Older holidaymakers feel they’re being priced out of the travel cover market

For many people, retirement is a time to kick back, relax, and do a bit of travelling. Often people set aside money gained through a lifetime of hard work in order to go travelling when they retire. You may have dreamed of cruising round the globe when you have the time and money to do so, but you may not have considered how difficult it can be to obtain holiday insurance during your twilight years.

While sixty to sixty-five year olds may be able to find reasonably priced cover, anyone above this age range will notice that prices begin increase steeply year on year. A healthy holidaymaker of 65 will pay at best £35 for travel cover, while a similarly healthy person who's made it to their 70th year will have to pay more than three times that amount.

There are several reasons for these price discrepancies, the main one being that insurers currently use old and now irrelevant data with which to price their policies. This out of date information does not take into account recent advances in healthcare and the fact that pensioners now live longer and healthier lives than at any other time in history.

Another factor creating discrepancies within the elderly travel insurance market is the fierce competition between travel insurers. More and more insurance providers are choosing to refuse cover to older people entirely so that they can keep premiums down for the larger number of younger consumers.

But it's not all doom and gloom as insurers begin to address the fact that soon the majority of the UK's population will be over 50 - and they can't afford to miss out on such a large market. There are now insurers who specialise in insuring the over-60s, providing a range of products to suit their unique insurance needs.

Some providers offer more flexibility to older customers. For example if you have high blood pressure, these specialist insurers won't charge you any extra for a policy as long as you are taking medicines to combat this high blood pressure.

Further benefits offered by these specialists address the problem of pre-existing medical conditions. Travel insurance was almost impossible to come by if you had a pre-existing condition, but policies are now available that allow such consumers to cover everything else on their holiday, bar their existing condition - making cover cheaper. An added bonus is that most of these new pensioners-only insurers impose no age restrictions on their policies.

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