The words travel and insurance put together sound reasonable but it’s not always clear when you might need to consider it and if you do, what to look for. My live chat guest today can clear up the somewhat hazy subject of travel insurance so you can ultimately be more secure in your travels.
As the Global Product Marketing Manager for World Nomads, Katrina Greeves keeps their travel insurance program relevant, competitive and accessible to English speaking travelers from over 140 countries. A traditionally trained marketer with a tourism background, Katrina translates insurance speak into language travelers understand. She also listens and connects with travelers to develop travel services to support their passions, envisaging new ways to sell online and coding just enough HTML to make the web developers sweat.
The chat is now closed, thank you everyone for joining!
Katrina will be online later tonight from the future, in Sydney, Australia (where World Nomads is based) to answers all of your questions about what travel insurance covers, the costs, and when you may not need it. What’s been confusing you about travel insurance shouldn’t be for much longer – ask away in the comments below.
Hi everyone, Katrina will be logging in later today but you can begin submitting your questions below. They’ll appear once the chat goes live. Thanks and chat with you soon!
Hi everyone.. this is such a big question as it can be quite a personal decision. The more info you can provide (e.g where you are from), the easier it will be to try to answer your questions. And by the way… I am a travel insurance specialist, not health insurance or car insurance (although I’ll try my best). Cheers!
Thanks for joining Katrina, I look forward to the discussion.
Hi Dave, it really depends on what insurance you buy. The prices vary so much, depending on what’s included in the cover, how long you’re travelling for, what options/upgrades you buy. On the flip side: imagine how much your bank account might cry if something happens to you (which could be covered by insurance) and you have to pay for it yourself!
From Facebook, Doug Crets asks:
“Please ask about what is the best way to get car insurance when you travel abroad (aka Africa). I recently had an experience where the car we were driving was damaged, and we later found out we were not covered for tires or windscreen.
This ended up costing us $500+”
Going to assume you hired the car, so usually you would get insurance for damage to the car when you rent it from the agency. It’s not common to buy car insurance separately for rentals – the rental car company likes this income!
Just be aware: all insurance plans (car insurance in particular) have what’s called an excess. That means you might have to pay a large amount first, before the insurance kicks in to pay the rest. Check the excess (also called a copay or deductible) and policy conditions first before you commit – you need to know this so there are no surprises if you do need to use it. You might be able to pay more to buy this excess out (i.e reduce it to $0), but you have to decide if that’s worth it.
Finally, with travel insurance, some plans do offer to pay for the excess only. So if you damage the car (and you cannot claim the damage anywhere else) the travel insurer might be able to pay for the excess amount you are liable to pay, then the car insurer will pay the balance. This is only possible if you buy the car insurance policy as well. If you don’t have the car insurance, the travel insurance cannot help you.
Hi everyone, Katrina should be online shortly… I got the times a bit confused (always happens when I convert anything to and from Sydney time – even if I’m in Sydney) but we’re good to go for the next 3 hours!
One of the biggest questions I get is when do you really need to get travel insurance?
Big question, which actually needs another question to go with it:
If you can afford to travel, can you afford to pay for everything that might happen to you if you don’t buy insurance?
You might say “I’m a healthy person… nothing will happen to me” but what if you’re seriously injured while travelling? The costs for overseas medical treatment, ambulances and an emergency medical repatriation home can cost over $100,000+
Do you, or your family, have that kind of cash up your sleeve? (not to mention having to deal with foreign hospitals and working out how to get help)
Take a read of the true claims stories for some examples of when travel insurance can (and to be straight, sometimes can’t help): https://www.worldnomads.com/claimstories.aspx?keyword=aneurysm&type=general
Do you buy travel insurance each time you travel?
Hi Kira,
Well right now, I am covered under my company policy if I travel for work or my own trips. So, luckily I don’t have to buy insurance each time I travel at the moment.
But, before I worked for World Nomads, I did buy travel insurance every time I travelled overseas. I would never travel without it based on my personal experiences.
And I am not just saying that now as I work for an insurance provider: in my past, I’ve paid for it and not used the insurance cover, yet other times I have had to use it to pay for an accidental injury and it was invaluable.
