Archive for the ‘Mortgage Protection Quote’

Just as you would shop around for a new TV or similar, so you do so too for your mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI) cover. You can do this by getting a mortgage protection quote from an independent provider.

But first of all, what does the cover actually do? The concept is that it protects your home from repossession – which is especially comforting in these troubled economic times. In the event of you being made redundant or becoming incapacitated, the policy will step in and help you carry on meeting your mortgage repayments by providing a tax free lump sum every month.

How does it work – when can I claim?

Policy terms and features will vary among the different mortgage protection providers, but typically, there will be a waiting period before you can make a claim. Usually this will be anything between day 30 and 90 after the event. Do look out for insurers who will backdate your claim to the first day, so you can feel the full benefit of the cover then.

Once the claim starts to pay out, it will provide the monthly benefit for up to 12-24 months depending on the policy small print, or until you get back to work. This should give you more than enough time to find a new job or get back on the road to recovery.

Do I really need it?

You might think that mortgage payment insurance is an expense you don’t need at a time when you are already financially stretched. Or maybe you plan to live off any savings in the event that you lose your job or otherwise are unable to work. However, this type of thinking is why so many homeowners sadly lose their homes because they cannot meet their monthly mortgage repayments for whatever financial reason they’re facing.

If you shop around, you can get a low cost mortgage protection quote. In fact, by going with a standalone provider such as British Insurance, you can save around 40% on the cost of the cover, compared to those on the high street.

Managing Director of British Insurance, Simon Burgess, is a staunch campaigner for consumer rights when it comes to the selling of mortgage protection insurance and regularly campaigns to this effect, meaning you’ll get a fair deal.

Considerations

When choosing your cover, do compare the policies on a like for basis so that you get the right level of cover. Things to look out for include the exclusions. Some exclusions are universal to all protection policies and can include being of retirement age, suffering a pre-existing medical condition, or if you are only in part time employment. Providers can add in others so checking the wording of the terms and conditions is essential before you sign on the dotted line.

Finally, note that some providers will provide a mortgage protection quote that only covers your monthly mortgage repayments. Remember to include protection for the cost of your mortgage life insurance and your home and contents insurance as well as any other mortgage related costs.

There are many ways people can minimise their chances of falling upon hard times. Saving for the future is a good start, as is keeping debt to a bare minimum. Just about everyone also has a car insurance policy if they drive a vehicle, and many people also take out medical cover and home and contents insurance. But there’s also a way for mortgage holders to protect their ability to keep up with home loans. Some insurance policies can effectively provide a buffer if someone is struggling to keep up with the regular commitments to the bank. A mortgage protection quote can also help someone to get an idea of the cost involved, and shopping around can usually find just about anyone an affordable policy.

Mortgage protection, also sometimes known as mortgage payment protection insurance, effectively helps to guarantee someone’s ability to keep up with monthly repayments even if they face a crisis. Typical circumstances which are covered include losing an income through accident and injury, long-term sickness, and involuntary redundancy. A basic shortage of cash can be dramatically worsened if someone suddenly loses their job through no fault of their own, and can sometimes push someone over the edge to face the threat of repossession.

Subject to a successful claim, an insurer providing mortgage protection will provide a policyholder with a regular cash amount towards their homeloan-related costs. This will continue for 12 to 24 months, depending on the insurer, or until the person has found new work or is back up on their feet or able to return to their normal job.

Most policies will cover 50 per cent of someone’s monthly homeloan-related costs, including the repayments themselves, the interest, buildings and contents insurance, and even council tax. Utility bills and groceries may also be covered. Fifty per cent of this total is the starting point - if someone is after a greater slice of cover, they will usually be able to negotiate with the insurer and get a higher level of protection for a more expensive premium.

Getting a mortgage protection quote is the first step on the road to getting a policy, and it could pay not to simply go to your homeloan lender or a big name insurance company. Although these are common sources of this type of insurance, this does not mean they are the best value. Other companies such as the ethical British Insurance are more independent and do not offer loans.

Simon Burgess, managing director of British Insurance, said: “Consumers may be surprised by what they can save after getting a different mortgage protection quote to the one given to them by their regular insurer or mortgage provider. Companies like ours shun rip-off tactics in favour of getting the best deal possible for our customers. The right kind of cover can make a crucial difference in difficult times and we specialise in acting quickly on claims, ensuring our policyholders do not suffer any unnecessary extra stress after losing their incomes.”

Are you eligible for the cover offered by the mortgage insurance being sold? Do you know that there is no compulsion to buy it from the mortgage lender? Does it provide the cover you thought it did? Are you paying a competitive or reasonable price in premiums? These are all perfectly reasonable questions to ask, of course, but it is amazing how many consumers have been sold mortgage insurance even when the answers to all of those questions should have been a resounding “no”. Sad to say, consumers have to ask themselves whether they have been given an honest mortgage protection quote.

