Mortgage protection insurance

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WorstPigeon

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Currently trying to arrange mortgage protection insurance. Is three any particular reason not to go with one of the brokers (labrokers, lion, etc.) or not to go for the cheapest provider? Or is it essentially a generic service? Also, is there any benefit to going with my bank's insurance?
 
I'm in a similar position, and was wondering the same thing. From what I can see, the only benefit to going with the bank is convenience. I was advised by a friend that it's better to keep the mortgage protection separate from the bank if you decide down the line to try to switch mortgage providers. Though I spoke to a financial advisor lately who didn't seem to think there was much point in keeping the insurance separate, that I wouldn't be saving anything by going through a broker or direct to the life assurance company.

From reading the policy booklets from a couple of providers, I have to say I can't see much difference in them. With the serious illness policies, it seems to be the same list of illnesses, and similar terms in relation to partial payments. I'm inclined to go with the cheapest quote I get unless somebody was to suggest a reason not to.
 
If you are sure you are comparing like with like then just take the cheapest. Easier to do with straight forward decreasing life/mortgage protection. Serious illness cover can vary slightly, I would be inclined to go to a broker to check the comparisons for that product.

No obvious reason to take it with your bank unless they are actually the cheapest. Keeping it separate for any reasons of switching doesn't really matter.
 
Your better off to go to a broker as he will have access to a search engine like "best advice" which will give the cheapest quote on the market so no matter what company you take it out with they will have to match the cheapest one. If you go direct to the bank they may not advise of a cheaper quote.
It's also best to keep the lifecover & serious illness separate & just give the mortgage company the cheap lifecover only policy. The reason for this is if there's a claim on the serious illness & it's assigned to the bank you have to go through them to claim & it's their decision on what they allow you to do with it. By keeping it separate you own the policy so you do what you want in the unfortunate event of a claim.
 
I went with a broker in the end, and got a very good price as compared to the insurer's own quoted prices. It's amazing the price variation on such a basically generic product, really. The broker was helpful and the whole process was very quick. Generally the ones who don't do cheap introductory rates seem to offer better lifetime rates. There's also a small discount for paying annually.

One thing I did hear was that going with the lender's insurance might be a problem if you wanted to move lender later (on the basis that as an older applicant with potentially new health problems you'd get a worse rate), but surely in that case the lender is just a broker themselves, and you can keep the insurance? Didn't go down this road myself, but it'd seem strange if you couldn't.
 
Go for the cheapest and shop around, anecdotally the bank providing the mortgage is not neccesarily going to give you the best rate. Which kind of makes sense. You are, essentially, paying insurance on your mortgage providers behalf, since it is protection of their asset (your repayment of your loan)! Mine is €12.62pm which I think is a pretty cheap deal (though I haven't checked recently) Obviously it depends on the mortgage amount and term.
 
I think the confusion about switching and keeping your policy relates to years ago when banks insured people in what was a block policy and not a separate policy for every person. You couldn't move these or continue them on if you cleared the mortgage as you were just part of a group policy. I don't think this happens anymore, maybe someone still in the business could confirm?

Nowadays your bank either has it's own life assurance company attached or is a tied agent of an insurance company, they can't be called brokers because they don't offer a choice and are limited to offering the products of the one they are tied in to.
 
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