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Working Holiday Travel Insurance
I hate travel insurance. I loathe the idea of forking out my hard earned dollars for
something I might or might not need. Even worse, I hate the idea of trying to make a
claim only to find out that because of some obscure loophole I end up not being covered
after all. I mean have you ever known anyone to make an insurance claim without plenty
of agro and a pile of paperwork?
So I have to admit that I don’t tend to travel with insurance for short trips. I know...
risky as it is I am a cheap biatch when it comes to insurance. Well that’s not totally
true actually, for longer trips I tend to buy the cheapest, nastiest policy I can find
that covers basic medical. Maybe I’ve gotten a bit wiser in my old age, who knows.
But working holidays are a bit of a different story. I’ve worked abroad in 5 countries doing
anything from mind-numbing office work to scaling 10 foot ladders picking pears. If you are
heading on a working holiday there’s a bit of an unknown thrown in there and the possibility
that you might find yourself doing a job that might involve a small amount of risk such as
labouring or harvest work. The chance of working random, unfamiliar jobs has sort of put the
scare into me and travel insurance is always on my list of things to buy whenever I head out
on a working holiday.
But you have to be a bit careful which policy you buy because most travel insurance companies
don’t cover working abroad. If you travel with BUNAC you can pick up their insurance policy but
it costs a fortune. There are other options!
World Nomads is a good all-rounder for residents of loads of different countries with the added
benefit that it can be reviewed from anywhere. This is especially great in case you don’t know
how long you want to stay abroad for. It’d suck to buy a year’s policy only to find out that you
have to cut your trip short for some reason after a month. With World Nomad’s you can buy it month
by month if you want.
There are a few more out there too and you can get more information and price comparisons at my
Working Holiday Travel Insurance site.
It’s mostly aimed at UK backpackers but there’s some info there for everyone else. If you decide to buy
World Nomads insurance, make sure to enter the World
Nomads Promotional Code to get a whopping %5 discount. The code is JCBDEJ and doesn't expire.
So I guess in summary... insurance is crap BUT it buys piece of mind and will save your ass in an
emergency. If you’re heading off on a working holiday, insurance is a smart move but make sure
your policy actually covers you while you’re working!
By: Kirsty
October 2006
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