Travel Insurance Age Limits: Who Covers You?

Quick summary for busy readers:

• Several insurers offer single trip cover with no age limit at all. Others cap it anywhere from the mid-60s up to 100.
• Annual multi-trip policies are a different story. Even insurers with no age limit on single trips often cap annual policies somewhere between 65 and 85.
• Older travellers can face age loadings on price, sub-limits on cover, and exclusions on things like adventure activities.
• If you travel more than a couple of times a year, it’s worth checking both the age limit and the maximum trip duration on any annual policy before assuming it’s the cheaper option.

 

If you’re older than 60, it can be trickier to get travel insurance because of something called age limits – which vary enormously between New Zealand insurers.

The good news is that plenty of insurers do cover older travellers, you just need to know where to look. Read on to learn more about travel insurance age limits and to see which insurers offer cover with no upper age limit at all.

What age can you no longer get travel insurance?

In good news for senior travellers, there isn’t one clear-cut age. It genuinely depends on the insurer and the type of policy you’re after.

Plenty of New Zealand insurers don’t apply any upper age limit at all to single trip travel insurance, so you can technically be covered no matter your age (provided you meet the insurer’s other terms, of course). Other insurers set a reasonably high cap, commonly somewhere around 80 to 100 years old. Then there’s a few insurers with noticeably lower limits, sometimes as young as 65.

However, if you’re a frequent traveller looking for an annual multi-trip policy, that’s where things get more restrictive. Most insurers tend to have lower age limits on their annual policies, commonly somewhere between 65 and 85. And maximum trip lengths come into play, although they can vary from 38 days to 90 days per trip.

We should also mention that being eligible for cover doesn’t mean you’ll get the same cover as everyone else. Insurers can apply age loadings that increase your premium, sub-limits that cap specific benefits lower than a standard policy would, and exclusions on things like additional adventure activities.

What age limits do travel insurers have in New Zealand?

Because age limits vary so much by insurer and by policy type (and because plenty of providers don’t make this information easy to find), we’ve pulled together the current single trip and annual policy age limits, along with maximum trip durations, for major New Zealand insurers below: