Carrying on from the discussion on insurance, thought a poll might be interesting.
Putting it up as even though Iāve got what most would already consider a lot of insurance, Iāve been recommended to get Income Protection. It pays out 2/3 salary up to age 65 usually deferred 6 or 12 months, if youāre unable to work through illness. Iām considering it because Iāve seen what happens if for example you get cancer and are unable to work.
I get āpermanent health insuranceā through work. Basically, if Iām off work through ill health for more than 6 months then it āshouldā pay me 80% of my salary until Iām well enough to work again or reach my state retirement age.
Contractually, my employer can drop me to 50% salary after 3 months absence and 0% after 6 months, but in practice most people are kept on full pay until the PHI kicks in.
From what Iāve seen, the insurer keeps pressure on the claimants to try to get them back into work.
My employer also provides life insurance at 4x salary.
Thatās a really nice benefit, our company sick pay policy is really poor in comparison.
I get a fair bit through work. Death in Service, Health etc. Pet insurance is worth it, Last dog had cancer that was thousands covered by the insurance.
Ive got critical illness as part of my original endowment I took out 22 years ago. It matures in 2024 though so will be gone but I have the lump sum then anyway! I was told to keep the endowment because of it, even though I on a repayment mortgage now.
winging it
Iāve got a ROAD iD.
+1 for the RoadID!
One of the regulars on TT1.0 (400m?) got wiped out by a car while on a solo training ride. He had no ID on him and was unconscious, but one of the coppers was a cyclist/triathlete, knew that his Planet X bike was only available direct from PX and was able to use the bikeās frame number and PXās sales records to identify him and contact his family 
Lucky it wasnāt second hand.
I always take a credit/debit card out with me so that I have something with my name on and for emergency purchases. My biggest mistake it not putting it back in my wallet the second I get home.
Iāve never seen the point of income protection. The get out clauses are insane. Most of them require 13wks unemployment, then pay 2/3rds of a defined salary (minus bonus and OT) for a limited amount of time.
The premiums are crazy as you get older as well.
They tried to sell it to me on one of my mortgages in the past, ended up theyād pay for 6 months interest only.
Ok hows this for weird.
Renewal quote came through for the Aygo, current policy is for me + missus+ 2 uni students:
I go to a price comparison website and ADD our youngest who has literally just turned 17:
With exactly the same insurer
Interesting. I have it. I have ever since i took on a mortgage. Wouldnt want to lose my home if I got knocked off my bike and needed years of rehab if it was serious.
Work would pay me full salary for 6 months anyway, so that delay is not a problem. And then it pays up to retirement. It was index linked when I took it out 8 years ago. It was sufficient to pay mortgage and bills at that time, and the indexing means itās now pretty much sufficient to cover the new place now as well. Itās less per month than weād pay on a takeaway.
Woah there!
Thatās some darkAF thoughts there!
Income Protection is the āone step too farā policy for me.
Although I also donāt have pet insurance and just use savings when he needs a vaccine or something.
I donāt have BC cover for the reasons Iāve outlined above.
Maybe I need to reassess. I didnāt take the redundancy element as Iām confident thatās not a concern, but thereās a whole host of instances where you could be incapacitated and not able to work (the bike example was just one), and when my salary was the sole contributor to my mortgage (which I guess is now not the case), being off work was a real concern.
Especially with my upbringing, where my dad had serious health complications and was unable to work for years. My parents very nearly lost our home (family stepped in, but not until black marks on credit scores - I only became aware of this when I turned 18 and my mum had to tell me if I applied for credit at our address I may get rejected as I have the same initials as my dad did) and we were living hand to mouth. The fear of something (whatever it may be) meaning I was unable to work semi-permanently is a legitimate concern.
Although, as I say, now Iām engaged and on a joint mortgage, maybe I need to reassess as to whether thatās the right protection to secure my fiancĆ©es future. The Ā£500k death in service at work would just about pay off the mortgage, so weāve got that covered.
For a bike accident you almost certainly would be covered by insurance from somewhere, but we all know how sticky insurance companies can be and how long it takes for people to get their pay-outs.
I would be more concerned by something like a cancer diagnosis, which could prevent you from working for an extended period. My employer-funded permanent health insurance kicks in after 6 months off work and pays 80% of my salary. If for some reason the PHI refused to pay out, Iād drop to zero pay for six months and then lose my job.
Itās a great benefit to have, but Iāve only seen one instance of it being used in the 15 years that Iāve worked here.
Vaccinations and dental work are not covered by pet insurance.
On average, you must end up paying more to the insurer than they pay out or they would go out of business, but it helps smooth out the cost of the big items. Our insurer paid out for a Ā£2,500 MRI scan for our dog when she had a suspected back problem. The scan came back clear, but if it hadnāt then she might have needed a Ā£5,000 back operation.
Vet bills can get very expensive, very quickly. Even if you put money away every month as a contingency fund, thereās no guarantee that the expensive vet bills are going to happen late in the petās life.
Not quite. The population of people who insure on average get paid out less than the premiums. But then thereās reinsurance, so the insurer is generally covered in catastrophic instances where payouts greatly exceed the premium income.
Edit: otherwise, you may as well just self-insure by putting equivalent premiums into a savings account.
Read the small print on the ānot able to workā as most policies define that as being able to do any work. So if you earn for example, Ā£70k p/a doing your regular but suddenly because of illness or an accident, you can only get a minimal pay job at Tesco or something, the policy wonāt pay because you can work.
Most of them protect you from not being able to work but they donāt preserve your old salary.
