5 Things Over-60s Should Know About Travel Insurance

So after spending the majority of your adult life carefully building a career and raising a family, you have finally reached retirement. With your time now your own, you are ready to find out exactly why they call these your Golden Years and have your heart set on joining the growing throng of silver nomads choosing to spend their later years exploring the world.

Read also: How to Make Traveling With a Chronic Illness Easier for Yourself

No sooner have you announced your exciting plans to friends and family, than someone throws a spanner in the works – but haven’t you heard? You won’t be able to get travel insurance now you are over 60…

Can this really be true? Well, no, to say you can’t get travel insurance because of your age is an exaggeration. But what is true is that, once you hit your sixties, travel insurance can become a lot trickier to find and not to mention more expensive.

However, to be forewarned is to be forearmed, as they say. So before you start despairing about ever making those travel dreams a reality, here is what you need to know about finding travel insurance later in life.

1. Go to a Specialist Provider

This one is first because, well, it will resolve all other issues before they are even issues. Travel insurance is a big industry and there are providers out there willing to underwrite policies for every need and every niche. If you go to someone who specializes in travel insurance for the over 60s, you will be guaranteed not only to get the cover you need but at a fair price too.

2. You may be Refused Insurance because of your Age

The first reason you really should listen to our advice in point one is that some providers set upper age limits on customers to whom they will sell policies too. This is where the half-truth about older travelers not being able to get insurance comes from.

3. You may be charged more because of your Age

The second reason you should follow our first piece of advice is that general providers, if they don’t apply an age cap on their policies, almost certainly will ramp up prices for older customers. The reason for this is that insurance companies consider older people to represent a higher risk of making a claim and therefore hike up their premiums accordingly.

4. You must Declare any Medical Conditions

This is a really important one. If you have a medical condition of any kind – diabetes, lung disease, heart problems, arthritis, high blood pressure, or cholesterol – you must declare it when you apply to buy travel insurance. If you don’t, and you subsequently have to make a claim, you could find your cover has been invalidated. This is all because a significant portion of the financial protection travel insurance provides – the biggest proportion, in fact – is to cover you for any medical expenses you might incur if you need to see a doctor or go to a hospital abroad. Specific treatments for medical conditions are not included in general policies. You need to find a bespoke cover that will ensure you for treatments related to your medical needs.

5. You need Special Insurance for Golf and Cruise Holidays

Yes, that’s right. It isn’t just medical conditions you need special cover for, it’s certain activities as well. Sports like golf and skiing require add-ons to the policy's small print because of the heightened risk of injury. Cruises are treated differently from most holidays for a range of reasons, including the fact that medical costs can be much higher if someone takes ill at sea and needs to be evacuated to land, and the heightened risk of cancellations because of poor weather.