flight from Europe was delayed 27 hours, I've lost one hotel night in St Martin, I had to re-book additional four flight tickets to fly into the Caribbean and I've lost one full day of boat rent. On the way back we had an unplanned airplane stop-over and 3 more… Read more

hours of delay.

According to the T&C (Terms & Conditions) of World Nomads I was eligible for a reimbursement of 0€ and 0cents!

Specifically they also said "that the insurance cannot be held liable for any unused accommodation or no-show fees".

I forgot one more point: it takes 1 minute to sign your contract online and be invoiced, but my request was replied after 40 days.

I strongly suggest to look for something else on internet. The coverage is really weak, and in the "summary table" they are not mentioning anything related to my type of issue (which on my opinion is one of the cornerstones of having a travel insurance).

I strongly recommend to look for any other provider on the market.

Avoid it at all cost – Do not I repeat, do not spend money on the "insurance." Save yourself precious time headaches and finances. I purchased around a dozen times their travel insurance and only I did one claim (which obviously was not covered).. Once I claimed a delay baggage etc and they found anyway possible not to pay anything as advertised. This time I had a very… Read more

bad accident, mauled by a monkey in Oct 2018. I sent receipts etc already six times and still being emailed back telling me either they don’t see it, they don’t understand the pic is unclear etc etc. The time and energy wasted is beyond unprofessional. Also they saved a lot of money because, as we all know in many developing countries, you can’t have receipts so the claim is a partial claim. I will never ever purchase insurance and worse yet, I will tell my many students studying abroad not to do it and I will definitely spread my story. Complete misrepresentation of the service they are all about marketing and young folks sponsored by this company LONELY PLANET you shold do your research (I am a researcher) and see the real reviews

If anyone needs me, I’ll be emailing World Nomads. Again – Since the last outdated review, this company is still standing on ceremony... unceremoniously. First time experience. I filed a claim six weeks ago. One-line emails from the claims department failing to explain the process efficiently and professionally. Chasing after staff and management continuously from nearly 10,000 miles away, with no… Read more

reply from management and often times, 3-4 days in between email replies from claims department. No updated information on the portal. I ask questions and they go unanswered. I'm in the same time zone as Australia, but their "system" forces me to deal with offices in America. When it comes to conflict resolution and informing their customers on their services, they are clearly nomads themselves.

Since I could not get a proper, timely response, this seems to be the best way to get their attention: your service needs work. My experience leads me to believe the following: this company, with their trendy branding, hip website and utter lack of substance, could not care less about the people they are supposed to serve.

Save yourself! – I made the mistake of relying on travel bloggers' recommendations for travel insurance and not reading these reviews prior to purchasing. My experience has been similar to most of the 1-2 star reviews. The original claim form only requested medical receipts, which I submitted May 29th. On June 14th, I received an email requesting more… Read more

documentation. Had I known this information was needed, I would have submitted it with my original claim form instead of wasting two weeks waiting for the request. I responded to the email with all documentation on the 18th. On the 24th, I noticed my claim status online still reflected that they requested information and I had 21 days to respond, so I emailed back asking for confirmation that they received the info and asking for an approximate date that my claim will be processed.

By July 2nd, no one had responded to my emails so I attempted to call. I waited on hold for a long time (collecting international call fees) and could not even use their call back feature since I had an international number. I finally gave up and sent yet another email. Realizing this email address probably won't bother responding, I forwarded the email to another address I found online. The next day, I received an automated email stating the documentation I submitted had been received. What?? Where was it this whole time??

Today, July 6th, I receive an email (finally from a human) stating the attachments were not successfully sent in my email. Well yes, because I forwarded my original email to another address in hopes that someone would respond. I didn't realize the email address requesting the documents wouldn't bother sending the information to the email address that actually processes those documents.

So 5 weeks later, I have barely managed to get someone to ask me for my documentation again. All backpackers out there probably know what it would feel like to have no clue when/if a $2000+ claim will be processed. To add insult to injury, my travel insurance was going to expire soon after I originally submitted my claim, so I purchased another 3-month policy not knowing how terrible the experience was going to be. I don't know if I should be angry that I wasted more money on World Nomads, or hope I don't have another incident that I have to claim through them.

