How do I choose good travel insurance? This is a question we get asked all the time. Which provider is best? How can I get coverage as an expat? In this post, you’ll learn about the best travel insurance for travelers and expats traveling abroad. When we moved to Ecuador we lost eligibility to buy travel insurance from Canada.
3 Best Options for Expat Travel Insurance
If you want to save the time of reading the full post, you can check out these top three providers:
- Atlas Travel Insurance They accept residents of over 180 countries, and the only age restriction is that children must be at least 14 days old to be covered. Based in the United States (Indianapolis, Indiana).
- World Nomads They accept residents from many countries but with some age restrictions. Age requirements can change depending on where you are a resident.
- SafetyWing: Valid for travels from 15 days old to 69 years old. This insurer is different than the others – you don’t have to pre-purchase the full policy before traveling. Just set up the subscription – renewable in 4-week increments. This is popular with digital nomads who travel to multiple countries.
Below the large image is a detailed breakdown of each of the 3 expat insurance options.
1. Atlas Travel Insurance
Open to residents of over 180 countries. This is a great provider for expats.
Requirements: you must be at least 14 days old and traveling outside of your home country.
What is your country of residence? If you are a US citizen, your home country is always the United States (regardless of residency issues). For all non-US citizens, your home country is where you principally reside and receive regular mail.
Insures all ages. Maximum per injury is broken into 3 categories:
- Age 80 or older
- Age 70 to 79
- All others
6 Benefits of Insuring with Atlas Travel
- Adventure Sports: Most travel insurance policies exclude adventure and sport activities from coverage. Things like zip-lining and scuba diving aren’t covered with most policies. With Atlas Travel you are covered for a wide variety adventure sports. Find the list of excluded sports here.
- Global Coverage: Receive medical care in a foreign country. This can reduce/eliminate paying out-of-pocket while abroad.
- Emergency Medical Evacuation / Emergency Reunion: For return to your home country in the case of potential loss of life or limb. Emergency Reunion will bring an immediate family member to you – to either stay with you or help you return home.
- Return of Minors: In case of your hospitalization, your children are covered to return back to your home country.
- Common features such as: Accidental death and dismemberment, repatriation of remains, natural disaster, and terrorism coverage.
- Online Account Management: Gone are the days of paper policies. Purchase your policy, manage your account and submit claims online.
2. World Nomads
World Nomads is the travel insurance we’ve used on every trip since 2012. We used them while living abroad. And since returning to Canada a few years ago. We like how easy it is to get a quote and purchase. Our online account is easy to manage and print papers.
There is good coverage for medical and travel – including lost luggage, trip interruption and delay, emergency medical evacuation. Medical coverage includes hospital, ICU, ambulance, emergency dental, and more. See details below.
- Medical Coverage includes hospital, intensive care, ambulance, urgent care (with $50 co-payment), physical therapy and chiropractic care, and emergency dental. Other eligible medical expenses are covered to the overall maximum limit. With SafetyWing, you pay just $250 deductible with a $250,000 maximum limit. Of course, any of these details are subject to change. Please check directly with SafetyWing to confirm their current coverage and limitations.
- Travel Coverage includes trip interruption, trip delay, lost checked luggage, emergency medical evacuation (up to $100,000 lifetime), political evacuation, natural disaster coverage, and more. Please check directly with SafetyWing to confirm their current coverage and limitations.
As with most travel insurance, they exclude high-risk sports, pre-existing disease and injury, and cancer treatment.
Get a quote with SafetyWing. Rates start at under $40 for four weeks. Just choose your age, if you’ll be traveling to the US, and then add family members. It’s that simple.
I haven’t traveled with them yet, but I’m planning to give them a try on my next trip. I like the subscription model. And it looks less expensive than other companies I’ve gotten quotes from.
Travel Insurance: Make Sure You Have Something
So there you have it. A number of these options apply to everyone and the rest apply only to American citizens. I think that there should be an option for everyone.
The most important thing is to buy it. Buy something – even if it is a basic policy. When you are traveling abroad there is an increased risk of a fall or another easy injury. Without insurance, you could be looking at a very large bill.
