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TRAVEL PLANNING: Travel Insurance for Over 50’s

Updated: July 2024

Buying a travel insurance policy to cover you for any unforeseen medical expenses or financial losses while travelling is an essential part of travel planning and preparation for any trip.

But, as we get older, travel insurance for over 50’s can be difficult to find and confusing to understand.

But travel insurance is something we can’t afford to travel without at any age.

Travel insurance is there if the unexpected ever happens.

Travel insurance is there for you in an emergency situation while travelling outside of your own home country of residency.

Travel insurance can provide a financial safety net and get you the support and assistance you need if you ever get ill or are involved in an accident, an incident, or worse, during travel and while on holiday or vacation abroad.

At the very least travel insurance should provide you with peace of mind.

That’s why it’s so important you choose the right travel insurance policy for your needs especially travel insurance for over 50’s.

When the backpacking husband and I were younger, travel insurance was much easy to buy and much easier to afford.

Now that we are both 64 years old, we see that travel insurance has become ever more specialised and ever more costly.

Especially, if there are existing medical conditions to report that can increase the travel insurance quotation.

In fact, travel insurance for over 50’s travel can be something of a major personal investment.

We can do all we can to minimise risks while we travel. We can take advice. We can be cautious.

We can get all our travel vaccines and be super careful.

BUT life is risky. Leaving home can be risky.

We’ve all heard scary travel stories.

And accidents can and do happen when you least expect it and when you are least prepared.

For all these reasons, it’s important to get the right insurance cover for your AGE, for your EXISTING MEDICAL CONDITIONS, and for the specific DESTINATIONS where you intend to travel.

Spending money on a travel insurance policy that doesn’t cover you for all the things you’ll need in an emergency situation abroad is not only a terrible waste of your money but also means you’ll have no safety net while travelling.

It’s down to YOU to choose responsibly and to buy the right travel insurance policy.

It’s daunting and scary and a huge responsibility I know – but don’t panic!

Let’s take a look at what kind of cover we need for travel insurance for over 50’s.

Table of Contents:

• TRAVEL PLANNING: Travel Insurance for Over 50’s
• Why do you need travel insurance?
• What kind of travel insurance do you need?
• How does travel insurance for over 50’s work?
• What IS covered and what is NOT covered?
• Who are the best providers of Travel Insurance?
• 10 Important Things When Choosing Travel Insurance
• What does Travel Insurance cost?
• Get a Quote from WORLD NOMAD TRAVEL INSURANCE
• Conclusion

Travel Insurance for over 50’s

I’M SOMEONE WHO BUYS TRAVEL INSURANCE

But, first of all, I need you to know I am NOT an expert in travel insurance or for recommending specific travel insurance for over 50’s. This article is meant as general guidance only. I’m just like you. I’m someone who buys travel insurance.

But as I’ve been traveling extensively over the past ten years, I do feel I have experience of choosing and buying travel insurance policies for global long-term and also nomadic travel that I can share with you.

However, I also need you to know that I’ve only ever claimed on a policy once in my life and that was years ago.

Since then, and while travelling the world with my backpacking husband, we have (thankfully) never had a reason to make a claim on a travel insurance policy but we always travel with travel insurance.

That’s not to say that while we have been travelling things have always gone to plan because we have on occasion experienced scary travel situations and a few travel mishaps and mayhem.

Sometimes we’ve needed to see a doctor or a dentist or a pharmacist or we’ve lost or mislaid stuff and once even managed to miss a flight.

But, as our incurred costs during these incidents have never exceeded our travel insurance policy ‘excess’ we have never needed to make a claim.

An ‘excess’ is an agreed payment stipulated in your policy that your insurance company will ask you to pay towards any claim that you may make.

I do believe all our less challenging situations so far have been down to luck rather than to anything else.

But what about the next time?

What if that time I’d had a toothache and went to see a dentist in South Korea had proven to be much more expensive?

What if the time I’d slipped on a wet footpath in Thailand and scraped the skin off my foot and had to go to the pharmacist had been a broken bone and a hospital admission?

What if that time we were in Central America and the backpacking husband was bitten by a mosquito and was feeling unwell had turned out to be Dengue Fever?

From my experience of travelling I wouldn’t want to rely on luck alone.

I’d much rather know that my insurance policy had me fully covered for such emergencies.

Okay… let’s Get Back To Travel Insurance

Why do you need travel insurance?

