Natwest Life Insurance Review 2023

The National Provincial Bank formed in 1833. In 1968, they merged with Westminster Bank creating National Westminster Bank.

By the 1980’s, the bank was called NatWest and was offering home loans.

In 2000, NatWest was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and now offers banking, credit card, loan, mortgage, investment, insurance and other services.

Types of Life Insurance

NatWest Life Insurance is provided by AIG and offer three types:

• Life Insurance – Pays out a sum of money if, while you’re insured, you die, or you’re diagnosed as terminally ill. You choose how much insurance you need, and how long you would like it to last for. Available for customers aged 17-86.
• Critical 3 with Life Insurance – Customer pays an initial lump sum. If while you’re insured you suffer from a certain type of cancer, stroke, heart attack, terminal illness or you die, you could use the money to help pay off your mortgage or help to pay for unforeseen costs. Available for customers aged 17-75.
• Guaranteed Sixty-Plus Life Insurance – Pays out a lump sum when you die that could be used towards funeral costs or to leave a gift for your loved ones. Available to customers aged 60-80.

Overview of NatWest Life Insurance Key Policy Details

Sixty-Plus Life Insurance

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• Guaranteed acceptance – You can take out insurance if you’re aged 60-80 and live in the UK
• The full insurance amount will be paid out two years after you die
• Life insurance is very affordable, starting at £5 a month
• If you stop making your monthly payments after having paid half of those due, you could still be insured for a reduced amount
• No medical questions and no examination required

With Sixty-Plus Life Insurance, if you die within the first two years, you will be refunded one and a half times the payments you have already made, unless you die in an accident then you will be paid out three times your insurance amount.

Key Points

Only when the person covered has been diagnosed with 12 months to live or less, a claim for terminal illness can be made.

If a medical consultant cannot determine this or expects death to occur more than one year after diagnosis, then NatWest will not pay a benefit.

NatWest have a strict terminal illness policy and do not payout unless your diagnosis meets their definition of “terminal illness”.

Waiver of Premium – Person covered must be living in an eligible country when become incapacitated.

They must return to and remain in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man or Gibraltar with 26 weeks of being incapacitated in order to receive the benefit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I reduce my insurance amount?

At any time, NatWest will let you reduce your insurance amount if it doesn’t fall below the minimum allowed.

Can I stop and restart the annual increase?

If you have increasing insurance, NatWest will write to you each year to tell you the new insurance amount and the new amount you’ll pay. You can ask for the increases to stop at any time.

If you do, the insurance amount will be frozen at the level it has reached when you ask NatWest to stop.

You can ask them to start increasing it again, but NatWest can’t do this if the insurance amount has been frozen for three consecutive years.

In regard to the sixty-plus insurance, you can ask for the increases to stop at any time.

If you do, your insurance amount will be frozen at the level it has reached when you ask us to stop.

Can I reduce the length of my insurance?

You can reduce the length of your insurance at any time. You can reduce the length of the policy by as much as you want, if the reduction does not mean:

• The new length of your insurance is less than NatWest’s minimum length; or
• The amount you pay would fall below the minimum level

Can I change a joint life insurance policy to one or two single life insurances?

If you have joint life insurance, you can ask NatWest to change your insurance to one single life insurance or two separate single life insurances.

The total amount of the new single life insurance or the combined amount of both new single life insurances cannot be greater than one hundred percent of your original insurance.

You can only make this change within six months of separating and taking out new mortgages, and no later than three years before your insurance is due to end.

Both people must agree to this change and NatWest will ask to see evidence of the separation and the new mortgages.

How much can I increase my monthly benefit by?

There is a limit to how much you can increase your monthly benefit.

It cannot be more than the lower of 50 % of the original monthly benefit or £625. In addition, you can choose to:

• Reduce the monthly benefit
• Reduce the term of the cover
• Stop and restart annual increases if you have selected increasing cover
• Add another person to single life cover; or
• Change your premiums from annual to monthly and vice versa

Is NatWest Life Insurance right for you?

NatWest provides simplicity to their customers as it makes it easy for them to get a quote and provides good benefit.

Defaqto give NatWest 3/5 for their Level Term Life Insurance, Critical 3 with Life Insurance and their Sixty-Plus Life Insurance which shows that they provide reliability and some value to the customer.

NatWest offer a wider age range for people to apply for life insurance across all their policies and offer three times the payout for cover if the customer suffers accidental death in the 24-month waiting period which a lot of competitors do not give.

However, compared to a lot of leading insurance providers, NatWest Life Insurance does not cover as many types of critical illness.

Some types of cancer including certain prostate cancer are not covered which should be considered as just one in nine men will be diagnosed with it over their lifetime.

Types of heart attack and stroke are also not covered. NatWest’s insurance seems rather basic and offers very little flexibility in relation to other companies.

For example, if you take out joint life insurance, it is not evident that you can choose different levels of cover to suit each person.

With the sixty-plus life cover, there is very little flexibility as you cannot reduce monthly payments.

Also, customers have a waiting period of 24 months after taking out the insurance before receiving full benefits whereas competitors offer as little as 12 months.

Again, like their other policies, options are rather basic and do not give the customer extra options such as optional funeral benefit which competitors do.

NatWest life insurance may be a good option if you are only insuring yourself however if you are covering family members also, there are other companies out there who other more extras and benefits.

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