life insurance and critical illness

Melrymax

AAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

sorry... need to rant..
i had life and critical illness cover before my diagnosis so all was good. i took out a policy with a different company which appeared to be better, my advisor rang the company explaining my condition and medications and they were told over the phone that it shouldnt affect my policy.. so i took it out, and cancelled my old policy.
i have recieved a letter today saying that arther will be an exclusion so if i become uncapible bo work due to arther it wont pay out.
where as with my old policy it will as it was diagnosed after the policy was taken out. i have called to see if i could reinstate it as it was only about 2 weeks ago that i cancelled it and they have to re asses my health and so my artur may well be an exemption by the underwriters.!!!!!!!!! by all means my mortgage shall be paid off by the time i am 65 but.... who knows how things can go between now and then!

hileena111

Ohhh
Thats a hard one... I wouldnt know.....It does sound doubtful that you could go back to your old policy doesnt it? What about getting in touche with the CAB

Love
Hileena

tkachev

Oh dear! I'm wondering if there is a time period to allow you to reinstate your old policy as it may have a month to run.

I'm in a similar postition. My insurance (from 25 year policy)runs out 11th March and have been offered a renewal from old company. I don't know the details of costs etc but it does seem many I have spoken too exclude arthritis and it is almost impossible to get cover.

Having said that is it the critical part you have been excluded for. You may still get life cover from the new company?

Best wishes
Elizabeth

tkachev

Also I think you may be able to explain the situation to the old company and they be good enough to reinstate as you were given misleading information by the new company although I don't expect you have anything in writing.

E

kellerman

As far as I'm aware you should have a cooling off period.
It depends how you bought it.
Always get everything in writing and names before you commit to anything.
I was nearly conned by my household insurance.
I wouldn't commit to anything until I had it in writing and lucky for me I didn't change as I would have been worse off.
Salespeople will say anything they think you want to hear.
I do hope you can sort this out.
May

salamander

I'm really sorry to read this as I had a similar experience last week with contents insurance. Got a lower quote from another company and then there was a problem so went back to my old insurers and they completely point blank refused to reinstate my old policy, even though I'd only cancelled it a couple of days before.

I resolved it with the new company and got the lower quote in the end, after much perserverance. However, I was going to pursue it with the financial omsbudsman, whoever that is, as I think you should be allowed the same cooling off period that you get when you buy over the phone or the web. You could also complain about the misleading quote over the phone. It's not acceptable and could have serious consequences.

tjt6768

I've said this before over on chit chat but I hate insurance companies. It's basically legal robbery...
Sorry that you've been stuck in this situation but I reckon that the old company won't want to know now. I hope I'm wrong though. As for misleading info, as it was over the phone they should have the conversation recorded. Ask to speak to a manager about it. I think that at the very least they should try to help you.
Thing is, they'll probably say it's been lost.. :roll:

Best of luck whatever happens

kellerman

Hi,
I don't know why I didn't think of the Financial Ombudsman.
You can make a complaint to these people about insurance/banks anything that your not happy with.
The insurance company won't be very happy about it as they are charged by the FO.
Might be a good idea to threaten them with this and if they don't back down and give you what you bought...go ahead and contact the FO.
I certainly wouldn't let this insurance company get away with this.
Good luck...May

tkachev

You said in your first post that you had an adviser who explained your condition over the phone. Didn't he/she advise you to maintain the old policy until you got details of the new policy in writing? Was he an IFA or a tied agent?
Just wondering if he has any idea what you should do.

Elizabeth