Yellow-pack health cover ...is it false economy?
QI am 39 and want to take out health insurance before age-loading makes this more expensive [for anyone over 34 from May 1 – see My View]. I didn’t take out cover before because I simply couldn’t afford it. Now I see Laya has a new plan that costs just €9 a week. Is this too good to be true?
ALaya’s Assure Vitality is not a new plan but a discounted version of an existing one. The cost of the old premium will be slashed by €85 to €430 from March 1 – or less than €9 per week, as you say.
Health insurance expert Dermot Goode of totalhealthcover.ie says this is good value: ‘It’s perfect for anybody who always wanted health cover but couldn’t afford it and now wants to avoid age loadings.’
Earlier, VHI launched its own plans aimed at attracting younger newbies: the VHI Start Plan and Start Plan 250, which will cost from €449 per adult a year.
But Goode advises holding off signing up for any of these plans until we see what Aviva and GloHealth come up with.
‘There’s still over two months to go before the loading deadline. The other two companies will probably play their cards next week.’
But he also stresses that these basic plans ‘are not quality plans. If you want a really good plan covering private hospitals, you really need to be paying from €1,100.’ Some basic policies also have a restriction on some larger public hospitals, he warns
QMy credit rating is so bad that my bank would not give me a loan or an overdraft. I recently sold my house and cleared my debts. But I had missed payments over the last few years. Is there any way of getting my credit rating changed? How long does a bad rating last?
AThe Irish Credit Bureau (ICB) records credit reports on behalf of the banks. These include: Repayments made or missed; Failure to clear a loan;
Loans settled for less than you owed; Any legal actions against you. If it is accurate, you can’t get your credit report changed. And a poor rating will stop you from getting a loan, even if your income is now strong. But you can request a copy to see where you stand and check if there are any inaccuracies.
For example, if you had been allowed to miss payments on a loan as part of a rescheduling arrangement but the bank overlooked this. If you do find a mistake, find any back-up documentation and alert your lender. It should make a correction in your file.
If it doesn’t, and there is clearly an error, you can complain to the Data Protection Commissioner. Under data protection law, banks are not allowed to keep inaccurate data about us.
It’s also possible to add a personal declaration to clarify your lending record. You may wish to point out mitigating circumstances when you got into trouble.
The text of this note must be less than 200 words. It can’t be vexatious, frivolous or denigratory and it has to be relevant to matters in your credit record. The lender isn’t obliged to take the note into account but if the reasons are genuine and convincing, it might help with loan applications.
Credit records go back only five years (from the date the loan is cleared or closed), so that black mark on your record will be expunged eventually. You can request to have your credit record posted out to you for a €6 fee.
This can be done online at icb.ie, by calling (01) 260 0388, or by writing to: The Irish Credit Bureau, ICB House, Newstead, Clonskeagh Road, Dublin 14.
QI acquired American Express travellers’ cheques years ago in sterling and mislaid them until recently. How can these cheques be redeemed?
AThe cheques can be lodged to a sterling account. Otherwise, contact: Foreign Currency Exchange International, 1 Lower O’Connell Street, Dublin, 1, tel. (01) 874 5005.