Mortgage insurance charges before a mortgage exists

[Martin84]

Hi, in the process of getting a mortgage, I signed up for mortgage protection insurance with Royal London. I still havent drawn down the mortgage (should happen any day), but I notice that I have been charged insurance for two months already.

I contacted Royal London and got this back:

"Hi,

Unfortunately as this amendment falls outside of your 30 day cooling off period I am unable to change your start date.

The above policy went live on 03/01/2019 so the last day we could amend the start date was 02/02/2019.

If you have any other queries, please contact your broker Hello.ie"

Is there any way I can pursue this? Guess saying Ill change provider might give some leverage. Are they even allowed to charge before the mortgage exists?

 

[RedOnion]

Are they even allowed to charge before the mortgage exists?

Of course.
You've had a life policy in place even if you had no mortgage - i.e. they would have paid out to your estate if you had died.

You could cancel the policy and start a new one when you need it.

 

[Monbretia]

Your mortgage and your insurance are not actually connected so it's not up to them to know when you draw down your mortgage and of course they can charge before it exists as they don't know when it draws down.

Somewhere along the way they must have been told go ahead and issue policy, normally you would get acceptance from the company and then give them a date for activation nearer to drawdown, although if that goes on too long you may need to sign declarations that nothing has changed. Maybe the application form didn't make it clear you didn't want it issued immediately or there has been some misunderstanding or they made a mistake. Did you do it through a broker/bank or directly?

Hardly worth cancelling just to reapply for a new one, you'll still have lost the 2 months cost.

 

[Martin84]

Ok, thanks