homeowners - do you all have...

[helsi]

a mortgage protection policy?
life assurance?

if so can I be nosey and ask who with and approx how much do you pay per month?

also - is it totally necessary to have these?

We've had to get them for the new house we have bought.

They're both with HSBC because thats who our mortgage is with.

We pay £30 for life and critical illness cover and £38 for income protection. A month.
We also have a life insurance policy with Scottish widows each. Pays out £100k. Mine is £5, dh's is £8.

HTH

I think you HAVE to have life assurance if you have a mortgage Helsi otherwise they have no way of guarantee the repayment of the loan should you die. What you pay depends on your age, health etc.

We have never had mortgage protection because my DH is a contractor so not in permanant employment. It is very expensive I think and there are lots of "let outs". Also I think you might find they dont pay for the first month or so which means you still have to have some form of back up anyway. I am sure some people would swear by it and others, like me, would not bother. I am pretty sure if you were to save the premiums up in another account somewhere it should cover all but the most disastrous situations.

I am sure there will be someone along soon who will know more.

Good luck

Life assurance was a condition of our mortgage - I think that is pretty standard. We pay £24 per month - Norwich Union.

I heard something about MPPs on make-your-ears-bleed Moneybox recently - that mortgage providers are being criticised for pushing them, and also hard to claim. No experience here, but we don't have one.

Money section of Guardian website is usually good for this sort of thing.

mortgage protection is not worth getting, it is very hard to actually make a claim on it (according to our financial advisor)

you must get life insurance though and the payout should at the vey least pay off any mortgage you have. just life cover on its own will be cheaper per month, if you include critical illness cover, that will make it more expensive. the cost of critical illness cover has gone up alot over the last 5 years.

try moneysupermarket.com

Check any critical illness policy to make sure exactly what it covers. Some policies are very selective, so you don't have cover for health issues such as heart attacks, unless they are very serious etc.

I will stick with the life ass then as its only £13.50 per month. I pay £25.29 per month the mortgage protection and it seems pointless to me as have just tried to claim when dh off work sick and as he wasn't absent over 30 days then they won't allow us to claim! seems pintless as not many people are ever off sick for 30 days+. Like someone said I might just put that premium into my savings.

we don't have a mortgage on our house but still have life cover - at least it would ease the blow should one of us depart prematurely!
We've got enough to cover paying a full-time nanny until the children are all grown up and a bit extra (approx. £265K each). It's great for peace of mind.

My biggest problem is the life insurance and income protection me and my ex-husband have. The life insurance covers the mortgage for both of us, so if we both die, it gets paid out twice but he also has income protection, and long term sickness cover. When he left me, I spoke to Friends Provident, our insurance provider, and they recommended that I keep the life insurance for my husband as, if he dies, I will get it for the mortgage, he cannot give it to his girlfriend! But when I tried to cancel the policy for his income protection - worse comes to worst, I have ways to manage to pay the mortgage, but they won't let me. They need to hear from him cancelling that policy and he won't ring them so for the past 3 years or so I am paying £78 a month (for life insurance and income protection) but it is mostly for him.

Roll on the day I can afford to pay him off, get my own mortgage and only worry about my own insurance(s).

No mortgage protection and no life cover. We always get offered mortgage protection when we change mortgage but have never taken it up since always assumed it is a waste of money. Never heard of being asked to have at least life insurance or mortgage protection (mortgages in past have included those with Alliance & Leicester and Halifax).

You shouldn't have to take either out if you don't want to (and if they really try and force you, check with Ombudsman/Financial Services authority).

If you do feel comfortable taking out one or the other at the request of the mortgage company, don't feel obliged to take the provision with them. Unlikely they will offer the best deal.

Yes we have life insurance (in fact DH has about 3 policies), one to cover the mortgage and one (or 2) to provide a lump sum to live on (as well as his death in service). No mortgage protection. No idea what we pay monthly though. Payments are probably pretty hefty given our mahoosive mortgage.

I thought it was a condition of the mortgage to have life cover?

No & yes. The life assurance is a joint policy though for my ex and I. We decided (yes we actually agreed on something!) that it was better for us to keep it going as let's face it if something happened to either of us it would financially effect the other since we have children together. It's also much cheaper as we've had the policy for 10 yrs now.

We have life assurance so wel will have as soon as the doctor sends off the medical report they have asked for!

We are also going to get income protection for DH

endowment policies (GRRR) have life cover built in. They will pay off the mortage amount if you die. We have separate life ass though to pay out a lump sum in addition to mortgage.

Yes have both

Both provided via Connell's estate agents when I took out orginal mortgage.

Life assurance is about 25 pcm
MMP is 10.32 pcm or the other way round

Mortgage protection will cover your mortgage payments if you are made redundant or too ill to work I think, and life assurance pays out lump sum to pay of mortgage if you die or diagnosed with a critical illness.

Think that's right - someone will put me right if not I hope.

Think the both were required by my lender, but was happy to continue once I'd moved lender so I have the safety net just in case.

Umm interesting about MMP might look into moving that somewhere else and covering it else were then. moneyexpert.com I have found fairly helpful but will be looking at some of the site's you've suggested too.

Bumblelion can't you just cancel the direct debit?

The only way I could cancel car insurance I was paying on ex p's car was to cancel DD - they refused to talk to me and he's in the US with no intention of doing anything. They soon cancelled the policy. Cost them a recorded delivery letter too.

look at the insurance section on money saving expert . com. Thta explains it all really clearly for financially inept people like me!

No neither

but both have enough death in service cover to more than cover the mortgage, plus PHI.

Yes to life assurance. No to protection policy - all the likely reasons for us not being able to pay the mortgage seemed to be excluded and we reckoned we'd be better off putting the money into savings.