Any thoughts on AXA CritiCare?

[aster1]

Have been looking for insurance which provides payouts upon diagnosis of a number of serious conditions and came across this one. Has anyone considered it, any thoughts and/or similar products to compare to?

 

[aster1]

No other products out there that insure you against any bad future diagnoses, providing lump-sum payments should there be any "bad news" somewhere down the road?

 

[ChaOrEn]

Of course yes there are many of these, I evaluated in May 2013.
However the better ones are HSBC & Tokio Marine.

1. AXA cover up to either 65 or 75 years old depending on your choice.
2. HSBC cover up to either 65 or 85 years old depending on your choice.
3. Tokio Marine cover up to either 70, 75 or 85 years old depending on your choice.

AXA is 1 of the most expensive premium when comparing at the same sum assured for up to 65 years old with HSBC or 75 years old with Tokio Marine.

HSBC is the cheapest of all three companies, however..
1) Tokio Marine covers 91 medical conditions, HSBC 90, AXA 87.
2) Tokio Marine pays extra 25% if claim early/intermediary stage made before 65 years old, HSBC & AXA no extra.
3) Tokio Marine gives $100 wellness benefit every 2 years (automatic no claim needed), none from HSBC & AXA.
4) Tokio Marine has $20k death benefit, while HSBC $3k and AXA $15k.
5) Tokio Marine survival period to claim medical condition is 7 days, HSBC is 14 days & AXA none.
6) Tokio Marine covers 5 special conditions, while HSBC cover 4, AXA cover 5.
7) Tokio Marine & HSBC special conditions pay up to 20%, while AXA only 10%.

If you are planning to get a standalone early stage policy, can consider either HSBC or Tokio Marine too. Their special conditions pays higher than AXA and more importantly their premiem are much cheaper than AXA.

AXA is more catered for leaving money behind for others if you can hit the terminal stage to claim the payout of up to 150% and get the post critical illness health check-up $2500 per year capped at $7500 lifetime but then premiem rate is high.

The worst thing about AXA is their claim procedure is very slow, also once you bought an insurance product from them, they are very fast to charge your credit card but when you ask for refund within 14 days, they will attempt to drag the refund as long as possible like 2 months from the date you deliver the format letter to them by hand.

Link: Tokio Marine Life Insurance Singapore » TM EarlyCare
Link: Early Critical Care - Benefit*| HSBC Singapore

I bought TokioMarine from my friend in June 2013 but in the end, I went for the life policy with rider as I found it more worth it because if I dont claim, I still can surrender policy & get the money back from my compounded bonuses accumulated for decades, while standalone early care product, if you don't make any claim, you get nothing back when policy matures at 65/70/75/85 years old except for HSBC i think get back $3k, nothing from AXA & TokioMarine.

 

[aster1]

Thanks for the info.

Looking through the differences the biggest one is obviously going to be the difference in premiums.

Stuff like the death benefit I don't think I would take into account, and the $100 from TM every 2 years doesn't really change anything. What is interesting though is the 25% bonus should the claim be done before reaching the age of 65.

But overall I think the #1 issue is going to focus on the medical conditions themselves and how each company sees them. The big thing in our day and age, apart from people clogging up their arteries by eating junk/fatty foods, has to be cancer. Especially since it can come in all shapes and forms, and strike people of all ages from kids to the elderly. You just never know when it could happen even if you lead a healthy lifestyle...

How would you compare these companies when it comes to treating cancer? I am not an expert when it comes to this so I'm not sure what the different types are, how they are classified, etc., but which company seems to be the most comprehensive here when it comes to coverage and not making strange exclusions/conditions?

 

[aster1]

Of course yes there are many of these, I evaluated in May 2013.
However the better ones are HSBC & Tokio Marine.

Do you have the T&Cs for Tokyo Marine by any chance? I would like to give them a closer look to see how the terms compare to similar products from other insurers.

 

[PRUbombz]

Thanks for the info.

Looking through the differences the biggest one is obviously going to be the difference in premiums.

Stuff like the death benefit I don't think I would take into account, and the $100 from TM every 2 years doesn't really change anything. What is interesting though is the 25% bonus should the claim be done before reaching the age of 65.

