On our recent road trip to the US for Spring Break, we traveled one day longer than originally intended. We had driven our own vehicle down to the US for the trip so we were a bit flexible in terms of return date except for the part about travel insurance. I had purchased travel insurance for 12 days but needed to get another day of travel insurance coverage. Little did I know, it was harder than expected to get that one extra day covered. It’s no wonder that many people will just make use of shipping their car (with a company like https://www.carsrelo.com/), as they don’t have to worry about dealing with the hassle of getting that one extra day of insurance cover whilst they are out traveling. At least they can get their car back home safely and then just make use of taxis or trains to help them get to and from places as need. But anyway, we needed to get travel insurance coverage and we did at least manage to do it, even though it was a pain. Here is a look at how to buy travel insurance after you have left. If you already have youi home insurance, you might be able to add Travel Insurance to your plan.
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Extending Travel Insurance
I hadn’t faced the issue of needing to extend my travel insurance before or simply buying travel insurance while abroad. Pacific Blue Cross was the company that I bought travel insurance from for the trip. When I called them up to inquire about extending the insurance, I had forgotten that it was Easter Friday so their office was closed. Inquiring about extending our existing Travel Insurance Plan was not a possibility. When I looked into purchasing a new plan from Pacific Blue Cross to cover the extra day, I found that they do not offer travel insurance after departure.
World Nomads
I then searched the Internet to look for a travel insurance provider that would offer post-departure plans. I was finding companies based in the UK and even companies in Australia that offered this service such as One Sure Insurance but they were unable to cover people outside their country, so I was stuck.
The search results didn’t seem totally obvious and promising at first and I needed to dig deeper into which companies seemed the most reliable. That’s when I found World Nomads which is endorsed by Lonely Planet and tour companies like Contiki and Intrepid.
World Nomads is supported by different insurers from around the world and covers people from 140 countries with medical and evacuation cover, 24-hour emergency assistance and over 150 adventure activities. You can buy online even if you’ve already left home and extend your policy while travelling.
In my case as a Canadian, the policy was underwritten by AIG Insurance Company of Canada. The cost for the one day of insurance from World Nomads ($45) was also quite a bit more than the policy I chose from Pacific Blue Cross for 12 days ($92). The World Nomads policy wasn’t as flexible in terms of excluding things that you don’t really wouldn’t need to covered for a one-day road trip like Flight Accident, Baggage Delay, and Trip Cancellation.
Overall, I would use World Nomads again if I left the country without buying a policy ahead of time. And as always, it is recommended that you read the fine print before buying any policy.
Want to find out how much travel insurance would cost with World Nomads? Get a quote below.