Why Older Travellers are Being Priced Out By Travel Insurance
Do you take out travel insurance when go on a trip abroad? Well you really should do. Travel insurance isn’t just about covering your costs if you lose some luggage or a flight gets cancelled.
The biggest thing travel insurance covers you for is medical treatment. If you fall ill or have an accident while in another country, you have to pay to see a doctor or for any time spent in a hospital. And that can get eye-wateringly expensive.
But that’s not the only thing that can hit you hard in the pocket. Even though it is meant to protect you financially, if you’re an older traveller, travel insurance itself can become seriously costly. So much so that it actually makes travel too expensive for some people.
A recent survey by Avanti, a travel insurance company that specialises in policies for people aged 50 and over, found that 85% of over-65s rank travel insurance as the biggest cost concern when it comes to booking a holiday. And no wonder – once you hit 65, you can expect your travel insurance to double in price in five years. After that, it just spirals out of control – by the time you’re in your 80s, you can be paying six times what people in their 50s are charged for travel cover.
No wonder Avanti found that two in five UK people aged over 65 who hadn’t gone abroad in the last 12 months said it was because they couldn’t afford to.
Insurance companies justify the increases because they say older travellers are more likely to make a claim, especially for medical treatment. But that leaves people in a very difficult position – either they don’t go on holiday because insurance costs too much, or they take the risk and travel without it.
Fortunately, not all insurance companies follow the practice of simply cranking up premium prices as people get older. Some, like Avanti, will go to the trouble of carrying about a proper assessment of the individual, such as checking medical records, and build policy tailored to their needs for a fairer price.
To read the full findings from Avanti’s survey, go here: https://www.avantitravelinsurance.co.uk/mature-travel-trends