Insurer increased our premiums over 15 years then said we had to pay three times as much for the same cover
Insurer increased our premiums over 15 years then said we had to pay three times as much for the same cover
My husband and I have been paying for a life insurance policy with Axa for 15 years which would provide £23,640 should one of us die or be diagnosed with a terminal illness. The premiums started at £36 a month and rose steadily. Recently Axa said our premiums would have to go up from the current £110 to £298 for the same level of cover.
We cannot afford this and, being short of money after Christmas, decided to reduce the premiums temporarily to £70 a month which brought the cover down to £4,820. Days before the first payment was taken, my husband was diagnosed with advanced lung and liver cancer. Axa won’t let us increase the premiums because that is subject to a medical, which my husband would fail. CC, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs
Axa regularly increased your premiums over the past 15 years and then said you had to pay three times as much just to keep the same amount of insurance cover. It gave you an impossible decision and, with hindsight, you made the wrong choice. Axa also insists you had only life cover and the policy never did include terminal illness. You will have to take up that misunderstanding with the financial adviser who sold you the policy.
Axa has agreed to make a small gesture. You can continue paying £70 a month and it will add £1,500 to the payment on death, a total of £6,320 which is way short of the £23,640 you expected. It will not pay out for your husband’s critical illness. He told me he was disappointed at the outcome. But, sadly, that is now academic – a few days later your son emailed me the news that your husband had died.
Even now that you can claim after only three months paying lower premiums, Axa refuses to increase the payment, saying it has to be fair to all customers.
You can email Margaret Dibben at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Margaret Dibben, Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU and include a telephone number. Do not enclose SAEs or original documents. The newspaper accepts no legal responsibility for advice.
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