Making a claim with SafetyWing - My experience

If you’re reading this article, the chances are you’re in the process of making a claim with SafetyWing, or you’re about to submit a claim for traveller medical insurance.

Or perhaps, you’re interested in using SafetyWing’s coverage, and are curious on what the claims process looks like. 

Whatever your reason for being here, I’ve got you covered. After using SafetyWing for many years as a digital nomad (my first policy was in March 2022), I had to submit my first claim, and in this post, I will share my experience. 

In an ideal world, we’d never have to make an insurance claim. We’d go about living our lives, incident free, and that would be that. Accidents are a thing though (I will share what happened to me shortly), and if you’re in a country that isn’t your home one as a traveller or digital nomad, I’d always recommend purchasing insurance. 

I’m not risk averse, but equally, I like the comfort of knowing I’m protected if something does go wrong. Insurance to me feels like a security blanket you pay for monthly. So with that in mind, since I’ve started nomading, I make sure that I have insurance, and then obviously send those details over to my mum for safekeeping.

Here is what you'll see on the SafetyWing website when you have a policy

When you sign up with SafetyWing, you'll have access to your dashboard, which is incredibly easy to navigate. You can find your insurance card on the right-hand side, and as you'll see above there is a link to submit a claim in plain sight, and not hidden away. I also appreciate that they have a 'Stop my policy' option easily accessible.

I'm sure we're all familiar with a company, any company, making it extremely difficult to cancel a policy, payment, or whatever it may be, and even though I have no plans to cancel my SafetyWing policy, it's refreshing that it's easy to do so if I get to that point.

For those of you unfamiliar with the name, or the brand, please find information on what SafetyWing are all about at the end of the article. In the meantime, let me explain what happened that one dramatic Monday evening (it actually wasn’t that dramatic, but I need to give you a reason to keep reading). 

The accident: 

I arrived in Hoi An, Vietnam in early February, and the first couple of weeks just involved me getting over jetlag. And getting bit by mosquitos. Lots of mosquitos. I’d flown halfway across the world from the UK, but of course the weather wasn’t great so I was mostly just working, and because I’m incredibly undisciplined, I like to join a coworking. 

Knowing I’ve paid for something makes me more motivated to attend, although sadly this doesn’t seem to work for gyms (Example: I joined one in London and went 3 times in a month). It does seem to work for coworkings though, as thankfully coworkings do not involve that much strenuous exercise.

Anyway, the coworking I’ve joined (Hub Hoi An, which I highly recommend by the way), has Monday dinners, so seeing as though I hadn’t met that many people yet, I thought I’d attend. 

Just outside the restaurant we were meeting at, I then proceeded to fall over, in front of all of my new potential friends. At least I made a strong first impression.

I think I tried to grab something on my way down, which would lead to a lot of pain later on, but first, dinner. 

I dusted myself off, entered the restaurant beyond embarrassed, and ordered some food. Maybe after 20/30 minutes, when the shock/embarrassment wore off, I started noticing my left arm was hurting, a lot. 

I could move my fingers, so I didn't think it was broken, but I was starting to worry that I had caused some damage. The person opposite me, coincidentally a nurse back in her home country, asked me if my one shoulder was often lower than the other. It normally isn’t, so this is where my panic levels really started to rise. I was able to roll my shoulder, so again it didn’t feel like I’d dislocated anything, at least not severely, but I was unable to really raise my arm, and the pain was increasing by the minute. 

I decided to head to the hospital, making even more of an impression on my new found friends, and get it looked at.

The hospital visit:

I went to the Pacific Hospital in Hoi An, and was given attention basically as soon as I walked in. There were quite a few people on beds in the room as you walk into the accident and emergency section, which might be a bit of a culture shock for some people, but I went to the desk, explained my problem, filled in a few forms, and I’d say within 20/30 minutes, I was being taken for an ultrasound. 

Even though I was paying for the service, this still felt incredibly quick to me, and I was thankful I didn’t have to wait long as the pain was getting worse and worse. I had a couple of doctors with me for the ultrasound, as they tried to see what I had damaged, and following that, it was time for a couple of x-rays.

I had those done, and then spoke to a doctor who explained that thankfully there was no structural damage, just damage to the tissue. 

If you've ever wondered what my skeleton looks like, wonder no more!

I was given some medication, and maybe within 90 minutes of arriving, I was on my way, so I can have absolutely no faults with the service received. It cost just over 3.3 million VND (around £104/$137/€121 according to the exchange rate at the time), and that included emergency treatment, ultrasound, two x-rays, consultation and medication.

