Faye Travel Insurance Review

Faye is a real youngster on the travel insurance scene. Launched in 2022, they’ve positioned themselves as a disruptor in the market by using technology to update and streamline the claims process.

What that basically means is, if you lose your luggage en route to Iceland or take a nasty fall while exploring the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, you can easily submit a claim just using your smartphone. The process has been designed specifically to work through Faye’s app – in fact, that’s the only way you can file a claim!

While they have so far limited their market to US citizens going on relatively short-term forays abroad, they have a wide-ranging policy that should protect you in most scenarios. It might not suit the digital nomad or long-term expat who spends most of the year overseas, but it’s certainly worth considering if you’re someone who spends up to 6 months working from exotic locales.

What Is Faye Insurance?

Faye has focused on developing its digital assets to make their claims process and reimbursement simpler, offering a competitive solution for tech-savvy users who are based in the United States.

Faye’s app is a cornerstone of its USP. It’s here that clients can review their policies, make claims, chat with customer service reps and receive payouts – all in one clean interface.

Faye’s digital-native approach might be off-putting to some older generations, but this is balanced out by the fact that their policies do not have an age limit and will cover certain pre-existing conditions.

The one group that Faye does not cater well for is digital nomads or expats living abroad for long periods of time, as their coverage is limited to 6 months overseas maximum and doesn’t cover any routine medical treatment.

Key Features & Coverage

Faye combines a solid travel health insurance package with robust travel-related benefits. The limits are on the lower end compared to some of their competitors, but the breadth of coverage is one of the best on the market.

✅ Medical Coverage

• Emergency treatment is covered up to a maximum of $250,000. This includes illnesses and accidents that require immediate medical attention, with a sublimit of $750 for dental work. Faye’s insurance does not cover routine or preventative care.
• Injuries caused by sports like skiing, kayaking and horseback riding are protected by the primary package, but you can also purchase an add-on that includes more extreme activities like paragliding, bungee jumping and sky diving. The policy maximum remains the same, it just expands to encompass more sports.
• Faye will cover pre-existing conditions that haven’t required treatment, prescriptions or medical examinations in the 180 days prior to your trip. This stipulation has some wiggle room, as chronic issues that are solely being treated by a long-term, regular prescription will be covered – just so long as your dosage hasn’t changed in the last 180 days.
• On top of that, the company offer a waiver that means all pre-existing conditions are insured just so long as you purchased a policy within 14 days of making your initial deposit towards your trip and are deemed fit to travel.

✅ Emergency & Evacuation Coverage

• $500,000 is allotted to cover medical evacuation. This applies if you are suffering from a severe or life-threatening ailment that cannot be adequately treated in the immediate area.
• This $500,000 pot can also be used for repatriation following emergency medical treatment. In this case, Faye will offer to transport you to your point of origin, your primary residence or an appropriate medical facility near to your home.
• Natural disasters and political evacuations are covered up to $100,000. In both these instances, you can choose if you want to be taken back to the place where you began your trip or if you want to go to the nearest safe location.

✅ Travel-Related Benefits

• Up to 100% of your non-refundable costs are covered by Faye if you are forced to cancel a trip for one of the reasons listed in the fine print. These reasons can be things like sickness or death of you or a family member, pregnancy complications, a traffic accident or job termination. Prepaid flights, hotels and activities are all applicable.
• Up to 150% of your non-refundable costs will be reimbursed if your trip is interrupted due to illness or injury. The higher limit is designed to help you purchase additional travel if you need to start your trip late or conclude your trip early due to one of the covered reasons.
• If there is a flight delay or your passport is stolen, Faye will pay up to $300 per day (maximum $2,100 per trip) to cover non-refundable costs. This only applies if the delay incurred is at least 6 hours.
• There’s also an additional category for “travel inconvenience.” This basically means you get a payout for such annoyances as your flight being delayed for at least 6 hours, you miss a flight due to security check-in delays or your flight is cancelled entirely. Each inconvenience entitles you to $200, topping out at $600. However, you can’t claim this AND reimbursements for trip delays and interruptions, so you’ll need to choose one or the other depending on your precise circumstances.
• Most policies provide $200 if a delay of 3 hours or more means you miss a connecting flight.
• Lost or damaged luggage is covered up to $150 per item, topping out at $2,000 per trip. That’s not going to cover buying a new laptop or phone though, so maybe keep a close eye on the expensive stuff!
• There are a bunch of add-ons that you can purchase to buff up your policy and cover yourself in case you accidentally damage your rental car care (up to $50,000 reimbursed) or the place you’re staying (up to $3,000 paid out, including for contents). Perhaps most useful for people who travel with their furry friends is the pet care add-on, which covers up to $2,500 for vet expenses.
• For anybody who is worried about their plans changing relatively last minute, Faye has a Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) add-on that means travelers can claim back up to 75% of their sunk costs as long as they cancel at least 48 hours before their scheduled departure date.

