Lifestyle Protect claim denied!

MrChips

I've got a Virgin Money credit card with a lifestyle protect policy attached to it. I recently experienced two lifestyle events in a short period of time; my wife and I bought a house on 20 December 2010 and she then gave birth to our first child on 29 January 2011.

We put in a claim for the house in December and received the three "monthly benefits" in January - March. We then put in the claim for the birth and received two installments, but I've just had a call from Sterling Insurance who underwrite this policy to say that we aren't actually entitled to the second claim as they overlap.

I was aware of a condition in the policy which states "Benefit shall not be payable under the [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]Lifestyle Events [/FONT][/FONT]part of this [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]Policy [/FONT][/FONT]if [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]You [/FONT][/FONT]are currently receiving benefit under any section of this policy (including benefit for any additional [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]Lifestyle Event[/FONT][/FONT])." Claims should be notified within 180 days of the event itself. It is also not allowed to claim for more than 2 lifestyle events within 12 months, although that isn't an issue for us.

However, we deliberately waited until after we had ceased "receiving benefit" for the first event so that the claims would not be overlapping. I can see you could read the wording both ways, and just after an opinion from the good folks in here as to whether they feel we have a strong argument to take this any further?

Full terms & conditions are here if interested:

http://www.mbna.com/bac_co_uk/files/CP0608_INSU_MB_LP_D.pdf

Any opinions gratefully received!

[Deleted User]

I think it should be paid, from looking at the terms. It doesn't say that the lifestye events can't overlap, only that you can't be claiming simultaneously.

They may be arguing that regardless of when you receive the benefits, you are effectively receiving benefits for Jan, Feb and March, and Feb, March and April.

But I'd take it further. I remember how much effort you put in planning the lifestyle events to maximise the return!

MrChips

Exactly! It took a lot of effort to max out two cards with a £9k limit on each, so I'm probably not going to let it lie just yet

I guess it rests on the interpretation of the word "currently". I take it as current as at the time of receiving the benefit, not current as at the time of the event or when the payments were due had I claimed instantly.