Travel Insurance for Over 65’s

TerryP

My wife and I are booked later in the year for a special holiday to Costa Rica. We will both be 70 (just) on the trip. We are finding the cost of travel insurance a bit of a shock. We are looking for insurance that will reimburse a good amount to to the cost of the holiday should we (for any reason) not be able to go. Plus of course the usual insurance requirements. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

T.P

DullGreyGuy

The Americas and Caribbean are expensive for travel insurance, unfortunately getting older is too and so you will have the compound impact and given these are multipliers rather than additives it can be substantial. 

Little you can do other than shopping around and maybe looking at those who target those with advancing years as they may be less cautious with age

heatherw_01

Unfortunately age and the Americas have a big impact on price.

They just see age as "you could be really frail" even if you are very fit an healthy. So sadly it has a big impact on price as they think of all the things that could go wrong.

All you can do is keep shopping around.

GibbsRule_No3.

I wonder if anyone has done a survey to see who does actually claim more, on their travel insurance at certain ages?

silvercar

GibbsRule_No3. said:

I wonder if anyone has done a survey to see who does actually claim more, on their travel insurance at certain ages?

Literally the job of actuaries, who assess the risk and price insurance accordingly. The same reason that young drivers pay higher car insurance.

TerryP

Thanks to all for your responses. We shopped around and have eventually taken a policy with LV (their Premier Policy). It seems pretty comprehensive. And looks to cover everything we asked for.

Hoenir

GibbsRule_No3. said:

I wonder if anyone has done a survey to see who does actually claim more, on their travel insurance at certain ages?

The insurance companies will use this data to price their products. The US is horrendously expensive for emergency care. Hospital won't touch you unless they know that they will get paid. 

TELLIT01

I'm guessing you have already checked what cover you may have through any packaged bank accounts.  My Lloyds Gold account covers up to age 80.  I know many others cease at 70.

TerryP

TELLIT01 said:

I'm guessing you have already checked what cover you may have through any packaged bank accounts.  My Lloyds Gold account covers up to age 80.  I know many others cease at 70.

Yes we did, but did not give us anything like what we wanted.

NoodleDoodleMan

TerryP said:

My wife and I are booked later in the year for a special holiday to Costa Rica. We will both be 70 (just) on the trip. We are finding the cost of travel insurance a bit of a shock. We are looking for insurance that will reimburse a good amount to to the cost of the holiday should we (for any reason) not be able to go. Plus of course the usual insurance requirements. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

T.P

We had a Co-op Bank packaged joint account deal for worldwide travel insurance cover which went up to 80th birthday - and our relatively routine medical conditions (Hypertension in my case) did not incur any additional fees.
Nationwide's similar(ish) packaged FlexPlus deal through Aviva goes beyond 80 (a recent change) any extras for health issues are based on the individual(s) declared conditions. 

DullGreyGuy

silvercar said:

GibbsRule_No3. said:

I wonder if anyone has done a survey to see who does actually claim more, on their travel insurance at certain ages?

Literally the job of actuaries, who assess the risk and price insurance accordingly. The same reason that young drivers pay higher car insurance.

Can also be statisticians, personal lines tend to be high volume and short tail so not as complex as commercial lines.