Policies cost much more once you're 66

INSURANCE:PEOPLE CAN find that their travel insurance premiums increase by over 100 per cent when they hit the age of 66, according to a study published by the Consumers' Association of Ireland (CAI) this week.

The study, which appears in the current edition of its Consumer Choicemagazine, also indicated that there were huge discrepancies from provider to provider in the cost of travel insurance and it pointed to the need for older people to shop around in order to find the best value.

The consumer lobby group sought quotations online from a wide variety of insurers operating in the Irish market. The same data was inputted for each quotation request, except for differences in the age of the prospective consumer.

Quotes were sought for a single man aged between 60 and 100 for an annual multi trip policy with a variety of providers and the applicant was assumed to have no private health insurance.

A multi trip annual worldwide policy with broker 123.ie costs €135 for a 65-year-old. However, when the consumer turns 66, the cost of the same policy jumped to €237 – an increase of more than €100. Similarly, a multi trip annual worldwide policy with Insureme.ie costs €66 for a 65-year-old, but more than doubles to €151 for a 66-year-old.

“The fact that the increases are triggered by age alone raises questions,” said the chief executive of the CAI, Dermott Jewell.

“The suggestion being made here is that age is the sole – and immediate – factor in risk and this is entirely at odds with the previous industry advice that claims, and the cost of claims, increase premiums.”

He said the CAI was “particularly sceptical” of what appears to be “the determination by the industry that a 65-year-old instantly becomes a 100 per cent higher risk when travelling on attaining his or her 66th birthday”.