All travel insurance plans might look the same on the outside (at first glance), but it’s what’s under the hood that can make the difference in the cover you get for the price you pay.
Also be aware: it depends on who is selling you the insurance cover. Travel insurance via an agent (even online agents) might be paid a commission by the insurer which is then built into the premium. So you might be paying up to 30% more for the same cover, just because you can buy it through an agent.
We’re an online provider, so we try to keep our premiums competitive around the world as we don’t work with agents to sell you the product. We do work with other online companies who like what we do and who might refer you to us, so we say thanks with a little referral fee, but that’s already built into our prices, so you’d pay the same if you came to us direct to worldnomads.com
What are some of the best options for electronics coverage when traveling?
Anil, “best options” are kind of hard to define!
There’s so many options to cover your gear when you travel and it really depends on what you’re taking with you. Some considerations:
– Look at the single item value covered under the policy. Most policies will limit the cover for each item and then provide a total limit for all items you take (and sometimes items that need to work together are considered one item, like camera’s and camera lenses)
– Sometimes you can upgrade the cover to increase the per item limit (and pay a little more). This might then provide more cover for the full value of your electronics than the standard policy might.
– Excesses/deductibles/co-pays may apply, so the full value of your gear may not be completely covered as you might be liable for up to $100 and the insurer may then pay the remainder.
– Be aware of depreciation. Some insurers will apply depreciation to your electronics. They may not tell you how much this is, so you can ask if you’re really concerned.
– so some policies might limit your cover or excluded cover completely if you leave them behind on the table while you get a coffee at Starbucks; you leave it in the car unattended; you pack them in your bag for your flight; or you leave it on the table at a mate’s place and his flatmate takes it. Moral of the story is: take your gear with you at all times or lock it securely in a locked safe if you have to leave it behind.
Also, read your policy carefully for all of the terms and conditions of cover, so if something happens to your electronics, you wont be disappointed if you have to make a claim.
I thought my credit cards covered medical and emergency expenses? (I’m in the US)
Bill, your credit cards might! But, have you ever read the credit card insurer’s policy wording to know exactly what’s covered and what’s not covered?
Never assume you’re covered for all medical and emergency expenses under every situation unless that’s what the policy you have says specifically. It might also work as secondary cover, which means you might have to have health insurance as your primary cover first before you can claim on the secondary cover. There are always limits, conditions and exclusions to cover.
Also, consider what else you might need from insurance: like cover for cancellation, trip interruption, baggage, electronics etc which may not be included on the credit card policy.
What are some of the best ways to save on travel insurance?
Best advice is to shop around and compare what you get to find a policy that’s right for you. Some insurance providers (like us) will offer loyalty discounts to stay with them or publish promotional codes for special deals*.
We usually offer 2 plans, one slightly cheaper with slightly different coverage, plus options and upgrades so you can decide how much you want to pay, depending on the cover you want.
* unfortunately consumer law in the US and Canada prevent us from discounting insurance prices, so we cannot offer promotions or loyalty discounts like we can in other countries.
Can you elaborate on the last point? I don’t quite understand the restrictions on discounts. Thanks!
is it worth it to make small claims? like if i need antibiotics or such will they be covered? for major emergencies and death is travel insurance needed?
It depends on how much it costs and the reason why you need the antibiotics.
Firstly, if your policy doesn’t have an excess (see explanations given for what this is above), then it may be worth it for small claims. But, if there is an excess, then there is no cover for any claim under the excess.
Depending on what’s happened to you, if the antibiotics were prescribed by your treating doctor abroad to treat a condition you suffered while you were travelling, and the insurer’s medical team agreed with this decision, then you can make a claim for this expenses. Like this claim: https://www.worldnomads.com/claimstories.aspx?keyword=gastro&type=general
Be aware, some plans might restrict cover for treatment for medical conditions that you already know about, chronic or ongoing conditions or have received treatment for in the past before you bought the insurance. For example: if you needed the antibiotics because it was to maintain a course of treatment that was diagnosed before you left home, then the insurance might not cover this (depending on the terms of the policy).
