Super Travel Insurance  

A colleague of mine at work has recently had the news that her partner is about to be made redundant and like so many people her age had been spending virtually all their combined income without saving anything for a rainy day. I suppose they are relatively fortunate that she still has a job and that he’s quite prepared to do anything to bring in some money and believes he can pick up some temporary shift work in a factory but it won’t make up for the shortfall. They were faced with a scenario of having to save a few hundred pounds a month if they were to remain with their heads above water and stay solvent so they have had to sit down and analyse their entire spending to see what could be cut back on, what could be cut out all together and what they needed to prioritise like rent.

There were a few quick wins; Sky was cancelled as was gym membership and direct debits to lottery syndicates etc. Charities have been shelved temporarily as have anything that wasn’t vital. She then used the comparison websites to source better deals on the home insurance, car insurance and permanent health insurance. In most cases she was able to save a few pounds to chip away at her shortfall.

Source: http://www.permanenthealthinsurance.uk.com/blog/2012/01/27/permanent-health-insurance-one-expense-we-had-afford/

My husband has always been knowledgeable about technological wizardry and taught our children all they would need to know and what’s important with regards to personal responsibility and money matters. It had always frustrated me that I didn’t know enough and with this in mind got my children to teach me about computers which are much easier to use than I had been led to believe. Within minutes I was clicking this and clicking that and my son showed me how we could change from one electricity supplier to another and save money and how we could save money on breakdown cover too. Once I could do this I was off like a rabbit to save money on everything. I was able to quote life insurance, quote car insurance and my husband couldn’t believe how much money we will be saving. What an invention the computer is! There’s no more queuing at the post office or in the insurance brokers down the road. Everything can be done from our computer under the stairs in the hall.

You may remember when The National Federation of Independent Financial Advisers (NFIFA) set up a project to standard definitions to give advisers confidence that every critical illness policy adhered to a minimum standard in the life insurance comparison industry.  This initiative was successful, and as further illnesses were added, the ABI took over the job of standardisation.  By 1999, the most 20 common illnesses had standard definitions.  Sales of critical illness rose year on year during this process of change, and by the beginning of the new millennium, the product was established and selling in record numbers.

The period between NFIFA’s original initiative, the completion of the ABI work and the period shortly afterwards can probably be regarded as the golden age for CI.  It was successful, in the mortgage space, especially as these initiatives coincided with the demise of mortgage endowments and CI term assurance (TA) Products fell in as a handy replacement.

Prices were low and competition kept them that way.  You could argue that the success was down to a level playing field.  With definitions standardised, product recommendations had to be made on price, features and service.

Since 2001, CI sales have been in decline as a result, despite the fact that product development in this decade has been more prevalent than in the 1990s.  Some insurers stopped giving guaranteed rates and others announced CI was dead and that the industry should develop an alternative.  Things are going to get more complicated as well.  The ABI is currently working on a replacement for Total Permanent Disability but has mainly been superseded by the addition of the actually disabling conditions, for example paralysis, as separate conditions.  This has left TPD gaining a reputation for declined claims.