Travel Insurance

[AgedCrone]

Recently some friends, one of whom is over 80 & has health issues, applied for travel Insurance.

They were horrified to be quoted £2,000 by Saga for a single trip (for 2) to the US.

Being experienced travellers they started investigating & ended up with an Annual Policy for £700 with up to 42 days duration for each trip. Still a considerable sum...but as it works out only £350 per person for a year it's not actually too bad...especially if you are going on a long trip.

The contact details I was given are are www-allcleartravel.uk

The company is located in the US & calls itself All clear medical travel insurance with a big tick.

Another company that has special departments for all sorts of joint problems inc Lupus,Fibromyalgia, RA & OA is stay sure.co.uk Tel [phone].

I'm not recommending either of these companies, but if you are struggling to get Travel Insurance they might be worth contacting.

Over to you travellers...please note I've written everything I know about the above so please don't ask me any question as I have no more information. Neither may be able to help you, but if you don't ask you will never know.

Happy Holidays

[hatshepsut]

Can add Insure and Go to the mix....they give great cover, no age limits, and cover most conditions......and they know the difference between RD and osteoarthritis!! Happy holidays!

[Deedwards]

Hi I also had problem with travel insurance, some being over £2000,we go to Spain for the winter (4 months) Found Age. U.K. The price from them was £300 for two of us.

[AuroraB]

Recently used one of the compare prices website for insurance for those with medical conditions - for an annual worldwide including usa policy for two people prices ranged from around £90 to £ 3000. Need to read carefully to decide what you want covered but they gave good comparison tables. Of course they don't provide information on how easy it is to claim if you need assistance. I chose a couple of companies and googled them for reviews to see if I could find any comments on ease of claim.

[AgedCrone in reply to AuroraB]

IT is a minefield...might be worth maybe £25 to consult a broker.

I did that 20 years ago & now at 70+ plus renew my annual policy each year with only a small increase.

[Aless2002 in reply to AgedCrone]

This is very useful as I didn't know I could use an insurance broker for travel ('der' moment as I have used the usual insurance broker before ). My husband and I are keen to travel overseas again now he is retiring, but both have health issues now that will impact on our insurance.......Many thanks!

[AgedCrone in reply to Aless2002]

You need to find someone who specialises in Travel policies...as we have read they range from excellent to downright useless!

Another thing to watch out for is if you rely on Travel Insurance connected with a Bank Account is to check first of all the age limit .....my bank tried to convince me to pay £X per month...but 99% of these policies don't cover over 70's.......Also check what it provides ...many come in the useless category.

[GranAmie]

hi AC ; we use LV atm and so far have found them excellent. He is 77 with multiple health issues, his child bride is 74 til nxt month. not sure re 80+ tho and we only 'do' Europe these days x

[englishrose67]

Tell them to try allclear that's who I use .I'm 50 but have a lot of health problems .hope they will be cheaper for them

[AgedCrone in reply to englishrose67]

That is who they used...& saved themselves £1300!

[englishrose67 in reply to AgedCrone]

That's great 👍

[nomoreheels]

Can I suggest they ask around not only re price & conditions cover but personal experiences of anyone who had had to claim off the insurance they recommend. This is the real test unfortunately as it can be a frightening experience in this age group if a partner falls ill, needs hospitalisation or repatriation if the company fails to provide a reasonable service. My parents in law used to winter in Spain & had a terrible experience even though it was loaded because of conditions & age, or rather my father in law did, thankfully my mum in law was oblivious.

[AgedCrone in reply to nomoreheels]

After a nasty car accident in Florida.....not my fault...a drunk driver was the culprit ....I found that you need to have a good recovery service used by your insurer.

I was insured with Aviva..when I came out of hospital & went back to my apartment the company they use called everyday to check that I had enough food & was feeling OK, they took me to the airport &sorted all the formalities. A car met me at LHR,& the driver offered to stop at my local grocery store to pick up a few essentials as I had been away for a month.

Then they called the next day to see if I needed anything.

Can't recommend them highly enough! also Aviva paid all hospital bills without any aggravation.

The only hiccup was I kept getting a bill from the Ambulance company..... No free ambulance in USA!

But that turned out the invoice had gone awol!

[nomoreheels in reply to AgedCrone]

That was good service. It does also depend on the agent the travel insurance company uses in the destination so it's helpful to ask who they use & then check revues online. Had we known we'd have recommended they use them to buy the insurance This was where communication failed my parents in law. The agents were a German company who thought it acceptable to fly her not from the local airport half an hour from the hospital but another 11/2 hour's travel in the opposite direction, land in Germany then a comnecting flight into Heathrow. We're in the north west for goodness sake!

[AgedCrone in reply to nomoreheels]

Yes the agents will be of the nationality of the company, but will speak English & know the area.

Of course it's easy to say after the event but I'm sure if your PIL had used the freephone number to call their insurance company again they would have advised the German agents LHR was NOT the place to fly them too....but of course local airports in UK are not served from all overseas destinations. I hope their insurance company provided transport to get them to the NE?

Do you know if your PIL used the insurance provided by a tour company? If they did & flew on that airline it may have been in the small print it said that any repatriation would be on that airline?

As we all know travel insurance is a minefield to navigate & we should definitely research which policy we buy very carefully.

Hope MIL is OK now.