✅ COVID-19 & Pandemic Coverage

• COVID-19 is covered like any other illness. If you require medical attention or you are forced to interrupt your trip due to catching COVID, Faye will cover the costs. This includes expenses related to quarantine accommodation.

Pricing & Plans

Faye has just one primary plan for all customers, which makes things nice and simple. This can be complemented by up to 5 add-ons that you can select to beef up your coverage.

The biggest factor influencing the prices is generally the cost of your trip. That’s hardly surprising given that a big chunk of what the company covers you for is travel-related expenses, and these don’t have a maximum limit in the same way as Faye health insurance does.

That means that the cost of coverage while you work and travel around Europe for three months could theoretically be the same as a similar adventure around Southeast Asia. It all really depends on how much money you fork out for flights, accommodation tours and so on.

The other major factor that influences the price of your insurance is, of course, age. Below, we’ve provided several quotes for a range of age brackets. These figures are based on coverage for one month with an estimated total trip cost of $4,500. There’s no upper age limit for Faye’s coverage, so prices continue to rise exponentially.

Cancel for Any Reason (CAFR) and extreme sports protection are influenced by the estimated cost of your trip and your age, but other add-ons are not.

• Up to the age of 34, you can expect to pay around $211.85 for a month (30 days). CAFR costs an additional $75.21, while extreme sports is an additional $79.10.
• Between 35 and 58, primary coverage costs $237.64, with $91.59 for CAFR and $92.15 for extreme sports.
• Between 59 and 65, primary coverage costs $295.97, with $130.22 for CAFR and $121.40 for extreme sports.
• Between 66 and 70, primary coverage costs $338.10, with $158.38 for CAFR and $142.55 for extreme sports.
• Between 71 and 79, primary coverage costs $379.29, with $197.95 for CAFR and $172.25 for extreme sports.
• Rental car care costs $7.58 per day.
• Vacation rental damage protection costs a flat fee of $17.04.
• Pet care costs a flat fee of $25.36.

One additional factor affecting price is the length of time you plan to spend abroad, although this influences pricing less significantly than age and estimated trip cost.

Pros & Cons of Faye

Pros

✅ Lots of travel-related coverage
✅ Offers a pre-existing conditions waiver
✅ No age limit on policies
✅ Claims are all done in the app

Cons

❌ Only offers coverage for American residents
❌ Maximum trip time is 6 months
❌ Claims are all done in the app

How to Sign Up & Use Faye

• Sign-up process:

1. Choose the destinations you want to cover during your trip.
2. Enter the beginning and end dates of your travel period.
3. Select the US state where you are resident from the drop-down list. Depending on where you live, the pricing and coverage of your policy may be affected by state-level regulations.
4. Enter the name and date of birth for yourself and any other travelers you want to insure. Faye will also ask for an email address where they can contact you.
5. Next, you’ll be presented with a quote for your travel insurance. At the top of the page, you’ll see the estimated trip cost, which you can adjust. This directly affects the cost of your policy, as it is the max amount that Faye will pay out in the event of trip cancellation. It also influences your trip interruption coverage.
6. Below this on the left side you’ll see the various aspects of your coverage summed up. On the right side, you’ll be able to select any add-ons, including CFAR, rental car care, adventure sports protection, vacation rental damage protection and pet care. Once you’re happy, click “Get Covered” at the bottom of the page.
7. On the final page, enter your full home address as well as your payment method – and you’re done!