Update: it’s now July 27th, I had already submitted the last of what they requested from me, and I received an email stating I needed to resubmit my attachments. I was hoping to give them a chance and update my review, but I feel like I need to chop off the hand I got surgery on and mail it in to get just a tad bit closer to getting my claim processed.

Lying, cheating claims department – After my rental car was broken into during the day in France I did everything right. Reported it to Police, contacted the insurer and submitted my claim when I got home. I was required to pay for a translator to translate the police report into English otherwise they wouldn't accept the claim. After several weeks I was informed that I… Read more

couldn't claim the loss of my passports or high value items as they do not cover for those items stolen from cars. They gave me a measly few hundred dollars for the clothes that were stolen and wouldn't pay the rest of the claim.

When I pointed out the Policy refers to 'non-daylight hours' they said there was another clause excluding high value items and passports at ANY TIME.

The Policy document is 68 pages long and the clause they rely on is two lines long. The policy effectively covers nothing and is inconsistent with itself.

What is the point of insurance when you do everything right, pay huge fees and ask for help in an emergency?

You get nothing.

Do not insure yourselves with this company

Absolutely atrocious customer service – After dislocating and breaking my shoulder and damaging my rotator cuff in Australia, I began to submit a claim status for my injuries. The customer service was absolutely horrible - the after hours help line for their American subsidiary/partner, TripMate, was useless. They couldn't provide any information or help. Their emergency line hung up on… Read more

me when I asked who I could contact regarding questions about the claims forum as well. Rude & incompetent staff, not to mention that their online claim process isn't even online. They require you to print out numerous forms, assume international call costs, and provide non existent customer service during hours reasonable for someone living in Australia. It's like they've designed it to deter people from having the patience to actually submit a claim. It's pretty crappy having to wake up at ungodly hours with serious injuries just to get hung up on by some rude woman who doesn't feel like doing her job.

Would not ever recommend this company again. Unprofessional, poorly organized, and overly complicated claims process.

Phone got stolen and they say it's not covered – I used this company for over a year and only made a few medical claims, but a week before my trip ended, my bag which had my phone, credit card, and other ID in it was stolen on the beach in Barcelona. I was in the water but my friends were on the beach watching over our stuff and it was still stolen - they say they can't pay my claim because it… Read more

wasn't being supervised, but it clearly was. Am I supposed to bring my belongings with me into the water every time I go to the beach or a pool? They keep telling me that it wasn't supervised, when I've made it very clear that it was. I made a police report in Barcelona and have all the receipts and documents showing what was stolen. This is ridiculous, people get travel insurance for situations like just this. I won't be using this company again if they can't even protect my belongings when they get stolen. My laptop also got damaged because someone spilt water on it and they won't do anything about that because "mechanical malfunctions" aren't covered, even though it isn't just a random malfunction but a result of damage. I'm so exhausted trying to talk to this company and explain my situation as I always get the same response back and no help at all.

They are a scam company -they owe me around $6000 and haven't paid in four months – I took their coverage for medical and emergency evacuation. I am a US citizen. I have submitted the reimbursement receipts and proof of travel. They will keep deflecting and not paying you. They are interested in your money, not in actually being there when you need them, what they CLAIM they are there for. It's a scam company. Do NOT take… Read more

insurance from them. They are AWFUL and unethical. In the US they'd have a class action lawsuit against them, and I will now explore that option.

Worst Insurance company ever – World Nomads uses Tripmate (subsidiary) to handle your claims within the U.S. Customer service has no real clue as to what the claim adjuster is doing or how long your claim will take. They will ask for necessary medical information (of which you will have to fax several times) and drag out the process of your claim for months. The customer… Read more

service agents will send over expedite emails to the claims adjuster with no response. They will have you in limbo for months. They give you the impression that they have no real desire to close out your claim even when everything is verified and not pre existing. I have been waiting now for 3 months with no answers. Buyers "BEWARE"!!!!

!DONT! buy your trave insurance from WoldNomads! – Had my wallet stolen on a trip to Bali. I got a police report, mailed it to world nomads, but was sadly told that they policy was clear on the subject and that their wouldn't cover. I can't see the point of buying an insurance if their policy is to not cover theft of a wallet??? Completely useless.  Show details

Very good Insurance – I purchased World Nomads travel insurance for my next holiday in USA. About 20 days before departure, my wife had a medical problem (pregnancy complications) and Doctor said that she was unfit to travel. Then I was forced to cancel my trip. I immediately informed World Nomads sending them all the necessary documentation. They reimbursed me in a… Read more ·  1

couple of weeks . Claim procedure was very easy and clear. In my opinion World Nomads is a very serious company.

