Expat911 is a smartphone app that was designed by expats for expats. It is a service that covers you for all types of emergencies when at home, on the road or out for a night on the town. It utilizes GPS location services which allow the operators to target your exact location. Many of us may have the capability to say our home address to Mexico’s Spanish speaking 911 operators, but what happens when we are in an unfamiliar area? How can you explain where you are when you have no idea what the names of the streets are in the area during your emergency? Also, how will you explain in detail about the type of emergency you are having?
Expat911 is an app that works on Android and iPhone devices. Within the app, you have a profile with information that will speed up the process when reporting an emergency. You have a basic medical profile which has your blood type, allergies, and sicknesses. There is also a contact area where users can add 1 US/Canada contact and 2 Mexico contacts. Expat911 will notify these contacts after your emergency has been reported to Mexico’s 911 on your behalf. This way your family back home will know about your situation and so will the people that you trust here in Mexico. The Mexico contacts can be neighbors or local doctors that speak English. Many times our neighbors can come to our aid while we are awaiting the emergency services to arrive. The Mexico contacts can also be used for our insurance agents or medical air evacuation plans that we may have in place.
So how does Expat911 work during an emergency? You only have to click on one of the 3 emergency buttons. There is a button for Police, Ambulance and Fire. Within seconds an English speaking operator will call your phone and verify the emergency. If you do not pick up, then they will assume that this is a serious emergency and report to Mexico’s 911 on your behalf. If you answer, they will verify some quick details about your emergency and then call Mexico’s 911 to report the emergency. Once the emergency has been reported, they will then confirm this with the user. At this time they will stay on the phone with you if you request them to, or they will start calling your emergency contacts. So it is very simple to use during an emergency and all you have to do is click a button. They will take care of the rest. They also record all calls so that there is a record of the emergency being reported to Mexico’s 911 and the call with the user as well.
Expat911 does have a cost to use their service. It is important to understand that this is a 3rd party service who worked directly with Mexico’s C4 and C5 offices around the country. C4 and C5 are the agencies that handle all 911 calls in Mexico. Expat911 has a direct line of communication with all local C4 and C5 offices nationwide.
It is also important to realize the value of this service. An alarm in our home has a cost of 1,000’s of pesos to install. Then we pay an average of 250 pesos per month to have the service in case our alarm goes off. So the yearly fee of an alarm in Mexico is 3,000 pesos on average. This alarm system will only cover your home and you while you are at home. There is no translation services included with your alarm company and you are only covered for police emergencies. This is why we see the huge value in Expat911 which has a cost of $ 99.00 per year. That cost is under 2,000 pesos per year and will cover you everywhere within Mexico. Plus Expat911 has the added benefits of being 100% English spoken and contacting your friends and loved ones during your emergency.
Expat911 has recently implemented a couples plan. The first user pays the full amount upon registration. They will then contact Expat911 to ask for a coupon code which will be used on their spouse or family members. The user will be provided with a 50% off coupon code for any other family members that wish to use the service. So it is not just limited to your spouse and can also be used for your children, brothers, and sisters who may also be living here in Mexico with you. All additional accounts have a fee of $ 49.50 which is 50% of the original rate.
Expat911 is already serving a large number of expats in Mexico. They have active users in 11 states and are growing daily. It is a great service for those of us who have not been able to develop a strong command of the Spanish language. It is also great for those of us who do speak Spanish well enough, but might worry about the stress during an emergency hampering our ability to speak another language. It is also a great aid when we are traveling to an area that is unfamiliar to us. You can download the app and learn more from the Expat911 Website.