Consumers need to beware since there are plenty of high street banks and building societies who have proved themselves incapable of selling a simple and very useful insurance product with the necessary degree of honesty. The latest in a sorry series of penalties imposed on such errant lenders was Alliance and Leicester, found guilty by the Financial Services Authority of especially serious failings in its duty of care to its customers. As reported by The Independent newspaper on the 7th October 2008, this bank was fined a record £7 million and, along with other high street names, has been guilty of selling mortgage insurance to those who are ineligible for the sort of cover it offers; pressurising customers into believing its purchase was compulsory; and overcharging them into the bargain. Their mortgage protection quotes were anything but honest.

All the while, however, such mortgage protection remains a thoroughly worthwhile and potentially life-saving product. It will help to ensure that the mortgage repayments continue to be met even if the policy holder loses time at work because of an accident or illness or becomes involuntarily unemployed.

So where can the consumer concerned to secure such valuable protection turn and get a realistic mortgage protection quote ? Fortunately, help is at hand in the shape of the various independent insurance providers that the industry’s own watchdogs, together with the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading, are explicitly encouraging buyers to seek out. A much better deal, such industry experts are openly saying, can be bought in the form of a standalone mortgage payment protection policy from an independent insurance provider rather than “at the point of sale” from the mortgage lender itself.

A spokesman for just such an independent provider, Simon Burgess of British Insurance, confirms just such an approach when he says: “not only have the high street banks been raking it in through the sale of overpriced mortgage insurance, they’ve been misleading their customers to do so. We believe in giving the customer an honest and impartial assessment of their insurance needs and have nothing to gain by selling an unsuitable product at an inflated price. Any mortgage protection quote we give is based on what the customer actually needs, at a fair and reasonable price”.

A mortgage protection quote works out a lot cheaper if you choose to search around with specialist independent payment protection providers. One of the cheapest quotes for protection will come by way of ethical specialist British Insurance who can save you up to as much as 40% on the cost. You can take the insurance by protecting a portion of your monthly mortgage repayment against the possibility that you might lose your income to accident, sickness and unemployment. The sum you insured can be claimed back each month if you became a victim to one of these events and it would be paid tax free.

The income you received from your policy would go towards you being able to maintain your mortgage repayments which could stop you from falling into mortgage arrears. All homeowners need to avoid mortgage arrears as they can lead to losing the home if they cannot be caught up on. Lenders will try to agree to you catching up on the arrears but if you have not got an income this could be extremely hard. With mortgage payment protection you would at least have an income to rely on for the time set out in the small print of the protection.

The policy, should you take it with leading specialist British Insurance would begin to provide you with an income once you had been unemployed or incapacitated for at least 30 days. They would also backdate the protection to day one from you being made redundant or from you becoming incapacitated. The protection would then continue paying out for as long as 12-24 months before expiring.

One of the things that will go towards determining how much you will pay for your mortgage protection quote is the type of mortgage payment protection you need. You can choose to take out protection for accident, sickness and unemployment together; however you might not need this. British Insurance will offer insurance to cover unemployment only or you can take out cover just for incapacity. The protection would also be based on your age if you take it with British Insurance and this means that the younger generation can now afford to protect their homes. Cover offered by mortgage lenders is often unaffordable as the younger generation often push their outgoings to the limit when getting their foot on the ladder of property buying.

As consumers, we generally look for two things when buying – a product or service that delivers just what we need and at the cheapest possible price. Suitability and price, therefore, inform most of our decisions to purchase on that golden principle of the best value for money. The best mortgage protection quote can be defined by that same principle of the best value for money.

Mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI) is about ensuring that mortgage repayments continue to be made even if the policy holder is incapacitated from working – and thus risks losing the regular income from which to pay the mortgage – through an accident or ill-health or even if he or she becomes unemployed through no fault of their own. It is such an attractively simple and straight forward kind of insurance that it would appear little could go wrong in searching for the best mortgage protection quote.

Yet after thorough-going investigations, none other than the industry’s own watchdogs have concluded that many thousands of consumers have been mis-sold mortgage protection insurance by banks and building societies that have failed to ensure that their customers bought the cover they wanted or needed. Indeed, in the worst instances, customers were sold insurance for which they were not even eligible – because they were beyond working age or had not been in regular employment when the cover was designed to commence, for example. Industry watchdogs such as the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission, therefore, have been highly critical of the quality of sales advice given at “the point of sale” by many mortgage lenders. Clearly, the value of a mortgage protection quote is seriously undermined if it leads the consumer to buying insurance for which he or she is ineligible – the product is worthless.

