IMG Travel Insurance www.imglobal.com

If I could submit a review with ZERO stars I would do so for IMG Travel Insurance. So the history causing me to submit a claim for a trip "interruption" - I tested positive for COVID while overseas and had to spend 5 extra days before I could return to the US. As I had additional hotel and transportation expenses I submitted them and the required paperwork on Aug. 2, 2022. (STUPID ME - I forgot to submit the additional expenses for food.) There website and documents state they will resolve any issues and issue payment for a claim within "industry standards" (I got an auto claim paid in 3 days recently). 30 days after my original submission I had had NO contact - so I called AND sent an e-mail asking for an update - and the customer service representative stated the "claim was in the review handler and in process and an update would be provided soon". After another 3 weeks I did the same - and received the same run-around answer. Another 2 weeks later I did the same with an identical result. 2 weeks later I did the same with an identical result. I contacted my insurance broker and he called and got the SAME result! Another week later - the same with the same result - the claim was "with the handler for review" and the same suggestion to e-mail the itravelclaims address requesting an update

(crickets/silence from that department!). FINALLY after 98 days I received notification that my claim was approved and payment would be sent shortly - 4 days later I finally received payment and resolution!

I do not think 98 days is quite the "industry standard" for resolving insurance claims and I was very frustrated with the same reply over and over again. Needless to say they are not "prompt" by any means - customer service has no ability to provide you with an accurate status. Bottom line -

I CANNOT RECOMMEND THEM FOR TRAVEL INSURANCE AND WILL NOT USE THEM AGAIN!

This company does not care about its clients. The reason people have insurance is because of an unexpected emergency. Not to get the run around from an answering service. I submitted my claim on July 15, 2022. They say they didn't get it till the 19th. The website says claims will be processed in 10 days. It also adds it can take longer if they are busy. It has been a month and I don't even know who my claims representative is. I have called and emailed more than 7 times and I keep getting an answering service that acts like they are taking a message. I have had one call back to just tell me the same thing the answering service said. It is beyond awful!!! I wish I never signed up for this insurance company and never will again! I don't know when my claim will be processed.

i Travel Insured, Imglobal.com: This company is so poor with their service and their tactics to avoid payment from cancellations due to CoVid 19 are appalling. Nothing but excuses, misinformation about their forms and how to complete them. They are intent on only providing a 75% reimbursement under their "cancellation for any reason" clause when in fact our trip was cancelled due to border closings and travel bans.

It is clear that they only ever provide 75% and just keep the premium and the 25% for themselves?!

This insurance was offered to us through the resort, Marina Fiesta Resort in Cabo San Lucas and they obviously do not know how claims are handled or are in on it as well. Shame, you should not be pushing insurance from this disreputable company.

The poor reviews are everywhere, you just have to look!!!

If it were possible to rate this company even lower, I certainly would.

This company represents so much that is wrong about insurance companies in the U.S. So far, I have been waiting for reimbursement of a claim that was submitted four months ago. The company insists that they received it two months after I sent my claim via email. In spite of having documentation, the customer service rep KB could not help me. I have called four times over a month and a half and the response is still the same. He was a broken record stating the same company information rather than helping me by problem solving the situation with me. The cost of services overseas is inexpensive in relation to the cost of IMG's annual insurance that it would be better to not have purchased IMG's coverage. Once in Europe, there are better insurance coverage options for Americans so don't spend your money on IMG.

Filed a claim 6 weeks ago and no response. Emergency room visit and hospitalized for 3 days. What a waste of money. No medical center or hospital will accept this policy in Mexico. 100% out of pocket. Never will buy it again.

Over the years I have purchased travel insurance from IMGlobal. Having never filed a claim before I was not aware of how incredibly slow and unhelpful their claims department is. I will NEVER purchase insurance from them again!

They have EXTREMELY slow claims processing and in the end an emergency room visit of a mere 95,00 euros while traveling in Spain was denied because unless you are admitted into the hospital following the emergency room treatment they slap on an additional $250.00 deductible.

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY, there are many other travel insurance companies that will give you more coverage for less of a premium.

Absolutely the WORST insurance experience I have ever had. Unbelievable incompetence.

Patriot Travel

I fell ill while traveling, and was insured via the IMG Global Patriot Travel insurance policy. I called IMG ahead of making an appointment with a doctor to make sure I was using the plan properly, and followed instructions for how to find/see a doctor and file a claim. When the normal treatments that doctors prescribed didn’t work, I went back a couple of times, the treatments escalated as per protocol, and I was referred to a specialist. Of course called ahead to get “preauthorization” from IMG to see the specialist, and for the CT scan that was ordered. I did EVERYTHING within exact instructions, filed my claims online, and 6 months later they have paid NOTHING.

What were my claims? Something medically bizarre or my own fault? Was I drunk, riding zebra unicorns out of a plane with no parachute and trying to claim a broken ankle later?

Nope. I had a simple sinus infection that was not responding to the regular antibiotics. Not a preexisting condition. Nothing outside the norm. And no treatments that were crazy or even expensive. It was SIMPLE.

But they haven’t reimbursed me a single cent. That was October 2017. I’m writing this April 23 2018.

What I DID get from IMG:

Incompetence:

Employees couldn't look up claims, had the wrong info, couldn't see claims, couldn't find a claim within the weird 15 minute cut-off system on chat, didn't email info as they promised, gave "cut & paste" responses to deny culpability & make the client look like "the bad one" for asking what was going on when the company wasn't up to snuff. I kid you not, they “lost” one of my claims at east 3 times, and wanted me to “reapply”, WHILE I was looking at THEIR system, and I was seeing that claim and all its details. I was actually made to prove to them that I put a claim in their system by sending screenshots to their tech department, FROM THEIR OWN SYSTEM! Apparently, I can do an IMG agents’ job better than they can from my home laptop. By the second and third time they tried to pull this one on me, which was after 5 or 10 communications, I got the IMG communication system down, and I could predict every response. I noticed that the lag time would simply increase when I asked a pertinent question - so an actual answer could be avoided and I could be bumped off the call/chat. And if I asked about a claim, they might just say it was lost. What were they doing, buying time while my premiums earned them income sitting in their interest-bearing accounts? The LONGER they can hold on to your money, the more they make.

