Shop around & compare critical illness cover

Critical illness insurance is complex, regardless of whether you are using it to cover a specific debt such as your mortgage or to provide broader financial cover for your family's living costs. Shopping around for critical illness insurance can be made easier and more cost effective by using an independent or specialist health care insurance broker. Likewise, if you are opting for Accelerated Critical Illness Cover your financial advisor will provide a quotation for the critical illness cover as part of the larger insurance package, which also makes things simpler.

Whether you are using a broker or not, it is still very important to understand what you need from a critical illness insurance policy and how they work, so you know what you're getting. Ask for Insurers' Key Features documents which explains their policies in more detail.

As with most insurance, critical illness insurance is available from a large number of providers in the UK, the key players include amongst others:

• AXA Healthcare
• Bupa
• Directline
• Legal & General
• Prudential
• Standard Life

Full cover critical illness insurance can be costly and can include rarer illnesses and surgical options not required by everyone. For example, a healthy young male may not need to be covered for over 36 specific illnesses or operations, so take the time to find out what levels of critical illness cover different insurers offer.

• Other things to think about and/or ask your broker, when shopping around for critical illness insurance are:
• What type of policy is it? Does it include free Life cover or Terminal Illness cover? If so does the policy stop when I make a claim?
• Do I have to re-apply if I want to add children or a new partner later on?
• How are the policy payouts structured?
• Is there free access to rehabilitation services, trained specialist nurses, independent doctors for second opinions, treatment advice or counselling services?
• Is there a time or age limit when the policy will expire, i.e. if I turn 65 can I still automatically renew the policy?
• Is your insurer or broker a member of, and regulated by, a recognised insurance industry organisation?

Most critical illness insurance companies have online sites which have detailed information about their products and policies, including quote options. This can be the quickest way to shop around. If you don't know which insurer you want to use. Just doing a search from your home page, for example typing in exactly what you're looking for, i.e. "critical illness insurance" or "low cost critical illness cover" will bring up several links for you to investigate.

You can also take advantage of several independent online comparison sites which compare different products and packages from the leading critical illness insurers. It's important to take time to compare as many plans as possible if you're doing it yourself, to make sure you're getting the cover you need at a price you can afford.

We've included some links below to respected independent comparison sites to help start your search:

www.bestdealinsurance.co.uk/basicinfoci.asp Critical Illness policies are only as good as their word, and that's why we read every one to the letter. Quotes sourced from some of the most significant names in the industry.

www.lifeinsurance.co.uk/critical-illness Search providers including AXA, BUPA, Standard Life, Norwich Union, Freedom Healthnet and others to find the most suitable critical illness cover for you at the lowest cost.

www.fairinvestment.co.uk/critical_illness_insurance.aspx Fill in one simple online form and our specialist critical illness insurance advisors will search the entire market to find you the best deal!

Download the Critical Illness Cover Insurance PDF Guide here - see our other free PDF guides here

Guide Contents

What is critical illness insurance?
Why you might need critical illness insurance
What are the different types of critical illness insurance?
Critical illness premium options
Shopping around for your critical illness insurance
Applying for your critical illness insurance
Critical illness insurance FAQs
Where can I go to get more help?

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