How a $550 Purchase Made Me $2,250 While Traveling
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The Debacle That Started My Travels
This week was a pretty exciting one for me since I received a $2,250 check via email! Income has been quite low the last few months, so it felt great to be putting money into my account, not just taking it out.
I mentioned this a few times back at the beginning of my mini-retirement in June, but when I was traveling the West Coast of Australia just after leaving Sydney, my tour was cancelled due to the tour company going bankrupt. And don’t forget that this happened while I was already 2 days into the tour! Our poor tour guide had no idea that the company was in trouble and that he was out of the job. It was a tough time for everyone involved….
It was an extremely frustrating experience since we were disappointed our tour was cancelled, had to drive 5 hours back to Perth, make new travel plans and we were not being given any refunds. This trip had cost $2,250 for two people, so it wasn’t just some casual day trip that was cancelled. It was a lot of money.
Anyway, I was determined to figure out how to receive some compensation for this event, but I knew it was probably going to take some work.
How World Nomads Saved Me From Losing $2250
Luckily, 2 days before we left for Western Australia, I bought a World Nomads travel insurance plan online. Since we were going to be traveling for 5-6 months, we needed some level of insurance to cover us for health reasons and also our personal belongings. I had read about World Nomads on a few different travel blogs and was recommended their policies from a few other travelers who had done similar long-term trips. World Nomads came highly recommended by everyone as a service that was fairly priced, provided great coverage and was very easy to make claims.
I figured that I’m a safe and healthy person so I likely wouldn’t really NEED this, but since I’m a generally cautious person, I bought a plan for 5 months at $110/month.
It took me about 15 minutes to fill out an application online, and once I paid my fee, I received my confirmation and plan details the next day.
Fast forward only one week later and our tour was cancelled. I immediately jumped onto the World Nomad’s website and logged into their online claim page. After reading through the specifics of their policy, I wasn’t sure if our tour being cancelled would qualify since we only purchased our plan a few days earlier (sometimes there is a cooling off period with insurance where you can’t make certain claims right away).
On their website, I found their online claim page very straightforward and easy to use. I did have to supply a lot of paperwork (invoices from the tour, plane tickets showing we were went to Perth and started the tour, a letter from the bankruptcy company explaining the situation, etc), so it took about a month to put all of this together. However, World Nomads made it as simple as it could have been.
I was then referred to “TripMate” who is the actually provider of the policy, since it turns out that World Nomads is just a broker of these travel insurance policies. However, TripMate was just as easy to work with as World Nomads.
Over the next few months (yes, it can take a long time to review claims), there was some back and forth email between me and TripMate, and though it was slow process that took some time, World Nomads and TripMate cut me a check for $2,250 last week. No questions asked once I provided them with all of the details for my claim.
I was shocked at how great their customer experience was and how easy it made the whole process. This is not something I would expect from a typical insurance company….
Do I Really Need Travel Insurance?
Before I started this mini-retirement travel adventure, I didn’t think I would really USE my travel insurance. It would just be there to make me feel safe and comfortable.
However, so far over the past 4 months, the following has happened to me:
- 1 doctor visit for a sprained ankle
- 2 doctor visits for food poisoning
- 1 very expensive tour cancellation
Visiting a hospital in Vietnam for food poisoning…
This all happened in the first 3 months, and the tour cancellation was during the FIRST WEEK of my trip. So yes, “stuff” happens. Bags are stolen, people get hurt and sick, tour companies go out of business. Unfortunately, it’s part of the experience if you travel for a long enough period of time.
So all I can say is, before you go on ANY trip, especially outside of your home country, make sure that you have travel insurance. Many credit card companies will provide complimentary travel insurance if you pay for the trip on the card, so make sure you check this out if your credit card might be eligible.
If you need to buy insurance on your own, I highly recommend you check out World Nomads. The process involved to buy the insurance, file a claim and get your money could not have been more straightforward and painless (though it did take a long time).
So there it is folks. Buy the insurance, it’s worth it. This is some traditional advice coming from NYPFGuy which I believe in 100%.
Question: Have you had any experience with making claims on travel insurance? What happened to you, and how did it work out?
Leave a comment or send me an email!
NYPFGuy
