You’ve probably heard about SafetyWing as a lot of travel blogs recommend them online. Plus, compared to most of other travel / nomad insurance, they have a very young image, their website has a very fresh look… They aren’t really your average travel insurance 😉 .
But when talking about travel / nomad insurance, nobody really cares about a beautiful website and a lot of reviews. The most important is what the travel insurance covers you for, the expenses limits, the conditions… And that’s what we are going to talk about in this SafetyWing insurance review.
SafetyWing is the first travel insurance that created a coverage especially for digital nomads back in 2018 with their Nomad Insurance plan (even if their products also perfectly fit the needs of backpackers and long term travellers). So in this review we are going to check the pros and cons of their Nomad insurance coverage and see how it compares to other more traditional travel insurances.
This page about SafetyWing Nomad insurance is a complement to our guide and comparison of the best long term travel insurance. We hope that our SafetyWing insurance review will help you choose the best travel insurance for your project.
Who are the people behind SafetyWing nomad insurance?
SafetyWing is first and foremost the story of 3 Norwegian friends, all digital nomads, who could not find a travel insurance that met their needs as nomads at an affordable price. As they could not find a solution and seeing the rise of the digital nomad movement, they decided to create it!
Their ultimate goal is to try to create a whole network of insurance products specially designed for nomads, freelancers and remote companies. They therefore decided to start with a travel and medical insurance with the following features:
- Reliability (the foundation for travel insurance)
- Flexibility (you don’t need to know how long you will travel in advance, you can subscribe while traveling)
- Cheap (or affordable if you prefer 😉 )
- Worldwide coverage and partial coverage in your home country (even digital nomads go back home sometimes 😉 )
- …
After a stay in the famous Startup incubator Y Combinator, SafetyWing was launched as the first travel and medical insurance for digital nomads.
SafetyWing Nomad Insurance: How does it work?
There are a few things that differentiate SafetyWing Nomad insurance from more traditional travel insurance such as TrueTraveller, Heymondo, ACS globe partner, Chapka Cap aventure or AVI Marco Polo.
- The coverage works like a subscription that is renewed every 28 days from the date of departure. So you don’t really need to know in advance how long your trip will last.
- It is possible to subscribe to SafetyWing from abroad even if the trip has already started.
- SafetyWing includes partial coverage in your home country for max 30 days every 90 days. Very useful for nomads who sometimes return to their home country.
- Each subscription also includes a child under 10 years old… which makes SafetyWing VERY attractive for families travelling with young children.
- This coverage is competitive in terms of price: $45 / 28 days.
But as I told you earlier, SafetyWing travel insurance (even if it is branded for digital nomads) is also very suitable for backpackers and long-term travellers because it meets all the important criteria that any travel insurance has to meet:
- Medical expenses up to 250’000$ which is ok but notre great compared to other backpacker and travel insurance.
- Repatriation (100% of actual costs up to 100’000$)
- Personal liability (25’000$ for bodily injury and 25’000$ as well for material damage) which is quite low compared to most of other long term travel insurance.
You can easily compare all the guarantees and different coverage limits of the best backpacker and long term travel insurance in our interactive travel insurance comparison table (which includes TrueTraveller, Heymondo, SafetyWing and many others).
To register for SafetyWing, it’s easy, just go to their website and fill out a short form that takes 30 seconds to complete.
And if you’re wondering if you can trust SafetyWing despite its relatively young age, their are now an official international insurance company so they can provide their own insurance policies (which is quite rare as most backpacker insurance subcontract to other insurance companies). In addition, the famous Startup accelerator Y Combinator where SafetyWing was born has also seen the birth of companies such as AirBnb, Dropbox and many others. This shows they are a serious company.
Even if we love some of the things SafetyWing created for digital nomads (subscription model, partial coverage in your home country, on the road subscription) we have to say that the conditions they provide are a bit weak compared to other travel insurance on the market. If you like their subscription model, we still think they offer good value for your money. But if you want higher medical expenses limits and a better personal liability, I would rather choose TrueTraveller or Heymondo (-5%). But we will let you judge for yourself by comparing these nomad / travel insurances by clicking on the link below:
Other insurances from SafetyWing
SafetyWing has just released a new and very innovative product called Nomad Health. Traditionally, health insurances have always been tied to where you live. But with the rise of nomadic lifestyles and 100% remote companies, there was a growing need for health insurance coverage that was not tied to your residency. So whether you’re a nomad, an entrepreneur, or just travel a lot, with Nomad Health, you’ll have comprehensive health insurance that covers you anywhere in the world (even in your home country)!
Note: In February 2024, Nomad health is finally available for individuals and not just for remote companies. It’s a really innovative product that could change the way health insurances have worked until now (tied to a country). Really looking forward to see how this product is going to be used in the next few years!
The little plus of SafetyWing
SafetyWing is a resolutely young company, with a strong presence on social medias and also organizes events around the world to try to create a small community. We really do find the family spirit that we usually have among digital nomads and that’s really nice.
