Over 50s Insurance - Missed Payments

TheDigitalMan

One of Martin's main points in his Over-50s' Life Insurance article is "If you've poor health, play the odds and over-50s' plans can be lucrative". 

We had a recent very worrying MRI scan.  A follow-up scan was required which would either be "all clear" or "better get your affairs in order" - odds seemed to be pretty much 50/50 as well.  So we decided to play the odds, on the basis that we either get the "all clear" and celebrate, or get the bad news and at least know we've got one over on the insurers!

Six weeks later and we now have 9 (yes, nine!) over-50's policies and the follow-up scan came back clear.  Hurrah!  We've lost a month or two's payments but, frankly, don't care!   We're about to cancel most if not all of the policies.

Now I have to look carefully through the Ts&Cs and have noticed something important - the article says "you've usually up to six months to pay back all the missed premiums".  In fact, none of the policies were this generous.  They range from 30 days (Legal and General) to 3 months (National Friendly, Forever Assured, Shepherds Friendly).

Alderbank

TheDigitalMan said:

One of Martin's main points in his Over-50s' Life Insurance article is "If you've poor health, play the odds and over-50s' plans can be lucrative". 

We had a recent very worrying MRI scan.  A follow-up scan was required which would either be "all clear" or "better get your affairs in order" - odds seemed to be pretty much 50/50 as well.  So we decided to play the odds, on the basis that we either get the "all clear" and celebrate, or get the bad news and at least know we've got one over on the insurers!

Six weeks later and we now have 9 (yes, nine!) over-50's policies and the follow-up scan came back clear.  Hurrah!  We've lost a month or two's payments but, frankly, don't care!   We're about to cancel most if not all of the policies.

Now I have to look carefully through the Ts&Cs and have noticed something important - the article says "you've usually up to six months to pay back all the missed premiums".  In fact, none of the policies were this generous.  They range from 30 days (Legal and General) to 3 months (National Friendly, Forever Assured, Shepherds Friendly).

Welcome to the Forum TheDigitalMan!

Good news that your scan came back clear.

Do you have a question?

You took out lots of policies and say you have noticed that those you have chosen give you up to 3 months to pay back all missed payments.
Is your complaint that the MSE article said 'you've usually up to six months to pay back all the missed premiums'?
If so, the MSE article article is correct. 

TELLIT01

Maybe you usually do have 6 months and you've just been unlucky on the one's you chose.  It doesn't really seem to matter as I suspect you are simply going to stop paying the premiums anyway.  Taking out 9 policies seems a strange route to take as a single policy using the combined payments would probably be a better choice.

Weighty1

TELLIT01 said:

Maybe you usually do have 6 months and you've just been unlucky on the one's you chose.  It doesn't really seem to matter as I suspect you are simply going to stop paying the premiums anyway.  Taking out 9 policies seems a strange route to take as a single policy using the combined payments would probably be a better choice.

Not really.  These sorts of plans often have a maximum premium of £50/month so they may have been wanting to maximise their cover by having multiple plans.

Alderbank

The MSE article is quite critical of these policies. It says they are poor value for money and in particular if you claim in the first year you will get back less than you paid in.

Strange that the OP read that then bought 9 of them!

Aretnap

Alderbank said:

The MSE article is quite critical of these policies. It says they are poor value for money and in particular if you claim in the first year you will get back less than you paid in.

Strange that the OP read that then bought 9 of them!

Where does it say that? The norm is that if you die in the first year or so, they refund the premiums you have already paid. So you get back exactly what you have paid in - your only loss is whatever interest you would have earned putting the premiums in the bank instead.

While they're poor value for someone in good health (for their age) they can be very good value for someone in poor health with a significantly reduced life expectancy (as the OP thought he was, or at least was likely to be). The article makes this clear.