Jill Kerby

Private health insurance viewed as luxury abroad

AMcC writes from Dublin: Like many parents of 24 year olds, our daughter has gone to work in England and we are wondering about private health insurance for her. She has been insured in Ireland since birth. We have been advised if you spend more than 180 days outside of Ireland you are not covered by Irish health insurance and if you stop paying here there is a waiting period for re-entry, but this may only be relevant if the person already has a medical condition and needs immediate treatment. With so many young people moving abroad at the moment, who were previously insured in private health insurance by their parents in Ireland, I am surprised there has never been a discussion on the subject.

The Irish middle classes – all two million of us, nearly half the population - have become so accustomed to private health insurance membership and the way it facilitates the jumping of long waiting times for both urgent and elective medical treatment, that it has become a ‘necessity’ and not a luxury as it is in the UK.

Your healthy (I presume) 24 year old daughter, however, is moving to a country with far more comprehensive and free access to medical care and treatment, including general practitioner services once she registers with one. Yes, waiting lists can be quite long in the NHS, but it appears to deliver most of its promised services to the vast majority of UK residents. 

Unlike here, private ‘medical’ insurance  or PMI as it is known in the UK, is not community rated, so the price of premiums is based on age and health and the choice of benefits. Plans include exclusions as well as no-claims bonus and excess payments that will also influence the price you pay. As a result it isn’t very easy to establish how much a similar plan to the one your daughter may have here. Bupa UK, for example, told me that “we do not have any set or rough prices” and “the individual would need to contact us directly as the quotations are tailor made, so we would need to know things like her address, weight, height, occupation, lifestyle and past medical history going back at least 7 years.”

When your daughter gets to London she should contact a number of providers or specialist health insurance brokers for quotes for the sort of coverage she wants.  There are dozens of providers ranging from big insurance firms to smaller, specialist insurers as well as providers of simple, cash-based plans.

To get started, she should download Are you buying private medical insurance?’- a 2008 guide produced by the Association of British Insurers, which you can find on their website www.abi.org.uk.

Transfer Loss

JD from Galway: On Tuesday 5th July I sent €55,000 to my 90 year old mother’s account in Lloyds TSB in the UK via electronic money transfer, from my account in Ulster Bank.
 
The sterling/euro market rate on the computer that day was 90.35 cent and I paid €44.44 for a quick transfer before the rate dropped. On Wednesday 6th July my mother rang to say that her account was only credited with £48,192 approximately £1,500 less than the rate before bank charges, which raises the question of "how much do the banks actually charge"?
 
What is the cheapest way to transfer money besides carrying it on the plane, which in my case, would have saved over £1,000?

There is no simple answer to your query, which is frequently discussed on websites like www.askaboutmoney.com and www.boards.ie .  Most of these suggest electronic transfer with some banks charging less than others; using private currency exchange dealers, especially for larger sums, though you must also shop around for a best price since they too vary their charges; converting the money by way of simple bank drafts and then using a courier or registered post to deliver the money to the end recipient.

I spoke to Ulster Bank on your behalf and they told me that the best value way to transfer euro into sterling, which automatically costs more than transferring money inside the eurozone, is to ….     The cost of sending the money, once converted, via a simple bank draft in your mother’s name is ….

Growing Concern

CL writes from Dublin: I invested in the 2nd Irish Forestry Fund in 2001 and every year received their positive investment statements and new investment opportunities.

In December 2010 I received an end of year report valuing the shares at €1,250. This June I was informed that the Second Irish Forestry Fund had been sold, with a per share maturity value of €1,027, an 18% drop in value.  I was subsequently told by one of the directors that ‘the price they received was the price they received’ when they tendered the company.  The Second Forestry Fund was sold to their sister companies.

I understand from their 2010 report that Forestry Investment experienced slightly lower prices in 2010 based on both land values and sales values due to lower construction activity, but that this would have been captured in the 2010 share value I received last December. I am still awaiting an explanation as to what caused such a dramatic fall in the share value in the five months from when I received the dividend.

Trevor McHugh, a Forestry Investment director, who said that last December’s statement was only a projection of the share value, not its actual market value of your shares.

The formulas used to determine a projected share value and an actual market value, which is what buyers use to determine the price they will bid when the Fund term matures and it is put up for sale, are not the same, he said. The market value takes into account real-time factors on that particular day, and these can – as with any commodity or asset – affect the sale price.

The Forestry Funds are not regulated investment products like life assurance investment or private pension funds and so can make share value projections that would not be permitted for the likes of life assurance funds.

This is only the second of the Forestry Funds to be sold, but my understanding is that the First Fund, which matured in 2010, did not deliver earlier share projections either, though it did achieve an 8.3% annual return for its investors.

All Forestry Fund investors are invited to contact the company, at any time, to discuss their shareholdings, or any investment statements they receive, Mr McHugh said.

You should arrange a meeting with the directors to discuss your disappointment in the return you received.