• How to file a claim and get reimbursed:

1. On the Faye app home screen, click the “File a claim” button. You’ll see a short message reminding you that you’ll need details of your incident and supporting documentation. Click “Next.”
2. You’ll be taken to a screen displaying all your current and upcoming trips. Select the trip you want to make a claim for.
3. Enter details of the incident in your own words into the text box, explaining the nature of your medical emergency or trip delay.
4. A calendar will pop up where you can choose the date of the incident.
5. Upload supporting documentation, such as medical assessments and receipts. You can also opt to email the info.
6. Enter the total amount you are claiming for.
7. The final page displays an honesty pledge, asking you to sign to confirm that the information you’ve supplied is accurate.
8. Faye aims to process all claims in around 48 hours, but as with all travel insurers it can take longer. Claims are displayed on the app home screen, so you can immediately see the status as soon as you open the app.
9. Once a claim is approved, the money will be sent your Faye wallet, which has been designed to mimic Apple Pay and Google Pay in terms of functionality. From here, you can either use the wallet directly to pay for stuff or transfer the cash to your bank account.

• User experience:

Everything is neatly designed, with a clean webpage that is easy to navigate on both computer and phone. There are only a handful of tabs, simplifying the user journey so that you can rapidly find coverage info, FAQs and testimonials.

As we’ve mentioned, all claims must be made through the app, which has a lot of nice additional features that make it super handy. For instance, the home screen displays your nearest medical providers and local emergency numbers, in addition to upcoming flights. You can also see the weather, the local exchange rate and sync up to Spotify for some local tunes.

Faye vs. Competitors

*Prices are per 4 weeks. Quotes vary based on your age, trip duration, destinations and several other factors, so only treat this as a rough estimate.

Customer Reviews & Ratings

Faye have an exceptionally high rating on TrustPilot of 4.7 out of 5. A massive 86% of Faye insurance reviewers gave the company 5 stars, while a further 7% gave them 4 stars. Although as a younger business they have fewer writeups than brands like IMG or Cigna, their 1-star ratings make up only 5% of their feedback – which is one of the best ratios on the travel insurance market.

What people like:

• Payouts for a broad range of eventualities. Users with a variety of reasons for making a claim were satisfied that their policies covered their issues, from food poisoning and a stolen phone to trip interruption.
• The customer service. Many clients mention that the customer service reps are patient and friendly, taking the time to help people find the right insurance as well as guiding them through the claims process when necessary.
• Detailed claim feedback. Even when Faye denies a claim, the company has a reputation for clearly explaining their reasoning.

What people don’t like:

• Slow turnaround time. Some customers have noted that it can take a while for claims to be processed and reimbursements to be made.
• The CFAR add-on terms. What precisely is included in the Cancel for Any Reason policy has bamboozled several people who purchase the additional coverage.
• The complexity of the policy terminology. There’s always a hefty bit of legalese associated with travel insurance, but some have found Faye’s terms and conditions particularly confusing to navigate.

Who Should & Shouldn’t Use Faye?

• Recommended for → Short-term travelers, trip interruptions
• Not ideal for → Expats needing long-term healthcare, people who struggle with technology

Final Verdict: Is Faye Worth It?

Faye is the best digital nomad insurance if what you want is a policy that covers all your bases, including medical emergencies, trip cancellations, lost luggage and repatriation. The maximum limits aren’t the highest on the market, but they should be enough to protect you in most situations.

There are a lot of features to like. For adventurers, Faye covers several sports as standard. For people with chronic health issues, they offer a pre-existing conditions waiver if you take out insurance within 14 days of your initial trip deposit.

Perhaps best of all, it’s all delivered through a smart-looking app that keeps all your info together in one place, from policy details to the status of ongoing claims.

Sign up for Faye Travel Insurance.