Traveling brings with it both everyday risks and the unexpected perils of being in unfamiliar surroundings.
Scrambling for last-minute accommodation owing to delayed flights is always a hassle.
Other times, unexpected medical emergencies may make your stay in a foreign land dreadful and expensive.
Services like SafetyWing offer solutions that take the edge off travel hassles.
Today, we’ll take you through what it offers, what it lacks, and whether it’s a good fit for your travel plans.
Hundreds of unseen treats and inconveniences loom large even as you enjoy your commutes across a new city.
Is SafetyWing truly the answer?
Let’s find out!
What is SafetyWing?
Visualize yourself traveling in a new country, ferrying and flying across cities and towns.
In between, they misplace your luggage, your flight gets delayed a couple of times, and you even meet an injury requiring medical attention.
As unpleasant as this experience may be, imagine if every extra penny you spent on these mishaps got refunded to you on your return home.
That’s part of what SafetyWing claims to offer.
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SafetyWing is a recent travel insurance company that began to make the rounds during and after the pandemic.
It offers a variety of insurance provisions that cover travel risks and medical expenses encountered when traveling or away from your home city/country.
Their medical coverage includes essential elements like nursing services or ambulance charges.
But it goes on to ensure more detailed treatments like intensive care and chiropractic sessions.
The SafetyWing travel insurance covers essential components like lost luggage and rare risks like political evacuation.
Known as one of the upcoming nomad insurance services, SafetyWing appears to have it all on paper and at first glance.
However, a closer look reveals some disadvantages that may put off some travelers.
As a comprehensive SafetyWing Review, we’ll break down everything that makes this service better (or worse) than the competition.
Quick Overview of Pros and Cons
Even at first glance, SafetyWing showcases positive benefits and glaring drawbacks.
Pros
- Round-the-clock global assistance
- Extensive coverage for COVID-19
- Extended medical coverage even after you return home
- Decent coverage over intensive care
- Insurance for political evacuations and natural disasters in the host country
- Medical evacuation insurance of up to $100,000
Cons
- No coverage over electronic gear and gadgets
- High subscription costs for senior citizens
- No coverage for travelers over 69 years of age
- No provisions to cover theft and robbery
- No insurance for trip and travel cancellations
Most of these obvious benefits and disadvantages are listed in other travel insurance reviews.
To ensure that this SafetyWing review is more informative and detailed, let’s look at how SafetyWing’s provisions may work in real-world scenarios.
How SafetyWing Can Work for You
Imagine you’re out vacationing in your dream destination. Whether it’s a rural paradise or a bustling city, the experience is, no doubt, exhilarating.
You’ve browsed your favorite wine and travel blog for months choosing the ideal place and you’re finally here. You’ve got many attractions to visit, things to do, and sights to see.
Then, disaster strikes.
The country you’re visiting goes into a national emergency and begins clamping down on people entering or even leaving the country.
Your perfect holiday immediately becomes a logistical nightmare as you rush to find the earliest flight that’ll take you back home.
You’re stranded in unfamiliar territory. Your options continue running out as you run from pillar to post, trying to find solutions. And the only available flights cost a fortune.
Luckily, you remember that your travel insurance package includes coverage for emergency evacuation during travel.
Breathing a sigh of relief, you immediately grab a ticket, get on board, and whirl your way back home to safety.
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Sounds unlikely?
That’s what happened to Aaron Shade, a passionate traveler who almost got stranded in Argentina during the pandemic.
Fortunately, he and his companions had a SafetyWing subscription that included emergency and political evacuation.
They immediately returned home, knowing they weren’t spending a dime on return fares because their evacuation ticket costs remained refundable from SafetyWing.
Where SafetyWing May Fall Short
Alright, SafetyWing appears super helpful when you consider that real anecdote about emergency evacuation.
However, there are areas where it proves inadequate depending on the traveler’s nature and requirements.
For one, their coverage does not include electronic gadgets. This one’s a major drawback because most of us travel with cameras, phones, laptops, and other personal devices.