For major emergencies and death while travelling… well that’s exactly the key reasons to buy travel insurance. The costs to repatriate your body home if you die can be $10,000+ or if you need emergency medical treatment abroad, then this can get into the $100,000s+ (not to mention the insurer’s emergency assistance team are there to help you (and your family) to arrange things like emergency transport, overseas medical treatment, referrals to the most suitable hospital depending on where you are in the world, pay bills direct to the hospital and coordinate the funeral home and repatriation of your remains back home.
Travel insurance can provide so much more than cash reimbursements, it’s peace of mind.
Can I get travel insurance after an injury?
Would you expect an insurer to pay for something that’s already happened if you didn’t have insurance already?
Short answer: No. There’s generally no cover if you buy insurance after you’r injured, sick or something has happened that you know you’ll want the insurer to pay for.
Insurance is for unexpected events and waiting periods might apply too.
How far in advance should a traveler get travel insurance? (Or I should rephrase, how last minute is it possible?)
You should consider buying travel insurance as soon as you start spending money on your trip. If you forget, you can buy it at the last minute (even if you’re already travelling/left home), however it’s likely there will be a waiting period on certain cover before full cover starts. E.g if you’re unlucky enough to have your gear stolen within the waiting period, then there’s no cover.
Katrina, could you tell us a little more about World Nomads, what you offer and why travelers should consider using you for their insurance needs?
how does the where you go influence rates
Where you go certainly influences the price you’ll pay for insurance.
For example: the cost for travel insurance to go to the USA is usually the highest rates, as usually US medical costs are larger than any other medical costs in the world.
why do you not cover some countries
There’s 2 sides to this:
1. Travellers from a certain country not being able to buy insurance for their trip
2. Not covering travel to a particular country or region
Not sure exactly which one of these 2 you mean, so I’ll answer both:
1. We work with many different insurers around the world who we choose carefully based on their expertise. They allow us to provide travel insurance to travellers from over 140 countries. For travellers from other countries not on our list, we can probably refer you to an insurer who will cover you. We choose not to cover some countries as generally we want to be able to offer competitive prices globally. For certain countries, unfortunately there is a high risk profile for fraud, which might mean the cost of policies for travellers in other countries has to go up to pay for this fraud. So instead, we choose to protect ourselves as much as possible from this happening and not sell in these countries. Sometimes also, we’re restricted from selling in certain parts of the world due to strict licensing or compliance requirements.
2. All of the plans we offer provide cover worldwide (but not within your country of residence, within 100 miles from home if you’re a US resident or within your home province for Canadians). However, if there is a travel warning not to travel in a particular country or region, then the insurance cannot cover you if you choose to go there anyway. This explains this in more detail: http://www.worldnomads.com/govtwarnings.aspx/prices.aspx#axzz2mSYe0leO
What are some of the strangest claims you’ve gotten?
Our favourite claim story is for an unfortunate traveller’s broken penis (or fraenulum to be medically precise): https://www.worldnomads.com/claimstories.aspx?keyword=broken+penis+(frenulum)&type=general
Another good one, although not strange, is for this shark attack (graphic pics and all): http://journals.worldnomads.com/true-claims-stories/story/81116/Indonesia/Shark-Attack#axzz2mSlmkVw5
I think one of the more confusing aspects of travel insurance for people is how to actually use it. So, what would the process be after say, breaking your leg in a foreign country?
If you broke your leg, then you can call the insurer’s 24/7 emergency assistance team to give you advice on what to do next. These contacts are given to you when you buy your policy.
The assistance team can tell you where the nearest, most suitable medical facility to go to for treatment (or perhaps you’ve done this already yourself) and give you advice on what your policy covers.
To assess whether there is cover available, your insurer needs you to provide them with certain documents to prove the expenses and what the doctor’s diagnosis is. For example: they’ll need your medical expense receipts and medical report from the hospital to be able to reimburse you/pay the hospital. Without this documentation, which perhaps only the hospital will give you (due to strict privacy laws they may not give it to the insurer direct), there may be delays in your claim.
They can also then guide you through who’ll pay for the medical expenses (e.g if the cost of the treatment is small they may ask you to pay and claim later, you may be asked to pay the excess to the hospital and they’ll arrange for the rest to be paid direct, or they’ll negotiate the rates with the hospital and pay the hospital direct).
