Cant get mortgage protection

wexfordquay

Hi everyone. Myself and my wife have recently been approved for a mortgage by PTSB for €150,000 pending us getting mortgage protection cover. I am a type diabetic and no insurance company will go near me. The bets I can get is Irish Life will cover me but want to postpone cover for 1 year. They will cover my wife alrite but not me. Any advice on waivers by the bank would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a million.

Lexio7

I am type 1 and managed to get life insurance.

I was required to give some medical reports from my GP.

We took out life insurance with Royal London.

I had a similar situation when I was trying to get my mortgage with PTSB. In the end they accepted the death in service cover offered by my employer (I think it's 4x annual salary) because that would cover the mortgage if anything happened. If you have similar cover it might be worth exploring that option.

wexfordquay

Lexio7 wrote: »

I am type 1 and managed to get life insurance.

I was required to give some medical reports from my GP.

We took out life insurance with Royal London.

I have used 3 different brokers and none could get me any cover. I will try Royal London directly myself?? If you don't mind me asking, did you get cover pre Covid?? In the middle of an epidemic doesn't help the cause. Thanks for the reply.

wexfordquay

Maxine Bitter Underdog wrote: »

I had a similar situation when I was trying to get my mortgage with PTSB. In the end they accepted the death in service cover offered by my employer (I think it's 4x annual salary) because that would cover the mortgage if anything happened. If you have similar cover it might be worth exploring that option.

I am a civil servent so I do have death in service but its only 2 years which will cover about 60% of the mortgage. I will definitely mention it to the bank alrite. Thanks for the reply.

Meauldsegosha

Contact Diabetes Ireland, they may have details of companies that provide cover.

wexfordquay

Meauldsegosha wrote: »

Contact Diabetes Ireland, they may have details of companies that provide cover.

I was in touch with them and they gave me a name and number for ERM Financial who they said may be able to get me mortgage protection. I gave him a ring and he was very nice but explained to me that due to Covid diabetics are finding it very hard if not impossible to get cover. Thanks for the reply.

woodchuck

Have you tried the broker lion.ie? I've heard great things about them.

wexfordquay

woodchuck wrote: »

Have you tried the broker lion.ie? I've heard great things about them.

I was talking to Nick in Lion.ie and he was very helpful but again he couldn't do anything for me unfortunately. Thanks for the reply. Cheers.

Chiliconkeni

wexfordquay wrote: »

I was talking to Nick in Lion.ie and he was very helpful but again he couldn't do anything for me unfortunately. Thanks for the reply. Cheers.

Hi there, we had awful trouble getting mortgage protection as my wife had Leukaemia nearly 10 years ago. No matter how much information we gave, we were given crazy quotes - about 390 euro a month etc. When we spoke to insurers and brokers they said this is basically a rejection.

PM me if you like and I'll go through how it worked for us eventually. It is really scandalous how people with a previous medical history are treated here.

Claude Burgundy

No help really but its the sort of issue that the likes of Liveline might be able to help with.

I hope you get sorted.

Chiliconkeni

Claude Burgundy wrote: »

No help really but its the sort of issue that the likes of Liveline might be able to help with.

I hope you get sorted.

We thought of this too with regard Liveline, but people in these positions are vulnerable enough and don't really want to be airing their medical history to the nation. It is a real tough one.

Chiliconkeni

Mortgage Protection Rejection on Health Grounds - What We Did to Overcome it

I thought I would put this up for anyone who had issues with Mortgage Protection being denied/crazily overpriced due to health grounds. Who knows it might help someone.

As I said earlier due to my partner's health history (leukaemia 7 years ago at time of initial application) we have had to pay around €350 a month mortgage protection for the first two years of our mortgage otherwise we couldn't get a house/mortgage. Looking back it was a disgrace. We went to loads of brokers and nothing was working. They said this €350 quote was the insurance companies' way of rejecting you basically. We had no choice but to pay it.


What we did was - in your application- under GP - instead of using regular GP we used our consultant who treated her. The consultant wrote a letter on my wife's health - basically saying she was no greater risk than anyone else etc. From that by using a broker, we now pay about €46 a month on mortgage protection which we are delighted with.


Previously where we went wrong was we would enclose this consultant's letter, but under GP write our local GP. This GP then would be contacted and he would just confirm her diagnosis and say no more. The insurance company would barely look at the letter, and instead focus on the GP's words. By not putting down our GP, and just putting down our consultant they actually looked at the consultant's letter and gave us a good mortgage protection rate.

For anyone wanting more information or to talk through this just PM me.