Losing any of these items proves devastating. And you’d want your travel insurance to cover at least a few of these items.
This glaring hole in their insurance leads some travelers to consider SafetyWing alternatives.
For instance, the SafetyWing vs Worldnomads debate remains a bone of contention because the latter service also offers decent electronics coverage.
Also, SafetyWing does not offer insurance for what they call, ‘high-risk sports activity.’
So, they won’t cover scuba diving or provide medical assistance for injuries received from similar activities.
Additionally, their insurance excludes support for pre-existing medical conditions.
So, it won’t cover prescription drugs that are already part of your treatment for an ongoing disease.
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For people who like to dig deeper, you may find it worrying to know that SafetyWing may operate under different aliases or with additional partners, depending on their location.
For instance, in Indiana, US, they function as HCC Medical Insurance Services, while in other places, they may appear under the World Trips banner.
Remote Health and its Global Reach
If you’re now thinking that SafetyWing’s cons far outweigh its pros, the company has another program that may redeem it from its drawbacks.
Any SafetyWing review worth it’s salt will mention Remote Health as a core feature of the service. But reviews can often be biased or orchestrated.
So, here’s the real breakdown.
SafetyWing’s Remote Health program is a comprehensive medical insurance plan that covers you worldwide.
You can claim benefits regardless of whether you’re temporarily stationed in a specific country or continuously on the move.
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Picture yourself as a professional whose work keeps you moving from one city or country to another, staying for days or months in one location before moving on to the next.
Just a few years back, only a select few professions required that kind of mobility.
Today, billionaire CEOs like Brian Cheksy prefer working remotely and moving about without the confines of a physical office.
This trend is not restricted to high-flying professions alone. Any statistics you look up will reveal that remote working drastically increased during and after the pandemic.
So, there’s a large chunk of the working population in every country who prefer working remotely.
This liberty also means that they get to travel or be away from home at leisure.
So, SafetyWing’s Remote Health package is a brilliant addition if you’re among those who prefer sipping margaritas on a destination beach while crunching numbers on your laptop nearby.
Drawbacks of the Remote Health Program
The usual review of SafetyWing programs will promote the company in the best light without really exploring its downsides.
This SafetyWing review will break the mold and show you what counts as a drawback for this package.
For starters, the Remote Health program comes as a yearly contract. So, you may blissfully signup, assuming that you can cancel anytime. But the recurring monthly payments will go on for a year minimum.
That’s a big financial commitment, especially if you don’t travel frequently or suffer from existing medical conditions that may act up abroad.
However, Remote Health’s major disadvantage is that there are no provisions for travel insurance.
Think of it this way.
You’re off with your significant other on a nice couples retreat at an exotic island. Of course, you take your work along because you can log in your hours remotely.
Unfortunately, the first connecting flight gets delayed prompting you to spend the night at a stopover.
En route to your destination the next day, one of your bags get misplaced and lost.
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SafetyWing’s Nomad Insurance would reimburse the amount you spent for the unexpected stay overnight.
Furthermore, depending on its contents, you could claim about $3000 – $6000 as insurance on the lost bag.
Unfortunately, the Remote Health program will not pay a penny in either of these instances.
Imagine your frustration when you realize you’re paying over $200 monthly for zero coverage on these travel risks.
As you can tell, there are possible instances where the Remote Health package will seem utterly useless.
At the same time, its medical coverage remains far superior to the measly provisions in the Nomad Insurance program.
The Verdict
Let’s return to the question we asked at the start of this SafetyWing review. Is it really the best answer to potential risks when traveling?
While many alternatives offer competitive provisions in specific areas, there’s no doubt that SafetyWing does well to cover common inconveniences that travelers face.
It may very well be your saving grace the next time you’re touring and happen to encounter unexpected delays or unforeseen accidents.
Say goodbye to your travel woes and move around easily with the comprehensive provisions that SafetyWing offers travelers worldwide!
