It is essential that you shop around and compare for the cheapest mortgage insurance quote to ensure that you get the best deal for your needs. Not only should you take the quote into account when considering a policy but also the terms, such as when cover would begin to pay out and for how long and check the exclusions.

One of the many things taken into account to decide the cost of the premiums is the amount of your repayment you want to insure. Your chosen sum needs to be agreed by your chosen provider as this is the sum of income you would get back each month as tax free payments if you need to make a claim due to suffering from an event you had chosen to protect against. You would have to be redundant or unable to work for a set amount of time before making a claim and this would vary between 30 days and 90 days with some dating your benefit back to day one of suffering from an event. Once your policy had begun to pay out it continues do so for between the 12th and the 24th month and then cease. A policy paying out over the longer term would cost more in premiums and you could have recovered well within a period of 12 months. You also need to give some thought to the fact that if you were unable to claim until the 90th day mortgage arrears could already have built up by 3 months which could cause worry.

The events you choose to take protection against would go towards how much your mortgage insurance quote would be. You can take a policy against incapacity and unemployment together and make a claim if you became a victim to either event. However you could also just choose to take a policy against unemployment alone or incapacity alone if this should be better for your needs. This would mean of course that you only have to pay out for protection that you needed. Check the terms to see if carer cover would be included. This protection allows you to take time from work to take care of a close family member.

Finally check to see if the provider would take age into account when taking out a policy. If they do this is an excellent way for the first time home buyer to be able to afford mortgage cover as they would get the cheapest mortgage insurance quote. First time home owners often struggle to find money to pay out for protection as with the lender on the high street payment protection can be very expensive. The younger generation often push their monthly outgoings to the maximum in order to get on the property ladder so a provider offering age based cover makes protection affordable.

A mortgage insurance quote is usually cheaper online with savings of up to 40% being made with some providers and you have a great deal of options when it comes to your policy. While you will usually be offered a policy at the time of you taking out the cover this can be one of the dearest ways of taking cover. In the majority of cases the lender will work out the cost of the insurance over the full term of the loan and then add it into the amount you borrow which means you are paying interest on the payment protection. The independent payment protection provider on the other hand would provide you a quote based on your age, the level of cover and the amount you choose to protect of your repayment.

Your chosen amount is the sum of money you would be given back each month if you were to have to make a claim, providing your provider pre-agrees with this amount. This income would be tax free and would begin once you had been unemployed or incapacitated for a certain amount of time. This is usually between the 30th and the 90th days from being made redundant or incapacitated. Some providers might offer to date back the protection to the first day of you suffering from one of the events so this would need checking before taking on the policy. Once your payments have begun they would continue for a fixed period of time before ending and this would either be 12 months or 24months. This can be more than enough time for you to have found work or to have made a recovery. However the protection would cease regardless of this fact.

The money from a policy could be enough needed to keep you out of mortgage arrears. Mortgage arrears must be avoided at all costs if you want to ensure your home would not be repossessed by the lender.

The mortgage insurance quote can work out cheaper if you choose to tailor your policy to suit your lifestyle. You could of course choose to protect against both unemployment or incapacity and make a claim due to either event. You might also just need to cover against the possibility of being incapacitated due to accident or sickness. Or you could just need to take protection for the possibility that you might become a victim of redundancy alone. If the provider offers age based protection then this means that the younger home owner can make the biggest savings. Very often it is the younger home buyer that stretches their budgets to the maximum and has little left over for expensive protection. A provider offering age based cover makes it possible.

A cheaper mortgage insurance quote can be found if you choose to take out your protection independently. By choosing to search and compare the cost of insurance with a standalone provider you could make savings on the premiums of as much as 40%. Another benefit to taking your protection with the standalone provider is the choices you have over your cover.

