Travel Insurance

DH has reached the ripe old age of 70 and I'm 65 (21 in my mind!), and having trouble finding travel insurance - not just for cruising.

Sadly we both have a number of pre-existing medical conditions which we do declare.

I would be grateful if there is anyone out there who can give us the name of an Insurance Company who doesn't charge telephone numbers! Looking for annual multi-trip cover. Last quote was close to £700 which is the cost of a cruise!!!

Why, when we are now at an age that we can go off on holiday any time we want (money allowing of course) should we be penalised for getting older? Not fair at all.

Have you tried Saga

http://www.saga.co.uk/insurance/travel-insurance.aspx

and Age UK ?

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/buy/age-uk-travel-insurance/travellers-with-medical-conditions/

Comparison website:

http://www.confused.com/travel-insurance/over-50

Hi,

Have you tried one of the comparison web sites.

Pete

raelc lla, might be another to look at if pre-existing medical conditions are present.....but didn't think you could advertise on the boards. Might need a mirror to read suggestion ;)

Pete

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I know what I'm going to be doing for the next few days:)

raelc lla, might be another to look at if pre-existing medical conditions are present.....but didn't think you could advertise on the boards. Might need a mirror to read suggestion ;)

 

Pete

It's okay to name insurance companies and car firms etc as long as it's in answer to someone asking. The one thing you can't name on CC forums is travel agents.

I've just been trying some online insurance quotes for myself and have found that companies can charge quite a bit more for cruise cover. For instance, the Post Office charge £46 extra! (for Europe).

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Not got round to checking out travel insurance following everyone's advice. Still waiting to hear from our bank if they will cover us; it's sounding unlikely but they have said they will let us know by the middle of next week.

However, watching Rip Off Britain they mentioned a firm called Insurancewith.com which was set up by a lady recovering from cancer who was horrified by the prices she was quoted when she tried to get insurance.

Once we've heard from the bank, which as I have said almost certainly will be no to our pre-existing conditions, we will give this newish firm a ring and see what price they quote.

I'm now beginning to understand why a lot of people, especially Americans, take the risk and travel without insurance. We are not prepared to take the chance.

I just tried an online quote from that insurance company and it came up very expensive even without any medical history.

You definitely should buy insurance. Our cruise line says:

It is a condition of the contract that you obtain travel insurance to cover the risk of you needing medical care on board or in a foreign country. Your insurance must include cover for all pre-existing medical conditions and must cover emergency evacuations from the ship, shore hospital medical costs, and repatriation costs. It should have a limit of not less than £2 million. You should ensure that you have adequate travel insurance at time of booking.

As a matter of interest do any of you from the UK pay extra for cruise cover or don't you bother with it?

I just tried an online quote from that insurance company and it came up very expensive even without any medical history

 

As a matter of interest do any of you from the UK pay extra for cruise cover or don't you bother with it?

We've just completed our 10th cruise and it was the first time we had cruise insurance alongside regular travel insurance. To be honest it had never occurred to us that we might need specialist insurance!!!! And yes, the company charged us extra.

Re quotes for new insurance we've found that speaking to a human is better

Not got round to checking out travel insurance following everyone's advice. Still waiting to hear from our bank if they will cover us; it's sounding unlikely but they have said they will let us know by the middle of next week.

 

However, watching Rip Off Britain they mentioned a firm called Insurancewith.com which was set up by a lady recovering from cancer who was horrified by the prices she was quoted when she tried to get insurance.

 

Once we've heard from the bank, which as I have said almost certainly will be no to our pre-existing conditions, we will give this newish firm a ring and see what price they quote.

 

I'm now beginning to understand why a lot of people, especially Americans, take the risk and travel without insurance. We are not prepared to take the chance.

We have insurance with our bank but only for Europe and does not include existing medical conditions. However for £20 cover can be extended to Worldwide and an additional premium for medical. Nothing like the cost you have quoted but I expect it depends on the medical conditions you need cover for. Also the bank will not give cover for over 75 years old. So at 70 we hope to still get cover for the next 5 years. Have never asked for cruise cover before but I think we need to look into this. Just assumed worldwide cover would do it.

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I just tried an online quote from that insurance company and it came up very expensive even without any medical history.

