Aviva Critical illness , anyone claimed following heart attack & CABG ?

[DWizza]

My wife and I took out a policy years ago , critical illness , it covers heart attacks and CABG. I’ve contacted the insurer and in the process of providing information regarding my heart attack. The policy was something we’d forgotten about after all the years. I wondered if anyone else has remembered their policy and been through the process?

[Enwau]

Yes, I’ve had an insurance for thirty years and when I had my heart attack a year ago they queried whether it had been caused by high blood pressure and if so, had I told them that I had high blood pressure at the time of applying for their cover.It was so long ago I couldn’t remember. To cut a long story short, they rang the hospital where I had the heart attack and then wrote to my GP to ask if I’d been prescribed blood pressure pills 30 years ago. Luckily I hadn’t. It took ages but they did cover me eventually.

Hope this is helpful and makes sense.

[scribbles-80]

Hi DWizza,

Like you my husband and I had completely forgotten about taking out critical illness cover at the same time as our mortgage until I was admitted to hospital with a heart attack caused by severe infective endocarditis. As part of my treatment I had a replacement AVR and CABG surgery and when asked, my surgeon said he was happy to provide the insurers with the details.

I was fortunate that my claim was successful but it did take around 6 months (mainly waiting for the surgeon to send back the paperwork) and in that time we received the odd message indicating that our claim was still ongoing.

The whole process does take time but I would suggest chasing up the paperwork, just in case that it’s holding things up.

Hope all goes well.

[GFFF]

Hi, I claimed on my policy with Aviva, their customer service was incredible, I emailed them my discharge papers and had the proceeds in less than 2 weeks x

[DWizza in reply to GFFF]

I took a call from them yesterday, I sent them my discharge papers and they confirmed that they accrot the claim! Couldn’t believe it, I only contacted them 2 days before !

[STUBAX]

I had a forgotten policy with Swiss Life, following my HA I found some paperwork relating to the policy. I made a claim and they paid out no problem 👍

[LadyZ13]

Our critical illness was with Standard Life and we also took it out with our mortgage, which was 10 years ago. I had a heart attack due to the hole in my heart, 3 months after the hole was diagnosed.

Standard Life paid out in full. The payment was a year's salary for me at the time (it wasn't benchmarked to salary or anything, but I'm trying to give a sense that it's tens of thousands so was absolutely worth claiming as it has taken the financial pressure off).

The process was thorough but Standard Life were kind and sympathetic. They sent a claim form which requested details of my experience and the names of the doctors that had treated me. I referred them to the consultant that had cared for me in theatre conducting the angiogram (his name was in the discharge notes and, by chance, I knew him from a visit to a private cardiac clinic when these heart issues all kicked off this time last year) and I also listed the head of the adult congential heart disease unit at the hospital, as they had been looped in to what had happened. It wasn't too laborious. The claim was approved within about 6 weeks and we had the payout a couple of weeks later (just as I was going back to work after OHS, if I remember rightly!).

Good luck with yours and I hope it goes smoothly.

[Gail1967]

Hi- yes I was fortunate to claim under my critical illness post bypass surgery. It helps a lot to make changes to your life if needed- I retired at 55- 3 1/2 years post my surgery. Good luck with your claim.

[KaduFlyer]

I can only mirror what others have said - I had Critical Illness cover etc with Zurich which I had forgotten about - my wife reminded me - I sent them what they asked for and after a short time (they obviously have to liaise with surgeons / GP's etc to validate the claim) I got a phone call saying they were paying the claim and good luck in my surgery (CABGx3) - it's not necessarily a life changing amount of money but much better you having it than an insurance company and it certainly helps in the current climate. If you're using it to pay / help pay off a mortgage check the penalties as there may or may not be a better / more cost effective way to use the money -