World Nomads Travel Insurance Reviews

I planned an amazing trip. A trip of a lifetime. I did a lot of research before purchasing travel insurance and decided to go with world nomads in the end thinking they were a good and caring company. Boy was I wrong. After I developed a condition that landed me in the hospital thinking I was safe and covered during this awful time. They have “ reviewed my claim “ and are denying my claim. This is extremely unfortunate. Being a travel agent myself and knowing how hard it can be to travel and fall ill I always stress to my clients how important it is to purchase travel insurance for the security and safety of your travels. I am on a trip that will end up being a year long with a few other people. We will now all not renew our policy with world nomads and start up with another company to ensure we can all be covered for the next 12 months while travelling. It’s so unfortunate that I thought and felt comfortable while travelling thinking if something ever happened I would be protected but I was wrong. Now I am out of pocket for being in the hospital when I carefully budgeted for this trip and spent 400 dollars on insurance for nothing with world nomads. I will be telling all my clients friends and family not to book with them since they are not there for you in a time of need. Sincerely, an extremely sad and disappointed customer.

I had thought that by purchasing the Explorer policy I was covered for snowboarding which is my main passion. I unfortunately found myself stuck at the top of a 300 foot cliff in Switzerland and nearly died.

They wouldn't pay on my helicopter rescue however as I hadn't broken my leg they told me. Even though the situation was completely life threatening.

Also, I had to cancel a trip due to visa issue for my wife and they didn't pay on that also.

I had purchased World Nomads many times in the past but had never made a claim and I was thinking that I had purchased the best, premium insurance especially for adventure sports. But really it's not much different to any other policy out there. They'll avoid paying at all costs.

As well as a member and trying to make a claim you'll find their member's portal very buggy, making a claim very difficult, and they'll do things like customer phone service not even be able to look up your policy with your policy number.

You are better off buying a cheaper policy and if skiing or snowboarding just buying in-resort insurance.

What a scam.

They will gladly take your money, then do everything that they can to turn down your claims. You're better off keeping your money and self-insuring. You will seriously get more out of it. I'm just thankful that I did not have any major incidents while travelling, and can afford to absorb my losses without going bankrupt. Had I gotten seriously ill or injured, I would have been completely on my own (just like if I didn't have insurance)

I was a solo traveler to Patagonia. I had been going to print out the contract to keep one copy with me in case I became unconscious and give another copy to my family. I tried in many ways but it was blocked. I had called World Nomads and I was told they were going to send me a copy but they never did.

I broke my leg overseas and they were useless. All they did was create more problems for me, rather than try to help. They were completely disinterested and I ended up spending a fortune on all my medical bills. All they're interested in is taking your money.

They used to be good, but not anymore. I've been using World Nomads travel insurance for about 5 years, and in the past, when I've had lost luggage or flight delays, it was easy to file a claim and be compensated. Now, however, they push as much responsibility off to the airlines, and it's become nigh impossible to file a successful claim for anything unless you can first prove you've attempted to resolve the issue with the airline. WN wants documentation on everything. Basically, they've become just another insurance scam where they're happy to take your money but they make it as difficult as possible for you to actually make a claim. They've just lost a customer.

Although the costs were reasonable, my experience has left me somewhat scared to travel overseas again. Seriously injured in Asia while holidaying, I needed urgent medical treatment & hospitalisation. Language problems from the start of the process was frustrating as was getting permission to go ahead with procedures required. Tried to get assistance to immediately return to Australia but was declined. So was stuck overseas medically unfit to fly for 8 weeks till I got a Dr to write a clearance for a fee. Flew back & was admitted to hospital same day. My claims were many & had documented receipts where possible but most rejected for some reason or the other. After 4 months I got my solicitor onto it & finally got a minimal payout. Very disappointed with the whole process & would never use or recommend World Nomads. NB.They tried to tell me it was a pre existing medical condition from when I was a young boy but that was false & after many documented evidence reports from my Dr`s, they agreed to a settlement. I was very distressed being stuck overseas with no real help or assistance from them.

I would not recommend this travel insurance for anyone. I understand they have policies and have to detail everything but I have been working on my claim for 6 months! I had missed flights, medical reports, and accommodation totaling to about $1200. They only gave me $220 of that back. It has taken them the 6 months to finally send me a detailed letter explaining why they can and cannot cover me for certain things. I completely understand why they can't cover certain aspects of my claim but for it to take 6 months, multiple emails, constant scanning of documents, and just a down right awful communication process is ridiculous. On top of everything, their claim form is not user-friendly. Half the information I added in didn't show up which is why I had to file the claim for the second time, and it is not well explained on the website or when I received my printed document of my filed claim. For me to pay $500 for this insurance and only get a small amount back really blows. Before I had insurance through this company I had paid $30 for basic travel insurance through a small company and they helped 10X more than this one. I also got everything I claimed back.Not worth the money.

I recently returned from a trip to Italy for a friend's wedding. During the course of that trip, a travel companion of mine left my dress shoes beneath the passenger's seat of our rental car in Sicily. We did not realize they'd been left behind until we were in Rome, at which point there was no way to have the shoes shipped to me prior to my departure home. The shoes being effectively lost, I was forced to buy a replacement pair as I was a groomsman in the upcoming wedding. I recently filed a claim with all the required paperwork (receipts, dispositions, reports, etc) and was told that through some manner of policy loophole, my shoes do not qualify as lost because they were technically 'left behind.' Seems a little like hairsplitting to me. What is lost, if not left behind? Frankly, I cannot recommend purchasing travel insurance through a company that would resort to this kind of self-serving nitpicking. I'm grateful that only my shoes were 'left behind', i.e. lost, and not something more significant like a backpack full of gear, because this sort of exploitative corporate attitude would be bound to leave me high and dry. I can only imagine the living hell of going through a medical emergency with this company. Lesson learned. I will never again use World Nomads travel insurance nor will I recommend it to anyone. Buyer beware.

Negative experience! I had a medical emergency in Vietnam and wrote to them, among others to request advice about to which hospital to go and which procedure to follow to be able to recover the costs, and they got back to me 9 days later (meanwhile medically treated and recovered!) with a very long email, and not actually answering my questions, but rather highlighting what the insurance does not cover. About any hospital that they recommend for my emergency they just replied “you are free to chose”! Wikitravel was much more useful than their “professionals”. Eventually many of the incurred costs were not recovered as “I have not followed their procedure”. I paid €270 for this insurance, had hospital costs around €320 of which only €90 were recognised by them, of which €70 deducted as "administrative cost for one claim", so I got €20 back from the €320 and this after much dedication to try and understand these guys. Just to emphasise how much I have learned; at the end of my 3 months trip I got my iPad stollen and, although my insurance was still valid, I didn’t bother to claim as I had sufficient experience by then to know it’s a waste of time and energy. What you pay to this insurer can serve only for you to feel responsible and insured during your trip, which works as long as you don’t need it.

My grandmother passed away suddenly. WN paid our costs to go home for the funeral, and then to return to our trip two weeks later. We only filled in one clam form, and payment was in our account 5 days later. No fuss. We were very impressed.

For years I defaulted to the World Nomads site. I thought I was getting value for money. It's a hip funky portal and I wrongly assumed that they would be providing me the best coverage for the best price. Then I found comparetravelinsurance.com.au Well imaging my surprise when World Nomads didn't even come up when I used this site for the first time. And now for the second time. Thanks