Emilio

Absolute crap! – I was assured at the time of the incident that my claim would be covered. After months of going back and forth. I was denied. I'm out over $5000 for a trip I never got to go on. Was the policy a good value, I don't think so since they didn't help my at all. I guess it was very easy to set up, but that's were it ended.  Show details

Severely broken wrist in USA, medical costs: $35,000USD+ – I severely broke my wrist in the USA after an accident. Rushed to hospital. Had x-rays, and after excruciating pain had extensive emergency surgery. It was a very stressful ordeal. Especially the financial aspect. I was grilled about my insurance because travel insurance is a foreign concept in the USA. In total it cost more than $35,000USD worth… Read more ·  1

in medical costs. All taken care of by world nomads. It was tough, but they helped guide me along the way and kept in prompt contact by email due to the time zone difference and calls being often impractical. Thank you very much for being there when I needed! I would definitely use world nomads again and would recommend to my friends and family.

Truly disappointing experience – I used to always highly recommend this Travel Insurance based upon the perceived coverage via their website super hype. I have taken out around 15 policies and have never made a claim. A month ago I did make a claim. I was sure the claim would be successful as this was a simple loss of an expensive electronic item via a common carrier (Taxi) . … Read more

This was the response

1)Firstly It took 10 days before the claim could be seen as registered in the personal insurance portal they provide. Until then there was no record of a claim being made. I then had to prompt them for a reply via an automated email form - it was only then shown as registered a few days later.

2) It was another 4 weeks before a response to my claim was provided ($500 was the expected maximum amount payable). The claim was declined as the loss had been "unsupervised" in a public area. What on earth is a supervised loss? The loss had been on a common carrier (Taxi) and was therefore in my opinion covered under the policy terms according to how I read the Policy. 3) I requested a review of the claim. Weeks later a person called my number in Australia. (minor point, but had they checked to see that another insurance policy had since been taken out a week earlier the caller should have known that I would be overseas again at the time of his call).4) On return I rechecked progress on the review of my claim and requested to speak to the same caller who had called my Australian number while away. The final response from Nomads was that I had not been covered for a loss.

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However, Policy Section 4.1 is ambiguous and open to misinterpretation.. "Theft, loss or accidental damage by a common carrier. We’ll cover your checked-in baggage and personal items if they are stolen, lost or accidentally damaged by a common carrier".

To me that reads - 1) IF STOLEN 2) IF LOST OR 3) ACCIDENTALLY DAMAGED BY A COMMON CARRIER.

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Wikipedia definition:

A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in civil law systems, usually called simply a carrier) is a person or company that transports goods or people for any person or company and that is responsible for any possible loss of the goods during transport.

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The item was in my possession and fully supervised until lost at the time of vacating the taxi. The item was lost, stolen or left behind on a common carrier. I had registered the loss with the taxi company moments (had the taxi fare receipt) immediately after seeing the taxi drive off. The item would have still been on the back seat. In addition I made a lost or stolen item report the next day at a local Police station. What more can be done when a genuine loss is experienced through a common carrier?

Trip Interruption - 3 months and endless circle of same requests. No refund – I had a trip interruption the first day of my travels due to the terrorist acts in Paris last November, so I changed my flight and returned home immediately. It has been three months since I opened a claim, with endless emails and requests for the same documentation that I have provided on 4 separate occasions. It seems like they are going through… Read more

a cycle of the same unnecessary requests (so they don't really have to refund me) but I don't get any responses back from their email support team. Every time I call they are currently still "investigating" - 3 months later!

Do not purchase their travel insurance – It has been over three months now and I am still waiting for my trip interruption and resumption payment to be confirmed. The whole process has been a never ending request for documentation (Even where documentation was not actually necessary for the claim, or has already been provided), agents clearly not reading my emails, unable to contact my… Read more

claims manager, miss-communications and conflicting messages from their staff, and even a couple of phone calls at 10pm at night in which my claims officer derided me. Absolutely shocking behaviour from this company, I was a long time user but will not be using them again.