Q Is it too late to get health insurance for my parents who are both in their early 70s? If this is possible, can you recommend a plan that covers public and private hospitals.
A The good news is that your parents are free to join any plan on the market irrespective of their age or medical history. However, they will be faced with the maximum age loadings which will add a further 70pc to their gross cost and this will remain on their policy for 10 years, according to Dermot Goode of TotalHealthCover.ie.
They will also be subject to the standard waiting periods that apply to all new members. In terms of coverage, they should consider the following plans: the Laya Signify scheme, the Irish Life Health BeneFit Access 300 and the VHI EnhancedCare 250 schemes, Mr Goode said.
Read More
Q I recently had a dispute with a broadband service provider. It is headquartered in the UK and therefore outside the European Union. The firm threatened to damage my personal credit report if I didn’t resolve the dispute with them in their favour. The service was awful. I terminated my account, and they attempted to continue billing me. The amount in dispute was about €110. Can they do this?
A Without having all of the specifics of the case, at a high level, what the UK firm appears to be suggesting is inaccurate and possibly illegal, says Frank Conway, founder of financial wellbeing provider MoneyWhizz and a qualified financial adviser.
There were two personal credit reporting companies operating in Ireland: the Central Credit Register (CCR) and the Irish Credit Bureau (ICB). The ICB ceased its credit reporting services on October 1. This leaves just the CCR operating a personal credit reporting service in the Republic.
As it stands, only specific credit providers report into the CCR. Utility providers are not on that list. Additionally, of the list of firms that do report to the CCR, what they report is specified; loans greater than €500 and loan enquiries greater than €2,000. There are also time limits as to how long the information is stored on the CCR, Mr Conway said.
As it stands, neither the utility provider nor the amount in dispute would be reported to the CCR. I also just placed a call with the CCR and they are not aware of any immediate changes being planned to their reporting protocol.
To put this another way, the utility provider does not have a reporting function to the CCR and even if it did, the amount in question falls well short of the monetary reporting threshold. In respect to your personal credit report, I do not expect the dispute will have any immediate impact.
However, if you have any concerns, you can always allow some time to pass and then request a free copy of your own personal credit report from the CCR. Its website, www.centralcreditregister.ie, provides further information. It may be possible that the UK-based service provider does report such information on its UK clients to UK-based credit reporting agencies, Mr Conway said.
You may have received a type of letter that is more appropriate for customers based in Britain. Finally, it may also be possible that the UK-based service provider was referring to their own internal customer sign-up protocols, a sort of in-house customer rating system. If this is the case, would you want to return to them in the future?
If not, then there is little to be concerned about.
Q I have health insurance for over 40 years but it’s very confusing and I am never quite sure exactly what is covered and what is not covered. How do I make sure that my plan is adequate for my needs?
A In this situation, the advice to members is to contact their health insurer and have its staff explain the following to you: what is covered by your plan, what is partially covered, and what is excluded under the policy, according to Dermot Goode of TotalHealthCover.ie.
If you are not happy that your plan matches your requirements, ask the insurer to recommend the next step up from your current cover and once again have them explain exactly what extra benefits you’re getting for the extra premium.
Also, have them explain any upgrade waiting periods that might apply. If you are still unsure, Mr Goode recommends that you seek independent advice and let someone else do this work for you.