One of the choices you have is how much of your mortgage repayment you want to protect. The chosen amount would go towards setting how much you pay for the insurance and is the amount of money you receive each month, if the provider pre-agrees with the amount. The income would be tax free and begins once the deferment period has been reached which can be between the 30th and the 90th days. Some providers will date back the cover to the first day of losing your income to unemployment or redundancy so check this in the terms offered before taking out the cover. Payments will continue for between 12 months and 24, again depending on your chosen provider, after this time they would cease. This however could be more than enough time for you to have found work or to have recovered from your illness.

If you were to be persuaded to take the protection that the high street lender offers then you would not be given a mortgage insurance quote. Usually lenders will work out the cost of the insurance for the full terms of your mortgage and add this amount into the money you are borrowing. This means that you will pay interest not only on the amount you borrow, but also the mortgage payment protection. You would also be paying up front for the insurance which would mean you would pay more than needed should you pay off your mortgage earlier than anticipated. When taking cover this way you could be paying hundreds of pounds more than you might if you shop around and compare cover online with an independent payment protection specialist.

The way protection is sold by lenders will change as the result of an in-depth review by the Competition Commission. Lenders will have to wait 7 days before then asking those who have taken out a credit agreement if they want protection.

When getting your mortgage insurance quote with the standalone provide always check what exclusions and limits there is in the policy you are considering. All will come with some exclusions, for instance cover might not be suitable if you are self-employed or have an ongoing medical condition. An ethical specialist provider will ensure that you have this information before taking on the policy as the exclusions could stop you from being eligible to make a claim if needed.

What is an independent mortgage insurance quote? Just as the name suggests, it is a quote given by a specialist insurance provider quite independently of any lender that actually arranged the mortgage. An independent quote will state the monthly premium payable for mortgage payment protection insurance, which ensures that the policy holder’s mortgage commitments continue to be met, even in the event of his or her incapacity to work (as a result of suffering an accident or contracting an illness) or lack of work through enforced redundancy.

Why is it important that any such mortgage insurance quote is independent? Because of the very high-pressure selling of this type of mortgage insurance cover by all the major lenders in the past, many people are in fact unaware of the opportunities for buying it on a standalone basis from an entirely independent provider. This is an opportunity certainly worth pursuing, however, if only for the atrocious record of mortgage lenders and other finance companies for their mis-selling of payment protection insurance of all kinds.

According to The Independent newspaper on the 10th of December 2008, 19 companies have now been the subject of punitive action by industry regulator, the Financial Services Authority for their mis-selling of payment protection insurance, including failures to provide a fair or accurate mortgage insurance quote. The biggest culprit, attracting a record fine of £7 million in October of 2008, was Alliance and Leicester and the most recent, online bank, Egg, was fined nearly £¾ million.

To a great extent, however, these punishments represent only the tip of the iceberg. Even where lenders have avoided the temptation to mislead customers into making a purchase, the Competition Commission has reported that mortgage insurance bought “at the point of sale” directly from the mortgage lender, is invariably over-priced compared with comparable products available from independent insurance providers.

Proving just that point is probably the most experienced independent insurance provider in the country, British Insurance. “We arrange insurance. We do not advance mortgages or any other kind of loan” says managing director, Simon Burgess. “As a result, we’re able to offer the customer a mortgage insurance quote that is truly competitive and, on average, some 40% less than any available through a high street bank or building society”.

New rules proposed by the Competition Commission and announced in the middle of November 2008 have been designed to put sufficient distance between the mortgage lender and the customer’s purchase of mortgage cover so that borrowers are given a valuable breathing space during which to test the market and search out an independent mortgage insurance quote before buying the product.

Mortgage payment protection insurance is taken out to ensure that if you should lose your income through unemployment or incapacity you would have something to fall back onto to continue meeting your mortgage demands. However depending on where you choose to take a policy from it could cost you quite a lot each month for the insurance. If you choose to get your mortgage insurance quote online with an independent provider you could save a great deal on the premiums.

One of the leading payment protection specialists is British Insurance. They offer you a quote that could be up to 40% less than with other providers and which would certainly be cheaper than taking the policy offered by the high street lender. The premium with British Insurance would be based on your age, the level of cover needed and the amount you wanted to protect. You and the provider would come to an agreement regarding the amount you protected. If you were then to become a victim to one of the events that you chose to insure against you would get the sum insured back tax free each month. How long you would have to have been unemployed or incapacitated before making a claim would depend on the provider, as would how long payments would last.