What kind of travel insurance do you need?

How does travel insurance for over 50’s work?

What IS covered and what is NOT covered?

Buying a travel insurance policy can feel confusing and overwhelming and time consuming.

But it’s really important to carefully read all the TERMS AND CONDITIONS and read THE SMALL PRINT and to be fully aware of what IS covered and what is NOT covered in the policy.

Travel insurance for over 50’s is often sold with a choice of different Levels of Cover.

These levels of cover are often called something like Basic Cover for emergency medical insurance only, Premium Cover that will also cover you against any lost luggage and travel delays, and a Fully Comprehensive Cover that will cover you for most eventualities.

More recently, with the rise of the Digital Nomad and in more people wanting to travel slowly and take longer trips, insurance companies have realised there is a sizable – and lucrative – gap in the insurance market for Extended Trip and Nomad Insurance so there are perhaps more options available now for travel insurance for over 50’s than before.

Generally, you should always buy the policy that suits you best.

And I can honestly say that I’ve never travelled without even the basic level of travel insurance.

Travel Tip: Take a note of your travel insurance policy number and contact number and keep it somewhere where you can find and access it in the case of an emergency. Also share this information and your travel itinerary with your loved ones back home as a back-up.

Who are the best providers of Travel Insurance?

Over the years, I have used several different global travel insurance providers.

Family Policies: When we used to travel with the kids on our annual holiday, we’d always bought single trip family travel policies to comprehensively cover all eventualities for when we were travelling and on holiday.

Holiday Policies: As empty nesters, when the backpacking husband and I first decided to travel the world full time – we were both in our mid-50’s back then – we took our travel insurance policies in three monthly chunks.

We have also from time to time relied on various levels of cover travel insurance cover provided with our bank cards, credit cards, or charge cards.

This all worked quite well if our starting point and ending point within the term of the policy was our home country.

But, when our situation changed and were still travelling when our travel insurance policy was to expire and needed to renew our cover, things got complicated.

We discovered that most travel insurance companies require you to be in your country of residence during the time of purchase and they also require you to have a return ticket within the specified dates of the policy term.

So for us the search was on to find a travel insurance policy that allowed you to already be travelling when you took it out.

We did manage to find one but choice was limited back then because not many insurers offered this flexibility.

It made sense for us to take out comprehensive annual multi-destination global travel policy.

It also made financial sense for us to think about buying MEDICAL INSURANCE COVER ONLY to cover us in the event of personal injury, accidents, and any unexpected illnesses, rather than for any flight delays, travel interruptions, cancellations or material losses.

This meant our belongings wouldn’t be covered for damage or loss. But because we don’t actually travel with anything particularly expensive this was a compromise we were prepared to make for our travel insurance policy to be more affordable.

Except, there was one time when we’d only bought an medical cover only insurance – rather than one covering any trip interruption cover – that we got the news of a close relative’s grave illness at home.

Of course we had to fly home immediately – on the 2^nd January – one of the busiest and most expensive times of the year and our travel insurance didn’t cover us for the cost of the extra travel.

On that occasion, we had to whip out our emergency credit card and accept the unforeseen costs.

In hindsight, the incident did make us wish that we’d bought the extra insurance cover.

We’d thought we were saving money but in the end it had backfired on us.

Travel Tip: If you are involved in an accident or incident however serious or minor then do keep any receipts and paperwork relating to what has happened to assist you in any travel insurance claim.

10 Important Things When Choosing Travel Insurance

1. Choose a reputable Insurance Company and do your research

Read recommendations and reviews. Trust Pilot is a great website for consumer reviews and Money Saving Expert website is a good resource. Global Travel Insurers I have used in the past include True Traveller and Stay Sure.

I have since bought several world travel insurance policies from World Nomads.

More recently, I’ve been looking at Genki Travel Insurance, as they are offering a flexible ‘Explorer’ worldwide travel insurance policies lasting up to two years and with monthly payments.

Genki also offer ‘Native’ Long Term Full Cover Health Insurance policies for nomads with no fixed home address.

Do use the links below to get a no obligation quote from both World Nomads and from Genki to compare what they offer as I highly recommend both of them to you.

The insurance companies I have provided links for will provide you with no-obligation travel insurance quotes based on your age and your insurance cover requirements. They are affiliate links because I have have chosen to partner and recommend them to you because I use them myself.