10pennymixup

Doesn't affect me per se, but good on you for sharing this info.

universal123

I purchased a house in January last year, Went to 3 companies a local one in Cork, lion and ERM. As far as I'm aware a poor Hba1c above a certain figure (cant remember what the figure was) is grounds for refusing you cover. Eamonn in ERM was great to deal with and said to expect a minimum loading of 200% for anyone with type 1 and it goes up the higher the Hba1c.

Lexio7

wexfordquay wrote: »

I have used 3 different brokers and none could get me any cover. I will try Royal London directly myself?? If you don't mind me asking, did you get cover pre Covid?? In the middle of an epidemic doesn't help the cause. Thanks for the reply.

We used Sherry Fitzgerald as our broker for the mortgage plus all our insurance needs. However this was back in 2015.

wexfordquay

universal123 wrote: »

I purchased a house in January last year, Went to 3 companies a local one in Cork, lion and ERM. As far as I'm aware a poor Hba1c above a certain figure (cant remember what the figure was) is grounds for refusing you cover. Eamonn in ERM was great to deal with and said to expect a minimum loading of 200% for anyone with type 1 and it goes up the higher the Hba1c.

I have been in touch with Eamon from ERM and he is amazing. Although he has told me I will find it very hard to get cover in Ireland he has put me in touch with an insurance company in London who I have a chance of getting cover with. Failing that I’m in the lap of the Gods and hope that PTSB grants us a waiver. Thanks for the reply.

wexfordquay

Chiliconkeni wrote: »

Mortgage Protection Rejection on Health Grounds - What We Did to Overcome it

I thought I would put this up for anyone who had issues with Mortgage Protection being denied/crazily overpriced due to health grounds. Who knows it might help someone.

As I said earlier due to my partner's health history (leukaemia 7 years ago at time of initial application) we have had to pay around €350 a month mortgage protection for the first two years of our mortgage otherwise we couldn't get a house/mortgage. Looking back it was a disgrace. We went to loads of brokers and nothing was working. They said this €350 quote was the insurance companies' way of rejecting you basically. We had no choice but to pay it.


What we did was - in your application- under GP - instead of using regular GP we used our consultant who treated her. The consultant wrote a letter on my wife's health - basically saying she was no greater risk than anyone else etc. From that by using a broker, we now pay about €46 a month on mortgage protection which we are delighted with.


Previously where we went wrong was we would enclose this consultant's letter, but under GP write our local GP. This GP then would be contacted and he would just confirm her diagnosis and say no more. The insurance company would barely look at the letter, and instead focus on the GP's words. By not putting down our GP, and just putting down our consultant they actually looked at the consultant's letter and gave us a good mortgage protection rate.

For anyone wanting more information or to talk through this just PM me.

Hi there. I’ve only recently been diagnosed (June 2020) so haven’t really seen any kind of consultant or specialist just my GP. I’m fairly certain that in current climate we are in i.e. COVID that anyone with an underlying condition will find it next to impossible to find cover. I’m praying now that PTSB may give me a waiver. It’s my last resort at this stage. Thanks for the reply.

Chiliconkeni

wexfordquay wrote: »

Hi there. I’ve only recently been diagnosed (June 2020) so haven’t really seen any kind of consultant or specialist just my GP. I’m fairly certain that in current climate we are in i.e. COVID that anyone with an underlying condition will find it next to impossible to find cover. I’m praying now that PTSB may give me a waiver. It’s my last resort at this stage. Thanks for the reply.

That's very unfortunate. I would definitely speak to your GP, and see exactly what they are basing their refusal on. Perhaps a redrafting of the letter might also help.
You could always get in touch with a consultant at some stage in the future for your care and ask them to provide a letter. Sometimes restarting your application also can work - with a new application no. etc., as often they seemed to just look at the previously rejected one, and reject again.

It's a joke that they are refusing anyone with an underlying condition without it being based on scientific evidence. Hopefully, you get sorted. Multiple brokers were telling me that Royal London is the last resort for a lot of places for mortgage protection.

Wish you the best of luck with it.

heytheredemons

Not sure if you tried Laya Healthcare, a friend of mine managed to get cover through them with a few health issues (not sure on Diabetes though, but worth a check anyway!)

Claude Burgundy

Chiliconkeni wrote: »

We thought of this too with regard Liveline, but people in these positions are vulnerable enough and don't really want to be airing their medical history to the nation. It is a real tough one.

