Important question about Life Insurance
 

We recently got our bill of our life insurance. We pay these premiums two times a year.

Well!!!! they raised our premiums almost 60%

they went from $550 a year to $850 a year.

Now this might not sound like a lot of money to some people but when you are on Social Security and you grow your own food, well, we watch every penny.

Alan said "are they for real, they didn't even notify us that they were raising us, and there is nothing on this bill to indicate that there's a reason that they did this.

They've been in the papers. IT'S A BIG COMPANY.

We are going to call them today.

I want to know what any of you would do. We can' afford this, we don't know who to call. (Alan says he does, but I want to make sure).

Is this legal (that's what I really want to know).

Any help is appreciated.

We were raised when we both turned 60 but we are only 61.

Can they do this?

And if we paid this, what stops them next year from doing the same thing??.

It's appalling that we have paid into this for 15 years and now they do this to us.

The policy expires when we are 75.

And it has no cash value.

I am hesitant to keep giving money to crooks.

Any and all advice is welcome, believe me.

If this were YOU, what exactly would you do?

Thanks, Melody

Life Insurance
 

Mel I am not sure about the legalities, it sure is a good way to get me to look for another company, I know now that i am DXed with MSbs my premiums are higer

The premiums are not due right away. I'm not PAYING ANYTHING until I know my rights.

So if any of you out there have had this happen to them, please let me know.

It seems very fishy to me, that they raised us last year, and that they can raise us again.

I don't trust them ANY MORE.

I mean, think about it. We've paid into this for almost 20 years. We are now 61. The policy expires when we are both 75 years old.

We take better care of ourselves NOW than we used to.

So I'm thinking "I'm going to pay $850 a year (maybe even more as the years go by), and then BAM, I'm 75 and they say "bye bye".?????

Good Lord!!!

Melody

I just went to Yahoo and typed in the name of my insurance company and asked the question Can they raise my rates?

I got many links. I'm copying and pasting one of the paragraphs.


"...........While it's still too early to estimate the total amount of damage caused by this year's hurricane season, it's unlikely that it will be enough to cause a dramatic rise in insurance premiums across the board.

"The property and casualty insurance industry has gone through record years of profits," said Robert Hunter, Director of Insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, "so the leverage ratios are the safest ever."

In addition, rates are calculated over an extended period of time, explained Ed Domansky, spokesman for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. "One particular season is not going to impact policyholders' premiums," he said.

Finally, insurance companies cannot just raise rates at will, according to Michael Barry, a vice president at the Insurance Information Institute.

"Insurers require the approval of their regulator in order to raise rates," he explained, adding that getting such approval is a long and complicated process overseen by state insurance commissioners."...............

It sounds like you have "term" life insurance rather than "whole" life.

Term life insurance ends at a specific age and has no cash value.
Whole life has a cash value that you can borrow against and you can get the money you have paid into it back if you cancel it.

With term life, the company can raise rates as long as the rate is raised for everyone in the same age group. Your policy will specify what the terms are when it comes to raises in premiums.

Yeah, it's term (not whole).

They are sending me a copy of mine and a copy of Alan's.

I put ours somewhere but can't find them, so when these come, I'll carefully look them over.

But it is what it is. I'm not going to pay all this money for the next 16 years to have nothing to show for it.

We took it out when our son was a baby. It was necessary at the time.

I can't believe what happened to our economy...people losing 401 k's, their pension plans, THEIR HOMES!!!

Oh my goodness.

Melody
P.S. They raised my husband's premium almost double. Alan feels that they found out about his health, his stent, his IVIG, etc. and that's why they did that. Do you think this is at all possible?

It's hard to say without knowing what the insurance policy is and who it is through.

I know that with most term life (say it is a term life insurance policy you bought through AARP) health plays NO part in rates. They cannot raise premiums for health. Their policy is rated by age (25-35, 35-45,etc) and when a rate change is implemented, it is across the age class, meaning everyone in that age class pays the same rate. Those policies state how their rates can be raised and they have to abide by those policies. If they institute a change it has to affect ALL policyholders in that class and they cannot single anyone out.

You SHOULD have received a notice of rate increase prior to receiving your bill.

It may be worth your while to look into a different term life policy rather than paying such a high rate. Again, I don't know who your policy is through but there ARE policies out there for people who cannot get regular life insurance. I used AARP as an example because my fiance just received information on that. It's a $15,000.00 benefit policy and asks NO health questions. There was no information as to whether you could increase the benefit to a higher amount. There's others floating around out there with no health questions asked. Obviously if you have a nice high benefit, you may want to hold onto what you have, since you may not be able to find one with a high benefit amount again.

Hope this helps!