World Nomads Travel Insurance Review
World Nomads Travel Insurance Review
ConsumersAdvocate.org
30 Customer Reviews - see all comments
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WorldNomads began as a personal website in 1997 and has since evolved into one of the most innovative travel insurance companies in the market, offering flexible policies for long-distance travelers and backpackers.
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Their insurance plans are specifically designed for independent travelers planning to engage in adventurous activities and wanting to ensure themselves and their gear.
- Recommended by travelers and guidebook publishers
- Purchase or add days to your coverage while traveling
- Coverage for digital gear & over 150 adventure activities
- Round-the-clock multi-lingual assistance worldwide
- A community of 97,000 travelers from 129 countries
- Insurance for international or domestic travel
- Covers for 200+ adventure activities
- Multi-lingual assistance team
Latest World Nomads Reviews
ABSOLUTELY AVOID this company. We bought a comprehensive policy to cover us in December '21, and we got quarantined in Iceland. We couldn't reach them by email, by phone, nothing. You just get a run around and even after we got back after 2 weeks, still no response or help, whatsoever. You will waste your time and money. They seem to pay these influencers, travel junkies, and bloggers for promotion. It's an absolute racket.
We learned the hard way that this a scam. The organization is misleading and will take any steps to make sure they find a reason to avoid your claim. They will never refund you for anything, even what falls within the claim, so you are better off not paying for insurance.
Can I give fewer than 1 star? Avoid World Nomads. They are a fraud. The only ones who like them are the travel bloggers they pay to write positive reviews. Their price is cheap, and you get what you pay for. I bought their insurance for a trip to Costa Rica. The day before my flight, I went for a covid test to return to the US, and tested positive. I felt well and thought it was a false positive. It was positive a second time and I was quarantined in Costa Rica. I had to pay for transportation, a covid hotel room, food, a doctor, etc. I called World Nomads as soon as I was quarantined. They did not help me. It took 4 days to get the wrong insurance papers, to the wrong department. Thank... Read More
I’m sure the pandemic has been hard for them. My issue is that I called them prior to making what should have been reimbursable expenses. Rather than tell me he didn’t know; the rep made it sound as if the emergency purchases would all be covered. I’ve left reviews and they asked me to email them but guess what? No response. Rather than purchase insurance, I’d put the money aside so you have that extra cash to cover any unexpected expenses. Personally, if I’m going to make a charitable donation, I’d prefer it go to refugees or abused animals, rather than big business. Bloggers who may get a commission, or at the very least, special consideration if any issues come up, seem to all be in... Read More
Bad faith insurance company. They have no intention of paying on your claim. When I had to cancel my trip due to a sudden change of employment, I submitted everything they asked for 3 times. They sent me email after email as if they never got my documentation. When I persisted and they ran out of ideas, they said they required proof that the company I had been hired by employees more that 25 people..... What? Just.... What? They never paid out my WHOPPING $240. They ultimately sent me a last message requesting proof of cancellation. No more than 3 minutes later they sent me a case closed, no further negotiations email. It sucks because travel agencies seem to trust these fakes and... Read More
Guess what? World Nomad outsources their insurance to Tripmate which you can look at 103 one star reviews on the web! They don't help by email or phone!
SAAirways out of business, clearly covered in the contract and they want me to provide proof of ticket cancelation from a company out of business that does not answer the phone.
Flat out scum!
Don't use World Nomads. Terrible experience. would give 0 stars if I could and am pursuing legal action. My son's gap semester (spring 2020) was run by Pacific Discovery, and they REQUIRED WORLD NOMAD travel disruption insurance. After Guatemala closed its borders and kicked all tourists out to battle Covid, Pacific discovery cancelled the remaining 60% of the trip and told all travelers to contact World Nomad for insurance coverage payments as the program itself would not cover. We have sent 10 letters, countless phone calls and emails, and detailed paperwork to continue to be told that World Nomad will not cover as the "quarantine" or "government action" clauses did not force... Read More
Don’t waste your money on World Nomads: Our planned trip was canceled by 1) the excursion provider, 2) the airline and 3) the country. The only way we could get our money back via World Nomads is if we illegally entered the country and then ask them to “rescue” us after we put ourselves at risk. Not worth it. Would give them zero stars if I could.
I know that we are in the midst of a pandemic, but World Nomads is not (fully) reimbursing me for my cancelled flights or the flights I had to purchase out of pocket to get to my home country. I’m beyond frustrated that they are offering me less that 20% of a total loss I’ve incurred due to this unforeseen circumstance. I thought situations like this were one of the reasons you bought insurance?! I don’t understand why insurance companies are allowed to operate if they don’t/can’t comply with the services they sell to customers.
I purchased insurance. Never received a confirmation email. I tried to email, call, tweet, contact via instagram and facebook messenger. LITERALLLY!!! I could not get through to anyone. How does that EVEN happen! I am infuriated.
I purchased a policy for an upcoming trip. They have my money, but I have yet to receive any information from them. I emailed them twice with complete info including confirmation of email addresses and phone numbers in case I gave incorrect info. I've called twice and waited until the auto answering service offered to take my number and return my call. It still hasn't happened. I'm VERY concerned about contacting them in case of emergency!
It has now been two hours that I have been on hold. What a joke. What? Do they only have one customer service rep? I know I won't get anywhere with them, but now it's the principal of it all! I am a frequent international traveler and have never had to use any insurance until now. Shame on the digital travel nomads who recommend this company!!!!
