Travel Insurance For Old Crocks

We have booked three holidays recently for which we need travel insurance that will cover our respective ailments.

We used to have an annual travel policy through our Bank but when I turned 75 the b'stards pulled the plug. It has proved impossible to buy another annual policy without forking out a huge wad of cash because I have to declare Angina, High BP, high Cholesterol, diabetes type 2 and hiatus hernia. My wife trumps me with Angina, high cholesterol, asthma, diabetes type 2, skin cancer, vertigo, hypothyroidism and diverticular. We get our full wack out of the NHS.

So, I have spent more hours than you could shake a stick at getting quotes for each of the holidays.

Here is the range of quotations I obtained for travel insurance for each of the holidays :-

December - 10 days on Portugal.  Min £728  Max £ 3461. (The flights and apartment hire totals only £709)

March  - 10 days in Lanzarote. Min £842  Max £4237

August - 7 days Danube river cruise. Min £633  Max £2974 (Last year's river cruise insurance cost us £340 - the same company now want £633 because I will be 80 years old.

I eventually struck lucky and found a company named StaySure who offered an annual policy covering both of us for a premium of £1080.

There was a sequel - when the insurance documents were Emailed to me, management noticed that they had her age down as 74 when it is actually 73. I was in a spot of hot water and rang the insurers to point out the error. They corrected her DOB and advised me that the premium would chnage. I braced myself. It turns out that they gave a reduction of £28 because she was just that 1 year younger than the original quote.

We have now decided that after this policy runs out we will pull up the drawbridge and take all our holidays in the UK. Going abroad for us wrinklies is just too expensive

Back in 2008 and again in 2009 we travelled back to Britain via Asia, Turkey, Cyprus, Ireland and Portugal. We of course took out travel insurance. On both occasions one of the first questions we were asked was "Are you travelling to or via the USA?" If we were the premiums went up dramatically. I can't remember what our costs were but I am surprised at the cost to you. Seems very expensive.