Ethical specialists British Insurance offer to provide you with an income after you have been unemployed or unable to work for at least 30 consecutive days. They will backdate the protection to the first day you were unemployed or incapacitated and then you receive a payment each month for 12 months. During this time you would be able to concentrate on making a full recovery and getting back to work or you could take the time to go out and look for work. You would not have the worry of finding the whole of the mortgage repayment each month as the policy would provide a substantial amount towards it.

If you shop around and compare the mortgage insurance quote that other providers supply then check their terms to see how long they expect you to be unemployed or incapacitated before making a claim as with some it could be 90 days at least. You should also check the small print to see how long they provide an income as there are some providers that offer a 24 month policy.

A policy gained from a cheap mortgage insurance quote can make a great deal of difference at a time when you need help the most. Without something to fall back onto you could find life very difficult. Even if you struggled from month to month making as many cutbacks as you could you might still find yourself without the money to service your mortgage. If you fall into mortgage arrears usually lenders will allow you time to catch up, however without an income coming into the home this would be impossible. Mortgage arrears that cannot be repaid would lead to the mortgage lender taking you to court to seek repossession of your home. If the judge agrees with the lender you would be given an eviction date and have to leave your home.

Finding a mortgage insurance quote can be much simpler than finding the mortgage itself. Moreover, in future, the insurance quote should make more sense and be a lot fairer than it has done in the past.

As the effects of the credit crunch and deepening recession continue to bite, it is proving difficult for many new buyers to secure a mortgage. According to figures form the Bank of England at the beginning of December, for example, mortgage approvals during September stood at their lowest recorded level and were 72% down on the peak for mortgage advances in mid-2007.

Although the mortgage itself might still be difficult to find, however, at least there continues to be a thriving market in the associated mortgage payment protection insurance products. These are simple and straight forward products that ensure that repayments on that hard-won mortgage continue to be paid even if the policy holder is temporarily incapacitated from working by an accident or illness or if he or she becomes involuntarily unemployed.

The marketing of many payment protection insurance products – including mortgage insurance – in the past, however, has been demonstrably slipshod and unfair to the consumer. The result has been the mis-selling of inappropriate policies and mortgage insurance quotes that fail to make clear the optional nature of the product or even its true cost. Such instances of mis-selling have been well-documented by various industry regulators from the Office of Fair Trading, to the Financial Services Authority and the Competition Commission.

In a determined bid to bring this sector of the industry to heel, therefore, the Competition Commission announced in mid-November 2008 a number of new rules on the marketing and sale of payment protection insurance. A number of these will have particular relevance for the sale of mortgage payment protection insurance and help to ensure that in future any mortgage insurance quote is not only fairly given but is also transparently understandable to the consumer.

In future, therefore, any mortgage lender that also wishes to sell mortgage insurance must give the customer a minimum of 14 days after arranging the mortgage before selling the insurance. The mortgage insurance quote must also be a fully personal quote, which makes clear the price of the policy and the costs if added to the mortgage itself. It must be made clear that the insurance is optional and that it can also be bought from competing insurance providers.

Amongst those alternative providers are the independent specialists, such as British Insurance, who have long been providing their customers with the clear, straight forward and unbiased mortgage insurance quotes that meet the Competition Commission’s new rules. Managing director of British Insurance, Simon Burgess, comments therefore that: “It is good to see that the rest of the industry is finally being brought into line with the fair marketing practices already followed by the independent specialists”.

It is important to shop around for your mortgage insurance quote to ensure that you would get the cheapest possible policy. The premiums for mortgage cover can vary by quite a lot, if you take a policy from the high street lender you will be contributing towards the £4 billion profits they make yearly through adding in cover. If you were to get a quote from ethical leading payment protection provider British Insurance you could save as much as 40% on the cost.

