Mortgage Protection Insurance

We did not take out mortgage repayment protection insurance when we took out our mortgage 3 years ago. I rang our bank about taking it out last month and they posted me out the details. When I rang to arrange it this week, the bank said that the insurance company they deal with that provides the insurance has told them that they can no longer offer this insurance to people who already have taken out a mortgage. They will only offer it to people at the moment they take out a mortgage so we cannot avail of the mortgage protection insurance. I thought that we could arrange cover oursleves through another company but the bank says that we can only get it though their insurance provider (who wont insure us as we did not take it out at the time of taking out the mortgage)? So in other words we cannot get any mortgage protection insurance unless we change our mortgage to another bank. Does anyone know if this is correct???/

That does not sound correct, i did enquire about this from AVAIS (?) and it seems fairly straight forward and i am in the middle of a mortgage. I did not take it out as i think its a bit of a rip-off.
Cant really see why the bank would even need to know that you have a policy of this kind, its none of their business.
Anyway sounds very doggy.

This does not sound correct, I offer Mortgage Income Protection through Cardiff Pinnacle, with no affiliation with any particular bank.

As far as the banks are concerned , its none of their business who you take out assurances with to payoff the mortgage (lump sum or regular payments). Once they recieve the cash, the dont care.

Some Income Protection companies will not offer cover after a mortgage has commenced but likewise some do. I would assume (based on what you said above) you got talking to a usual bank official that knows nothing about anything outside the walls of their own bank . . Nothing like a bank to misinform their clients . .

"Mortgage Income Protection through Cardiff Pinnacle" ??

Sumatra said:

"Mortgage Income Protection through Cardiff Pinnacle" ??

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They are a company that do business in Ireland:

Thanks! This isn't the first time the bank has given us the wrong advice!

FYI - if you are taking out mortgage repayment insurance because there's a danger you/OH could lose your job, be sure that it'll pay out.

Lots of these policies won't pay out if you had reason to expect that you were going to lose your job before you took out the policy.

I believe they are lots of issues with Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance paying out if you lost your job, etc.

Various reports in the media suggest that the payout rate is quite low, also this insurance is going to get more expensive due to the increase in people claiming.

I would keep away from this altogether.

Hobbs256 said:

Various reports in the media suggest that the payout rate is quite low, also this insurance is going to get more expensive due to the increase in people claiming.

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Just curious - have any of these reports been backed up by actual verifiable statistics?

I was told by a person whose job it was to actually sell these policies to steer clear as the payouts are very low as the clauses in these hinder payouts.

Re: Mortgage Repayment Protection Insurance

Restrictive exclusions, poor sales practices, overpriced and unsuitable.

LDFerguson said:

Just curious - have any of these reports been backed up by actual verifiable statistics?

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Is there any statistics that show they actually pay out. They are notoriously difficult to get payment on.

Personally I'd save the premiums as a rainy day fund as you have more chance of having something that way in the event of loss of employment/illness etc.

North Drum "This does not sound correct, I offer Mortgage Income Protection through Cardiff Pinnacle, with no affiliation with any particular bank" Can you tell us please from experience do they usually (insurance companies) make protection payments either in full or in part and is there any difficulty in recieving this if so why would there be. This is a good question and I never thought of asking untill I read above posts, much obliged.


Maximus152
Because Im worth it.

Maximus152 said:

North Drum "This does not sound correct, I offer Mortgage Income Protection through Cardiff Pinnacle, with no affiliation with any particular bank" Can you tell us please from experience do they usually (insurance companies) make protection payments either in full or in part and is there any difficulty in recieving this if so why would there be. This is a good question and I never thought of asking untill I read above posts, much obliged.


Maximus152
Because Im worth it.

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HI Maximus,

The truth of the matter is that I do not have any statistics at hand to show you you that they payout or do not. From what I understand (and I can be corrected on this) the product has only recently been getting mass interest due to the troubles in the economy. Given the vagueness surrounding the redundancy cover, I have queried how a person in any job in this country wouldnt be considered "worried about being made redundant". The reply I got was simply that it would be judged on a case by case basis. (unsatisfactory I know!)

Until we do have statistics, there will be much idle talk of "I know a guy who knows a guy who says they never payout" which are just rumours. Many a time has somebody phoned into Joe Duffy claiming to of been discriminated against or denied a claim of some sort by an insurance company. In MOST cases I have found out that these were generally people who didnt meet certain criteria (legally) or who stopped paying for the cover or lied on their application forms, but of course Joe Doesnt want a show about apologising to Big Bad insurance companies!! There are cases of bad practise by Insurance companies but they are the exception generally, rather then the rule.

