A National Friendly review is only useful if it separates a complaint about service from a complaint about what the contract says, and the second kind can be read for yourself before you buy. This page carries no star rating and no customer quotes. It goes through National Friendly's My PMI policy conditions, which are the document that decides what a claim pays, and picks out the points a reviewer would most likely be reacting to. Rival prices help you decide whether National Friendly earns a place on your shortlist, and an FCA-authorised broker will talk through other insurers' prices with you if you ask for a free call-back in the form on this page.

A friendly society, owned by its policyholders

My PMI is sold by the National Deposit Friendly Society Limited, trading as National Friendly. Its policy conditions describe it as a mutual society owned by its members, and say that anyone holding this policy is automatically a member, with voting rights and the right to attend the annual general meeting (section 6.4). The same section gives its Financial Services Register number as 110008, so you can look it up on the FCA register yourself. Neither the conditions nor the My PMI Policy Summary (reference PMI PS 08.26) prints an issue date; both are the versions on National Friendly’s own website, read on 21 October 2026.

Ownership (who National Friendly is and who owns it) is a fact about who the insurer answers to. It is not a promise about claims, and the sections below are where claims are decided. For how mutuals and shareholder-owned insurers compare, see which UK health insurers are run for profit.

Level 1 and Level 2 are two different policies

The conditions say Level 1 is "tailored to specific out-patient needs" and Level 2 "tailored to in- and day-patient needs", and that a policyholder who pays for both gets all the terms of both. That split is the first thing to understand, because a reviewer on one level can say things that are plainly untrue of the other.

  • Level 1 pays for out-patient care, with a yearly limit you pick at the start, either £2,000 or £5,000 per person. Inside it sit private GP visits that lead to a specialist referral, specialist consultations, scans and tests, and some therapies. Everything comes out of that yearly limit, and a few items carry their own cap: one private GP visit a year that does not lead to a referral, up to £100, and up to ten face-to-face counselling or psychotherapy sessions.
  • Level 2 pays for treatment in hospital as an in-patient or day-patient, with a total annual limit of £1 million per person. Its only out-patient cover is for diagnostic scans, capped at £1,500 a year, and tests, capped at £1,000, and it does not pay the consultation fees that go with them.

Which level, which out-patient limit and which excess your own quote assumes will all change the premium, and a broker can show you versions side by side so you can see what each setting gives up.

Exclusions a National Friendly buyer should read first

Many complaints about any private medical insurer come down to an exclusion the buyer did not expect. The National Friendly conditions are open about theirs, and several will matter to a reader who is shopping with a particular worry in mind.

On cancer, the Level 2 table pays for surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but its list of things not paid includes immunotherapy (monoclonal antibodies), targeted therapy (tyrosine kinase inhibitors), hormonal and biological therapies, clinical trials, stem cell and bone marrow treatments, and palliative or end of life care. Anyone comparing cancer cover should read that list against the treatment they would want to keep open.

On mental health, the conditions say that for an authorised claim "We won’t pay for psychiatric or in-patient mental health treatment" (section 3.15), though Level 1 does pay for one initial psychiatric assessment a year and counselling sessions up to the limit above. Level 2 adds nothing here: the Policy Summary says plainly that it "does not cover mental health treatment". Conditions caused by addiction to drugs, alcohol or other substances are excluded, as are behavioural conditions "such as, but not limited to" ADHD, Asperger syndrome and autism (section 2.11).

Some further exclusions that catch people out: treatment where you are admitted through accident and emergency, an urgent care centre or a walk-in centre (section 2.1); chronic conditions where treatment only relieves symptoms (section 2.5); sleep disorders including sleep apnoea and insomnia (section 2.32); the menopause (section 2.3); and transplants of organs or limbs (section 2.35). Treatment of any chronic condition is outside the cover, although the in-patient benefit does say it pays for acute flare-ups of a chronic condition, to bring it back to a controlled state.