My family of four recently took a 5 and a half month trip around the world and chose World Nomads for our travel insurance based on "recommendations" from Nomadic Matt, Intrepid and others. We had our two daughters at the Royal Angkor Hospital in Cambodia and they provided all of the documentation we would need to make a claim. After spending hours uploading everything sans the kitchen sink, they would not process our claim until we could supply an Explanation of Benefits from our U.S. medical insurance provider (who does NOT cover travel, thus our paying for a travel insurance policy.) I did all that was asked and received an EOB stating that our US insurance paid $0.00 and then patiently... Read More
ABSOLUTE WORST TRAVEL INSURANCE COMPANY!!! DO NOT PURCHASE!!! We had our claim denied and our appeal denied for absolutely no reason. We have spent hours talking to World Nomads on the phone and by email and have not been able to resolve anything. World Nomads has turned our travel experience into a nightmare. I have never been so upset with a company in my life. Please do yourselves a favor and do not purchase from world nomads.
Terrible experience trying to get covered for a trip delay. I was stuck in San Fran for 24 hrs on my way to New Zealand. I missed my flight from Australia to New Zealand and had to buy new ones. Thinking this was exactly what trip insurance was for, I figured I'd be reimbursed for the flights. Well apparently they only cover trip delays if 1. it is due to the airport workers striking (umm... what?)2. weather delays greater than 24 hours. So we got no reimbursement and they were not super nice about it either. Very frustrating! Maybe they have better coverage for some things but not for trip delay or trip interruption. It's pretty ridiculous.
Too good to be true... After years of purchasing travel insurance with them, I finally found out that they're just like every other insurance agency on the market. Like so many, they claim to cover a plethora of possible issues but when the reality of an unfortunate bump in the road presents itself they bring up the asterisks and fine print to renege on coverage. Easy read: My flight was delayed past the boarding cutoff to a connecting flight outside of the network of the previous flight. The airline refused to pay for another flight despite they being at fault for the delay. Major (and expensive) trip interruption for transcontinental flights. Submitted claim and was denied because ,... Read More
We are traveling to the United Kingdom & Ireland June 2020 for only 12 days but are not doing any extreme sports only sightseeing on a bus and walking. Is there a cheaper price for no sports? Thanks, Toni Watson
The phone and claims service was terrible! I had a knee injury in Malawi and couldn't find a doctor there. I went to Tanzania and the doctor told me to hang in there. After I got to a country where they were able to perform MRIs (right after my country of coverage), they found out I had a meniscus fissure. Although my main insurance paid for most of it, the travel insurance did not want to be responsible for any of it. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM AT ALL! If you travel to a poor country, as I did, they will not reimburse you no matter how bad is your injury. Do not purchase them!
World Nomads insurance is very easy to purchase... but beware.
Make sure you look into who processes their claims for your home address. I failed to look into this, and as a result, had to deal with Global Excel for 15 months just to have them deny my claim (after World Nomads said it would be approved)
I would leave zero stars if I could. They are either completely incompetent or this is a scam. I just returned from a trip to Indonesia. I had an accident and wanted to see a doctor. I tried contacting World Nomads so that they could send me a list of clinics and was unable to reach them by phone. I called their toll free international number from several phones and it would not go through. Then I emailed them. Since they say they are available, I assumed I would get an immediate response. An hour after sending my first email and hearing nothing, I sent another email. Still radio silence. I look for any other way to get in touch with them -- another email address, facebook, twitter.... Read More
Having to extend my holiday trip into the Us, I have decided to subscribe a policy with World Nomads.
After 10 days I started having a pain in one ear, associated with a cold.
I wrote to the travel insurance (being concerned also for any problems that could arise to the eardrum during the fly back to my country),
they replied that they would MAYBE consider to pay me back a medical visit
provided that I sent them a copy of my passport: over the Internet...are you joking ??
(And what else you need.... some school leaving certificate ?)
I think I am going to pay a medical visit out of my pocket and in the future I would stay very far from World Nomads
Extremely BAD customer service and service as a whole. I have purchased Worldnomads and unfortunately had to submit a claim. I called them at the time of my emergency and I was transferred to a third party who had no idea what my policy does or doesn't cover. I couldn't get in touch with them at all and didn't receive any support. The website is terrible, not user friendly at all. When you're logged into your account you CAN NOT see your claim NEITHER your policy. I had an ongoing active policy and when clicking on "my policy" on the website would prompt me that I didn't have one. I submitted my claim and called 14 days after to check and see the processing times, since again when you... Read More
I was mauled by a monkey with serious injuries in October and still finding excuses not to cover any expenses, even though the receipts are just part of the costs because in many developing countries you get no receipts....so they are already winning funds....they only answer to my claim for the first time two weeks ago (claim was sent in Nove) so save yourself your health!! they will find many ways not to cover your expenses I could post the email exchange that would make an attorney cringe. I should have known better when a while back they refused to cover a trip delay when in reality I had apy for the service...please see reviews everywhere they are a business scam all about marketing.... Read More
This is the first complaint I have written, but it is warranted. Our experience with World Nomads has been horrible! They sold us a policy covering 88 days, and we noted Egypt as a destination a few months in advance. 2 days before our flight to Egypt, as a result of an inquiry to them related to the tragic tour bus bombing in Dec 2018, they told us that we actually aren’t covered for Egypt because a sentence of their 40+ page insurance document provides an exception if the Government of Canada advises against travel. We tried to clarify for Egypt that the Government of Canada advises against certain areas, but the areas our tour was going are not on the travel advisory and thus that... Read More
A complete scam from top to bottom!! Have you noticed how all the blogs that refer you to them don't allow comments at the bottom... red flag! For what it is worth I have used them since 2006 and paid them many times without ever contacting them or filing a claim. 12 years later I need to contact them; not for a claim but just to buy a policy as I was getting error messages. I reached out to "24/7" customer service and the only thing the lady said was we can't help you, we are after hours only and can only put in a request for emergencies during normal business hours. Thank god I didn't actually need there help! This is a big scam that bloggers use to fund there lifestyle without ever... Read More