Travel cost cutting tips for older travellers/those with pre-existing conditions

SundayGirl

I am thinking about using Cover-All. They only seem to do worldwide annual insurance, without pre-existing for my family it is £40.30 for a £150 excess, £55.25 for a £75 excess. They will cover my condition (cancer 3 years ago, not spread). for an extra £20, but I will not be covered for the first £300 of any claim directly or indirectly related to my condition.

Finding it hard to find anyone doing annual insurance at a reasonable price.

rosepink

I have just found out that Lloyds Bank offer travel insurance which includes many medical conditions for no extra cost.They have also covered my husband who had cancer and had a curative treatment without extra cost.He is 69 and I think the £170 fee is very acceptible.

The cover is via AXA and I spoke with a very helpful member of staff who confirmed that we will be covered worldwide. Check out the LLoyds website via a search engine for more info. Sorry I am not sure how to add the direct link!

lynne17

thought I would like to add my finds... my mum is 81 and had a heart attack many years ago but that is still held against her . the prices were terrible, But I have after spends days looking, thought i would share the following which are brilliant prices, avanti came up £125 for two weeks in canada and for spain for a week £31 with EHIC plus both are good and covers her pre-existing condition, hope this helps someone

rosie383

Hi,
I need to book annual insurance for the family. The only medial conditions relevant are food allergies in both children, but they are not too serious. Both only needed medical attention first time each one had a reaction, so as long as we are careful, there shouldn't be a problem. Do we actually need to contact the insurance co before we take the cover? Normally we just take the cover, but would not use the cover for a pre-existing condition.
Also, my mum is terminally ill. I know I wouldn't be covered to change flights, etc, but it wouldn't invalidate my cover if it wasn't involved, would it? If I don't tell them beforehand, I mean.
Hope this makes sense.

Incapuppy

Hi Rosie,

You say that there 'shouldn't be a problem' with your children, but if you did not mention it to an insurer and then, heaven forbid, one of your kids was taken poorly again (with the same condition) you would not be covered. The best thing would be to speak directly to your intended insurer and ask their advice. If this is a minimal problem that has only occurred the once, then they might not insist on any loading for it anyway.

I'm sorry to hear about your Mum, and no, I don't think your cover would be invalidated if you didn't mention it, but you would obviously have no cover in relation to anything connected with this.

The thing to bear in mind with Travel Insurance is that it's not just the duration of the holiday that is covered - you are covered for cancellation from the time of taking out the policy (which should always be at the same time as booking a holiday). You might feel confident that you could cope with paying for a change of flight for you if you needed to get back in a hurry but also take into account that you could lose the whole cost of your family holiday if you needed to cancel at the last minute.

rosie383

I just take it as a given that I would not be covered if something was to happen with mum when we are away. I doubt if it would be worth looking into a company that would cover cancellation if mum suddenly got worse.
I would be looking to take out annual cover through a cashback site, to reduce the cost.
Does any one know what I do to speak to the company before I take the cover? Because I would have to go through the cashback site direct to get the money, rather than doing it by phone. Has anyone ever found a quote, spoken to the insurance people to get an agreement of cover, then used a cashback site to buy the cover?

dacouch

There is a section when you are quoting for declaring existing medical conditions.

There is a part of the policy that covers "Curtailment" eg coming home early.

If you do not declare your childrens or your mother's condition the Insurers will exclude any claims as a direct result of the conditions.

Unless you want to pay extra on the premium I doubt you will get cover for your mothers condition as its terminal

rosie383

So what I really need to know, is it worth bothering to tell them about mum? Is it only serious stuff we need to tell them about? None of us have any big problems, but have seen the gp over the past couple of years with wee things, eg, an abcess that needed surgery, but is healed about a year ago. do we need to declare stuff like that, or is it just if we have heart disease or something?
I'm just thinking about private medical insurance where they want to know if you sneezed 3 yrs ago!!!!!!!!!!!!

dacouch

Its up to you, if you want to benefit from having Cancellation Cover (Cancelling before you travel), Delayed Travel and Curtailment (Coming home early from the trip) then you can pay the extra (It could be quite a lot). If you are prepared to run the risk then don't pay the extra, it will not invalidate the policy they will just exclude claims connected with your mothers illness (If you need to come home early say because your mum has broken a leg which is completely unconnnected with her medical condition it would normally be covered).

Incapuppy

Rosie, like I said before, and dacouch has verified, if you do not tell them about either your kids or your mum's condition then that is absolutely fine - as long as you accept that you will not be covered in relation to cancellation/curtailment for either.

I appreciate that this is only a 'what if' scenario - but - what if you booked and paid, say £1500 for your holiday and you had to cancel at the last minute because one of your children had a flare up with their food allergy? Can you accept the risk of losing that money?

As for pre-existing conditions - insurers and their medical screening agencies do vary with what they do and do not cover as standard. I have to declare asthma and indigestion for my husband as he takes medication for both on a daily basis. As far as I remember, one insurer did want extra to cover the asthma but most didn't. It is far better to declare something that you are unsure about imho, better safe than sorry and the chances are if it is something trivial you won't be charged any extra for it anyway.