Pre-authorisation and your choice of consultant

You choose a treatment path when the policy begins, and the claims rules differ by path. Under guided treatment, your GP gives an open referral that names no particular specialist, and National Friendly’s claims team picks a consultant and books the appointment. If you then choose a different consultant, the conditions say it will pay up to 75% of the consultation cost, leaving you to pay at least 25% (section 3.3). Standard and extended give you more freedom over where you are treated, and extended adds hospitals on a longer list for a higher premium. For all paths, the conditions say claims must be pre-authorised, and that you should call the claims team even when the cost looks likely to fall inside your excess (sections 3.7 and 3.13). The claims line is open 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays.

If you want to see how another insurer runs a guided route, guided care explained covers it. The treatment path is one of the settings that moves the price, so ask the broker who rings you how guided, standard and extended would each suit the way you expect to use the policy.

Pre-existing conditions and the five-year look-back

The definition of a pre-existing condition in these conditions is anything for which you had medication, advice or treatment, or which produced signs or symptoms, in the five years before the policy started. The moratorium is defined the same way: a period when the society will not pay for conditions that showed signs or symptoms in those five years.

The conditions send you to the Policy Summary for how that history is handled, and the summary offers three routes, of which you pick one. Under full medical underwriting you list what you have had signs, symptoms, advice or treatment for in the last five years, and National Friendly tells you which conditions it will exclude or cover only in part before you accept. Continued personal medical exclusions is for someone moving from another private medical policy: the exclusions on that policy carry over, and the questions cover treatment in the last two years. Under a moratorium you give no medical history at all.

That last route is the one most likely to surprise a buyer later. The summary says anything from the five years before you joined is not covered for at least the first two years, and a condition comes into cover only after two years in a row from joining with no symptoms, consultations, investigations, medication, monitoring, advice or treatment for it. A claim turned down on those grounds is the policy working as written, which is worth knowing before you weigh anyone's account of a declined claim.

Five-year terms, yearly premium reviews

Few reviewers mention that this is a five-year contract: the conditions say terms are offered five years at a time, with a premium review each year in between and fresh terms at the end of each five-year period. The reviews can push a premium up, down or leave it where it was. For the clauses on what feeds into the new figure, when the letter comes and what you can change before it takes effect, read why a National Friendly premium goes up; the rules on ending the policy are in cancelling National Friendly health insurance.

Two extras come with the policy and the conditions call both discretionary: the Friendly GP+ virtual GP service and the Friendly Dentist helpline. National Friendly reserves the right to change or remove either on at least 90 days’ notice, so treat them as a bonus rather than a reason to choose the policy.

Reputation, complaints and the regulator

Should I rely on Trustpilot for National Friendly reviews?

Treat it as a view of service, not of cover. Reviews there are written by whoever chooses to post and need not say which level, excess or treatment path the writer held, so this page neither repeats nor scores them. If you look, set any complaint about a claim against the exclusions above. How to read health insurance reviews sets out a method.

How do I complain to National Friendly?

The Policy Summary lists phone (0333 014 6244, 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays), email to complaints@nationalfriendly.co.uk, post, the app or the online member portal. National Friendly says you will get a written reply within 8 weeks, giving either its outcome or why it cannot yet give a final one, and if you are not satisfied you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free.

Is National Friendly regulated?

Its conditions say the society’s insurance benefits are authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by both the PRA and the FCA, and they print the register number 110008 so you can verify that on the FCA register.

Will it pay for therapy?

Level 1 pays for one initial psychiatric assessment and up to ten face-to-face counselling or psychotherapy sessions a year, but no psychiatric treatment after that, and Level 2 does not cover mental health treatment at all. Physiotherapy and similar therapies are a different matter, covered before hospital treatment on Level 1 and as follow-ups on Level 2.

When the broker phones, ask which insurers they can price at the level, excess and treatment path you would genuinely pick, so you can hold them against any National Friendly quote you get direct.