Travel Insurance

We are booked on a 35 night Caribbean and USA cruise next Feb. and I am expecting that the insurance for this will be exorbitant.

The maximum length of holiday cover for over 70's with medical conditions is 28 days; a recent price comparison I did with a specialist cruise insurance comparison site came up with no offers at all, either for annual cover or single trip. I just have to hope that I can persuade my current insurer to cover me for this cruise as a special one off trip, and that the excess does not make me wince too much.

John...we never use the price comparison sites as we both have medical conditions and I worry that the cover may not really be what we need. We get quotes direct from various companies. But for the last few years we have stuck with LV...they have always been competitive, and the level of cover and customer service is very good. They will cover you up to 90 days even if over 70, and you can specify cruise cover. (Their Premier cover includes it as standard I think) We made a claim a couple of years ago, and they were very efficient. Worth a try if you havent already? They do both annual and single trip cover.

John...we never use the price comparison sites as we both have medical conditions and I worry that the cover may not really be what we need. We get quotes direct from various companies. But for the last few years we have stuck with LV...they have always been competitive, and the level of cover and customer service is very good. They will cover you up to 90 days even if over 70, and you can specify cruise cover. (Their Premier cover includes it as standard I think) We made a claim a couple of years ago, and they were very efficient. Worth a try if you havent already? They do both annual and single trip cover.

MM, I did a quote for annual worldwide cover on line with LV inputting our medical conditions, for essential the quote was about £650, but only 31 day max trip, the premier was nearly £800 but up to 90 days, both quotes seem very expensive compared with our current insurance.

However neither would cover my wife's stroke and AF conditions so no b****y good at all, and why so expensive when they are not covering all our pre existing conditions.

I am beginning to categorise insurance companies along with Estate Agents and Lawyers, as a bunch of money grabbing leaches, but I may be overreacting just a tad.

I am beginning to categorise insurance companies along with Estate Agents and Lawyers, as a bunch of money grabbing leaches, but I may be overreacting just a tad.

No you are not overreacting. I feel the same.

I alsogree, it's money grabbing and trying to extortion as much money as possible.

We have had annual policies with Staysure for the past 2 or 3 years and still currently have one that expires in March 2017.

Last September, just before a French holiday, my doctor suggested I take Atorvastatin, although I don't and never have had, high c holestorol. I rang Staysure to advise them of this and a very rude, condescending operator kept insisting I had high cholesterol and I kept telling her I didn't. In the end I asked her if she was medically trained and she replied she wasn't.

Anyway, just to make a note of a tablet, argue with me and waste my time cost me £10. I know it's not much, but it all mounts up for the insurance company.

As someone with a medical condition diagnosed five years ago I found every on-line site turned me down after years of annual world wide coverage beforehand. The only route left was to try a local insurance broker who was an immense help and knew where to source brokers who covered medical risks. I now have a year-round policy inc USA where grandchildren live - I pay roughly £40 extra to a specialist company whom I have to ring and have survey with each year.

We are so used to going on-line for everything - no good with medical conditions - look up a local insurance broker. It worked for me.

"I never book any kind of holiday without finding out how much the insurance is going to be first. I have a couple of medical conditions, neither life-threatening in the short term.

Any in USA, Caribbean, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or Hong Kong are now unaffordable for me due to high insurance premiums unless I book with a certain over 50s company who include my insurance with their holidays

.

I don't know if Saga load premiums for more serious conditions. but they haven't for my conditions as long as it's associated with a holiday booked with them. Tried them for our cruise, obviously not booked with them and they were much higher than LV.

All depends on age, conditions, type of holiday etc.

I found LV to be competitive for an annual policy with a few medical issues included. I recall reading that on occasions cover for a single holiday worked out more expensive than an annual policy. I know this sounds daft but it might well be worth investigating annual cover as well as single trip insurance.

whoops

We always buy an annual insurance. If you go away more than 3 or 4 times a year, which we do, it works out much cheaper than buying for each holiday separately.

whoops

 

We always buy an annual insurance. If you go away more than 3 or 4 times a year, which we do, it works out much cheaper than buying for each holiday separately.

If you have significant medical conditions then an annual policy can be cheaper for more than one cruise per year, it certainly is for us.

However our agent says that our policy underwriter will not offer annual policies for over 75's, so its going to get much more expensive for us in a couple of years time.

Terrierjohn

I will be 70 in a couple of years time, so expect to be hit a lot harder then. Both my partner and I have pre conditions. We had been thinking of going to the Caribbean again recently, but the dollar rate of exchange put us off.

Terrierjohn

 

I will be 70 in a couple of years time, so expect to be hit a lot harder then. Both my partner and I have pre conditions. We had been thinking of going to the Caribbean again recently, but the dollar rate of exchange put us off.

Get yourself another one booked, if its on P&O then your on board spend will be in sterling, and the on shore spending is generally only a small proportion of the total.

We use Insure and Go. Husband is 78 with 2 conditons. Never had a problem with them, but all quotes for US/Canada were £500 or more which is why we stick to Europe.

Terrierjohn

We've decided now to do another Baltic cruise instead. I'm not heartbroken about te Caribbean as these days I'm not so keen on long flights.