Affiliate Declaration: If you choose to request a no-obligation quote or to buy a policy through my link then I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you and I will be grateful to you as it helps support this website.

2. Decide on the type of travel insurance cover you need

Do you want to cover for any cancellations to your travel arrangements and for your cash and personal property?

Especially important if you have high-value items with you while travelling.

Or, do you only want cover for accident and medical emergency and repatriation should you need to come home quickly or if you die abroad?

3. Buy your travel insurance before you set off on your travels

Buying insurance at the same time you are booking your trip is a sensible option as you will be able to include cancellation insurance.

With a home start and a return ticket and a trip lasting less than 90 or 120 days you will also have lots of options regarding the company you choose as your travel insurance provider.

4. Travel Insurance when you are already travelling

There are not so many travel insurance companies to choose from when you want to buy or renew your travel insurance while you are already travelling. The best I have personally found are World Nomads and Genki.

5. Nomadic Travel Insurance

For those of you like the backpacking husband and I, who are travelling full time without a home base, then the global options for insurance will perhaps be more suited to you. You will normally have to have a registered home address for your policy application. The only provider I personally know of that doesn’t require this for their worldwide medical insurance is Genki.

6. The Matter of a Registered Home Address

It’s usually essential to have a registered home address for all sorts of reasons – banking, healthcare, paying tax, voting, driving licence, etc.

I know lots people who are nomadic world travellers or live in an RV or motorhome who use a PO Box or the private address of a family member or a good friend or even the office of their lawyer or accountant for this purpose.

We use the address of a house we rent back in the UK and where we stayed during the pandemic.

7. Single trip policies or annual policies?

Work out which will be best for you depending on the region and the countries included in the policy and the additional benefits to buying an annual policy. I have found travel to (even transiting through) the United States of America is often an optional extra on policies and charged at a premium.

During my last trip to central America, I managed overcome the additional expense of adding an overnight transit through the USA by buying an annual policy that allows for an allowance of days in the USA as part of the annual policy at no extra cost.

8. PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS

Declare all your pre-existing conditions and make sure the travel Insurance policy will cover emergency repatriation and check for Covid and any Covid related illness cover.

If you have travel insurance cover included through a credit card provider or a bank account are there any age restrictions to their cover?

Do you have to have actually purchased your travel with the card to qualify for travel insurance cover?

Does your card provider know about any pre-existing conditions, any prescription medications or any doctor or hospital appointments you’ve attended over the past few years?

If not, then you might NOT be as well covered as you think or not covered at all.

9. What age are you?

Unfortunately, we have now established that the older you are then the more expensive and more difficult it becomes to find travel insurance and some travel insurance companies will only provide cover to under 65-year-olds.

If you are older then you might want to use a company that specialises in insuring older travellers and those with pre-existing conditions.

Take a look at Money Saving Expert for a list of Over 65 travel insurance options.

10. Travel Insurance Europe

Travelling from UK to Europe? The free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) entitles you to treatment in state-run hospitals in the EU at the same cost as a local person.

After Brexit (1 January 2021) those in the UK who have an existing EHIC can continue to use it in EU countries (but not Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein, as they’re not part of the EU) until the expiry date on the card.

If you don’t have an EHIC or it’s expiring then you’ll now get a Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) instead.

The GHIC card is FREE and you can apply online at The Official NHS Website.

For up to date European travel information the website OPEN EU is a useful resource tool listing the current restrictions in Europe and when countries are reopening.

What does Travel Insurance cost?

Get a Quote from GENKI TRAVEL INSURANCE

Get a Quote from WORLD NOMAD TRAVEL INSURANCE

Conclusion

I do hope this guide on travel insurance has been helpful to you and has helped you to understand the importance of having the right travel insurance and how to go about finding it.

The information I have included here is based on my own experience as a UK national.

I appreciate that your own requirements will pertain to your own country of residence.

The insurance companies I have provided links for will provide you with no-obligation travel insurance quotes based on your age and your insurance cover requirements. They are affiliate links because I have have chosen to partner and recommend them to you because I use them myself.

If you choose to request a no-obligation quote or to buy a policy through my link then I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you and I will be grateful to you as it helps support this website.

Before your trip, check to see if there are current travel alerts for your destination – you can also check travel advice and restrictions for your destination(s) as these may impact cover, or your ability to travel.

Do leave a comment if you have any travel insurance stories to tell

Or information about travel insurance you’d like to share

Or recommendations you’d like to add that might help other travellers!