Critical Illness/Life Insurance - Is is worth it?

dunstonh

When this subject comes up every now and then, we get similar replies each time. So I apologise to the regs for the duplication they have read before.

As an adviser, I find more claims going through on critical illness than life cover nowadays. Other advisers have stated the same in the past.

However, I would place permanent health insurance above critical illness in the pecking order.

Alan_M_2

I personally have Critical Illness cover, I think its a small price to pay for piece of mind and whilst I agree with dunstonh about PHI cover, that is more dependant on your occupation, some are just prohibitively expensive.

toonfish

Alan_M wrote: »

I personally have Critical Illness cover, I think its a small price to pay for piece of mind and whilst I agree with dunstonh about PHI cover, that is more dependant on your occupation, some are just prohibitively expensive.

much cheaper than CIC in the main nowadays, and cover a whole lot more circumstances. I would offer PHI instead of critical illness too - both if it's affordable.

burns

Hi,

I had a meeting with the bank yesterday and as expected they tried as hard as they could to "push" critical illness/mortgage insurance on us. I told them I would take their quote and shop around.

They want to know whether we are going to be taking it ut or not this Friday.

I'm not sure what to do, both myself and my partner are fairly healthy individuals, we don't smoke and are both under 30 and have no dependants. If one of us died then the other would sell the house. So I guess the only cover I would realistically need would be critical illness. I know 6 couples around my age and only one of them has any cover.

Can the bank decline my mortgage if I don't take out any cover at all?

Thanks

herbiesjp

burns wrote: »

Hi,

I had a meeting with the bank yesterday and as expected they tried as hard as they could to "push" critical illness/mortgage insurance on us. I told them I would take their quote and shop around.

They want to know whether we are going to be taking it ut or not this Friday.

I'm not sure what to do, both myself and my partner are fairly healthy individuals, we don't smoke and are both under 30 and have no dependants. If one of us died then the other would sell the house. So I guess the only cover I would realistically need would be critical illness. I know 6 couples around my age and only one of them has any cover.

Can the bank decline my mortgage if I don't take out any cover at all?

Thanks

I would ask them why the Friday deadline - you can take this out whenever you want.

Only you know whether you need it or not, as no one on here knows your circumstances better than you do, but they cannot decline a mortgage application on the basis of you not taking out the protection.

HTH

dunstonh

Bank products are more expensive than whole of market products. Even if the bank uses a known insurance company, they have a more expensive version.

burns

Can anyone recommened a decent company?

dunstonh

There is no one decent company. Different providers focus on different age groups, occupations, sum assureds etc. Plus CI at this moment in time is non standard across providers (changing late April). There are budget and comprehensive versions so you cant just compare premiums.

One of the best providers for coverage is also one of the most expensive so it really depends on what you are looking for.

Just avoid the banks unless you want a reviewable plan with higher premiums than a guarantee plan from the whole of market.

homer_j_3

burns wrote: »

Hi,

I'm not sure what to do, both myself and my partner are fairly healthy individuals, we don't smoke and are both under 30 and have no dependants. If one of us died then the other would sell the house. So I guess the only cover I would realistically need would be critical illness. I know 6 couples around my age and only one of them has any cover.

You say if one of you dies the other one would sell the house. Where would they live?

Is it likely that your death would provide enough from either of your estates to allow the other person to be in a position that they don't have to struggle?

I know 6 couples around my age too and none of them have the same mortgage as me. They don't earn the same money as me, they don't dont have the same financial circumstances as me.

In all fairness you need to think about what would happen if one of you were to die - Could you sell and take enough money from the other persons death not to put you in a position where you have to worry about money in what would be already a difficult time of your life.

Critical Ilness, you seem to have bought into this cover already and I know with some companies it can be cheaper to buy this with life cover anyway than taking it stand alone so if you shop around the life cover might not be an issue for you.

I today saw someone who had been to the HSBC and been quoted £100 for full protection, I quoted £28 and the cover was more comperhensive! So don't be pressured into doing for friday and shop around - if you visit an IFA they will be able to give you a better like for like quote than if you try and get something yourself as there can be a "you pay for what you get" with some cover and providers and if you don't know that then you could be chucking your money away unnecessarily.

JoeK_3

Well done Homer_j

Want a job?

JoeK