Travel insurance for over 70s

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If something doesn’t go to plan with your holiday, your travel insurance covers the costs of:

  • Medical treatment
  • Repatriation
  • Trip cancellation, delays or curtailment
  • Your luggage and personal belongings

You can get over 70s policies that cover a single trip, multiple trips within a year, or an extended stay abroad.

Some policies have an upper age limit, so might not cover you. But there are still plenty of insurers to choose from.

Senior couple wearing wet suits surfing during sunset

It's really important to declare pre-existing medical conditions

Be as accurate as possible - especially when it comes to more serious conditions like diabetes, heart conditions and cancer - or you could find you don’t have the cover you need

How much does travel insurance for over 70s cost?

The older you get the more expensive your travel insurance will be.

For example, a 70 year old with no medical conditions could pay around £35 for single-trip travel insurance - the same cover for an 80 year old could cost, on average, 54% more at £54.[2]

Pre-existing medical conditions will push the price of your cover up.

For single-trip travel insurance, over 80s could pay on average:

  • £79 without medical conditions
  • £175 with medical conditions

It's because the cost of healthcare abroad is much more expensive. It's not worth hiding a medical condition to get cheaper insurance, though. If your condition gets worse while you're away, you'll have to cover the costs.

Average travel insurance price by age

Traveller age Average premium price for single-trip travel insurance[2]
Without pre-existing medical conditions With pre-existing medical conditions
51-60 year-olds £26.14 £46.47
61-70 year-olds £35.35 £67.78
71-80 year-olds £53.55 £111.20
over 80 years old £78.66 £175.06

Although you can compare travel insurance that covers a range of pre-existing conditions through us, it can prove quite difficult to find cover for very serious health issues. The Money Advice Service has a directory of providers that might be able to offer cover if you struggle to find cover with mainstream insurers.

When should you buy travel insurance for over 70s?

The sooner the better, so if you need to cancel your trip your travel insurance can cover the costs.

Reasons for cancellation usually covered by travel insurance include:

  1. Illness or injury to you, a close family member or travelling companion

  2. Redundancy

  3. Bereavement

  4. Natural disasters

  5. Damage to your home or if a burglary has occurred

  6. Jury duty, a court appearance or military redeployment

Recommended medical cover

Consumer group Which? suggests you look out for policies with medical cover of at least £5m

Where can you go with over 70s travel insurance?

Pretty much anywhere you want - but which travel insurance cover is best for your trip depends on your destination

Europe

A few non-EU destinations might be covered by European travel insurance too, like Egypt, Morocco, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.

European travel insurance is usually cheaper than worldwide cover, so it’s worth checking to see if your destination is covered under one of these policies first.

Worldwide

Worldwide travel insurance covers you almost anywhere in the world.

There are two categories of worldwide cover – including OR excluding the USA, Canada and the Caribbean.

If you’re not travelling to those places, look for policies that exclude the USA, Canada and the Caribbean as they’ll be cheaper.

Even with a worldwide policy, you won’t be covered for travel to destinations the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has advised against.

UK

If you’re planning a trip closer to home, cover for holidays in the UK is commonly included in most travel insurance policies.

It covers the costs of lost or stolen luggage and trip cancellation, curtailment and delays, but you’ll need to check the policy exclusions to see whether internal flights are covered.

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[1]Gocompare.com introduces customers to theidol.com which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Gocompare.com's relationship with theidol.com is limited to that of a business partnership, no common ownership or control rights exist between us. Please note, we cannot be held responsible for the content of external websites and by using the links stated to access these separate websites you will be subject to the terms of use applying to those sites

[2]Average price purchased data recorded by theidol.com for single-trip travel insurance for those with/without medical conditions, split by age group, between 1 January and 31 December 2020.