Mortgage Protection/Life Insurance

Teachnua

Please Help!

We have just been approved for a mortgage of €250K - we are aged 25 and 28 and I am meeting the bank tomorrow to go through Mortgage Protection and Life Insurance, Should we get Critical Illness cover also?

Do you know who has the best rates for these covers?? Totally Confused! :eek:

Zorba

Teachnua wrote: »

Please Help!

We have just been approved for a mortgage of €250K - we are aged 25 and 28 and I am meeting the bank tomorrow to go through Mortgage Protection and Life Insurance, Should we get Critical Illness cover also?

Do you know who has the best rates for these covers?? Totally Confused! :eek:

Firstly your better going to a broker for insurance u DON'T have to take the banks cover. The price also depends on your health and your parents health and whether u smoke and drink. Smoking is the big one can double the price of cover !! Personally i've critical illness cover but it more or less doubles the price of protection but i'm covered for loads of things like cancer loss of limbs etc etc. When i was getting my cover Eagle Star were the cheapest but that doesn't mean they still are, go to a broker who has all the rates for all the providers and be wary if they're pushing one particular company on u it could mean they get a better commission from that company. Hope this helps ?

broker2008

Not a whole bunch of difference assuming that you are male & female and both non smokers and borrowing over 30 years.

AIB €20.18 pm
Bank of Ireland Life €22.38 pm
Caledonian €21.89 pm
Canada Life €24.35 pm
Eagle Star €20.85 pm
Friends First €25.48 pm
Hibernian €20.18 pm
Irish Life €21.66 pm
New Ireland €22.38 pm

To add serious illness cover, cost is between 75 and 97 per month. Do not take out a unit linked whole of life policy.

newname

Does anyone know just how far they can probe into your medical past? Can they find out what specialists you've attended or your entire medical records etc.

brettmirl

When I got my mortgage, I went for "Income protection" as opposed to "critical illness cover".

It was working out around the same price and covered more.

I think Critical Illness cover only covers certain illness, disease, etc whereas Income protection will cover you no matter what, once you are certified unfit for work.

kaiser sauze

newname wrote: »

Does anyone know just how far they can probe into your medical past? Can they find out what specialists you've attended or your entire medical records etc.

Yes, they can.

If you fail to disclose something that later comes to light, the insurance company can, at will, cancel the policy. This has happened to many people at the worst time, when they tried to make a claim and a non-disclosure came to light.

kaiser sauze

mick_irl wrote: »

When I got my mortgage, I went for "Income protection" as opposed to "critical illness cover".

It was working out around the same price and covered more.

I think Critical Illness cover only covers certain illness, disease, etc whereas Income protection will cover you no matter what, once you are certified unfit for work.

There are pros and cons to both, main one is that critical illness is paid out in a lump sum and income protection is paid monthly.

You're right, income protection will cover you for any illness and/or any injury, provided they have not been specifically excluded at the time the policy was initiated.

kaiser sauze

To the original poster:

Have you and your partner any dependants?

In my opinion you should take a pass on critical illness on a policy that will be effectively owned (assigned to) by your lender. Simply ask for a "decreasing term assurance, joint life-first death policy". [Give the broker that exact term and they will know exactly what you want] Shop around!

If you, and your partner, feel that it is worthy cover (critical illness) to take out, use a separate policy for it. This means that in the event of a claim, your lender has no say in where the funds go, but if it is in a policy connected to your mortgage they might take it, at a time when you needed it most. You are both quite young, so cover and price should not be a huge issue.

Any further questions, just ask.

BendiBus

Good advice from kaiser. Definitely avoid just taking the lenders product offering. Down the road, if you want to switch mortgage, it's easier if your mortgage protection is separate to reassign it to the new lender.

Check out http://www.labrokers.ie/ who did a great job sorting out my mortgage protection with a huge discount in year one (100% discount in fact!)