Price wars between providers are "as full on as ever", CIExpert has stated following reports that some critical illness (CI) premiums are lower than pre-G-Day rates.
According to the CI comparison tool, while some insurers - most notably bright grey and PruProtect - have increased premiums markedly since January, others - Legal & General and Friends Life - have fallen below October 2012 levels.
Alan Lakey, founder of CIExpert, and partner principal of highclere Financial Services, (pictured) said: "Last December's gender and I-E changes caused the cost of critical illness plans to rise, quite markedly in some cases.
"It can now be seen that premiums have been drifting back to pre-December 2012 levels and in some instances are now lower then before the changes. It seems that the price war is as full on as ever."
The CIExpert tables showed a 31-year-old non-smoking female has seen a 1% drop in L&G premiums from October last year to April this year, while PruProtect shows a 11.8% rise.
For males of the same circumstance however, the rates have risen for both providers respectively at 8.9% and 22.2%.
LV= and PruProtect have seen a respective rise and fall of 18.6% and 3.7% for 31-year-old smoking males; for a 41-year-old non-smoking male Friends Life showed a drop of 5.1% in premiums for the same October to April period.
For 51-year-old non-smoking males and females, Aviva has seen significant drops of 31.2% and 26.9% in premiums levels.
