Essential Insurance

guitarman001

Partner has incurable cancer. Decided to buy her the nice house she always wanted. Got the mortgage sorted. Need to sort out insurance. Broker suggested:

Building & contents ~ £45 per month
Critical illness ~ £55 per month
Illness / income protection ~ £80+

Through work I get 6x salary critical illness.

If I'm ill I get full pay for 3 months, then half pay for 3 months, then 70% for longer disability but I'm not sure how that works. Again, only through work. So if I get sacked then get ill, I'm stuffed.

I have independent musical instrument insurance.

I need to get this sorted by Monday. Buildings and contents is needed but what others are essential, and what is a rough guide for what you think I should pay for each? I think close to £200 a month for all three is a bit much..?

mattk_180

I always thought critical illness was just a watered down version of the cover you get with income protection and it gives you a lump some rather than continuous income, meaning both isn't required.


I could be completely wrong though so someone with more smarts will hopefully be along shortly.

Weighty1

I'd say if you get 6x annual salary in the form of critical illness cover then you are pretty well cover in that respect. It'd be worthwhile for you to check the illness cover you get through work as it sounds like you may be part of a group income protection scheme. If you are then there's little to no point in applying for additional personal cover as you can't protect your income twice.

You could look at redundancy depending on how likely you feel this is to happen and how difficult it would be to get a new job if you were made redundant.

guitarman001

How am I supposed to get buildings insurance if all the sites ask me for postcode and house number when the site is new and I don't have that info!?

paddyandstumpy

Wait until you have that info...?!

guitarman001

I think I need it at the same time as getting the missives sorted to secure the mortgage. I might be mistaken..

ThinkingOutLoud_2

So the builder have to apply to the local authority who have statutory responsibility for this.

This will mean you will know the postcode ... but you won't be able to get a quote until each insurer has rated that postcode....

Most all insurers buy access to a database / "feed" of postcodes - so once they know new one's exist they have to rate them ...

So it will be longer than once the postcode is assigned. Just keep trying ...once they have been asssigned.

Finally, you could look at some form of income replacement with a deferment period that goes beyond your cover at work - so it won't pay until the other cover you have runs out. That will make it cheaper too.