This cover that they all try to throw at you....

[shybaby]

The credit card companies etc. In the event of unemployment mostly. Is it worth the paper its written on? Is it something that would actually be helpful if the worst happened? Is there something you can take out to cover any credit cards and loans you have, maybe with the bank for instance?

(apologies for incredibly stupid post)!

It's generally considered to be a bad idea, as it only covers you in really narrow specific circumstances, and it's very expensive. In fact, I think this is one of the products that has been mis-sold recently and that some people have been trying to get their money back.
If you did have something really bad happen to you like redundancy, then you could set up a debt-management plan to help you pay them off anyway. The credit card companies can't get money from you that you don't have! Even if (worst case senario) they took you to court, the court would allow you enough money to live, and you would only give the surplus to pay off your debts.

Aha! Found the article here.

Which? also warns against payment protection insurance, saying it's expensive, often fails to pay out if you do claim due to umpteen exclusion causes in the small print and that there are other, cheaper ways of getting help if you end up in trouble.

Absolute waste of money. Better to use the money to pay off more of the debt.

If you particularly want payment protection insurance of any description, try somewhere like moneysavingexpert.com or moneysupermarket.com - you can always find a similar or better policy than your credit card company is offering for a fraction of the price.

I agree with all of the comments above, however I have got the PPI with my mortgage and following a slipped disc last year, they paid out following the completion of one form from the docs, and did so for three months.

I continued with the payments afterwards,and am now claiming for redundancy (which being pregnant is nt a great situation to be in) and they have confirmed they will pay out.

I think you need to shop around for a good deal, mine was good with the mortgage anyway, however my brother has gone with an income protection plan that is seperate from any loan and pays out more for the premium - think he went for 1.75times his mortgage payment to give him a buffer, for about £20 a month. It is also pretty comprehensive.

Shop around, if you haven;t got a savings buffer then it could be very helpful.

Mum2Be - I agree that protecting your mortgage or income is different. When we have enough spare money then we'll get income protection insurance for DH. At the moment we only have life insurance and it's not very nice knowing that we'd be better off financially with him dead rather than ill.
PPI for credit cards or loans is completely different though - you aren't at risk for losing you home. All they can do is take you to court to force you pay them back at a rate that you can afford (without starving or living in rags).

Absolutely.

It is quite frightening to think sometimes of how I would cope if my dh wasn't around.

I agree that the CC companies do try and rip people off, however one thing to bear in mind is that protecting yourself with some sort of Income or Payment Protection Insurance, regardless of whether the debt is secured on your home or not, could be a big help and prevent you having to go through very stressful and humiliating experiences of IVAs, Bankruptcy etc.

OP, investigate your options very throughly, I can see from your post that you are talking about other coverage as well, not just CC, and I would have lost my home last year, and would be looking at it this year if it wasn't for the investment I have made in my protection.

And PS, I don't work in Financial Services either...

We have insurance on our mortgage and a secured loan we took out but we don't have the cover for credit cards etc as we pay for income protection and have included those figures in with that cover. Its not nice to have to think about something bad happening but I think these days its imperative. Joint income protection for us is only £50 a month whereas some of the insurance we used to pay for just credit cards was way beyond that figure.