Critical Illness

PeterJames123

Hi, I am looking at getting Critical Illness cover and I have looked at companies like AIG, Aviva and Vitality on trust pilot and some of the reviews when trying to pay out when being diagnosed with something is shocking. Has anybody had any good experiences? I know they are quite happy to take your money but when you need them, you don't want to be waiting hours on the phone. 

DullGreyGuy

Most people dont understand critical illness insurance and probably what they really want is permanent health insurance (aka income protection) but that is often a much more expensive product.

When you buy a CI product you lock into a list of covered conditions with a set of measures on severity which will not change for the 20 years or so you have the policy. People mistakingly believe it covers any illness rather than just the defined list... people have a policy that says you must have a count of over 20 to be able to claim and complain when they are declined with a count of 19.5. Likewise it may say open chest surgery may be required but those ops 15 years later are now done by keyhole so the claim is declined.

A quick look online and you'll see most insurers pay out in the low 90% of claims under CI and that statistic will have to include those spurious claims which were clearly never going to succeed. 

strawb_shortcake

We had an excellent experience with Zurich 

dunstonh

I have looked at companies like AIG, Aviva and Vitality on trust pilot and some of the reviews when trying to pay out when being diagnosed with something is shocking. 

Trustpilot is an unreliable research tool.  Many of the reviews (both positive and negative) are based on incorrect understanding.  You only have to read recent ones to see that.

Has anybody had any good experiences?

plenty

kingstreet

The top providers CI claim stats are still in the 90%+ area.

There is great scope for problems with non-disclosure at application stage and not meeting the required severity (eg Gleason 6 or more for prostate cancer) for a particular condition at claim.

Better chance of a payout than not having the cover at all. Agree with point made earlier. Income Protection (PHI) should be first protection option.

Neversurrender

One thing for certain, which I discovered, is you need to go through your own medical record with an extremely fine tooth comb to make sure you have divulged everything.
Because if you ever have to claim, the underwriters who are trained to look for any reason to duck out of coughing up will for sure.
For instance alot of policies, not all, will consider just one high blood pressure reading by your GP to be a for life, condition, when applying for alot of policies.
Remember too That price will raise each year, as you age for cover, so remember that. Too

Aretnap

Neversurrender said:

Remember too That price will raise each year, as you age for cover, so remember that. Too

I don't know what sort of insurance you have, however it is not normal for critical illness insurance to increase in price every year. Typically it is a long term policy which you take out with a fixed term (eg 20 or 30 years), and the price is fixed at the time of purchase and does not change over the duration of the policy.

Some policies do come with "reviewable" premiums which means that the the insurance company can change the premium at certain points. However even those generally only allow the insurer to change premiums in line with changes in the market as a whole, such as investment returns being lower than expected, or claims rates in general being higher than anticipated. They can't  usually change premiums because of factors that are specific to you, like the fact that you're a year older, or because you've developed new health problems since the policy started. And premiums don't always go up - I had a reduction at my latest review.

dunstonh

One thing for certain, which I discovered, is you need to go through your own medical record with an extremely fine tooth comb to make sure you have divulged everything.

That is not normally the case unless you have had plenty of medical conditions that your memory just cannot recall.

Because if you ever have to claim, the underwriters who are trained to look for any reason to duck out of coughing up will for sure.

They can't be doing a good job as most insurers payout rates on CIC is between 90-95%.

For instance alot of policies, not all, will consider just one high blood pressure reading by your GP to be a for life, condition, when applying for alot of policies.

The questions are quite specific on how they are asked.  Typically a range of serious issues will be "have you ever...." and a catchall for 5 years saying "in the last 5 years have you...."

Remember too That price will raise each year, as you age for cover, so remember that. 

Only if you go for a yearly renewable term assurance or have indexation applied to the sum assured.   If you go with a level term with guaranteed premiums then there are no increases.

Neversurrender

@dunstonh
Well all the above was my experience, with the critical illness cover I had, now it was 15 years ago, can't quite remember the name of the provider, something like Unum they were based in Bristol, and got taken over by one of the big players, Allianz or Zurich...I think.
But all of what I said and you've quoted was definitely the case

dunstonh

Neversurrender said:

@dunstonh
Well all the above was my experience, with the critical illness cover I had, now it was 15 years ago, can't quite remember the name of the provider, something like Unum they were based in Bristol, and got taken over by one of the big players, Allianz or Zurich...I think.
But all of what I said and you've quoted was definitely the case

The clarification does indeed sound like you bought yearly renewable term assurance (YRT).   These often appeared at the top of the comparison sites in terms of lowest premium, but unlike the rest, they would review the premium annually and sooner or later, the annual cost would be higher than the level term assurance plans.   Typically, the cost would rise on YRTs to a point they would become unaffordable for most people resulting in them being cancelled just as you get to the ages where you are more likely to suffer a claim.   YRTs should be avoided.

Neversurrender

dunstonh said:

Neversurrender said:

@dunstonh
Well all the above was my experience, with the critical illness cover I had, now it was 15 years ago, can't quite remember the name of the provider, something like Unum they were based in Bristol, and got taken over by one of the big players, Allianz or Zurich...I think.
But all of what I said and you've quoted was definitely the case

The clarification does indeed sound like you bought yearly renewable term assurance (YRT).   These often appeared at the top of the comparison sites in terms of lowest premium, but unlike the rest, they would review the premium annually and sooner or later, the annual cost would be higher than the level term assurance plans.   Typically, the cost would rise on YRTs to a point they would become unaffordable for most people resulting in them being cancelled just as you get to the ages where you are more likely to suffer a claim.   YRTs should be avoided.

EXACTLY, thats what happened to me, I cancelled as it became unaffordable when I was in my 50's, so I cancelled then put the money into a savings account, luckily it wasn't needed, but it went along way toward paying for my new car when I retired.

This insurance by the way was arranged for me by an IFA