Bottom line is: if you’re injured, in an accident, seriously sick or hospitalised, get in touch with your insurer’s assistance company and they’ll help you *(or your friends/family if you’re not well enough) to understand what to do next if you do need to use it. The policy can also explain this, if you care to read it.
You can also pay the expenses yourself upfront and make a claim. The insurer will then assess what’s happened to you against what the policy covers to decide if it is a valid claim. Here’s how we do it online: http://service.worldnomads.com/customer/portal/articles/945605-how-to-make-a-claim
What are some of the misconceptions surrounding travel insurance?
That it covers everything possible!
Travel insurance is not designed to do this. There are always conditions of cover, certain situations that are covered (and not covered), limits to cover and exclusions.
The policy wording/product disclosure statement/description of coverage for the policy you buy will give you the full details, so best to read this before you buy it and rather than just assume you’re covered.
What to look for when shopping for a good company?
Are there some countries (and health systems) where it doesn’t make sense to get travel insurance?
Well, that’s really up to you to decide. Travel insurance is a personal choice. What I might want or the place I go to, might be different to you. The risks I am willing to take also will be different. Sure, some countries don’t charge a lot for medical treatment. However, if you choose not to take out travel insurance, then you’re accepting the risks to cover all of your expenses and you’ll have to fend for yourself if something goes wrong.
In your opinion, the question I should be asking you??
Nice question Rebecca! Hmm…
Why not ask me a specific question about some of the concerns you have about travelling abroad and how insurance might be able to help you?
We recently interviewed a traveller who had bought a policy with us and her main concern was getting hijacked on her travels in South America. So she went looking for an insurance policy to cover her if that happened to her as one of her friends told her some horror stories about this happening.
(note: not all of the plans we offer cover hijacking, so check the policy you choose carefully first if this is something you’re specifically looking for).
I’m also traveling to South America and mostly worried about my backpack or valuables being stolen. How can I prove my laptop was stolen, what if I’m not given an official police report, etc?
An official police report is usually essential to be able to independently verify the theft to make a claim on your policy. If you’re not able to get an official police report (perhaps it was the police that stole it – it happens!) or they won’t give it to you in writing, then the best thing to do is make sure you fully document everything that happened in writing including your efforts to try to get the police report or reasons why you couldn’t. You should also get other independent third parties like travel providers/hotel receptionists to verify what happened e.g if it was stolen from your hotel room. Remember: its really hard to get these reports if you’ve left the country where it happened, so this should be a priority and ideally done within the first 24 hours of your gear being stolen.
What’s typically NOT covered by trav insurance..
Also, are there any easy ways to simplify the fine print nobody ever reads ?
Well actually, when our insurers let us, we do try to simplify the policy wording (call it “fine print” if you want) to make it easier to understand. We’re travellers ourselves, so we try really hard to put insurance terms in language other travellers understand. Unfortunately, insurance is highly regulated (like in the US), so we’re not able to do this on all plans we offer or on parts of our website, despite wanting to.
We also try to summarise the main points of coverage when you get a quote, but again, that’s just a summary and the policy wording has to go into the detail. We try to do this in language traveller’s understand, however sometimes the insurance compliance people get gittery about this. It’s all a balance between what we can say and what people actually read/understand – sometimes it’s hard to fulfill both.
Basically insurance is complex, so it’s not easy to simplify it. It’s written for insurers (by insurance people) to be able to review what’s happened to you and allow them to decide if the policy intended to cover this, based on what the policy terms and conditions allow. Most of the time it’s written in “insurance speak” (which takes practice to understand, even by the professionals), so if there is anything you don’t understand, do ask.
Hi Dave,
I’ll have to say “it depends” on lots of factors, like what’s happened to you, as each case can be really different as to what’s covered or not covered under travel insurance.
Insurance is made for certain incidents like accidents, emergencies, cancellations due to bad weather and so on… yet, there will always be conditions and exclusions that will apply based on the policy you have bought.