Plus they develop really innovative products that have the potential to change the way travel/health insurance is working now. With the rise of remote work, we really need new solutions that are not tied to a specific country.
Our final SafetyWing insurance review
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SafetyWing is a company that brings a new energy to the slightly aging world of travel insurance and offers decent coverage at an attractive price. Honestly, we are looking forward to see what SafetyWing has in store for us in the future (the nomad health insurance for individuals will be a very interesting product).
Useful links
- A very useful FAQ that should answer most of the questions you have about SafetyWing
- Don’t forget to read the terms and conditions linked from the footer of their site
My experience with SafetyWing was the same as with every other company: they simply disappeared as soon as something actually happened while I was abroad, and ended up having to spend more than 1000 euros from my own pocket. Don’t trust them. Don’t keep the slightest hope that they will be there when you need them. They won’t.
Hey Eugenia,
Sad to hear about you bad experience with SafetyWing 🙁 Do you mind sharing with us what happened and why did you had to pay 1000€?
Yep, I was kidnapped in Ghana.
Two men with machetes appeared in the middle of a forest and took me and a girl that was with me and kept us hostage until we basically gave them everything we had.
SafetyWing claims to cover express kidnapping (even without a limit) but after literally 2 months of emails every couple of days (only one third of which were answered with things like “sorry for the delay, it is strange that you didn’t have any answer yet, could you please send your claim to xxx@xxx.xx instead? you’ll probably get an aswer soon!”) I still don’t see my claim in my client zone, I never got any definite answer and I am sure they will very very soon use the “but your insurance ended more than 60 days ago, so we cannot do anything about it now” excuse.
Basically, because of the kidnapping:
– I couldn’t work as volunteer, which is what I went to do in Ghana
– I had to pay for a new passport (close to 120 euros)
– I had to pay for a new visa (50 euros)
– I had to pay for a new ID card and driving licence (40 euros)
– I found myself without any of the valuables I had brought to the trip (worth around 300 euros)
– I had to borrow money because they took all my cash (close to 200 euros) PLUS my credit card in order to stay for 2 weeks more there trying to solve my problems in the embassy
– I had to pay for a new flight ticket back (almost 400 euros) because since I couldn’t work (lack of passport + lack of visa + delays in the paperwork) there was no point in staying in Ghana for several months doing basically nothing.
So that’s the story. And what did they do? Absolutely nothing.
UPDATE: I did get my money in the end, took exactly 9 weeks and 17 emails after filing my claim. Insisting was annoying, but they did cover a bit more than I expected. One interesting fact: they answered immediately after I posted bad reviews everywhere. Coincidence?
thanks for your review, i was about to take this insurance, you have helped me
My recent (12/21) check of the SW site says cover for ages 10-39 is $42, not $37, then rises systematically every 10 years to $144.76, an increase of 244% by age 60 based solely on the traveler’s age. At age 70, SW simply stops offering insurance to travelers. SW asserts that it costs more to insure older travelers, but declines to substantiate its claim, so it appears to be blatant age-based discrimination, which is a problem throughout much of the travel insurance industry. However there are better policies available at equal or less cost if you are willing to do a careful search.
Hi David,
I know it’s crazy how the price of travel insurances increase for Seniors… I have to admit we didn’t do as much research for the best travel insurance (quality price ratio) for older travelers. But you could still check out this page if it’s not already done (https://www.novo-monde.com/en/best-backpacker-insurance-comparison/). I think AVI travel insurance have a special offer for seniors.
If I might ask, which insurance company did you choose for you particular case?
I am currently insured by World Trips. Ample coverage, reasonable rates. Though you never know how good your policy is until you file a claim.
I’m trying to get a visa for a long stay touristic visa. It says the minimum medical requirement is $30,000 (for repatriation for medical reasons, medical and/or emergency hospital care). It says that repatriation on the website is $20,000 on the safety wing website but that the medical minimum is $100,000… so I am a little confused. Can I choose Safety Wing with confidence to help me get my visa?
Hi Benoit, my experience with SafetyWing has been horribly stressful and costly, I simply wish I had picked Genki instead.
2 unrelated injury claims, both denied. 1st one because I was playing with a skimboard, planted my toe in the sand and got a scan, nothing unusual on the pictures. Not covered because “skimboard” is not in the list of covered activities (mind you it’s not in the list of not-covered activities). Surfing is, however, covered.
I live on the coast and surf everyday, so after a few days of rest, I go back surfing and one day I feel unusual pain in a toe after a fall on the sand while surfing. I rest and get new checks a couple of months later. MRI, scan, infiltration and potential ligament surgery soon due to a persisting inflammation. New claim denied, them saying that “it’s clear that these claims are related”, where there is nothing that shows that the surfing injury is related to the skimboarding injury. Now bills are seriously adding up and I’m having the most stressful Christmas thanks to SafetyWing.
Their claim department just sent a cold email and it’s very difficult to have a quick response.