But overall I think the #1 issue is going to focus on the medical conditions themselves and how each company sees them. The big thing in our day and age, apart from people clogging up their arteries by eating junk/fatty foods, has to be cancer. Especially since it can come in all shapes and forms, and strike people of all ages from kids to the elderly. You just never know when it could happen even if you lead a healthy lifestyle...

How would you compare these companies when it comes to treating cancer? I am not an expert when it comes to this so I'm not sure what the different types are, how they are classified, etc., but which company seems to be the most comprehensive here when it comes to coverage and not making strange exclusions/conditions?

I would believe the definitions of the medical conditions to claim from the different insurance company would be the same, which follows the same framework guided under life insurance association. Since you are comparing, please correct me if i'm wrong.

 

[kebinu]

Do look closely to the cap payout for early stage.

Do look at how many stages each ci has.

Do take note of the waitin period.

More, but look out for the key stuff yourself.

 

[aster1]

I will go through the T&Cs of all four companies to see if there are any "traps" that would immediately cross-off any particular company/product.

Apart from that I have two major questions:

1. If I am not entirely convinced but I do sign a policy, does it become binding in a financial sense even if I do not make a payment yet? I understand there is a cooling-off period with all policies, but what if I do not do anything on my end (never pay anything - basically forgetting about the issue). Does the policy simply disappear or does it become a problem?

2. Just curious but so often I write to insurance agents based on the email address on their business cards, but most of the time instead of replying from the same address (which is the official email address listed on their business card) they tend to reply from a gmail-type address instead. Is this perfectly natural, or are they only trying to make sure that any responses they give me to questions are never treated as official in case of any disputes?

 

[kebinu]

Nope.

Personal email can be use as evidence anyway.

 

[PRUbombz]

FYI, I usually use my gmail account to send to my clients because for some reason, the official prudential email address usually goes to their junk mail.

 

[aster1]

AXA is 1 of the most expensive premium when comparing at the same sum assured for up to 65 years old with HSBC or 75 years old with Tokio Marine.

How different were the numbers between the companies? Are we talking small differences of like 1-3% or something that goes into double-digits?

 

[kebinu]

How different were the numbers between the companies? Are we talking small differences of like 1-3% or something that goes into double-digits?

Single digit.

Looking deeper, the waiting period, the survival period, the cap payout, the number of stages of CI, the number of CI will affect how attractive the plan is.

I saw one with longer waiting and survival period, lower payout, less stages of CI and less number of CI and yet premium is higher recently. Lose lose plan no matter how we see it.

 

[ChaOrEn]

How different were the numbers between the companies? Are we talking small differences of like 1-3% or something that goes into double-digits?

For AXA, It depends whether you have an existing insurance policy that covers other types of coverage & within their terms list to gain 10% discount for loyalty.

I can not remember the price different but It's definitely more than 20% cheaper if u were to compare HSBC with AXA based on the exact term (years) u will finish paying e.g spread into 10 years.

HSBC can not compare directly with TM because they do not have the same policy termination age. Example HSBC cover up to 65 or 85 while TM is 70, 75, 80. While AXA is 65 or 75.

Tokyo Marine monthly premiem is about 10% cheaper than AXA (if did not qualify for the 10% discount loyalty program), if got the 10% discount, then it's around the same price as Tokyo Marine for 10 years term.

But the good thing is Tokyo Marine had 5 years term plan while other companies do not have whereby the savings will be significant.

So example for 10 years term, total of the yearly premiem I pay $61k but for 5 years term I pay total $37k which is a huge saving of $24k (13%) for 5 years term.

But definitely for either of the companies for standalone EarlyCare policy, if u have a successful early stage claim early, then the remaining period of premiem are waived so can result in large savings.

 

[pinkiefit]

How about Manulife's ManuCompleteCare

It's a early CI plan which pays up to 240% of sum assured! Stand alone policy which 100% payout upon early diagnosis ( no need to get worse for staggered payouts)

Coverage age range 65/75/85

Pays 100% of sum assured even for death or tpd, also no survival period needed thus provides wider range of coverage. (Other companies pay a token sum of $3k - $20k only)

No specific site for carcinoma in-situ.
(Please read your existing early CI policy contract for carcinoma in-situ of specific sites. That means they only payout if the cancer occurs on the specific sites. May I ask who can determine where the cancer cells can happen? )

Let me know if you want to know more. Sharing is caring!