Mortgages

I know it may be difficult getting life insurance, can you take out over 50 insurance without health check. Are you able to get a mortgage? Sorry for bombarding you all with questions.,

[Hidden]

I have had mortgages, and i have never been asked by my mortgage lenders whether i have health probs. Cant get life insurance tho!

[busylady]

Hi

I can only relay you my experiene with this. I would check out with the insurance company, I am in the process of making a critical illness claim on my mortgage insurance, as I am now on the transplant list. They claim they will not pay because they would not insure anyone with PBC - its complex so wont go into details, but thats their stance and they wont pay up

Needless to say I am challenging it, firstly with them, and then the omnbudsman if need be ( as the issue was I was not aware I had PBC at the time of application)

I would suggest you declare it, they may insure you but just charge a higher premium

Hope that helps?

[Junolee in reply to busylady]

Good luck, hope it works out for you and not too stressful in between.

[Axl888]

Hi there, if you know you have PBC and it is in your medical notes, you would invalidate any insurance you got without medical checks if you ever had to claim.

You can't get insurance with PBC in the UK, not even by paying a premium, unless things have changed in the last 18 months.

Incidently Busylady, I have had a challenge with the insurance companies involving life insurance and critical illness and not being aware or diagnosed with PBC. I lost my case with the ombudsman after an 18 month battle, so hope you win yours, because I still feel both the insurance company and the ombudsman's decision was wrong. Fingers crossed for you and good luck.

[Junolee in reply to Axl888]

Sounds unfair. It is worth going further legally with it?

[Hidden]

Hello.

You can take out over 50's life insurance even with PBC apparently.

The thing is with this tho' you have to pay in for 2yrs before they will pay out. It's a form of security for them with not having a medical.

Myself, I am 48 currently and took out life insurance jointly with my son 4yrs ago. I only took a 5yrs policy out as at the time my son had just finished a uni degree and had no employment. He gained employment 6mths later and his employers (ironically insurance co! One of the big name ones), they give employees free insurance cover whilst they work there so he has his own now.

I remarried 3 and 1/2 yrs ago and was going to cancel the policy with my son and take out a joint with my husband but before we had been married a yr I started with the itch and then got the PBC diagnose end 2010. That changed everything as on quotes, it was myself who was the query and just one company who would insure me apparently, they were asking the ridiculous sum of £70 per mth and it wasn't one that you received money back at the end of the term, was a 'just in case' as I call them (like the over-50's). My husband insured himself at the modest sum of £10 per mth and I still kept on my modest sum mthly to the joint one with my son but it expires next summer.

I will be without any cover for 9mths and then it will be another 2yrs before I am actually properly covered as I will def be taking out an 0ver-50's policy. I noticed that there is one that was featured in a library Mature Times magazine that you can pick up for free quarterly which seems to be the better deal than some of the others I have seen about.

I cannot say with regards to mortgages as I was a widow prior to remarriage and have remained in the house my first husband and I were buying when he died 10yrs into our marriage. I continued with the small mortgage we had and the property has been mine outright now for many years. BUT my husband and I have had a good long talk over the last yr about certain things. We both want to relocate to another town (he is used to moving about, was in the army for 10yrs and has lived in a few different places since coming out due to securing different jobs) and also it was an idea I had before we ever got together in 2008 that after my 2 children were grown up, if the going got tough then I'd sell the house and rent a house. That is what my husband is keen on doing also as he has not lived in a house that is outright owned until we married, he has been used to renting homes in the past.

Just to clarify if anyone is wondering now, I did tell the insurance co. I have current life cover with that I had been diagnosed with PBC and after I had someone get back to me, I was informed that as I had no knowledge of PBC or symptons prior to taking the policy out in mid-2008 then it was still valid but I was also informed that once the policy is at the end of the term then I won't be offered a new cover due to PBC.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I have insurance which was taken out a number of years ago, only diagnosed on Thursday this week, do I need to let insurance know.

[Hidden]

I wasn't sure about whether to inform the insurance when I was diagnosed Dec 2010 but then my son who works for an insurance co. as mentioned earlier said I should do but it shouldn't affect the policy as I didn't have PBC when I took out the insurance 2 and half yrs previously.

It hasn't affected my policy but in the unlikely event anything was to happen to me, I think it might create a few problems. My policy does state that at the time I took it out I had to my knowledge nothing wrong medically as I never thought at the time I had.