The claim process:

As mentioned further up in this post, I have been using SafetyWing for a number of years now, but I’ve never made a claim. I’ve had a few incidents occur on my travels (emergency dental treatment in Serbia, hospital visit in Turkey for a severe throat infection, I was on a drip in Egypt as I had an abdominal infection that left me throwing up far too often), but I never made a claim, as all of these came in below the cost of the deductible (excess for my UK readers), so it felt a bit redundant.

I found out a bit too late that I actually could have submitted these claims. These claims would have gone towards the deductible cost, so any claims that I made in the future, I wouldn’t have had to pay as much as the deductible would have been steadily reduced. This is a notice to read the terms and conditions, people! 

Anyway, this is all now a moot point, as SafetyWing have now reduced their deductible to ZERO (caps for excitement)!

I’ve previously just seen SafetyWing as insurance just in case something goes really, really, wrong, but having no deductible feels like a huge game changer for Digital Nomad/Long-term traveller medical insurance. 

Quite a lot of us will travel to places where the cost of healthcare is lower, and where, like with me previously, if the cost of treatment is less than the deductible, the thought of going through all of the paperwork for the sake of a relatively small amount of money can be a lot.

So, to have no deductible is a huge win, as now you can submit any claim if you’re eligible, and then expect to receive your money back if you do everything correctly/your claim meets the requirements.

SafetyWing, on behalf of myself, and thousands of like minded travellers, thank you. 

The hospital was great in giving me all of the documents I needed to make a claim, so if you do have to make a hospital visit, make sure you get all receipts, any documentation, and anything else you feel you may need. Obviously your headspace might be in an interesting place, and you’ll just want to get home and relax, but it will make your life easier if you get everything you need at the time.

Unless you’re in an incredibly remote spot, most hospitals would have dealt with tourists, so they’ll be well versed in what they need to give to you. 

So, with everything I needed, I started making my claim with SafetyWing. Here is the text that will greet you on the SafetyWing website when you start the claim, and I have to say, it really didn’t take too much longer than the time advertised:

‘Submitting a claim is easy, and only takes about 5 minutes.

We recommend having the following ready if you have them:

Your medical report (symptom(s), date of onset, diagnosis, treatment)

Any medical invoices outlining what you paid

Any relevant receipts

Your bank account information’

When you start the process, you’re first asked what kind of claim you’re submitting, as shown below:

Here are the options when you start a claim

If you click medical, here is what you’ll see:

When you start your medical claim on SafetyWing, this is what you'll see

The table on the left shows you each step that you need to take, and when it came to uploading documents, I was able to take photos on my phone of things like receipts, x-rays etc, and that was fine. 

You may notice on the bottom left of the above screenshot, there is a support option. I have only used the SafetyWing chat option a couple of times, but I was super impressed on each occasion. The agent was incredibly knowledgeable, and I think on both occasions, I was speaking to a real person in minutes. If you have any questions at all, I’d definitely recommend reaching out, as they’re very responsive.

If you’re making a non-medical claim, this is what will greet you:

When you make a non-medical claim on SafetyWing, this is what awaits you

I have only made a medical claim to date, but it looks like the same basic process, and again, just to reemphasise, making the initial claim was incredibly straightforward. 

How long did it take for my SafetyWing claim to get accepted?

Alright, now we’re at the juicy parts. And the answer is, TWO DAYS!

My SafetyWing claim was accepted in just two days

As you can see above, I submitted the claim on the 18th, and by the 20th, it had been accepted. And just for the record, I am not a morning person, so I would have submitted this a bit later in the day, which makes the quick acceptance all the more impressive. 

How long did it take for my SafetyWing claim to get reimbursed?

Okay, now we’re really talking. This is the question that a lot of you have been waiting for, and I can reveal the answer is…..

10 DAYS!

I submitted my claim on the 18th, and on the 28th of February, the money was back in my account. This was way quicker than I was expecting, and it was a lovely surprise receiving the email saying that the claim had been paid out.

Final thoughts on SafetyWing:

As mentioned at the top, ideally none of us would have to make an insurance claim. Whatever your reason may be for making said claim, it’s likely that it was associated with stress, and probably a lot of it.

Having to make a claim on top of this extra stress can be very overwhelming, but honestly, SafetyWing makes the whole process as easy as possible. There is an image, and you might have experienced it yourself, of insurance companies refusing pay-outs, or fighting for every single bit of money they can, so to have something go as smoothly as this, was incredibly refreshing. 

