Rivers Travel

You remember when you were under 25 years old; paying your car insurance was the equivalent of more than a month’s wages. The Army would recruit you alright to go and fight for your country, but you were not safe, according to the insurance companies, to drive on the roads. Why should the insurance companies penalise you for being under 25? Isn’t that age discrimination? Old enough to die but too young to drive! Then when you were 30 years old, the house had to be insured, and the mortgage that was buying the house had to be insured.

Even your income that was paying the mortgage had to be insured. Just when you start to congratulate yourself that you have even survived for 65 years, the insurance companies are trying to get their pound of flesh again. Over 65 travel insurance! When will it all end? Well you know the answer to that – and you have even got that insured!

You are just looking forward to having some time for travelling, just you and the wife. The family have all moved on and are now supporting the insurance companies on their own. Now you have time to relax and enjoy the finer things of life. Now you can complete those plans to visit Singapore, Australia, and all the other places on your “things-to-do-before-I-die” list. But now it’s going to cost an arm and a leg just to get insured.

You think back on all the insurance you have paid over the years. You are probably the only guy in the world with 45 years of no claims. No accidents in the car, the house did not fall down, you never missed a monthly payment on the mortgage. Well, OK, there was just the one claim, when the kids decided to sleigh down the stairs on a mattress and took all the banister rails out and the ceiling collapsed. But apart from that, nothing.

Why should the insurance companies penalise you for being over 65? Isn’t that age discrimination? Travel insurance should not be just for the wealthy. After all, It is the holiday that is supposed to be the luxury! You may protest that you are as fit as a fiddle. You can jog five miles and swing the grandchildren around. You have just finished digging your garden and you can still play a good game of chess. That is not going to impress the insurance companies. You are too old to travel and too young to die!

Maybe you could skip the insurance. You have got the best track record in the world for no claims. Just save that money, or perhaps, use it to upgrade the hotel rooms, or get a limo to the airport. But somehow that does not sit right. Maybe it is time for the averages to work out? What if your baggage ends up in Mumbai when you are visiting Kuala Lumpur? It would be just your luck if you fall over and break a leg, or maybe worse. What if you had to sell the house to pay for the medical bills?

Let’s look on the bright side. Most of those premiums you have paid out over the years have been re-distributed to all the people who made claims. It looks like the insurance companies have done a better job of re-distributing your wealth than the government has done through the tax system.

Being over 65 is not the end of the world – it is a new beginning. There must be some affordable over 65 travel insurance out there somewhere. There are so many people looking for travel insurance for over 65s, that there must be a few good rates available with all that competition. Why not book that trip now, take the insurance (make it an annual multi-trip insurance), and cross another item off your ‘to do’ list!