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Posts Tagged ‘travel insurance’

You’ve chosen your destination and may have even booked some bargain flights online, looking forward to your holiday, lying in the sun, sipping Sangria and soaking up the rays. But are you a senior holiday traveller and have you researched and arranged your over 64s travel insurance?

Travellers who are over 64 years old can often encounter difficulty obtaining travel insurance. Many insurance companies suddenly become reluctant to offer travel insurance to senior travelers for a number of reasons. They don’t want to take what they may see as unnecessary risks. Ideally, they will sell their travel insurance policies and no one will actually make a claim on them. But senior travelers mean additional risks for insurers due to possibly failing health, pre-existing medical conditions and the effects of aging.

So what can you do as a senior traveler? The most important thing is not to leave it til the last minute. Its worth making a start in looking around for your travel insurance policy as soon as you possibly can. The more time you have then the more chance you have of finding the right policy at the best price.

Its always a good idea to start with your current insurance provider. If you already have life insurance cover or maybe health insurance then approach your provider and ask about their senior travel insurance policies. And if you have a pre-existing medical condition find out if they provide pre-existing medical condition travel insurance.

It is always prudent to shop around. Even if you are provided with quotes from your current insurance provider take the figures and look around for a cheaper alternative. There are some specialist insurance providers who may well be able to beat the prices that you have been offered.

Once you have found a policy and provider that you are happy with why not consider purchasing multi-trip travel insurance. Save yourself the time and trouble it takes to find an insurance policy by taking out a multi-trip policy that will cover your next holiday as well.

Whatever you do, always be honest and open with your prospective travel insurance provider. Never lie about your age and always disclose full details of your health and medical condition when applying for a policy. And be sure to have a fantastic holiday.

American credit cards are sadly lacking when they come to Europe and indeed visit other countries that use smart card technology. The vital missing ingredient is smart card technology.

Smart cards still provide a magnetic strip that makes them compatible with older terminals but they also have an embdedded microprocessor that provides the smart technology. Smart card technology has been introduced to prevent fraud in over 22 countries including most of Europe, Brazil, Mexico and Japan and more countries are adopting the technology as time progresses. Over the next couple of years many additional countries including China, India and Latin America will adopt this new technology.

The embedded microprocessor means that more data can be stored on the card instead of relying upon database access. The new smart card technology is favoured by the police and government as it makes it so much more difficult to clone credit cards and commit card fraud.

Old style magnetic strip based cards are still suitable for most shops and restaurants as these match the terminals that are are in common use in these situations. The new smart card technology is essential if you want to make use of an increasing number of automatic terminals that are commonly found at ticket kiosks and petrol station gas pumps. Americans who don’t have cards with the new smart card technology would not be able to make use of these new facilties.

Although the rest of the world is quickly adopting the new, high security technology the American banking industry has no immediate plans introduce the new cards. It has been observed that credit card fraud isn’t as big a problem in the United states as its in Europe and other parts of the world.

Another reason for the delay in adoption is cost. The cost of introducing the new technology has been estimated at around .5 billion to introduce the new technology and this is mainly due to the need for replacement terminals.

So it looks like American tourists in Europe and elsewhere will need to make certain they have cash in their pockets rather than rely on their credit cards.

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One thing you can be certain of when travelling is the need for adequate and appropriate travel insurance. If you are over 64 you should be looking at Senior travel insurance and if you have any form of medical condition you need to look at Travel Insurance for Pre-Existing medical conditions.

We all look forward to our annual vacations with eager anticipation. As our vacation time draws closer we’ll start to count the days until we pack our holiday clothes and head off for a week or two in the sun.

Unfortunately many people head for their holiday destinations without giving hardly a thought to the need for insurance. This is particularly true for those who don’t arrange their holidays through a travel agent. Travel agencies will generally remind people of the need for holiday insurance but even when they do many people take out the cheapest policy possible which can often be inadequate for many circumstances.

Nobody expects that they will need medical assistance or be the victim of crime and this is what stops many from taking out adequate insurance cover. Nobody expects to have an accident, to need medical attention or that they will be the victim of crime. Unfortunately accidents and emergencies do arise and when they happen abroad they can be very expensive. For example, if you need to be returned to the UK it could set you back many thousands of pounds. For example the cost of returning home from the United States in an air ambulance would be between £35K and £45K and from the Canary Islands the cost could be between £12K and £16K.

Unfortunately, while nobody plans for disasters problems can occur and imagine that you had to pay the cost of an expensive air ambulance yourself?

I’ve been very lucky while away on holiday, never having had need for medical attention, but I have, on two occasions, needed to claim for lost or stolen items. On one occasion, while travelling in India, I had my camera stolen from my bag on a train. On another occasion, when flying to Italy, the airline managed to lose my suitcase.

These incidents highlight another key reason to make certain that you have adequate holiday insurance cover. Having your personal possessions stolen while on holiday is bad enough but it can be a lot worse if you don’t have adequate insurance cover.

When selecting an insurance policy you are advised to be certain that you read the exclusions from the policy. For example, many people are completely unaware that most insurance policies don’t cover drink or drug related incidents?

It is worth remembering that cheaper policies are cheaper for a reason, usually because they offer less cover than those which are more expensive. Always be certain that the policy provides adequate cover before being tempted by the cheapest insurance policy available.

You can often save money by looking at annual multi-trip insurance or by looking at group insurance policies for your whole family. Nobody should ever leave the UK without ensuring that they have enough insurance cover.

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