I had an incident a while ago where an insurance company refused to pay out on me missing a flight and having to buy a new one, as our journey to the airport was severely delayed, because there was a fatal accident on the motorway. To see them refuse this, where quite clearly we were late due to no fault of our own, left a bitter taste in the mouth, and needless to say, I never used them again. 

So, to have a claims process go so smoothly showed me that there are some good insurance companies out there, and I would absolutely put SafetyWing in that bracket.

The claims process was super easy, and again, to receive a refund in just ten days was low key mind-blowing. This isn’t the way typical insurance companies act. 

As mentioned, I have been a SafetyWing customer for a long time, so this isn’t me falling for the new kid with the shiny no deductible policy, this is me having absolutely no qualms in recommending them for your travelling needs. 

Digital nomads, long-term travellers, or anyone considering a trip abroad, SafetyWing should be your choice for travel medical insurance, or if you want a more complete package, a full global health insurance option. 

I use the essential package, and will continue to for the foreseeable future, but if you’re looking for more, then the complete package covers a ridiculous amount, and will hopefully have you looked after for every eventuality. If you do go for the complete option, then you’ll receive all the benefits of the Essential plan plus routine care, maternity, cancer screenings, mental health and more. 

If you’ve been on the fence about SafetyWing, hopefully what you’ve read above helps you change your mind, and if you’re interested in supporting the site, you can sign up using my referral link here.

Thank you, and as always, any questions feel free to reach out in the comments or by sending me a message.

In the section below, I’ve included specifics on what the two SafetyWing policies offer, what is covered in each package, and a lot more. 

What is a SafetyWing? 

To quote the actual company: ‘SafetyWing is a company dedicated to providing innovative travel medical insurance products. Our mission is to remove the role of geographical borders as a barrier to equal opportunities and freedom for everyone.’

Let’s dive a little deeper on what exactly their coverage offers below: 

Nomad Insurance Essential – A travel medical insurance covering unexpected injuries and illnesses, including hospital visits, doctor fees, and even emergency medical evacuations.

Nomad Insurance Complete – A full global health insurance option for individuals needing fuller, comprehensive coverage. Both cover various travel related emergencies.

Here’s a bit more about each program:

Benefits of SafetyWing Nomad Insurance Essential:

Covers you in over 180 countries

You can buy it after your trip has already started

$0 deductible

Covers medical treatment and hospitalizations up to $250,000

Covers travel delay, lost luggage, and trip interruption

Pay as you go subscription, cancel anytime.

Add-ons available for Electronics Theft, Adventure Sports, and USA coverage.

Kids under 10 go free with an adult Essential policy, making it great for families on a budget. (does not apply for the complete plan)

For every 3 months abroad, you get coverage for short visits back home, up to 30 days (15 days for customers from the US)

Coverage from just a few dollars per day

One of my favourite elements of the SafetyWing essential insurance is that you’re able to purchase coverage after the trip has started. This has been something I’ve personally taken advantage of, our plans change, and it’s something a lot of companies don’t offer.  

Benefits of SafetyWing Nomad Insurance Complete:

Nomad Insurance Complete is an insurance for unexpected and ongoing health issues with extended travel protection. And just so you’re aware, the minimum term for the complete package is 12 months. 

Covers you in 170 countries

Overall coverage limit of $1,500,000

$0 deductible

Access to vaccines and regular screenings, plus wellness therapies like acupuncture and chiropractic's

Virtual therapy visits in your native language

Includes the same travel benefits as the Essential plan plus additional coverage for trip or accommodation cancelation, burglary, and delayed luggage

Includes the same medical coverage as the Essential plan plus outpatient services, maternity care, mental health support, major surgeries, cancer screenings and treatments.

Coverage in home country (see specifics on location/amount of time)

As mentioned above, I personally use the essential plan, and it’s important to keep in mind that you can add extras to this package (adventure sport, electronic theft, US coverage etc). 

I haven’t used the complete package, but the fact that you can use it in your home country will be a big plus for a lot of you I’m sure. Having all-inclusive health insurance is such a massive weight off the shoulders, and being able to travel with this, in 170 countries, could be a gamechanger for long-term digital nomads and travellers who are looking for a little bit more from their coverage. 

I do like that you’re covered for short-term trips back home on the essential plan though. This wasn’t something I was aware of until researching this article, and as an essential plan holder, this is good to know. 30 days per 3 months feels like a good ratio, so this is something else to keep in mind when making your decision. 

Again, if this has convinced you to get a SafetyWing policy, then please consider signing up through the link below to help support the site :)

Get your digital nomad and long-term traveller SafetyWing insurance: Click here to access the SafetyWing website!

Thank you for reading!