Insurance is generally not made for things like:
– expenses that have been refunded by someone else, like your travel provider (that’s called profiting from your insurance aka fraud)
– expenses you would ordinarily have everyday e.g food or prescription medications to treat an ongoing condition (unless you’re stuck in hospital, so that’s an extra expense you wouldn’t normally have if they charge you for your meals/prescribe you meds)
– illegal or intentional acts e.g if you hit your mate and he sues you
– putting yourself at risk e.g you’re drunk walking down the middle of the road and you’re hit by a car
– not taking reasonable care of your stuff (e.g you walk away from your bag in the crowded airport, even if you might think you’ve got your eye on it, and someone steals it)
– anything else that’s listed on the general or specific exclusions on the policy wording. Sorry, you’ll have to read the policy to find out all of the details.
I’m under 18 – not an adult – do I need travel insurance?
Hi Marta – I would suggest you should consider getting travel insurance, no matter how young or old you are.
Since prescription drugs aren’t covered by many travel insurance policies, what’s the best way to get them taken care of – especially if you’re traveling for a longer period of time?
If you’re taking prescription drugs to control an ongoing condition, then that’s an expense you’d usually have, even if you weren’t travelling. Usually travel insurance is usually not designed to cover expenses you’d ordinarily have (i.e. not unexpected). However, if it’s for a condition that’s covered under the insurance policy and drugs prescribed by your treating doctor overseas, then there may be cover. Again, it depends on the policy you buy.
For those of us traveling long-term like Anil, how can we go about travel insurance or regular health insurance for that matter? Thanks in advance
Andy,
We try to get our insurers to understand the needs of long term travellers like you and Anil, and build this into the plans we offer, but they still need to define who can be covered on the policy, which can add restrictions like limiting the total time you’re travelling, particularly if you’re never intending to return home.
Basically, travel insurance is not meant to cover you for your long term health insurance needs. That’s what expat health insurance companies, like Bupa International do. So for expats and longer term travellers, you might want to consider 2 policies:
1. expat/international health insurance for your medical needs, which can also cover non-emergency treatment travel insurance wont; and
2. travel insurance for everything else travel related like interruptions, cancellations, repatriation, personal liability, baggage etc.
Travel insurers also need to know your country of residence. If you’re constantly travelling, this is usually the country where you’re a citizen or permanent resident and want to return back to if something happened to you and you couldn’t keep travelling.
Here’s some advice we give on how to choose where you reside for travel insurance purposes (just choose the countries you live in and/or are a citizen to get the advice for you): http://service.worldnomads.com/customer/portal/articles/1063080-what-is-my-country-of-residence-
To be able to tell what cover you might be eligible to buy, just ask as us/your insurer as this can vary from one policy to another, so check this carefully.
A quick note that we’ve got about 45 minutes left in the chat, be sure to post your question if you’ve got one!
Travel insurance horror stories. Go.
Hi Dave,
If you mean when travel insurance cannot help and people get upset, then just Google “bad travel insurance reviews” and you’ll get a few rants. Most of the time it because the policy never covered what happened/the expenses in the first place, yet the traveller assumed it would.
However, if you mean horror travel stories where travel insurance can help, then here’s a few over the years: http://journals.worldnomads.com/true-claims-stories/#axzz2mSlmkVw5
How prevalent is travel insurance fraud?
Unfortunately fraud is common for medical and baggage claims in particular. It means that the insurance premiums go up for everyone because of a few dishonest people.
Since you work in the industry, what’s one thing you would change about it?
Encourage more insurers to be more adventurous in their travels and to learn to communicate using common language (ok, that’s 2 things!) Then they’d understand how to provide cover for real world, off the beaten track situations that travellers (not tourists) find themselves in.
We’re all adventurous travellers here at World Nomads, so we constantly have to explain to our underwriters things like when you’re travelling in Chile or Laos, your bags might be considered “checked-in” when they’re thrown up on the roof and they don’t give you a baggage receipt; or perhaps “off-piste” skiing is ok if you’re within the resort boundaries and it’s an open and safe run.
As we’re getting to the end of this month’s live chat, I want to thank all of you for participating and submitting your questions – plus thank Katrina for setting aside some of her time to help us better understand how travel insurance works.
For your own insurance needs you can check out World Nomads. You can also find World Nomads on Twitter @WorldNomads as well as like them on Facebook.
Thank you again Katrina and all of you. I look forward to our next live chat in early January. Now I’m off to Sibiu, Romania… the Best City to Visit in 2013, voted by, you!