Mortgage payment protection insurance (or MPPI) is taken out to protect against the possibility of you losing your income due to unemployment or incapacity. You insure an amount of the monthly mortgage repayment you make each month and then claim this amount back tax-free after a waiting period if you become a victim to one of the events. If taken with British Insurance you can claim after the 30th day and then continue to benefit from the policy for up to 12 months. During this period of time the money secured from your mortgage cover would provide a large sum towards you being able to maintain your repayments. This would provide you with comfort of knowing that you are not risking falling into mortgage arrears during this time. You can then search for work or concentrate on making a full recovery and getting back to work.

If you have nothing to fall back onto you might find yourself with a struggle on your hands to be able to maintain the repayments. Mortgage arrears can lead to the lender taking you to court to seek repossession of your home if you cannot come to an agreement to catch up. Just one month of missed mortgage repayments and the lender would want you to make an agreement with them. Of course your credit rating would also be affected by late or missed repayments and this could make borrowing of any kind in the future extremely difficult if not impossible. A policy secured from a cheap mortgage insurance quote can stop this.

When searching and comparing for a cheap mortgage insurance quote you also have to bear in mind the conditions that come with a policy. These will vary on the provider; for one thing there are always exclusions in any policy which must be checked against your circumstances. British Insurance adds a few of the common exclusions, however others could in more. The exclusions will be found in the terms and conditions as would when the policy would start paying out and for how long. Some providers could ask that you wait for up to 90 days before making a claim on your policy. Some could payout your benefit for up to 24 months.

So, what are the benefits of getting a mortgage insurance quote? Well, first of all, let’s look at what the product offers. This payment protection insurance (PPI) plan can start providing a tax free income to you every month if you should be made redundant involuntarily or become unable to work due to illness or sickness (also known as incapacity).

This means that even when faced with financial distress, you will not lose the roof over your head. You will still be able to maintain your mortgage repayments and so not fall in to arrears.

Homeowners who believe that the State would step in and provide for them in their time of need may be disappointed. The State does provide assistance but there is very strict criteria to meet. Those who have savings over so much or whose partner works full time would typically not receive a penny.

You could fall short if you were to rely on savings as a way of mortgage insurance. Savings could possibly get you by in the short term. However, if you remained unfit for work or unemployed for any length of time they would soon disappear

You can make a claim on your mortgage payment protection insurance policy from between day 30 and 90 after continually being unemployed or from becoming unable to work. The benefits will then continue to provide you with a monthly sum for between 12 and 24 months, depending on the terms laid out by the provider.

Obviously, if you get back to work within this time, then the benefits will cease.

By getting a mortgage insurance quote, or even several, you can see exactly how much it would cost to take out this valuable insurance, as well compare the policy benefits against one another.

While the policy terms and conditions can vary, so can the price – and quite dramatically too.

A mortgage payment plan is usually offered by the high street lender at the time of taking out the homeloan. However, taking protection this way is, historically, often the dearest option, with some £5 billion being raked in each year in profits from selling cover alongside borrowing.

By choosing to shop around for the policy and get a mortgage insurance quote from an independent provider such as the ethical British Insurance. Insurance can be purchased from them for as little as a few pounds a month for every £100 worth of protection required.

Finally, when getting a mortgage insurance quote, check out the exclusions as not everyone is eligible to take out the cover.Some exclusions can include a pre-existing medical condition; but with most providers you will be entitled to claim if you have not suffered from that condition for two years before the first date you became unable to work.

A house is usually a family’s most valuable asset, and in many cases is what someone is most keen to hold on to even in the most difficult circumstances. While most people are able to handle their mortgages most of the time, unforeseen circumstances can change the situation. Most people rely heavily on their incomes from work to pay back their mortgages - few are able to rely on relatives or substantial savings in order to meet the cost of a homeloan. This leaves some people extremely vulnerable if they suddenly lose a job unexpectedly. If their position is lost through no fault of their own, this can be even more frustrating. Some people might want to seek out extra protection via a form of financial assurance, and getting a mortgage insurance quote is the first straightforward step to putting this in place.

