Loan insurance is often extremely complicated which in the past has caused many problems and consumers being sold cover they cannot possibly hope to make a claim against. A lack of information is the main problem and as long as consumers understand what they are taking on a policy can protect them. It would provide the policyholder with an income, tax-free which was the sum they insured against when they took out the cover.
Buying a policy from a specialist payment protection provider as opposed to just adding the protection in at the time of borrowing is essential. This way you will get cover far cheaper as high street lenders charge way over the odds for the protection. They have been known to work out the protection for the length of time you take the loan over and then add this in before adding interest on top of it. This means that not only are you paying interest on the amount you are borrowing but also on the protection itself. Sometimes this means that the cost of the cheap loan can almost double.
If you get a quote for loan insurance with an independent payment protection specialist then you are quoted based on age and the amount of your loan that you want to protect. This is the figure that you would receive each month to pay your commitments. All payment protection providers will allow you to protect up to a certain amount of your loan/credit card outgoing each month.
Loan insurance would payout your income after a certain length of unemployment or of being incapacitated. This is set out in the terms and conditions as is the length of time it would payout once you had made a claim against the policy. Usually providers will state either a period of 30 and up to 90 days and then you are able to put in your claim. When it comes to paying out the policy can usually be taken to receive a payment each month for 12 months or providers might offer 24 monthly payments. After this period of time the cover would simply cease. However in the majority of cases this would be more than enough to have made a recovery or to have found work again.
If you have not got loan insurance behind you then you would have to suffer the consequences of defaulting on the loan. Secured loans on your home would mean that you are at risk of having it repossessed if you cannot catch up on the arrears while maintaining the loan repayments. If you have taken out an unsecured loan then the lender could take you to court and you could earn a County Court Judgment against yourself. In all cases your credit rating would be affected and this could mean that lenders will not allow you to borrow in the future. If you are approved for a loan you might have to pay a high rate of interest. For just a small premium each month all of this can be avoided.
Simon Burgess is Managing Director of the award-winning British Insurance, a specialist provider of loan insurance. |
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