critical illness cover

moggitymog

I am 33 dbf is 36 we have 23 years left on mortgage, we have got level term until end of mortgage, we both work for NHS so get good level of sick pay if required and both pay into NHS pension. We also have 6yr old dd so security is important

grogdog

is your mortgage interest only or repayment? do you smoke? do you have total & permanent disability in the plan?

moggitymog

mortgage is repayment, I smoke but not dbf,and we have total and permanent disability except mental illness

Suzanne7173

I am new to this forum but could urgently do with some advice. My question follows on from the original post is critical illness worth it. We purchased our current home last year. We used a broker to sourcethe mortgage, life and critical illness policies. My husband has recently suffered a period of critical illness. When we phoned our insurer they said that we were not covered. My husbands consultant, says that it was a critical illness and he underwent emergency life saving surgery. Having done some research I do now understand that critical illness only covers certain illness and then there is a Total & Permanent Disability clause aimed at covering those illnesses not falling under the main headings. My husband had ulcertive fulminant colitis. The description of what happens fits completley the following from the Prudential. Colitis Ulcerative: Ulcerative Colitis shall mean acute Fulminant Ulcerative Colitis with life threatening electrolyte disturbances usually associated with intestinal distention and a risk of intestinal rupture, involving the entire colon with severe bloody diarrhea. Diagnosis must be based on histopathological features and surgery in the form of colectomy and ileostomy should form part of the treatment. They also cover Crohns disease, which affects many sufferers. My husband has managed to fight and has been sent a claim form but I am heartbroken thinking is this a case of bad luck and we were just with the wrong insurer? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

lisyloo

Hi Suzanne,

Sorry to hear about your troubles.
When you are ill it's the worst time to be fighting a company.

Anyway.
Have you contacted your broker?
If they are a good broker then they should be helping you here.

The good news is that insurance is a regulated industry so you can complain free of charge (although it can take a while).
In your posistion I would go to the broker as the first port of call.
Perhaps there has been some mistake and he/she will be able to sort it out.
If not then you can put in complaint under the companies complaints procedure.
I tend to send all important letters by recorded delivery which is about 70p so the other end cannot say they did not receive it.
Ultimately if you don't get any joy there, you can go to the insurance Ombudsman and make a free and indepdent complaint that way.
But try your broker first. They may have knowledge that may be able to help.

Good Luck

pedro123456

loo "I think critial illness is better for the sellers and not for consumers"..............correct


"Reason I ask is that we pay what seems a huge amount for life and critical illness cover, We have always paid this but are hearing stories about company's not paying out"

Mog can I ask what you percieve CI cover to be? If you purchased CI, what do you think you are "buying into"?

Can I also ask the people who have made comments to explain to you what their perception of CI is.
What are you selling to your client/premium payer?


Z

OshayAway

pedro123456 wrote: »

loo "I think critical illness is better for the sellers and not for consumers"..............correct

I doubt the 90%+ of successful claimants would agree with that. Maybe the 5% who told porkies on their application might.

OshayAway

Suzanne7173, do you have critical illness cover or is it PruProtect's 'Serious Illness Cover'?

pedro123456

Really OshayAway?, :rotfl:how about you explain what CI is seeing as you appear to know it all, we will discus your ABI (in house stock checkers)figures in a separate thread if you have the guts to start one, which I very much doubt

Z

lisyloo

I doubt the 90%+ of successful claimants would agree with that.

My comment has been somewhat taken out of the context it was in so I would like to clarify.
What I was comparing was PHI and CI.
Not CI and nothing.

If someone was young and could never work again then I suspect the CI payout would fall short of supportting them for the rest of their working life.
My belief if the PHI would be a more appropriate product for many people but it seems that a lot of people have CI and haven't had the pros and cons discussed with them.

I am open to debate on this, but the only reason that I can see that CI would be sold a huge amount more than PHI would be that it's in the advisors interest (,uch more commission).

Personally with a choice between an income until retirement if I can't work and a lump sum if I get certain illnesses, then I would definitely go for the former and I would have thought it would be more suitable for most people as well.
The lump sum from CI is not generally large enough to cover a youngish person for decades worth of income.

It appears to me that people are "sold" certain products instead of having the whole range explained to them.
I'm not saying CI is useless, just that there might be better options for most people but that advice seems to be missing.