My OH was disappointed that I didn't go to Oz with him last year to see his daughter, but I've never had any desire to go there and the flight far too long. He enjoyed himself, though. I had a lovely time in Spain with a friend!

It's those pre-existing conditions that bump up the prices, or even bar you for insurance altogether. I've been having some treatment for an ear infection but thought I'd better mention it when getting a quote. It went up by £5, which won't break the bank but shows how even little things affect the price. I shudder to think what the costs will be when I start falling to pieces!

Be careful of Staysure as they state 50 days cover per trip for annual policy and if 65 or over it goes down to 31 days with no mention during quote and buying despite putting date of birth in. Only mentioned on about page 40 of full policy document, small paragraph and not on certificate nor key facts of policy document.

Cover4you travel insurance quite good for medical issues, cruise cover and options for duration of trips on annual policies.

Harber78

We have a Staysure annual policy which I booked over the phone. Once they send you the confirmation it is clearly stated for how long the policy will cover you. If it is not suitAble you have 14 days in which you can cancel.

World First Insurance for me with preexisting medical conditions; very thorough and also reasonable compared to all previous quotes from other companies.

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Harber78

 

We have a Staysure annual policy which I booked over the phone. Once they send you the confirmation it is clearly stated for how long the policy will cover you. If it is not suitAble you have 14 days in which you can cancel.

My confirmation just said annual multi trip policy 365 days and no mention of reduced days per trip when 65 years of age, I read this and the medical declarations and the key facts document so 4 of the 5 attachments and read the full policy document for exclusions and cover but didn't get to page 40 where small paragraph mentions reduced days per trip. Only rechecked full policy when someone on here mentioned cruise issue with them as we had taken that option and then found this paragraph 4 months down the line so now husband not covered on our trip. Paid over £400 for this too.

Does your annual document say how many days per trip?

Harber78

When I was sent the policy documents it also included a summary page and the details were there. My OH was going to Oz for 3 weeks, so I probably looked at the number of days of travel because of that.

I had been very satisfied with Staysure in the past, but wasn't so pleased with them this time. The staff they employ don't appear very knowledgeable or professional.

I have just checked my Staysure policy and it states that Maximum 50 days in any one trip from 0-70 years*

*If you are aged 70 or under you can increase your

50 day trip duration limit to 100 days for one trip,

when an additional premium has been paid and this

is shown on your Validation Certificate.

• irrespective of the number of individual trips

you take in each period of cover, you must not

exceed 183 days abroad.

hi wheelies

my hubby and i are both 69 and we have a cruise to the caribbean in dec this year..i got our ins from WORLD FIRST i declared our medical conditions, i had a mild heart attack 2 yrs ago and i have AF. my hubby has vascular disease which he had 4 operations on his leg 15 years ago, but still had to declare it. i would hate something to happen and not be insured for it. it cost us £627. but it is worth it for piece of mind. we are going for 2 weeks. its expensive because we are going to the caribbean. i got a quote up for spain and it was less than half that. so it gos on where you are going. hope you get sorted and have a lovely cruise.x

I have just checked my Staysure policy and it states that Maximum 50 days in any one trip from 0-70 years*

 

*If you are aged 70 or under you can increase your

50 day trip duration limit to 100 days for one trip,

when an additional premium has been paid and this

is shown on your Validation Certificate.

• irrespective of the number of individual trips

you take in each period of cover, you must not

exceed 183 days abroad.

Just phoned them to see what they could do. Basically when I took the insurance out on 9th August 2016 their terms were up to 65 only 50 days per trip and over 65 was 35 days per trip, then 2 days later they changed their terms to up to 70 for 50 days per trip and they had to abide by terms when I took insurance out. So they eventually agreed to refund half the cost and then I had to take out insurance again so that husband who is 67 is covered for our 48 days cruise. I did manage to clarify that cruise cover does cover being flown off ship etc. as my original terms didn't fully tell you what was covered.

Feel very stressed out by whole experience but at least we are both covered now ever though have paid another £200 for taking out insurance out 2 days too early before change of terms.

Glad I saw this thread though as I wouldn't have known and just shows read every line of documents despite them being over 40 pages long and most aren't relevant.

harber78

Glad you managed to get it sorted out, but it is all a hassle and expensive.

For the last 6 years I have spent a fortune on travel insurance. I have had two different unrelated cancers and many insurers have not wanted to know.This year I found Holiday extras to be the best value. Incidentally,I had to contact them regarding my wife developing an additional condition after having taken out the policy. They recorded the additional medical condition but did not charge any extra! At the time of insuring, I was unaware that P&O actually recommended them. Well done Holiday extras

kevboy:)

A bit of extra clarification on age limitations for most insurers; over 70's annual travel policy has a 31 day MAX holiday duration and the only way to cover a holiday of more than 31 days is to have a separate one trip policy.

This means that if you have 2 or more holidays, one of which is over 31 days, then you will need at least 2 policies for any 12 month period.

As regards which insurer is cheapest for similar cover, then from a limited survey of 6 different companies, and 2 price comparison sites, I found that Holiday extras is by far the best.

Most were 40% higher than HE, and a number would not quote for my wife's stroke and AF existing conditions.

However I am still hoping that my existing broker will come up with the best offer when its time to renew.