travel insurance

My husband got lung cancer and we were quoted last year for ONE WEEK in Italy £2600 by SAGA and even more by other insurers. Needless to say we didn't go!

I have quite a few health problems and found it difficult to get travel insurance until I found World First. They were fantastic. Google them and read the reviews. Hope this helps

Definitely check out Martin Lewis. I always use Money Supermarket as a starting point for all sorts of things.

You can have annual insurance cover through Nationwide. It is not just for single trips. You can also extend it to 180 days per trip too which is great for us as we have a house in France. We have always had travel insurance cover and I have found that the Nationwide is the best and the cheapest.

It's bad enough getting travel insurance when you get older if you live in the UK but even worse if you live abroad in Europe. I have used Staysure for some years but just after I renewed last year people found Staysure were no longer covering people who live in Portugal. They were the cheapest but even that was around £300 and the few other companies offering insurance to people abroad were wanting excessive amounts. Maybe I shall have to see if we can get cover locally.

If you find a company that will insure you at a reasonable rate and if you follow CassieJ's very sensible suggestion to phone and talk to the insurer to make sure they will cover you, ask them to send you written confirmation that you have told them about your medical conditions and that they are willing to cover you.
That way you can prove, if you need to, what you had spoken about on the phone.
Hopefully you won't need the insurance, but as everyone says, you do need to be covered.

I always take insurance. It would depend on your existing condition. As an example I suffer from depression. It never used to come up on insurance forms but it does now. I would never need any treatment on holiday. I use Asda insurance. They will insure you excluding your medical condition. You can do this online too. You have to be honest with yourself about your condition, if there is a possibility you will need treatment on holiday then the extra now is coppers compared to a bill in let's say USA. Hope this helps

It would be foolish not to have insurance and some companies insist on having the account number before they allow you to travel. I think most non-age-specialist insurance companies increase the amount at over 65 and then again at over 70.
Try using an online broker such as MoneySupermarket.com or comparethemarket.com to get you the best price.

You need to shop around and talk to the high quote companies. I was trying to take out insurance with pre existing conditions, insurers advised me to wait until 1 year was up from last seeing consultant. It worked, from no cover to £180 for a 3 week cruise..

As an insurance broker (albeit specialising in commercial/corporate risks) I would say, does this quote exclude pre existing medical conditions, they usually do.They normally require you to phone a mediline telephone number to discuss any pre existing conditions and will then quote based on this. Difficult to say without seeing your insurance quotation. Do you need insurance? I have to say yes you do. A "GOOD" Broker will advise.

Macmillan has a list of travel insurers
I had a telephone screening with MIA www.miaonline.co.uk/ and got cover for 2 weeks after my radiotherapy had ended. I now have annual multitrip insurance at a reasonable rate, premium is rlinked to how many pre-declared conditions you have.
Helpful people at the end of a telephone.

A couple of years ago I was quoted just under £2,000 for a fortnight in Spain!! Mainly because my cancer was not one of those listed by the insurance companies - although I was in remission and could provide results of a scan to prove it. It was even suggested I call it cancer of the appendix because it had been found in that area. When I challenged this, saying what if I needed to claim, wouldn't the insurance company be within their rights to disallow the claim? The response - oh well, yes I suppose so!!
I then found a company called Waltham Travel, who agreed to insure me for £39 but this would exclude all pre-existing medical conditions. As it happens, I didn't actually go to Spain in the end for a number of reasons, but Waltham Travel couldn't have been more helpful. If they are still available then I would suggest they are well worth a try.

My husband and I paid £600..ish for annual worldwide travel including the states. He has pre-existing medical conditions. Depends on your medical condition I suppose.

Very interesting thread and very pertinent for DH and me. We have annual insurance declaring existing conditions which ends July this year. Beg April DH had THR which has not been straightforward necessitating him still being under care of surgeon. We have annual family jolly to Majorca booked end of August. Assumed he would be all clear and discharged by now. May well be by Aug when we will shop around for insurance but we have letters from surgeon setting out what's been done which will be submitted to insurance company. We wouldn't dream of going without insurance. We accept we may have to pay more but so be it. If he's not discharged by then, if surgeon advises against trip and if we can't get insurance we accept we'll just lose our air fare (and our proportion of accommodation cost too) but we will insist rest of family go. Will go onto comparison websites as advised.

Another one here who would recommend Money Saving Expert. They have a link to a site which compares quotes for pre existing conditions. DH has had several strokes and I have used a site called www.ehicplus.com/ which provides cover for travel delays, lost luggage etc but medical conditions are dealt with by the Public Health Service of the European country you are visiting. Yet another thing we will lose post Brexit, but handy if the cost of full medical insurance is prohibitive.

www.bluebeartravelinsurance.co.uk/

We have used Blue Bear for years now. Last year to travel to Sicily it was less than £100 for the two of us, the same this year. You can go beyond 80 on this, it is pretty extensive and so far so good! Hope this helps.

Have to say we did have pre existing conditions for Husband and they took that into account. Did extensive medical over the phone. All OK.

I am in Canada now. Have a couple of medical conditions. Thyroid Diverticulitis. 18 days with Avant for £203.

Of course one must have travel insurance. This thread with its array of horror stories and actual charges incurred with illness and injury abroad nicely illustrates the high cost of medical help which we take for granted with our free at the point of use NHS. It should make us thankful and aware of the success of our system.

I would not recommend anyone going abroad without travel insurance but the amount you have been quoted does seem very high. I am lucky enough to be covered for travel on my bank account,I go to Spain to visit my family so this is very helpful.

I'm on holiday at the moment with a non-malignant brain tumour, high blood pressure, long standing depression and two hip replacements. I'm 61.

I used to buy my travel insurance annually, but the price quoted (since my brain tumour diagnosis) was ridiculous, so I went for one trip with 'Get Going'.

Premier cover gives me more cover than I need for £39. That is only Europe mind you; the US or similar is bound to be more.

STA travel was very reasonable for a years cover worldwide and the extra premium for two medical conditions which are just monitored was minor. A few hundred overall I recall. There are a range of companies that specialise in covering pre existing conditions. You could google a list of them. Good luck ?

Also, if you have pre-existing conditions and you find an insurer willing to take you on, do remember to read the very tiny weeny print and make quite sure that you actually have full cover for those conditions.

The decisions about how to charge for pre-existing conditions is based on very crude algorithms that do not take individual circumstances into account. The youngsters on the phone just follow that rigidly and it can be very frustrating.

EnglishRose Sat 10-Jun-17 23:30:23 I just got a great quote from the one in your post based on my being 67 and DH 74 for an annual with reporting blood pressure! It seems they are better with 74 vs an age range of 74-80 which the other company I bought from lumped together. Even when I put in him at 75 if we need ins for the following year, it was better.

Cheers!

LewLew I am SO pleased you had success.

I found them some years ago when travel insurance from all the usual companies went sky high. I think initially I discovered them on Martin's money tips, or Money supermarket??? Can't remember. My OH is 82 and as long as he goes through the medical on the phone with them he gets his insurance. I'm coming up to 70 so mine will go up a bit next year, but it is till affordable with Blue Bear.

Very pleased to have been of help!