DINERS Club Travel
Insurance has banned
automatic cover for
customers over 85 years
old from February 1 as the
industry moves to impose age
caps. There are now no travel
insurers left that provide
infinite cover.
Travel Insurance Consultants
(TIC) and Bryte Insurance
provide cover for customers
up to age 85, while Hollard
Travel Insurance provides cover
up to age 82. All major credit
card companies and medical
aid schemes also only provide
cover up until a certain age.
Simmy Micheli, sales and
marketing manager of TIC, says
it is risky for insurers to offer
infinite coverage due to the
large cost of medical claims
that come from customers over
age 70. “At TIC, 70% of the
travellers we insure are under
the age of 70, however, 70% of
the cost of medical claims are
from travellers over this age.”
Derek Randall, national travel
manager of Bryte Insurance,
says such statistics are not
only standard in South Africa,
but worldwide.
Travel consultants who have
large elderly client bases
have panicked following the
decision by Diners Club. The
general consensus is that
travel insurance shouldn’t have
anything to do with age, but the
risk involved, as some 80-yearolds,
for example, have less
severe medical problems than
some 50-year-olds.
Anya Black, consultant of
Heldervue Travel & Adventure,
says the infinite cover offered
by Diners Club was a major
selling point for the product.
Megan Fineberg, director of
Constantiaberg Travel, adds
that many of her clients had
Diners Club credit cards purely
for travel insurance purposes.
“Knowing that we will now
have to send our clients on
holiday without any cover
whatsoever is a bitter pill
to swallow, but we have no
choice,” Anya says.
Deanne Hunter, owner of
Deanne Hunter Travel,
points out that policies
without age caps are available
in other countries, such as the
United States, but the problem
with this is that foreign policies
do not always cover SA
travellers
Diners Club Travel Insurance imposes age cap
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