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?

Yes.
Buy it now, it will become prohibitively expensive as you age otherwise

We have critical illness and life insurance rolled into one. We have always had some form of critical illness and life cover since got our first mortgage in our mid 20's.

We renewed our policy when our second child was born in our mid 30's and now pay £75 a month which covers both of us and I think gives us around £400K payout. It's expensive as we wanted it for extra income as well as just clearing mortgage debt but gives me peace of mind

Yes, we have it.

No. I can't get it due to being diagnosed with MS 21 years ago. I have worked full time for all of those 21 years.

Therefore it would seem that I don't have a critical illness. It's a real bugbear of mine!

I arranged a mortgage once for a young couple with a baby.

3 months later the wife was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Fortunately she survived it but the recovery period was long and hard. The CI cover paid out a lump sum to clear their mortgage which relieved them of a lot of financial worries.

It's worth its weight in gold if you need to claim but they keep tightening the definitions so some are much better value than others - for example many early stage cancers are now excluded and heart disease has to be fairly significant too - one artery bypass may not be covered.

I do but my dh doesnt. I am the main earner. We could cope without his salary but he cannot meet the bills without mine. We have young kids and a big mortgage. As we get older and the mortgage gets lower, we might reassess.

Yes, both DH and I do. We also have life insurance but I'd always prioritise the CIC if you could only afford one or the other.

Noticed a few posters saying that their mortgage adviser had received a 'kick back'. It will be called a commission and of course they're going to receive one, they're not spending hours setting up policies for free!!

We do. My husband's father died of cancer at 40 and it was only the payout from the insurance that kept the family afloat. My husband insisted on it and I agree with him

We have it on DH, I have a smaller policy as a work benefit.

I actually forgot that I am insured for WAAAAY more than DH. If anything happened me then DH would have to give up his line of work completely and find a different job, as he couldn’t do his job and look after the dc. So he would be without the income level and stability that he has now. I think it’s important to see it from both sides. If DH passed away I could do my job part time and still look after the dc.

I am mid 30’s and have life insurance for £100,000 plus critical illness cover of £40,000 for both of these I pay £12.09p/m so it doesn’t have to cost the earth if you are healthy when taking out the policy. After reading how much some people pay I think I will check what mine covers as if an awful lot less than what most people appear to be paying.

We have it for both of us.

I did get the sense the likelihood of receiving a payout has improved in recent years, i.e. the bad press these policies used to get is now less deserved.

When I first looked at claiming for my breast cancer my DP who used to work in insurance (c10-15 years ago) told me it was very unlikely I’d get anything, based on his experience then.

But I read the small print and saw that as my cancer has spread past my breast into my lymph nodes, I should qualify (I think if it hadn’t spread, that wouldn’t have been the case). In the event claiming was so straightforward, I just sent in the form, the insurers contacted my consultant and GP to double check my diagnosis, and paid out in full very quickly - probably about 8-10 weeks after I submitted the form, and that included the Christmas period.

My insurer was Legal & General and the policy was arranged through my employer.

I do through work. If I didn;t get it as a benefit, I'd pay for it.

Was immensely helpful when I had severe PND - hadn't seen that coming as no intention on TTC at the time we bought the house.

No but wish I did when dx with MS

^This.

I learned my lesson the hard way. We've made sure DH has critical illness cover.
Most diagnoses happen in your 30's. I was 32 (good friend was 35, thankfully also learned from what happened to me and got cover, 1 year later dx with MS, paid off their mortgage)

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.

It's interesting that this thread is full of people who have been paid out or know people who have and none that didn't. Of course, there is that small percentage who don't, but 97% being paid is a pretty good number I'd argue especially as the ones who don't are often because they didn't read something correctly in the fine print or whatever. Which is obviously distressing.

Also agree with other posters - of course your broker gets a commission! Otherwise why would they do it. An independent broker is probably a better idea as good ones will have a variety of products to choose from and so are more likely to be able to tailor what you need specifically than if you go direct to the insurance company.

Yes I do and redundancy cover too. costs about £70 a month. I've been made redundant at least 5 times so next time I'm gonna be prepared.

I paid CI insurance for 30 years.
Unfortunately the disease I got wasn't on their list. I still had to give up work.

Yes, as a soon to be single parent, I need to cover myself every which way I can.

We have it. You’d be an idiot not to

We have it. You’d be an idiot not to

I suppose my several physical conditions that mean nobody would cover me must also affect my intellect and automatically make me an idiot too, then

Just read the small print and hope that if you do become critically ill, you get one of the limited conditions they cover.