Do you have Critical illness cover?

[Brooksey5]

Me and DH are buying out first home. Need to sort out life insurance etc. I’m put off by the minimum £20 monthly premium for critical illness cover. Is this something that most home owners pay?

We didnt get critical illness cover when we bought the house, but we upgraded our policy to include it when we had children.

Sadly I can’t get it due to my health and disabilities - even when I was much younger the premiums were too high because of my medical history

We have it, paying £150 pm to cover a £130k mortgage - ours is expensive as DH is a smoker but, statistically, you are more likely to get a critical illness than die. I'd not want to be worrying about the mortgage if DH or I became critically ill, however, I appreciate it's a lot to find each month. I'd definitely take it for £20pm as the premiums go up the older you get.

I had it - 3 months after I took it out I got diagnosed with cancer. It made a crappy year bareable

That's not a lot, and if you wait til you're older it gets really expensive. I know a few people who've used it, incl one guy who found out about a week after getting it that he had cancer, and it paid out immediately thank god. He was the main earner and they didn't have to worry about finances.

That said, at £20 a month it’s pocket money, you won’t miss it and it’s best to have it for peace of mind.

MN at its finest. It might be back-of-the-sofa cash for you, but it's a lot of money for plenty of us, including the OP, by the sounds of it. I've really needed something for 6 months that costs £18 and am only just now in the position to be able to finally get it.

If you can afford the cover and you want to buy it, it obviously brings a lot of peace of mind. As with most insurances, cost/premiums and exclusions tend to put it out of the reach of those who are most likely to actually need it. I think it can be a bit like pensions in that people will tell you to prioritise it as an absolute essential, regardless of how much it costs. If it's that or luxuries, they're probably right; but if it's that or being able to live, eat and not get into arrears with your bills now, sad and risky as it is, then the insurance/pension becomes the unaffordable luxury.

It's not an option for me anyway, as my health is too far gone for anybody to be willing to insure me for CIC. As for life insurance, I could probably get it through a specialist broker at a vast cost (maybe £200-£300 a month), but even if I had that kind of money, I have an existing condition that could be claimed to be linked to (or to have exacerbated) absolutely anything that I may die of, unless I get run over by a bus, so I'm in no doubt whatsoever that my family would never see any payout anyway.

However much insurers promote their cover as valuable peace of mind to keep you and your family protected (which it certainly can be), it's just a financial gamble on their part. They're happy to urge you as to how essential the peace of mind is if they think there's a good chance you won't be a burden to them, but if you start to look like a bad bet to them, suddenly that same peace of mind is strangely not essential at all - or even a possibility.

We have it. My DH had a haemorragic stroke a fortnight ago today, and he's 55. He is starting to recover, but it's very slow and no-one is able to give us a definite on how well he will recover. Once the shock of the first 48hrs had started to wear off I looked it out and read it. We hope that he will make a full recovery but if he doesn't the mortgage at least is taken care of.

Dh hs an income protection policy not linked to the mortgage (which we have almost paid off anyway). He gets 3 months full 3 months half pay and it kicks in after 6 months. It pays him 60% of his income. We were a couple of weeks away from havibng to claim it when he had 6 months off work with a condition that took 4 months to diagnose and if he relapses in the future might mean he never works again (already he can't drive)

So I'm glad its there.

I have income protection and life insurance but not critical illness cover - didn’t think I needed it. What I overlooked is that critical illness cover will often payout for children and a child’s critical illness will impact on your ability to earn every bit as much as your own. I wish I had had it.

We have critical illness cover, income protection, life cover, mortgage cover and I have a separate life policy too. Dh has a death in service benefit at work.

Please, please, please do it OP.

A very dear friends DH was diagnosed with Parkinson’s when he was in his 40’s and the cash payout was a life saver, when they both had to adjust.

Far more likely to need CI, than Life Cover. Pleased to have it and even more pleased I’ve thankfully not had to use it.

@makingmiracles we are with royal London who have been great. I had no family history of anything so not sure if that makes a difference to what is covered or not?

It's funny, I don't actually know anyone who didn't get their insurance paid out for a legitimate claim. I was just talking to a man whose wife died a few years ago and he told me the call a few weeks after she died to say her benefits were being paid out was possibly the best phone call of his life. we've had to claim a few times for the car and every single time our insurance provider has been responsive, helpful and has paid out promptly. it's a highly regulated industry these days.

