Mortgage Protection Insurance - Assurant

letitcomedown

dunstonh wrote: »

I wouldnt feel confident about winning. Nowhere does it say the premium is guaranteed. Indeed, it clearly says in the t&c:

15.5. We may change the terms and conditions of the policy and the Premium. We will give You 30 days written notice of any change. The notice should be attached to the policy.

dunstonh, I do not have that term in my T&Cs. As I said earlier, I have no terms explicitly allowing a change of premium.

And I argue that "your premium is determined at the outset and will not automatically increase asa you get older" is an explicit guarantee that the premium is fixed. I would like to understand how it could not be interpreted as such.

dunstonh

I argue that "your premium is determined at the outset and will not automatically increase asa you get older" is an explicit guarantee that the premium is fixed.

No its not. Its a guarantee that the premium will not increase due to your age. Not because of other factors.

I do not have that term in my T&Cs.

Are you looking at the actual policy terms and conditions or just the key facts document?

letitcomedown

dunstonh wrote: »

>No its not. Its a guarantee that the premium will not increase due to your age. Not >because of other factors.

That may have been their intention, but that's not what it actually says! Both sub-clauses clearly imply the premium is fixed.

dunstonh wrote: »

Are you looking at the actual policy terms and conditions or just the key facts document?

Yes, I have both the key facts and the policy terms and conditions. The clause you quoted is not there. I suspect they've updated them since I took my policy out last October.

Woby_Tide

Looking at my policy document there is no clause saying that premiums can be changed but also nothing saying the premium will be 'set at the outset'

Document ID MPPI-ASU-AIZ050406BI1 toook policy out in 2005 or 06 I think

MattE

dunstonh wrote: »

I wouldnt feel confident about winning. Nowhere does it say the premium is guaranteed. Indeed, it clearly says in the t&c:

15.5. We may change the terms and conditions of the policy and the Premium. We will give You 30 days written notice of any change. The notice should be attached to the policy.

I don't have that clause either.

Received confirmation of my complaint in the post on Friday.

movilogo

A friend said to me that she has never come across anyone who has claimed Income Proitection who has actually got what they felt they had paid for.

That's why these insurances are not worth the paper they are written on! These payouts are very difficult to get and insurance companies will try their best to refuse/reduce the pay.

dunstonh

movilogo wrote: »

That's why these insurances are not worth the paper they are written on! These payouts are very difficult to get and insurance companies will try their best to refuse/reduce the pay.

I agree. Thats why I favour PHI as the income protection option as its underwritten at point of sale, can have guaranteed premiums and has far better claims payout stats than this payment protection version.

Dick_here

MattE wrote: »

I don't have that clause either.

Received confirmation of my complaint in the post on Friday.

Has anybody got any further with this ?

I have also checked my policy document and key facts document. The key facts has the "Your premium is determined at the outset and will not automatically increase as you get older" clause and "the premium calculation is based upon the type of cover chosen and your current age" clause (both point 4. The key facts only go to point 14. Also, reading the policy document, there is no suggestion anywhere that premiums could increase.

I think they are on dodgy ground here, has anyone complained formally and received a reply ?

Dick_here

Bumpity-bump. Anybody ?

2latenow

!!!!!!_here wrote: »

Bumpity-bump. Anybody ?

I'm guessing someone managed to get somewhere with BI/Assurant on the sudden premium increase issue -- at least notifcation of it:

I found a credit in my bank account this week from Assurant. Suspicious of any organisation making refunds I phoned them up and was told they had decided to refund British Insurance MPPI customer's premium increases from June till September +5% due to some customers not having received proper notification of the change.

Seeing as I *did* get a letter, I'm not going to complain about that -- though obviously I still dont like the increase but it's still half the price my lender would charge.

It's only a temporary reprieve though... next premium payments (later this month for me) will be back to the increased amount.

Being a cynic, I'm sure they are only paying after they got legal advice they could be in for much worse if they dont, but still I'm happy to get the money. And it's reminded me to check the market alternatives anyway (though admittedly probably not a good time to do it!).