Virgin Money Insurance: About the Company
Virgin Money Insurance is part of the renowned Virgin group of companies, headed by Richard Branson. In 2006, Virgin set up Virgin Money South Africa to offer easy to understand financial products to the South African market. After doing business in South Africa for several years, Virgin Money South Africa then went on to create Virgin Money Insurance to offer short term insurance options, whilst Virgin Money South Africa offers investment and other financial services. To make things even more complicated, Virgin Money Insurance is also a part of the Telesure group of companies (a group that includes many other insurance companies, including Dial Direct, Budget Insurance, Auto & General, 1st for Women, Unity Insurance, Prosper and others). The current CEO of Virgin Money is Vinay Padaychee.
Where is Virgin Money Insurance Located?
Along with many other companies that form part of the Telesure group, Virgin Money Insurance can be found at Auto & General Park, 1 Telesure Lane, Riverglen, Dainfern, 2191.
Virgin Insurance Services
Virgin Money Insurance offer a full range of short term insurance options, including vehicle, home, building, business, home contents and life insurance.
Virgin Money Life Insurance
There are two basic Virgin Life insurance options, called Virgin Money Basic and Virgin Money Elevated. On top of this Virgin Money Insurance also offer disability policies, dread disease cover and funeral insurance, all of which might be of interest to life insurance customers.
Virgin Money Basic
The Basic plan that is offered by Virgin Money Insurance is for life insurance only and has the following features:
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The policy pays out between R25,000 and R200,000 depending on the amount of coverage you choose;
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R25,000 of your coverage can be paid out within 48 hours of a valid claim so that beneficiaries can pay funeral expenses;
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Accidental death is covered immediately, whilst suicide and natural death have a two year waiting period;
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The policy includes a terminal illness benefit, which means that if a terminal disease is diagnosed and life expectancy is less than twelve months, the full cover amount will be paid immediately;
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The amount of coverage will never decrease, and coverage is whole life, meaning it does not expire at retirement age;
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The policy includes access to Expo-Sure, a testing and counselling service in case of accidental HIV exposure.
Virgin Money Elevated
Virgin Money Elevated is identical to Virgin Money Basic, with the following exceptions:
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The policy pays out between R200,000 and R10 million;
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Both natural and accidental death are covered immediately, though suicide still has a two year waiting period;
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The policy includes a guaranteed assurability option, which means that you can increase the amount of coverage later should you choose to.
Virgin Money Insurance Disability Policies
Virgin Money Insurance also offers two disability policies. The first is called Occupation-Based Disablement, and will pay out between R200,000 and R10 million if you should become permanently disabled and unable to work in your own or a similar profession. The second is called Event-Based Disablement and pays a percentage of your coverage amount (between R50,000 and R10 million) depending on what kind of disability you have. For example, losing an eye pays 50% of the coverage amount. In addition, both policies have the following features:
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If the full benefit is paid out your other life insurance options will not be effected, meaning your regular life insurance premiums will not go up because you've made a disability claim;
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Coverage is immediate and will last until five years before you turn 65 or until you retire;
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A guaranteed assurability option means that you can increase your coverage later if you wish to;
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A disability waiver option means that if the full coverage of your disability policy is paid out, the premiums for your life insurance and dread disease insurance will be waived for up to five years.
Virgin Money Insurance Dread Disease Coverage
There is also the option of getting a dread disease policy from Virgin Money Insurance to protect you financially in the case of a serious disease being diagnosed. This policy includes the following key features:
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A percentage of the coverage (between R50,000 and R4 million) will be paid out depending on the disease diagnosed, this includes cancer, heart attacks and organ failure amongst other illnesses;
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Coverage is whole life and never expires as long as premiums are paid;
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If the full coverage amount is paid out your regular life insurance and disablement policies will not be effected, in other words your other premiums will not go up;
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A guaranteed assurability option means you are free to increase you coverage at a later date.
Virgin Money Funeral Insurance
Finally, Virgin Money Insurance also offer a funeral insurance option to help relatives or friends pay funeral expenses. The policy has the following features:
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Coverage is up to R100,000 for the policy holder and partner, plus children included in the policy will be covered from R10,000 to R45,000 depending on their age;
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Up to five children under the age of 21, and up to ten extended family members can be included in the same policy;
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Coverage for natural death has a twelve month waiting period;
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Should the main policy holder die, premiums will be waived for two years, and additionally there will be a one off R3,000 payment followed by R1,000 per month for the next three months to provide groceries for surviving policy members;
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There is an additional Memorial Benefit available paying out up to R5,000 to pay for memorial or headstone costs;
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The policy includes a repatriation benefit of R2,000 to move remains anywhere within South Africa.
How are the Consumer Reviews for Virgin Money?
The consumer review website Hellopeter, which allows customers to write reviews of service providers, registers 618 reviews of Virgin Insurance from the last twelve months. 374 of these reviews are positive, giving Virgin Money Insurance a 60% positive rating, which seems fairly encouraging seeing how many of the companies reviewed have a negative rating overall. The negative reviews seem to centre around two issues: claims not being paid or being paid late, and premiums increasing without notice. Both these issues are obviously important to consumers. The positive comments centre around Virgin's customer service, and nearly every comment, positive or negative, has feedback from a Virgin Money representative.
How User Friendly is Virgin Money Online?
The Virgin Money Insurance website is simple to navigate and gives plenty of easy to understand information. One thing that we particularly liked is that as well as offering a fair amount of info about each policy, every page also includes a download link for the Virgin Money Policy Brochure, meaning you can get even more detailed information at the click of a button. The only small negative comment we have is that the print on the website is rather small, and text is placed on top of a photograph which may make the pages difficult to read for some customers.
Virgin Money Insurance in Summary
Virgin Money Insurance offers a range of life insurance and related policies. The company website makes finding more information easy and this is of course a welcomed thing in today's digital era. The customer reviews of Virgin Money Insurance have an overal positive rating and it seems that all that is missing is that they imrpove a bit on the areas where there are complaints. Choosing a life insurance policy is extremely important as it will affect the very people you set out to protect. That is why we almost always finish our reviews with the same tip: always try to get at least 2-3 quotes before you finalize – from each quote you should learn something new and better your situation. In order to receive up to 2 Free life insurance quotes, just fill in the form on the top right.
* Disclaimer: We do not represent any of the companies, products and/or services reviewed, published or advertised on this website. Nor are we financial, health or insurance professionals or services provider. If you request a quote or purchase a product/service, it will not necessarily be given by the company reviewed on any specific page. Any decisions you make based on the information presented is at your own discretion and we advise that before doing so, you consult with the relevant professional.
Main subject: Virgin Money Insurance
