The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Reader Recommendations => Topic started by: ObviouslyNotAGolfer on May 27, 2019, 03:14:33 PM
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Hi, I thought there were a number of threads on this topic, but I did a search and found an old thread from 2013...Anyway,
My wife and I are spending three weeks in France shortly. We need insurance to cover the following:
Medical: At home we are covered by my work plan (anthem blue cross), but need complete coverage in the EU for any and all incidents, accidents, injuries, illnesses, etc.
Emergency medical repatriation: You see what happens when you don't have this-- Two recent stories about people on travel in foreign countries (American in Italy, Irish man in U.S.), who fall ill and resort to begging for money online to fund return trips to their country.
Personal property loss, damage, theft My wife was pickpocketed in Dublin Ireland two years ago despite the fact that we are seasoned European travelers. No fun! We had no problems in Russia, Italy, the UK, etc, but had our guard down a bit in Ireland--NEVER AGAIN!
Trip interruption/cancellation: Between us, my wife and I have four elderly parents who could go at any time.
What else am I missing--locusts, rivers turning to blood???
Any suggestions for reputable insurance companies (LOL, an oxymoron I guess) to handle this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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Your work plan shouldn't just cover you at work. Do you know their specific language on coverage?
Here is a general statement from Anthem:
https://www.anthem.com/wps/portal/ahpmedprovider?content_path=shared/noapplication/f3/s1/t0/pw_a034778.htm&rootLevel=2&label=Coverage%20While%20Traveling
My company's repatriation coverage also covers me on personal trips. Do you have work coverage for this?
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I use Allianz. I haven't personally made a claim but my friend was injured in Japan and they covered full medical expenses and we're prepared to do a medical repatriation (that didn't end up being necessary).
It's also pretty cheap.
You may also have some limited coverage from your credit card but I would still recommend third party trip insurance.
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I've used World Nomads for 2 years and have no complaints (nor did I have a need to use them). Check them out.
I would also see what your CC offers on terms of cancellation/ delays/ lost luggage. If you have a premium one like Chase Sapphire Reserve there's a lot of coverage.
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Thanks. The Allianz ended up being 400-500 for both of us for a three week trip; World Nomads, significantly less--about 200. Coverage seems pretty comparable. The emergency medical repatriation for the latter is 300K. Possibly not enough to fly you across the atlantic, especially if you needed to be on a stretcher with an IV or plugged into various machines. However, I guess if you were in that much trouble, it would not be a great idea to repatriate you in any case--really no idea how this works.
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I remember some travel insurance discussion came up in the ACA thread some time back:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/what-comes-after-the-aca/4650/
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I would also see what your CC offers on terms of cancellation/ delays/ lost luggage. If you have a premium one like Chase Sapphire Reserve there's a lot of coverage.
+1
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We went with Allianz because I dug into this a little more and found a lot of very terrible reviews about World Nomads on a few different sites. World Nomads are rated 3/5 on Trustpilot (with a whole lot of one star reviews), whereas Allianz is rated 5/5.
Allianz is also double the price, but I think this is well worth it. They also have 24 hour emergency line and a concierge line.
It seems that a lot of those websites recommending Travel Nomads allow no comments and are just in some sort of affiliate plan. It also seems that many of people who post positive comments are those who have never had to file a claim: "I love that they cover my snowboarding and bungee jumping!"
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Glad you got it figured out! :)
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Thanks. Anyway, here's this if you scroll down and read the reviews and then go over to trustpilot.com and read much of the same:
https://www.consumersadvocate.org/travel-insurance/c/world-nomads
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@ObviouslyNotAGolfer , those reviews are pretty grim. Like I mentioned, I never had to claim (thankfully). Maybe Allianz is worth a look for next year. Thanks!