is it worth having critical illness cover?

[FayeGovan]

we have had it for 2 years, joint critical illness and life cover combined, to cover the amount outstanding on the mortgage (repayment mortgage)

I was just reading today the small print of the policy, and I really don't know if we need it or not

we have a very small mortgage and savings amounting to half the mortgage amount anyway

dh has life cover through his work, which is more more than the mortgage amount

I have a separate life cover policy for myself

do we have too much insurance?

we have no family to fall back on if anything awful happened, just each other, and I earn minimum wage, so have always felt we need a lot of insurance, but now am wondering if we have too much?

any advice appreciated!

What would be the difference in cost if you cut the critical illness element? You might find there would be no difference.

To me it doesn't sound as if you are overinsured, but I would review it as and when you pay off the mortgage (obviously!)

I don't know what the difference would be...will call them

there seems to be so many get out clauses for the critical illness though, I feel you'd only be able to claim if your head was hanging off...at a certain angle

I've never had much confidence in critical illness cover either having heard one or two offputting stories about get-out clauses in the past. One person I knew had accidentally failed to mention some trivial medical problem from many years earlier so they didn't pay out when he had a stroke. I'm from a family where people regularly hit ninety in rude health so that also colours my view.

thanks cog, I've heard these stories too

It also depends on how risk your life is. I get kicked by cows on a regular basis so for me it is essential.

Critical illness cover is almost impossibly hard to actually get a payout on. GP friends all don't bother with it...

I can't get it as I have a pre-existing condition that they would blame everything on it or the medication that I take for it... That would be if they would give it to me in the first place. I do have life cover though which has considerably less exemptions.
Funnily enough I also have health insurance, which does cover my condition as it's part of a work group policy.
DH doesn't have critical illness due to the benefits/sickness cover that comes with his job.

It depends on your circumstances and if you have savings and the terms of the policy. My DH had cancer (aged 23) before we bought a house so even though we subsequently took policies out which covered life and critical illness, anything relating to his cancer was excluded. 6 years later, when he was 29, the cancer came back. As it happened, we had 10 month old twins and I was on unpaid maternity leave. Couldn't go back to work early as we had no childcare in place, and his employer paid 1 month's wages before reverting to statutory sick pay. He was in Christies for 3 months and then it was another few months before he could go back to work full time. We had savings, but we'd been used to an net income of about £5k before I went on maternity leave / he was sick and we had a period where the totality of our income was £65 a week statutory sick pay (plus some child benfit). Its not just mortgage cover, its bills, living expenses and you'd be shocked at how quickly savings can just disappear. We went through about £20k in 6 months. If he'd have been sick for any longer, we'd have been in serious financial difficulties.

If you have savings that could cover the mortgage AND all your living expenses for a prolonger period, then its not necessarily worth it, but as others have said, it might be a difference of £10-20 a month which I would pay (but I'm obviously biased).

Good luck whatever you decide.

thanks

am still undecided, think I'll call L&G and ask them about my policy

to anyone who's still readin this . I called them and they just spouted medical gobblety gook to me, am none the wiser

BUT they gave me all the advice.....what would happen if.....who would provide money for your kids......so now am back to shitting myself about the future and will keep the critical illness JUST IN CASE...

Up until recently, I assessed critical illness claims for a large life assurance co, and my advice is keep your critical illness cover.

A few previous posters have mentioned it's almost impossible to get co's to pay out on CI cover, which is absolute nonsense. Our co repudiated / refused (excluding Total Permanent Disability cover) less than 5% of all claims. That means >95% of claims were valid and paid out......most within a few months of being advised of the claim.

When completing application forms for life or CI cover, you must answer the medical questions truthfully and if in doubt whether a consultation / condition should be disclosed or not, put the info on the form and let the co decide if it's relevant or not.

My partner and myself have CI cover on our policies, hopefully we'll never need to make a claim on them, but it's peace of mind if the worst ever did happen to either of us.

Thankfully my db had critical illness cover , he was / is stupidly fit but ended up having to have a double valve replacement after having an infection in his heart . He is fit and well now and in fact was only unable to work for a few months but they paid him 50k . He was very early thirties .

I would keep it , unless it is a big premium that you can't afford .

If you have used a company that underwrites at point of sale then it is extremely unlikely your policy won't pay out. The ones that come up with excuses are the ones that underwrite at point of claim or where people have lied/omitted details on the original policy.

I know Norwich Union and L&G both underwrite at point of sale. In fact it took forever to get my L&G policy on risk and they looked at my medical records and did additional underwriting due to a previous condition. I'm glad they did. Better a bit of faff when taking out the policy than a faff when claiming.

My CI policy pays out for a long list of conditions and also if one of the dc is diagnosed with a serious illness. That £15,000 per child would allow either I or dh to take time off to look after the children.

I am glad of my CI policy. DM was diagnosed with cancer in her mid-40s. DF had all the cover so they cashed in their savings. If they had both been covered it would have made things easier and they'd still have their savings. I've seen this scenario a lot over 10 years in banking. People get ill, they have no cover and it limits their options. Serious disability sending previously independent people back to live with parents. Property sold to fund care and home adjustments. Seriously stressful anyway but doubly dreadful when ill.

"what would happen if.....who would provide money for your kids......so now am back to shitting myself"

I wouldn't buy anything from a company that set out to scare me, quite honestly. The whole insurance industry is built on 'what would happen if'. If your roof caved in, if the house got burgled, if the car is in an accident.... You can spend a fortune if you cover every single possibility in an attempt to make life risk-free. What you have to weigh up is how likely any of those things are to happen against how much you can afford to pay.