Mortgage insurance, also known as mortgage payment protection insurance, is a product designed to help someone out if they lose their income through being ill long-term, suffering an injury after an accident, or being made involuntarily redundant.

Some people will have been offered this type of cover when they took out the homeloan itself. Like many types of insurance, it can pay to shop around for mortgage cover, as opposed to simply taking the first policy which is offered. Deals which are attached to home loans may seem convenient but do not always give someone the best price. Getting a mortgage insurance quote from a more independent firm, such as protection specialists British Insurance, can help someone save a considerable amount of money in the long run.

Most policies operate in a similar way and involve a monthly tax free sum being paid into someone’s account following a successful claim. To be eligible for cover, a potential policyholder must be at least 18 years of age, be a full UK resident, and will normally need to have held down a job for at least six months.

Payments cover a percentage of someone’s monthly mortgage related outgoings. It hleps pay not only the regular commitment to the bank, but also any interest, and even things like home and contents insurance and council tax bills. Note it will not cover 100 per cent of the regular mortgage-related outgoings, but rather a significant portion, with policies starting at 50 per cent.

These payments will continue for 12 to 24 months, depending on the insurer, or until someone is back on their feet and at work. It will also stop in the unlikely event that the mortgage is paid off by the policy.

British Insurance is a good example of a more independent company which does not attach cover to home loans. Getting a mortgage insurance quote from a firm like this could surprise someone who already has such a policy and may be paying over the odds. Simon Burgess is managing director of the company. He said: “We can save some customers up to 40 per cent on mortgage cover, and only sell policies to people who really need them. We do not deal in loans but aim to specialise in providing affordable peace of mind in more financially uncertain times.”

In these troubled and extremely unpredictable economic times, mortgage payment protection insurance has become practically indispensable rather than simply a sensible precaution. But can you actually trust your mortgage insurance quote?

The question needs to be asked because of the atrocious record notched up by some of the major mortgage lenders who also sell this kind of insurance. Most notorious so far – yet in terms of the vastly inflated profits clawed in by the culprits, it represents only the tip of the iceberg – is Alliance and Leicester. As reported by The Independent newspaper on the 7f October 2008, this big-name, high street bank was fined a record £7 million for the serious mis-selling of payment protection insurance.

According to industry regulators, the Financial Services Authority, the bank was guilty of some of the most serious instances of mis-selling encountered to date. In fact, the bank sold some 210,000 such policies, between 2005 and 2007, to earn itself a staggering £265,650,000 – which makes a £7 million penalty seem but a drop in the ocean. With cavalier disregard for its customers’ interests, the bank adopted particularly hard-sell tactics for the product, misleading buyers into the belief that the insurance was somehow “obligatory” or a regulatory condition of obtaining a loan.

“It is nothing of the sort, of course” says Simon Burgess, who runs one of the country’s leading independent providers of mortgage insurance, British Insurance. “It’s something that any homeowner should certainly consider buying – especially given the uncertainty of the economic times ahead. But for the overwhelming majority of customers, the best mortgage insurance quote is going to be for a standalone product from one of the independent providers and not from the institution actually advancing the mortgage”.

Purchase of standalone mortgage insurance from an independent provider will avoid the risk of being mis-sold an inappropriate – or overpriced – policy from the mortgage lender. This provides the much sounder route to a policy that will ensure that mortgage repayments continue to be made even if the policy holder is made redundant or has to take time off work because of an accident or ill-health. It is generally possible to insure a percentage of the normal monthly mortgage repayments, or a maximum of £3,000, whichever is the smaller sum, although these limits will vary from insurer to insurer.

This type of cover is designed to provide short- to medium-term protection – long enough to find alternative employment or to recover from an accident or illness and return to work. The insured benefits are therefore generally payable for a maximum of 12 months, although a 24-month maximum is also available under particular policies. The additional premium payable for the latter will, of course, be reflected in your mortgage insurance quote.