I can only go off what my broker association tell me. The price of the product I can sell has just gone up due to a quadrouple of claims. My contact has said he hasnt received any complaints yet (not necessarily an indication that there are not dissatisfied clients but a positive sign) and that he sees many claims being processed (again Im not sure how many claims are being denied or reasons why claims are being made void).

I have been approached by many people looking to take out this assurance who had reason to believe they would be let go and put them off taking out this product. That said, one or two of them wanted to "take a punt" that the insurance company wouldnt find out that they suspected redundancy. This is not something I recommend and I advised them to seriously think it over as its really wasted money. This is the main reason why the rest of us are left jumping through hoops for claims like these, there are fraudsters out there!!

I have said it here before, I have some issues with the terms and conditions of the product, But I would like to believe that if a person is honest and has a genuine case to be claimed on that the company has declined, that the financial ombudsman will force a company to payout.

Okay thank you North Drum for the reply & info.

"quadrouple of claims"

Ahh an excellent opportunity for the company to publish their claims statistics then? The cynic in me says it's all to do with price sensitivity in marketing and nothing to do with their claims payout generosity. Their pending price increase will still be within their desperate customers price sensitivity window. and they know it.

"the financial ombudsman will force a company to payout"

Well I'm gobsmacked.

Sumatra said:

"quadrouple of claims"

Ahh an excellent opportunity for the company to publish their claims statistics then? The cynic in me says it's all to do with price sensitivity in marketing and nothing to do with their claims payout generosity. Their pending price increase will still be within their desperate customers price sensitivity window. and they know it.

"the financial ombudsman will force a company to payout"

Well I'm gobsmacked.

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Doesnt seem to matter what the statistics show , It seems you made up your mind already. One bad apple or story is enough to generally taint the majority of cases, in the eyes of a cynic.

Dont confuse the financial regulator with the financial ombudsman. The F.O. is far more pro active for clients then the F.R.

My quote there has been misused , I did say " I would like to believe" that the ombudsman will force a company to payout. We could all be cynical about everything in life, but that would get us nowhere. I dont blame people for being cynical about this product (as I am to a certain degree myself) but I can only trust that the system will work and that the information I provide to people will allow them make their own minds on the quality of the product.

Re: mortgage repayment protection or mortgage income protection?

My goodness why wouldn't meaningful and "verifiable statistics" matter? Are they impossible to get?

They pay their intermediaries 20 to 30% commission to sell the product whilst at the same time the intermediaries pay their levy to the ombudsman who will be expected to compensate those who have been mis-sold?

To cure my cynicism underwrite the dammed product at inception rather than at claim stage and be fair to those paying a fortune for so called peace of mind.

They have campaigns against this type of cover in the UK and they are paying dearly for it. Do we ever learn from the mistakes of others?

Re: mortgage repayment protection or mortgage income protection?

Sumatra said:

My goodness why wouldn't meaningful and "verifiable statistics" matter? Are they impossible to get?

They pay their intermediaries 20 to 30% commission to sell the product whilst at the same time the intermediaries pay their levy to the ombudsman who will be expected to compensate those who have been mis-sold?

To cure my cynicism underwrite the dammed product at inception rather than at claim stage and be fair to those paying a fortune for so called peace of mind.

They have campaigns against this type of cover in the UK and they are paying dearly for it. Do we ever learn from the mistakes of others?

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No point in discussing this further with you.

I have not tried to hide anything , nor have I defended the products vague terms and conditions. I have simply said what I know of the product. You have simply speculated about "non existant facts" based on your own cynicism.

As far as underwriting is concerned, if you have an Illness or condition that you knew about before the policy is taken out, it will not be covered, dont know why thats so difficult to understand . . .

Your Joe Duffy like comments the Financial Ombudsman dont need to be commented on, I wouldnt know where to begin . . . There is a fine line between being a complete cynic, to acting like everybodys out to get you . .

Suppose if it happened in the UK its a "fact" that it will happen here . .

You might want to get those chips on your shoulder looked at . . They can really weigh you down . If you want to take your mind off things for a while why dont you paint something with that same brush that you use to taint everybody else with. . .

In the third posting you're the one who told us you sold a similar product through Cardif Pinnacle.

In your next post you told us you don't have any statistics to show their claims experience. You are the one who said you queried the vagueness of the cover offered from the company you sell the product for and you admitted to us that you got an unsatisfactory response. You said your broker association couldn't help either.

You then went on to tell us that you have some issues with the terms and conditions of the product. You also said you tried to defend what you called the 'products vague terms and conditions'. We only know this after 19 posts. If you didn't say all this then I wouldn't have discussed it further with you. Reading your replies and knowing what you know I just can't understand how you can continue to sell this product.