Do i have to pay?!

halloweentown

This is my first post (apologies if its in the wrong section!).

I took out life insurance and after looking over my documents realised that one of my answers in my question and answer section was incorrect. after altering this, the company stated that the cover would have to be redrafted...

I received further documents with an amended premium and a date from when the cover would be active (december 2012), stupidly, i presumed that all was well and monies would be taken from my account each month. i found out this month that this was not the case.

after paying my initial premium of 19 pounds for two months, i was told that it would increase to 31. after doing alot of chasing with the company i have established that decembers payment was apparently covered by paying 2 months at 19 pounds??? and because of an error on their part, i would now have to back pay the two months (jan and feb) at the new rate. whilst chasing this up i was constantly told that they could not guarantee i was covered but now that its resolved, apparently i would have been... no surprise there...

Do i have to pay or should i look elsewhere, cancel the policy and not pay them?

sorry for the war and peace entry!

agrinnall

No, I thought I'd got it but I now realise I haven't. Can you clarify the following:

When did the revised cover start?
What premium did you pay in Dec, Jan, Feb and March?
How much extra do they want you to pay now?

It does sound like you have underpaid (presumably because they didn't amend the DD at the right time). Given that you have been covered I think you will have to pay what you owe, but if you can answer the questions we can confirm whether what they are asking for is correct.

halloweentown

agrinnall, thank you so much for your reply...

When did the revised cover start?
- the new cover started from december

What premium did you pay in Dec, Jan, Feb and March?
- because i had already paid 2 months at 19 (while there was some confusion over my premium) they have said that this will cover decembers payment which seems a little strange. since december, they havent taken any money from me but now they want back payment.

How much extra do they want you to pay now?
- they want me to pay 31 now because of the amendment to the policy (i understand the reasoning behind this).

i think whats bugging me is, lets say (god forbid) i died during this period when they hadnt taken the money, im pretty sure they wouldnt have paid out ( i may be wrong). whilst this was all up in the air and i was chasing them, they wouldnt confirm that i would be covered if something happened to me while i was trying to resolve the problem...

hope this helps?

halloweentown

the above should say that they now want 2 months worth of payment (jan and feb).

agrinnall

Ok, your answers aren't as clear as I would have liked but I think I get it. I'm pretty sure you would have been covered, but as you didn't die the question is moot. If the agreement was for the new premium to start in December then that's when you should have been paying £31 a month from. The argument you should be having with them is that the two £19 payments obviously add up to £38, so you shouldn't be paying 2 full months premiums to repay what's owed, you should be paying £62 - £7 = £55. If they are asking for any more than that then tell them you want an explanation in writing, which you can then post on here so we can tell you how to counter it.

bod1467

Alternative question - are you happy with the new premium? (As in, are you prepared to pay £31 per month)? [Seems quite a hefty premium for single life cover - assuming that is what it is, and having no knowledge of your own circumstances].

Have you enquired elsewhere to see what other companies would charge?

agrinnall

I must admit I also thought £31 a month sounded steep, but I as I don't bother with life cover I couldn't be sure so didn't want to muddy the waters.

grannyjo

go to money supermarket or similar and run through a life insurance quote to give you an idea of costs from different companies. Then read the conditions of your present policy . The costs of policies obviously diifer a lot according to your age, medical conditions, smoking etc and how big a payout etc etc so be sure to compare like with like. If other policies are cheaper, check on the cancellation conditions of your present policy. Normally cover stops when payment stops. (Not at the moment because you are in discussions with the present company). One very big extra costs for life cover is some are combined with a sort of health cover, giving payments if certain diseases are diagnosed.

halloweentown

thank you all so much for your comments. my life cover incorporates critical illness and because of a previous condition, was reviewed to cover all bases. ill just suck it up and pay the oustanding debt but will also check prices again online.

thanks again for your help!