Two income protection policies

Fodder

Hi

A fair few years ago, I got an income protection insurance policy with Lloyds. Later, when I got a new job with a higher salary, I asked them to increase the cover. At the time, they said they couldn't alter the existing policy, so they gave me an additional one from Scottish Widows that covered me for the additional monthy income. Since then, the first policy has been taken over by Scottish Widows too.

I've been going through my finances recently, changing suppliers, getting rid of stuff I don't need and so on, but I'm a bit confused about these policies. I couldn't find the original documents, but I got them to send me copies, and it seems to me like the two policies cancel each other out, in that they both say that any other income insurance will be deduced from the monthly payout.

I queried this by phone, and they say that because they're both Scottish Widows products, they won't affect each other, but I can't see anything like this in the policy itself.

I'm almost certainly going to cancel the policies anyway, as they're no doubt horribly expensive for the cover they offer, but I'd like to know if what they told me on the phone is correct, or if I've actually been sold a potentially useless second policy. Anybody got any experience with this?

jonesMUFCforever

If you don't believe what they say on the telephone why not write to them and ask them to confirm in writing.
Keep the reply with the policies in case you need to claim.

dunstonh

You can have as many policies as you like. Lloyds, being a tied insurance agency, can only sell Lloyds bank versions of the Scottish Widows products. If your original policy was a Black Horse Life or lloydstsb life policy then it could not be incremented and a new SW policy was correct. Just because BHL and LTSB Life policies now have the SW logo on them does not mean they are the retail SW product.

Also, over the years providers change their products and the option to increment an old policy is often removed. Many PHI policies also have no option to increment and a second policy is normal.

Fodder

Okay, great. Thanks for clearing that up for me.