Oh, I'm sure the majority of claims are paid, but plenty are still declined. The nature of insurance anyway is that you're already in the unlucky minority if you need to claim, but even with those ones on telly that proudly announce that they're 'able to' pay out on 97% of claims (suggesting that most companies don't), it means that 3% of people who've been paying their premiums for years are refused. It's not much comfort if you are one of those people - it's not like missing out on a big prize right at the last minute on a gameshow, it's often being able to keep your own home and treading water in your life.

They'd have you believe that the claims they refuse are all lying chancers (and I'm sure some of them are), but you hear of a disturbing number of cases where genuine people are refused on a tiny technicality. Yes, it's a minority, but the people who actually claim in the first place are already in a minority of policy-holders. If it works for you, it can be an amazing lifeline; but if there are never any guarantees, it isn't true peace of mind.

I always reply to these threads because for us critical illness cover changed our lives. My husband - fit healthy, sport-loving husband was diagnosed with lymphoma when he was 36. It was a bolt out of the blue and the worst time in our lives but the critical illness cover worked. The insurers paid out without quiblling. We are now mortgage free and have the safety net of knowing that whatever happens next we have a roof over our heads. I always recommend it to young healthy people starting out. You really never know what is round the corner.

Kimbaland

We were the same, overly convinced by stories then found out she got a cut from them..

I'm too trusting

What does it matter if the person selling you it, gets a commission? You are still covered? You havent been tricked?

We had it. My husband was diagnosed with incurable cancer and died. The life insurance and critical illness paid out. Me and the children are financially secure. You never know what’s round the corner. Bereavement is awful but knowing you have a financial cushion is priceless.

What does it matter if the person selling you it, gets a commission? You are still covered? You havent been tricked

Yes, but you have to think about why an adviser is recommending X, Y and Z. The more they sell, the more they get paid.

Of course they want you to take out as many products as possible and it is well known that the less scrupulous ones will use emotional blackmail and not consider what provision a person has elsewhere (eg through their work/pension/savings) or whether what they are selling is affordable or proportionate, such as the example given above where 'only' £20 is a real struggle to someone on a tight budget.

Also the example where someone has spent over £24k on an insurance policy that they've been lucky enough never to use. Obviously fortunate that they haven't been seriously ill, but many young families could find much better uses for that money.

What does it matter if the person selling you it, gets a commission? You are still covered? You havent been tricked?

It's just the fact that they had a big incentive to sell you the cover and to sell you theirs and not a policy from another company, which could have been cheaper or more suitable for you.

I'm sure most insurance salespeople wouldn't stoop so low, but there's always the temptation for them to get you to buy it and earn their commission, knowing or suspecting that you'd never be able to claim on it, should you need to.

PPI was mentioned earlier - obviously, it's not the same thing, but the principles are similar. We had a well-known 4-letter American credit card company at our graduation ceremony, signing people up for cards, with PPI added by default. The vast majority of the graduates hadn't yet found employment, so a major element of the PPI would have been useless, but they didn't care about that as they were getting their commission. They would have had no idea how it would eventually come back to bite them - but even then, loads of eligible people probably still didn't claim, so they got away with those.

X-posted with Barbara - and not for the first time IIRC

We didn’t pre-dc because we both had good sick pay and at the end of the day families that would bail us out if needed / we always could have sold & moved.

Once we had dc though we did because the impact of one of us being ill was greater - the dc still need a home, looking after, feeding etc. So we have cover that will fully pay off the mortgage with a bit left over should one of us get ill.

I do, I have critical, income protection and child protection, I’m a single parent so would need the income if I’m ill, made redundant or my daughter is ill and need more than 30 days off. Costs £60 a month and paid it for years so it’s a lot of lost money but gives me peace of mind.

I do via work, it covers 50% of gross monthly salary. I know 2 people at work who have used it and it has saved their homes.

We have no mortgage but we have;
Critical illness cover and Life insurance for both of us which comes to 70 per month
Health insurance for the whole family (2 adults and 2 dc) for 200ish per month

I think If you gave children I would definitely have life insurance and critical illness cover!!!

I have it but my husband couldn’t get it would have definitely got it if we could as he is soul earner.