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Anyone ever had to arrange travel insurance for somebody over 80?  I need to for my gramps who is off to Australia for the winter months, but we are struggling to find a company that will cover the old codger!  Age Concern will, but it will cost about a thousand pounds....more than the flights!!!  Anyone got any ideas?

Emma - Try Lloyd's-TSB Bank. My wife and I are both in our 70's and I got 29 days travel insurance for the pair of us for £74.46. They were just about the only people who would fix the insurance for us.

If you don't have any success with a direct approach go to http://www.tiscali.co.uk and go to the "travel" section and click on insurance. This is how I arranged mine, and I got it fixed up "on line". Good luck.

Don't know what it is about 80 - there aren't many car insurance firms that'll touch you.

With a safer record than some younger types, more experience & visually unimpaired, I see it as a personal affront!!

I was talking to a chap on the allotment yesterday, he's in his 50's and his waiting for a double heart by-pass.  He cannot get travel insurance to go to Spain at all.  Not at any price!

It makes me wonder about insurance companies.  I think they're barely legal most of the time.  We were discussed this very subject on the plot yesterday and my friend said she phoned Norwich Union about her house insurance.  They won't insure at all as the house has been subject to mining in the past.  The whole of North Derbyshire is built on mineworkings so are none of us to be insured  :(

My brother has had the same trouble. He is in his mid 80's and they like to have holidays abroad every year. Anyhow his daughter-in-law died in S Africa (55) recently and he couldn't get insurance to enable him to go out for the funeral. I am going to send him info posted by  Yorkie. I might add he is  healthier than a lot of 60 year olds..blessed with wonderful good health .. smashing. Lorna.

My partner was diagnosed with high BP last year and when we went to get insurance for our holiday this year, we struggled to find somewhere that would accept him.
I was shocked, i hadnt even considered that we would have a problem.
We had almost six or seven complete refusals and it wasnt until the power of the internet that we got recommended a firm that we hadnt ever heard of that were willing to insure him.
Madness isnt it  :(

Blimey, Emma, hadn't realised it was that expensive. Can you travel without  insurance.......Hired a car the other day, apparently just scraped in...anyone  70+ they won't even consider.

my grandad has had a string of illnesses recently and went away a few weeks back, again his travel insurance was more than the holiday!!! he went to the post office and they offwred him it very cheap, the only thing is, if there is a problem you have to pay the first £150 or something, but still works out cheaper and im sure nothing will go wrong!

I am both Diabetic Type 2 and have what my Doctor insists is high blood pressure (160/80). The insurance I fixed up via Tiscali with Lloyds-TSB accepted both my wife, who will be 75 in November and me, 74 in December, for 29 days holiday in February 2006. Under the Medical Conditions it stated that provided that your medication for both illnesses, which are on a list given in the conditions, hadn't altered for six months they would insure you. No-one else that I have found are willing to insure people who are older than 70 years for Annual Travel Insurance, or 75 for Single Trip Insurance.

I don't know what it is about 80 years but the block seems to come on unless you are willing to pay an extortionate amount for cover. For God's sake - 80 isn't totally past it these days. I know folk of 80+ who have more sense than many youngsters and who are still compus mentis. It is totally Age Discrimination pure and simple.

Tried Saga?  MIL swears by them, but she is only 75.
http://www.saga.co.uk/finance/

We ought to  march on Downing Street...well... take our wheelchairs anyway.

My insurance wont cover me if I die as a result of my epilepsy whilst on hols.  So if i am walking across the road and get squished into the tarmac it's ok provided I wasn't having a seizure at the time.  How unlucky would that be ??

On a lighter note (lighter?) I am insured for £40000 accidental death.My son-in-law swears when my time comes he is going to plonk me in my car and push it over a cliff!!.LOL   Lorna.

My daughter (15yrs) is Type 1 diabetic and the hoops we have to jump through are just atrocious. My wife is a nurse and explains that various lifestyle conditions have a higher risk of medical problems (eg smoking, obesity), but the insurance companies just dont seen to care . . .

We currently have insurance through the post office, having found those the easist to deal with, but still have to sign a mountain of forms and disclaimers.

 "For God's sake - 80 isn't totally past it these days. I know folk of 80+ who have more sense than many youngsters and who are still compus mentis."  Yorkie - my friend for ever!!

But how do I do a "quote"??

Ken - parking fees for the wheelchairs??

Thanks everyone. I don't know what the score is about entering Australia without insurance Ken, and as they are going for 2 months, god forbid, but if anything did happen, even something silly like a fall, they couldn't afford huge hospital bills.  I did manage to find a few places, but they really have to do it over the telephone and see what the company decides.  Saga and Age Concern are sooooooo expensive!  Believe it or not, American Express seem slightly more reasonable.  I will keep you posted regarding the outcome.

Oh, and my nan is mid 70's and has cronic high blood pressure, but she finds it quite easy, and reasonably cheap to get insured! 

Quote from: tim on August 02, 2005, 19:09:37
But how do I do a "quote"??

Top right Tim, click quote (not the reply button on the bottom) and you'll get a reply window with the quote in it. Just put your cursor under the quote and start typing, you can also remove sections you don't wish to quote but don't remove anything inside the brackets when you remove things from the text.
Good luck.

Lloyds-TSB Travel Insurance can be accessed "on line" at this URL.

http://www.insurefor.com/b2c/index.aspx?agent=1

Quotes are available and you can pay "on line" as well.

I think insurance , long distance and old age excepted, is a bit of a racket, I don't take special precautions when visiting Scotland or Wales, for example, and with Europe having reciprocal medical care, don't see the need. Think of all the premiums saved,then put into savings, pay for emergencies out of that.It's to do with the uncertainty of life, which the Insurance Companies exagerate to sell policies.Similiar if extra was put onto petrol, no need for road tax, insurance and a massive savings on admin.There I go again, hobby horse.

My mother is 83 and drives every day. She's quite a bit safer on the roads than many people much much younger then her.