Life Insurance & critical illness

RD_3467

I have just found out that I have been paying two policies for life insurance and critical illness cover with the same company for the last two years. When we moved house we stayed with the same insurance company and I thought our original policy had been changed rather than a new one started.

The company say I am not entitiled to any money refunded.

Can anyone tell me if this is true?

FLAPJACK

They sound like two different products to me....Life Insurance pays out if you die, Critical Illness Cover pays out if you are unable to work because of a medical condition which renders you unemployable.

Annisele

Even if your first policy provides both life and CIC, and your second policy also provides life and CIC, it's very unlikely you'd be able to get your money back.

If you'd died / suffered one of the listed critical illnesses, both policies would have paid out - so you've had the cover that you paid for.

(CIC isn't about whether you're unemployable or not - it's about whether or not you've been diagnosed with one of the illnesses on the insurer's list for that particular policy. It's entirely possible to be unable to work and yet unable to claim on CIC, and it's also possible to be happily working and yet have a valid CIC claim. Many advisers prefer PHI for that reason - that pays you an income if you can't work due to sickness or disability, regardless of whether your illness is on a list).

dunstonh

The company say I am not entitiled to any money refunded.

Can anyone tell me if this is true?

You can have as many life & CI policies as you like. When people move house and borrow more (or require more insurance when families expand or you need a top etc) then you can either replace the one you have or increment the existing one with a new one. Either method can be best depending on cost and version (older CI plans often offer better cover than modern ones).

So, unless you think something wrong has been done, then the company is correct. You could have 100 with them and that is still allowed.

RD_3467

Thank you for your advice - I now understand that you can have as many policies as you can pay for - at the time of moving house though it was never made clear that we needed to cancel the existing policy to then start a new one.

I have learnt a hard lesson.