Not only is it important to ensure that the mortgage insurance quote is for a suitable product, but also that it is quoting a competitive price. Yet here again many of the big-name banks and building societies have been found to be over-charging. Their customers have been paying substantially over the odds for a product that could be bought more cheaply elsewhere.

The “elsewhere” in question is the independent insurance provider, according to both the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading. As a spokesman for one of those independent providers, Simon Burgess of British Insurance says: “We’re not in the business of advancing mortgages or any other kind of lending, so we can concentrate on making sure that our customers receive the best, impartial advice on the insurance cover that is right for them – what’s more, the independent provider can ensure that their mortgage protection quote represents the best value for money that there is on the market”.

It’s fair to say you can cover just about anything with an insurance policy these days. From someone’s car to their life, a firm somewhere will have a product to protect it. Cars and lives in fact, are two of the more common things to be protected by insurers, along with the likes of buildings and contents. That’s the home itself under guard then, but what about the loan that actually put the roof over the mortgage borrower’s head in the first place? Less certain economic times mean people often end up questioning what they would do if they were suddenly unable to keep up with regular mortgage repayments. Failure to pay them can result in repossession, a still rare but distressing event. This is why some people go in search of a mortgage protection quote.

Mortgage protection, also known as mortgage payment protection insurance or MPPI, to name but two pieces of jargon tied to the sector, is a policy designed to protect someone’s ability to keep up with the monthly repayments on their home. Of course, provided someone is in work and has not overstretched themselves with the type of home loan they applied for, they will normally have no need to worry. But sometimes people end up falling victim to the unexpected. This can mean they end up out of work due to involuntary redundancy, long-term sickness or injury through an accident. Once sick pay or redundancy money runs out, which is often quickly, they can suddenly find themselves in difficulty.

Mortgage protection will pay out a tax free sum towards regular repayments following a successful claim. It will normally kick in around 30-90 days after the claim has been approved depending on the provider and can pay out for anything up to around a year or more while the policy holder recovers or seeks alternative employment. When seeking a mortgage protection quote, the prospective policy holder might want to think about how much of their regular payment they would like to see covered, as few firms offer 100 per cent protection of every payment. They can typically choose a percentage such as 50 to 80 per cent, for example so check when you get your mortgage protection quote.

Choosing a provider is only the first step when getting a mortgage protection quote, and smaller, more specialist firms can often provide better deals. Specialist payment protection provider British Insurance is one of these firms. Managing Director Simon Burgess said: “Over-inflated commission is not part of our ethos. Instead we do our best to ensure reasonable and affordable prices without scrimping on the cover which is provided. Price cuts do not mean short cuts when it comes to our policies.”

If you choose to get a mortgage protection quote independently you can often save a great deal of money on the premiums. Mortgage payment protection can be taken out to insure a portion of your monthly mortgage repayment, which would be pre-agreed when taking out the protection, against the possibility that you could lose your own income. A policy would cover a lost income due to becoming unemployed or if you were to suffer an accident or sickness.

The sum of money that you insured against would be the income that you received back, tax-free each month for the duration of the policy. All providers will only payout for a certain amount of time and you will also have to wait for a period of time before making a claim. Ethical specialists in payment protection British Insurance offer a policy that comes with no excess as they backdate to the first day of you losing your income due to incapacity or unemployment. You would then have an income to rely on towards being able to meet the demands of the mortgage repayments for 12 months with British Insurance. If you shop around and compare cover always check the small print before taking out the protection as some providers could offer a policy that would continue paying out for up to 24 months. However you should also check to see when you would be able to put in your claim as some could state a deferment period of up to 90 days.

A mortgage protection quote provided by British Insurance would save you as much as 40% and you are able to choose the type of cover you need for your circumstances. You might just need to protect against the possibility that you could become unemployed. You could also need just to take out protection for incapacity or you could choose to protect against accident, sickness and unemployment together. Mortgage insurance premiums are also based on the amount of your mortgage repayment you choose to cover and your age. Age based protection means that mortgage protection is affordable for even the younger first time home buyer whose budgets are often stretched to the limit.

With a mortgage protection quote for ethical British Insurance you get protection that comes with few exclusions, however these have to be checked against your circumstances to ensure that protection would be suitable before you take it on. Once you have done this you can then rely on your mortgage cover which allows you to concentrate on making a full recovery or it gives you time to search for work.

A cheap mortgage protection quote could lead to you taking out cover that would save your home from repossession if you lost your income. You might lose your income as a result of becoming unemployed due to redundancy or you could suffer from an accident or an illness that meant you were unable to work for many months. During this time you would have to maintain your mortgage repayments as falling behind could lead to repossession.

