I have the above but I have just been diagnosed with arthritis of the spine have been off work 6 months may not be possible to return to work and guess what I'm not covered.More to the point I wondered what the odds were of needing said cover? As I now need to cut outgoings drastically and at £68 amonth for the cover I'm thinking of kicking it in to touch.
Just wondered what the STW masses thoughts were?

no – too much money is spent on insurances

Yeah, and they'll only pay out if you're days from dying anyway. Pointless IMO, you take out life cover anyway!

Hmm.

My friend was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Her insurance paid up and now she is mortgage-free which is a reall weight of her mind.

I took out critical, long term illness covers AND redundancy cover, glad i did cos there's no bloody work out there.

that's wrong cheese,
My friend has an excellent prognosis but her insurance paid up.

Why are you not covered? Not saying you should be, but I think the gf got this cover when we got our mortgage as her employer doesn't offer any sick pay/benefits over the legal minimum.

I used to work for Bupa and sell this cover, when i left i canceled all my health, critical, and life insurance and didn't carry it on. Mainly as i am fit and healthy, don't have any dependents and think its ridiculously overpriced.

Each case needs to be looked at on an individual basis, but generally these policies have clauses coming out their ar@e so they can avoid paying out. As you have found! The key is in the word, critical, basically you are paying for an insurance that will pay out if you get a critical life threatening illness. It isn't there to pay out should you get what they consider a non critical illness and not be able to work. There is a whole other sort of insurance to cover you for not being able to work…

I left after three years as in all honesty i was sick of selling a product on doom and gloom and scaring people into buying the product. It is in my opinion unnecessary for most people. Obviously if you have dependents then that is a different matter as you need to be more responsible. BUT chances are the policy still won't pay out. A lot of the time people don't read the small print and get left in your situation. If you ask me £68 is a lot of cash to spend on a policy which obviously has some clauses in it…

Bricks and Mortar, that's the place to put your cash! Incidentally Bupa is a not for profit company, yet they make over 160 million a year in profits that they have to try and lose… Think expensive sales conferences in Budapest, buying up Health Insurance companies overseas and you get the picture. These companies make money hand over fist, all to eager to take you premium, but super keen to avoid the pay out…

Of course this is all my own opinion and not advice you should necessarily follow…

I rang them today and was informed that it doesn't come under "critical illness" feels bloody critical to me on the days when it can take 20 minutes to get up the stairs and some mornings when I can't even put clothes on because I can't move my hips as the swelling in the spine presses on the nerves!!

Dont cancel it if you can avoid it. If you need cover in the future you may find it harder to get this cover again. If you can get the cover again it'll probably cost you more.

Authoritis is not a CIC; refer back to your policy document for what is covered – anything not explicitly mentioned probably won't be covered.

Statisticlly (sp) you are far more likely to claim for CI than any other insurance. Most providers pay out for 92%ish of claims, about 2% of the non payments are for non-disclosure and the remainder because they condition is not covered.

Anyway, enough of my rambling – IMO keep the cover 😉

anything not explicitly mentioned probably won't be covered.

I'd reword that…anything not explicitly mentioned is not covered.

Statisticlly (sp) you are far more likely to claim for CI than any other insurance.

You sure about that? You think more people claim for Critical Illness cover than any other?

The non disclosure thing is the real problem, you went to the doc 20years ago and he measured your blood pressure was a little high? It goes on your records. You try to claim on your insurance, the insurance company goes through every little item in your medical history. If they can show any non disclosure, they won't pay out. There was a horrible case of a woman screwed over by the Norwich Union where they claimed non disclosure for depression, when the claim related to cancer.

I think your stat's are a little optimistic too…

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/insurance/life/article.html?in_article_id=413454&in_page_id=36

If you do keep your cover, i'd make sure you get hold of your medical records, otherwise you could be paying for no cover. I compared the critical illness list between two policies, and some of the ones ommitted from one of the policies made me think there is a whole lot out there that won't be covered by either.

lodious just out of interest what do you do?

I have a mate who had critical illness cover. He's one of the very pale-skinned, ginger haired types (except he's lost what ginger hair he did have).
He got diagnosed with skin cancer. Had the surgery, chemo, radio etc. Critical Illness cover paid up. Paid off his mortgage. And he survived the cancer, so ok he has a scar on his arm, but he has no mortgage. Lucky man.

I'd say think about it if there's a history of say cancer in the family, or you're a pale-skinned ginger-haired sun-worshipper…

I looked into getting some when we moved home.
They decided that because I had 'occasional muscular low back pain' that they would not cover any disease of the spine or nervous system.
hmm. My back plays up sometimes after a long ride. Ergo I'm going to get brain cancer AND Alzheimer's…
Far too many clauses they can use to weasel out if you ask me. That's if you can get a decent level of cover in the first place…

I get mine through work at no cost to me. If I didn't, I probably wouldn't bother.

A mate of mine took it out (at his own cost), got testicular cancer and they paid up. He lost a bollock, has been mortgage free for 10 years, cancer free for ten years and has two lovely kids from his one functional bollock.

Is it worth having? It is if you think you're going to get something you really don't want and survive it. Toss a coin.