Free Health Cover with a Bank Deposit

[Craig krup]

United Overseas Bank have a "Senior Account" that has a benefit expressed in the following terms - "The account holders less than 75 years of age are entitled to a free accidental and hospital in-patient insurance coverage".

Now obviously you'd need to look at the policy document. They might mean that the in-patient coverage only relates to an accident. But leaving that to one side how likely are they to pay out? One view is that anything that's a freebie can't be worth anything. On the other hand, it's a 500,000 deposit and basic in-patient cover might be less than 10k if you just bought it, and they probably get it cheaper than that. There's also the possibility that the bank wouldn't want any reputational damage if the insurers didn't pay out and there was a fuss, and the insurers might not want to lose the contract with the bank, so you might be more likely to get treatment without any grievance.

Any thoughts?

[scorecard]

UOB is a long-term high profile very professional and popular Singapore bank.

Singapore banks are under very strong and continuous scrutiny by the Singapore Monetary Authority, I doubt they would be playing any games.

[Craig krup]

UOB is a long-term high profile very professional and popular Singapore bank.

Singapore banks are under very strong and continuous scrutiny by the Singapore Monetary Authority, I doubt they would be playing any games.

That's kind of what I thought. So as long as there wasn't an issue with it being a fixed term deposit account it might look like a natural home for 800,000B

[oncearugge]

UOB is a long-term high profile very professional and popular Singapore bank.

Singapore banks are under very strong and continuous scrutiny by the Singapore Monetary Authority, I doubt they would be playing any games.

That's kind of what I thought. So as long as there wasn't an issue with it being a fixed term deposit account it might look like a natural home for 800,000B

Do not expect the "insurance" to be a substitute for a substantive Health Insurance Policy.

Most Thai banks offer similar "insurance" which only provides extremely limited cover.

Caveat Emptor(buyer beware!)

Make sure the policy and the "fine print" are read and understood.

[Sheryl]

Yes, these sort of policies are usually almost worthlerss. Very limited in what they will cover and for how much.