Travel insurance 'not unfair on over-65s'

By Tom Farley, Mon 21 Jun 2010 - Published in Travel Insurance

Travel insurance policies are not overly restrictive when it comes to older holidaymakers, an expert has claimed.

Recent research by Which? Money suggested that the over-65s face higher premiums when they take out travel insurance, while some firms refuse to offer quotes to the age group.

In addition, the study showed that just five of the 98 products it examined will cover people over the age of 80.

However, Mike Powell, insight analyst on general insurance for Defaqto, said that the Which? research may not be a representative study of the whole travel insurance market.

"We've just done a report on travel insurance looking at 290 single trip policies and 322 annual trip policies. Within that, 30 per cent of the single trip market covers age 80 or over and 11 per cent of the annual trip," he continued.

Mr Powell added that the Which? study was accurate in finding that travel insurance premiums are higher for the over-65s, but explained this is because this group is more likely to need medical assistance when they are overseas.

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