You can take out cover with a standalone provider and save money on the premiums. If you choose cover from standalone provider British Insurance you could save as much as 40%. You would take out the protection by insuring up to a certain amount of your mortgage repayment and then claim this sum back as a tax-free income each month for up to the period of time stated in the terms of the cover. You would have to check the starting and ending dates as they vary.

British Insurance would payout from the 30th day of you being unemployed or incapacitated and they would pay back to day one of you being unemployed or incapacitated. Once the cover has begun to provide you with an income it would then continue to do so for a period of 12 months if you needed to put in a claim for that long. If you choose to shop around with providers you would have to look into the terms of the cover as some providers would ask that you wait for up to 90 days before you would put in a claim. You also need to check to check to see for how long you would be paid out on the cover as some providers can payout up to 24 months.

A cheap mortgage protection quote from British Insurance would be based on the level of cover taken, your age when you apply and how much you protect. Depending on your lifestyle you would have the choice of taking out protection for accident, sickness and unemployment together or unemployment protection alone or incapacity alone. As the protection is age based this means that the younger first time home buyer can now afford to protect the roof over their heads. Previously the high priced policies offered by the lenders on the high street meant that cover was unaffordable. When considering taking out mortgage cover you would also have to look at the exclusions and compare them against your circumstances. There are some found in all protection and British Insurance makes you aware of them on their website.

You are able to secure yourself a mortgage protection quote much easier and certainly cheaper if you were to search and compare online with independent providers. Ethical specialist British Insurance would offer one of the cheapest which could save you up to as much as 40%. Along with this you have access to the important information that is needed to ensure that cover is suitable and you get expert advice free of charge by way of articles and FAQs.

Mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI) is taken by the policyholder insuring up to so much of their monthly mortgage repayment and then claiming this sum of money back as a tax-free income each month should they lose their income due to unemployment, accident or sickness.

The money from the cover would go a long way to you being able to maintain your mortgage repayments and not have to worry about falling into arrears. Cover can be taken out protect you losing your income due to being made redundant, falling sick or if you were to suffer from an accident which would leave you unfit for work. You can choose to cover all three together with ethical British Insurance or you could just choose to protect against accident and sickness only (also known as incapacity) or unemployment only and this would affect the mortgage protection quote.

With British Insurance you would be able to make a claim on the policy once you had been unemployed or incapacitated for a period of at least 30 days. Benefit would be backdated to day one of your unemployment of from being unable to work and then it would continue to supply you with an income each month for up to 12 months. If you were to check the terms and conditions of other providers you might find that some would extend this to 90 days before you were able to put in your claim. The terms must also be checked to see when the policy would end as there are some providers that might offer you 24 months of protection.

Any  mortgage protection quote would also come with some exclusions and these do tend to differ between providers. Some could add in many while others such as British Insurance only put in the basic exclusions which are most frequently found in all payment protection polices. Once you have checked the exclusions against your circumstances you can be sure that you would be eligible to claim and would be able to rely on the cover. A policy is a better solution than relying on savings or help from the State. Savings could run out and State benefits would only help with the interest part of the mortgage repayments.

Mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI) an be a great product to have but it can also be a very costly form of insurance depending on where you choose to take the protection from. If you have it added in with the mortgage when taking it out then you can typically pay more than if you get a mortgage protection quote with an independent provider. You can insure against the possibility of losing your income through accident, sickness or redundancy.

One of the cheapest quotes will come from independent payment protection provider British Insurance. You would take out a policy by insuring up to a certain portion of your mortgage repayment and then claim this back as a tax-free sum if and when you lost your income. They offer premiums that are based on how old you are when you take out the cover, the amount that you protect and level of cover. You can take full cover against accident sickness and redundancy or you could choose just to take protection for unemployment only or for incapacity only. As the cover is age based this means that even the younger generation of first time home buyers are able to protect their repayments which are often high and push the budgets to their limit.

A mortgage protection quote from British Insurance would lead to cover that would begin to provide you with an income after the 30th day of you being incapacitated or unemployed. British Insurance would back pay on the protection to day one of your unemployment or incapacity and they would then continue to provide you with 12 months’ protection before the cover would end. You might be able to find a provider that could offer 24 months cover and some might ask that you wait for as long as the 90th day before putting in a claim. This has to be checked in the terms and conditions of the cover before you take out the protection.

By choosing to look around for your mortgage protection quote with British Insurance you could save up to as much as 40% on the cost of protection in comparison to the cover that high street lenders provide. High street lenders charge way over the odds for the protection which has in the past given payment protection a very bad name. The high cost of insurance brings them £4 billion in profits each year and along with this often very little information is given out when selling. You would have to check exclusions in the protection against your circumstances if you are to be sure of being eligible. British Insurance would provide this information on their website so you can be sure of getting a policy that gives you the right protection.