Insult:

As if I was being unfairly demanding, I was told to “give them a chance to review the claim” and “they’re just doing their job” as a cut & paste response to all of my queries as to why my claims still hadn’t been resolved 6 months later. They got me with this one and I almost felt guilty the first 4 times, until l realized they just said this EVERY time to avoid giving me an answer. D’oh I’m the stupid one here! They would delay answering my questions & put me on “hold” until their 15 minute customer service timeframe ran out. Well, heck! That’s a handy way to avoid responsibility! Simply ignore the customer on hold with a time limit, and then blame them when you don’t pay. There’s a whole set of morals (or lack of them) at work here that I just don’t understand.

My Money, Time & Energy Wasted:

They seemed happy enough to keep my premiums, and to not pay out my claims, so I am now out a few thousand Euros. However they seemed unable to take me seriously, to take my calls, to answer my questions, or to explain why they didn’t pay my claims. They simply refused or ignored me. Over 6 months later, they STILL haven’t resolved simple doctor’s visits, and the ONLY communication I’ve received is a denial for one of the middle claims in the series, stating that going to a doctor is not in my insurance coverage. Uuuuhhhhh… THAT is a new one. I actually laughed when I got that email. IMG insurance the doesn’t pay for doctors. Hehehehe. Riiiight.

I have now publicly warned people not to get IMG insurance, will continue to make sure people know, and have switched to another company myself. The cheapest, worst travel insurance I ever had (TripMate via World Nomads) actually paid claims in a way that made IMG look embarrassingly incompetent. Heck, I’m going back to them for my short trips. I had imagined I was getting a better service with IMG. I was WRONG.

In fact, I found it so impossible to deal with IMG that I haven't bothered to cancel my coverage or try to get my money back. Why bother? The lack of honesty & lack of service I have experienced in the MANY months since my claims were submitted has already wasted enough of my time, money & energy. It was my mistake to get IMG, obviously I should have listened to the bad online reviews. At this point, I have no more time to waste nor bad money to throw after good on IMG.

Seriously, what is wrong with this company's system? Why is it that people who work for IMG can't seem to do their jobs? How is IMG surviving? I can only imagine it is through exhausting customers and keeping their money, and never paying out.

Thank god I only lost a few thousand Euro on IMG, and I wasn’t really ill or injured severely - I would be bankrupt now. I run 3 companies, and I would never treat a customer the way I've been treated by IMG. It's pathetic and embarrassing to see grown adults mismanaging their business they way IMG has.

My heart goes out to people who got really hurt or ill, needed insurance, and got this same treatment by IMG. I imagine some poor older folks who can't deal with the tech, or people who have no recourse. That is really just... sad. Unfortunately all it takes is one look on the internet to realize I'm not the only one. :(

I’m not sure who is writing all the nice reviews. Maybe it is IMG employees while they are putting their clients on hold. That would explain many things at once.

I had an accident in Italy. My eye socket was broken. I call and was preapproved for the surgery. that was June 2015. I have now received information that they denied because the paperwork was not clear!! I went to Italy and got the originals. AND, they again asked for my primary insurance to pay - MEDICARE which doesn't cover overseas. I have now heard from two other people with same experience! The RUDE person on the phone actually said "pre-approval doesn't guarantee payment." I wish I had read the ratings first. This is a hoax. I paid for premium insurance.

Bought last Dec a policy for my daughter who lives overseas when she came to visit over Christmas holidays for 8 weeks. It's taken over 10 months of supplying extra information to them and they finally denied the claim. They knew as soon as they got the papers from the doctor's office they were going to deny. My daughter was having some pain in her lower abdomen and needed to see a doctor. After many phone calls, we found a doctor who would take IMG's insurance. She was examined and given a prescription to clear up the problem. Because she had never been to that doctor, she was listed as a new patient and billed accordingly. Everything was submitted directly to IMG by the Dr's office. We never saw a bill as she was 100% covered for doctor's visits. After 10 months IMG has determined that new patient exams are excluded from the contract. In those 10 months, IMG has claimed they were backlogged on claims and said personal IMG account was temporarily out of service (for 6 months????). A few times they mailed letters to my daughter overseas asking for further information for her claim which she never received. I finally got a copy of them in my email. The letters had her street and city but did not have her state and country. Either this was part of their delaying tactics or they have employed some very incompetent people! Many times I called, they said papers were missing. I explained that every time something was emailed to them I had a conformation reply from the company. Looking again, they magically found them. Another thing. You do not get a copy of the contract until after your money is paid. Went online to read reviews. ING had a high rating. After reading, I discovered that most of the reviews were from people who bought policies but never filed a claim. They were very happy with the peace of mind that having the insurance gave them. Do not use IMG Global for your insurance! They are full of deceptive business practices. You will not only pay for the insurance but will end up paying the doctors and hospital bills as well!

My partner and I had to evacuate a level an island in Phillippines due to a level 5 typhoon. We filed the claim in December. He got his claim from World Nomads by March.

I got ask for more and more and more documents which were painful and expensive to get from IM Global and kept getting answers back in the MAIL to my home in Peru, which took at least 3 months each time, asking for further documentation. It's October now and my email from May with every single additional document has not been responded too.

I don't feel like giving up on a matter of principle but I suggest you stay away from this backward company.