Hiya
Just a quick post. Got critical illness cover and busy making a claim. By God what a joke. They are doing everything in their power not to pay out. They make me sick. They are more than happy to take the payments but its a different story when people like us who have breast cancer make a claim - god forbid. The purpose of my post is a general enquiry to see if anyone else has had problems making a claim.
Cheers
Krissy x
Must be so frustrating but hang in there!I had no problems with mine.Have you got a policy booklet to read?
What excuses are they using?
Dot
xxx
Hiya
Thanks for your reply.
I’m sure I’ve got a booklet which I’ll read. Since I had a conversation with the woman from the company concerned I’ve felt crap all weekend worrying. You pay your monthly payment and expect at a time when we most need it to be supported. Think I’m naive, we all know what insurance companies are like.
Did you get sorted in the end Dot?
x
Hi
Mine is being processed at the moment. Would be interested to know what probs you are having. If you don’t mind sharing. My OH is confident they will pay but I wonder if they will find some excuse. Debx
Hi Krissy
How frustrating! Sorry no experience of it, but got policy booklet out a couple of weeks ago and am about to try…not looking forward to it, would expect them to try to stall. Unfortunately I didn’t renew it when we remortgaged, so it only covers part of the mortgage :0( I am also worried that mine may not be valid because I have changed my name and not informed them, I did read through and they mentioned I had to inform them if I changed jobs, but no mention of name! But I am still the same person and it’s my life I’m insuring, but I do wonder if they try to use this as an excuse!
What have they tried to stall on?
Out of interest what do they need? A report from oncologist? or GP?
Good Luck and I hope you get it sorted soon.
Hi Nicky
I had a policy in my maiden name and changed to to my married name at the same time as making the claim. There was noproblem I just needed my marriage cert and birth cert. Dx
Forgot to add they sent a form to surgeon and gp. Getting them filled in was like getting blood from a stone. It took 9 wks from them getting the forms to sending them back. Dx
Hi Nicky and Midge
God its awful isn’t it? Mine is really complicated but to break it down they are trying to get out of it on a family history issue. Its so annoying.
I can remember reading about name changes, etc so not sure what they ultimately decide but when you think about it, these companies are worth a fortune and lets be honest, most people never need to claim. So in the whole scheme of things, when they do get asked to pay out, its minimal in their coffas…
What a pain Krissy
Sorry they are so sneaky. I know on my report from the surgeon he has noted that I have no relevant family history but I am aware that there is some. But if the surgeon has said that I hope the accept it . I don’t know what the gp said but I think I might request a copy of the form.
I hope you get it sorted. Dx
Midge - Hope you get sorted. I’ll let you know how I get on…take care
Krissy xx
Hi Krissy,
I have recently heard that my ins company has accepted my claim and are due to start my payments this week.
I’ve been paying into it for the last 9 years so I would be most upset if I didn’t get it.
My Doctor charged me £30 just to sign the form for me, bit of a cheek I thought!
It will be very welcome when my payments begin to come through.
I hope you are able to get your’s sorted out soon.
Best Wishes,
Isabelle xxx
Thanks Isabelle. I’m really pleased you got your claim sorted. Good luck xx
i was with halifax and they (well bank of scotland) had ballsed up my mortgage but thank goodness they had actually sorted out the critical illness an it was in place from the november… the mortgage was only sorted in march and i was diagnosed in the april…
if the had ballsed up the critical illness they wouldnt have paid out because i would have been diagnosed too soon after taking out the policy.
anyway i put the claim in and still had to keep up my monthly payments until the claim was completely sorted out in the july.
if you have been diagnosed with DCIS only most companies wont pay out as its not considered a critical illness and only invasive cancers will be paid out as they have the possibility of secondaries which DCIS doesnt and its that basis that makes it critical.
hope you can get it sorted.
Lulu x
I have had no problems getting my payout…it’s on it’s way to the bank as we speak.I had the letter from insurance stating the payout this morning and that it was sent to bank on thursday.
They were really quick as I was only diagnosed about 6 weeks ago.
There will be no problems if you anwered the medical questions correctly at the time of taking the policy out.
Good luck…keep us informed
Hiya,
Sorry to hear you’re having trouble with your claim. My poliy was with Aviva and they were great. The only delay with my claim was waiting for report from surgeon as he wouldn’t send report until after op results, once he did report though they paid out really quickly.
If you purchased your policy through a financial adviser he will be able to talk to the company for you and can even act on your behalf with regard to the claim. If not the CAB or Macmillan financial advisor may be able to help.
My understanding is that the policy will have very specific terms for “family” and also for nature of cover, for example my policy said “invasive carconoma”. If you get a copy of the policy from them you should be able to speak to your Onc and ask them to confirm that you meet the definition.
The reason I suggest a third party to act on your behalf is that the black and white nature of the way they validate the claim can seem exceptionally callous if you feel unsettled, which we all do following diagnosis.
Sorry if you already knew and had tried all of this and good luck.
Joxx
Hi there,
I eventually got my payout - took about three months to sort out though. Bewarned though that you have to keep paying the premiums while it is being sorted and you don’t get this money back ie they pay out to date of diagnosis and there is no refund on additional payments made till date of settlement - does this make sense? seems most unfair cos the longer they delay making a settlement the more money they get
cheers
Caroline
Thanks everybody for your responses. I’m not sure when I will find out if they are paying or not. Its now been 6 weeks and the surgeon still hasn’t returned the forms and now the company are requesting information from my doctor. A friend of mine has a son who works for an insurance company and he told her that they are told to look through every claim with a fine tooth comb to look for ways not to pay. I have to say, I’m not impressed with my company. I just hope I get the result I need.
Thanks again
Krissy x
Caroline,it must depend on the company but I was refunded my premiums I paid between diagnosis and claim settlement.
Krissy,If you have been diagnosed with an invasive cancer like you have they will find it difficult not to pay unless you gave some wrong info on the original application re family history.
I had problems previously with life insurance as I have a heart murmur,some companies refuse to cover me and some wanted to charge an arm and a leg.Eventually Standard Life covered me no problems and gave me my critical illness policy.But maybe if I hadn’t been straight with them they would have been able to wriggle out of paying(If not BC,maybe if I had a heart related claim)
Good luck,I hope you get it sorted
Dot
xxx
Hi
I was diagnosed 4 weeks ago and sent off my form last week. Good to hear it may take some time until the consultant replies. Also re: definition of invasive cancer, I think this may be Barclays’ ‘get-out’ clause. Mine is in my lymph nodes which means invasive?
Hope I’ll get it sorted!
Nikki
Hi Nikki
Invasive means IDC- invasive ductal, or ILC- invasive lobular, or IBC-Inflammatory. I think they wont pay out for DCIS etc - as they are in situ so are not supposed to be able to spread. Hope your claim gets sorted quickly. dx