Travel insurance for the over 65s

Here are some providers of travel insurance for a group that's often excluded, including some innovative ways to get cover.

Currently there's a lot of talk about making insurance prices equal for men and women, but not many are calling for cheaper travel insurance for older people. If you want to get your costs down, you need to look around at as many options as possible. Here are my tips:

To start with, for European travel you must have a free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which replaced the E111 form some years ago. This gives UK residents emergency medical cover throughout most of Europe at a reduced cost or even free.

Specialist insurers

Age UK (formerly Age Concern and Help the Aged) quotes for people of all ages. It offers cover not often available to older people. Some of the highlights include:

• Cover for special medical equipment you may need to carry.
• Winter sports cover.
• Cover for financial failure of the tour operator, or travel or accommodation provider.
• You could also get cover for existing conditions – but please read the terms and conditions very carefully.

Cover for children is free under the policy, so even if you find the cost high for yourself, you could perhaps reduce your family's overall costs a little if you cover your grandchildren under this policy rather than their parent's policy.

AllClear also offers cover for any age and, it says, 'almost any pre-existing medical conditions' including: diabetes, angina, arthritis, asthma, cancer, heart attack conditions, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, epilepsy and stroke. It could also give cover for some hazardous sports, loss of medication, and loss and hire of golf equipment.

Cover My Travels offers cover for any age for single trips and up to 85 for annual cover (but just 65 on long-stay cover), and can include winter sports and wedding cover.

Staysure as well says it covers 220+ pre-existing conditions in people up to age 85 when they go travelling.

Here are some more policies that are worth a look:

Most of those will also cover pre-existing conditions to a greater or lesser extent.

Comparison sites

A few dozen insurers that accept older people have their prices compared in comparison sites such as lovemoney.com's travel insurance comparison. Many of these won't offer special terms particularly targeting the older market, but you might find a cheaper deal there.

Credit cards

Many credit cards come with 'travel accident' benefits, which is often confused with travel insurance. Don't make this mistake, as travel accident cover alone will fall seriously short of the cover you need, and you won't get your medical expenses paid.

However, we sometimes get deals offering more but, at the moment, I can just find one.

M&S Money's credit card offers travel insurance for those up to 80 (plus partners and children up to the age of 79), but you need to join its 'Premium Club' to get this, which costs £10 per month in the first year. If you can't otherwise get similar or better cover for less than £120 a year, you might think it's worth it, but many of you could do better than that from some of my other options.

Also, after one year, expect the fee of £10 to go up significantly and put it in your calendar to cancel your membership to the Club long before.

Recent question on this topic

• magicol asks:

  Is there an effective and practical way of comparing Travel Insurance policies?

  • 
    liesarenocomfort answered "A good question after the recent debacle, but the answer would seem to be no, short of reading the..."
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Bank account extras

Premium bank accounts sometimes offer travel insurance as part of their benefits package. Generally, premium accounts aren't worth the money and you're better off buying the bits you need separately. However, if you can get expensive travel insurance only it's a little more likely to be worth your while when you add the other benefits in. Just don't fall for their nonsense about cheaper travel currency and travel deals, as you'll be able to get that at more competitive rates elsewhere.

At the moment Santander offers travel insurance as a benefit to its £20 per month premium account up to the age of 79 and their families.

I must repeat myself: these pay-monthly bank accounts generally aren't worth the cost. Ensure you can't get the same overall level of useful benefits by picking them up separately before shelling out for a premium account. And, don't forget, you'll likely be able to earn far more interest in free accounts too.

Compare travel insurance and free current accounts through lovemoney.com.

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