 

 

 

You definitely should buy insurance. Our cruise line says:

 

 

 

It is a condition of the contract that you obtain travel insurance to cover the risk of you needing medical care on board or in a foreign country. Your insurance must include cover for all pre-existing medical conditions and must cover emergency evacuations from the ship, shore hospital medical costs, and repatriation costs. It should have a limit of not less than £2 million. You should ensure that you have adequate travel insurance at time of booking.

 

 

 

As a matter of interest do any of you from the UK pay extra for cruise cover or don't you bother with it?

I would say that almost everyone from the UK has travel insurance. When completing the online registration you have to give full details of your insurance policy including an emergency contact telephone number.

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We have insurance with our bank but only for Europe and does not include existing medical conditions. However for £20 cover can be extended to Worldwide and an additional premium for medical. Nothing like the cost you have quoted but I expect it depends on the medical conditions you need cover for. Also the bank will not give cover for over 75 years old. So at 70 we hope to still get cover for the next 5 years. Have never asked for cruise cover before but I think we need to look into this. Just assumed worldwide cover would do it.

 

 

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Still waiting to hear from our bank. They are certainly not speedy Gonzales (unless they are asking us for money!).

It had never occurred to us that we should have cruise cover. A throwaway remark made me suddenly realise how many components can make up a cruise and I decided that we should pay the extra for peace of mind.

I have been in touch with our insurers and checked out cruise cover and it is included. Interesting to note that an upgrade on the basic policy to cover the Americas and Caribbean is not included in the worldwide cover and is another further cost. It pays to check if the policy you purchase states worldwide that it does also cover the USA.

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I've just found a CC forum on Travel Insurance. :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=635

I've had a look at the thread, but a lot of the contributors are American which is why I posted on the UK forum.

Nationwide have finally got back to us and even taking into consideration all our pre-existing medical conditions they are very competitive and we are going with them. At the moment cover is only for Europe but as our next holiday will be there that's ok. We have been assured that should we want to upgrade to USA and worldwide the charge will be minimal. Cruising is included.

We are happy.

Glad to hear you've got sorted. Thanks for letting us know.

We are having a problem getting cover if we have to cancel before we do a world cruise next year. We are not prepared to take the risk and loose 10,000's of pounds

We are having a problem getting cover if we have to cancel before we do a world cruise next year. We are not prepared to take the risk and loose 10,000's of pounds

Welcome to the wonderful world of travel insurance! Have you tried your bank before you have to start trawling through lists of companies? Surprisingly ours proved very competitive, but a world cruise (jealous) is a different kettle of fish.

Yes we have, they will only cover the our normal insurance items, not the final payment. Silver Seas are not interested either!!!

I was not aware until reading the posts above that travel insurance may not cover cruises. We have travel insurance with our Halifax account and I guess I have to read the fine print as I assumed everything was included (winter sport cover is included). :confused:

I was not aware until reading the posts above that travel insurance may not cover cruises. We have travel insurance with our Halifax account and I guess I have to read the fine print as I assumed everything was included (winter sport cover is included). :confused:

Neither was I until a throwaway remark made me realise I should have cover. When you consider the components that make up a cruise I guess we've been lucky up to now.

We added cruise cover for the first time, it wasn't very much extra. It covers various things that, granted, you are unlikely (hopefully) to need. What it does pay out on though is missed ports. I know this varies, but on our last two trips, we missed Curacao on a Caribbean cruise, and on our TA missed an overnight stay at Bermuda. Now we do have it, probably we will not have any more missed ports!!

DH has reached the ripe old age of 70 and I'm 65 (21 in my mind!), and having trouble finding travel insurance - not just for cruising.

 

Sadly we both have a number of pre-existing medical conditions which we do declare.

 

I would be grateful if there is anyone out there who can give us the name of an Insurance Company who doesn't charge telephone numbers! Looking for annual multi-trip cover. Last quote was close to £700 which is the cost of a cruise!!!

 

Why, when we are now at an age that we can go off on holiday any time we want (money allowing of course) should we be penalised for getting older? Not fair at all.

We use a Company called Allclear Travel Insurance. Easy to find online and has excellent reviews. They specialise in travellers with pre-existing medical conditions. I had a good hunt and they offered great cover at a very reasonable price. My partner is 62 this year and I will be 55 in a few months. We have quite a selection of PEMCs between us, and an annual policy covering standard land based and cruising trips is about £250. I guess, due to age, you will probably pay more than us but I expect it would be considerably less than £700 depending on how alarming your PEMC are! Before I took out the policy, I rang their customer services to clarify a few points. They were extremely open and helpful.