Insurance

[Siity]

Does anyone know how long it may take to pay out critical illness cover please if anyone could help it would be greatly appreciatived

[Hidden]

From family experience it often depends on the illness being claimed for. Within each policy there will be condition specific criteria that must be met for a pay out: some of these will be really straightforward, others less so, and the insurer has to be completely satisfied that all the criteria have been met before they make a decision. When my mum had a malignant melanoma (skin cancer), her policy paid out within 8 weeks because it was very clear cut and straight forward. Her twin sister waited nearly 4 months for a decision regarding a kidney tumour and was turned down because her tumour only met two of three requirements. The thing that bothered her most was that she’d had to wait so long to be told no, but insurers are dependent on receiving information from medics and right now the NHS is as snowed under as they’ve ever been, so realistically, correspondence for insurance claims is probably at the bottom of the pile. If things are taking a while, your best bet would be to phone and see if you can get an update as to where they’re at and what they’re waiting for, if appropriate.

[Siity in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for that at least that gives me a rough idea I will just sit tight for a bit great

[NYA2019 in reply to Hidden]

My Insurance company paid out very quickly. The delay was the GP! It may be worth checking with you GP, has your GP received the paperwork if you did not hand it in yourself, has the GP completed and returned the paperwork? If not, when does the GP expect to do paperwork?

[Banana941]

I think we waited about 12 weeks, it took some time to get the information from the cardiologist. Once they made a decision it was in the bank within 7 days.

On the plus side they do repay any premiums since claiming and add interest.

We had only had the policy a little over a year and got a bit more than we expected

[Siity in reply to Banana941]

Thank you for that help

[STUBAX]

I got mine paid out about 4 weeks from claiming, I supplied copies of hospital letters etc. to help, think they just contacted gp for confirmation.

[Siity in reply to STUBAX]

Thank you for that great

[Spursfan10]

I had a policy with Zurich that I took out in the 90s which covered a heart attack. I have to say that they were very good in telling me what information I needed to provide and then in paying out. The only delay was by my cardiologist providing information

[Beith]

I had a triple bypass on 24th July last year. I made first contact with my insurer (Old Mutual) on 9th June; they wanted background information on family medical history and causes of death of parents followed by copies of letters/test results from the medics. The claim was accepted on 3rd July and I met the surgeon on 17th July. The operation was carried out on the 24th and the payment was made to the hospital the day before! As the policy had been in force for nearly 25 years, there was also a lump sum payment made to me on 19th August. All in all, it was handled efficiently.