I agree its a tough decision.

wexfordquay

Chiliconkeni wrote: »

That's very unfortunate. I would definitely speak to your GP, and see exactly what they are basing their refusal on. Perhaps a redrafting of the letter might also help.
You could always get in touch with a consultant at some stage in the future for your care and ask them to provide a letter. Sometimes restarting your application also can work - with a new application no. etc., as often they seemed to just look at the previously rejected one, and reject again.

It's a joke that they are refusing anyone with an underlying condition without it being based on scientific evidence. Hopefully, you get sorted. Multiple brokers were telling me that Royal London is the last resort for a lot of places for mortgage protection.

Wish you the best of luck with it.

Thanks for the advice. Very much appreciated.

wexfordquay

heytheredemons wrote: »

Not sure if you tried Laya Healthcare, a friend of mine managed to get cover through them with a few health issues (not sure on Diabetes though, but worth a check anyway!)

Thanks for the advice but unfortunately I have tried them and no joy.

Laura2021

Has anyone had trouble getting mortgage protection if taking immunosuppressants for a transplant?

spaceHopper

Try https://lion.ie/ they were very helpful with to me.
I have haemochromatosis (iron overload that can f1ck up you liver and heart) we were applying for a mortgage for an extension. I'd gotten all my paperwork together, letter from consultant, letter from nurse treating me to say it was going well... in the in the end I got insurance from Irish Life but Lion were very good to deal with.

Because you've only been diagnosed a wet weekend you have no history of treatment, that's probably your biggest problem.

wexfordquay

spaceHopper wrote: »

Try https://lion.ie/ they were very helpful with to me.
I have haemochromatosis (iron overload that can f1ck up you liver and heart) we were applying for a mortgage for an extension. I'd gotten all my paperwork together, letter from consultant, letter from nurse treating me to say it was going well... in the in the end I got insurance from Irish Life but Lion were very good to deal with.

Because you've only been diagnosed a wet weekend you have no history of treatment, that's probably your biggest problem.

Hi there. Thanks for the reply. I was talking to Nick in Lion a few times and yes he was very helpful and nice and gave me some good advice but ultimately he couldn't find any place that would insure me. I think between only been diagnosed recently and Covid it is next to impossible for anyone with underlying conditions to get cover.

spaceHopper

wexfordquay wrote: »

Hi there. Thanks for the reply. I was talking to Nick in Lion a few times and yes he was very helpful and nice and gave me some good advice but ultimately he couldn't find any place that would insure me. I think between only been diagnosed recently and Covid it is next to impossible for anyone with underlying conditions to get cover.

Could you get your GP to put you down for the vaccine? Would it help?

wexfordquay

Hi all. Just a quick update on this one. I got a waiver from PTSB for my mortgage protection. There was a few conditions attached to the waiver like we had to clear a small loan we had from the Credit Union. But all's well that ends well thank God. Thanks for all the replies. Very much appreciated.

hellojoe21

wexfordquay wrote: »

Hi all. Just a quick update on this one. I got a waiver from PTSB for my mortgage protection. There was a few conditions attached to the waiver like we had to clear a small loan we had from the Credit Union. But all's well that ends well thank God. Thanks for all the replies. Very much appreciated.

Great to hear! Congrats

Anyone knows what happens in this case though if you dont have mortgage protection and god forbid, something happened to you? What happens the mortgage?

angel eyes 2012

Laura2021 wrote: »

Has anyone had trouble getting mortgage protection if taking immunosuppressants for a transplant?

Yes, in 2014, most banks wouldn't quote us. Eventually BOI granted a waiver, so we only have to pay mortgage protection cover for one person.

HennyL

wexfordquay wrote: »

Hi all. Just a quick update on this one. I got a waiver from PTSB for my mortgage protection. There was a few conditions attached to the waiver like we had to clear a small loan we had from the Credit Union. But all's well that ends well thank God. Thanks for all the replies. Very much appreciated.

Glad to hear you could get the waiver. We were in similar position recently, type 1 diabetic couldn’t get cover due to COVID. Brokers don’t deal with Laya Life but their re-insurers are not Irish and from the people I’ve spoken to, many who can’t get cover from the big six life companies are getting cover there. This could be an option if you wished to try get cover rather than being left without.

This issue was raised in Leinster house by Dessie Ellis recently, response given to him was more or less wait until the pandemic is over to buy a home. An unrealistic and out of touch response. You could contact Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission for info on your rights if you wanted to take this further under grounds of discrimination with the insurer (considering you would be insurable if we weren’t in a pandemic yet others without underlying illnesses can still obtain cover easily while in pandemic also - it’s a bit of a niche and doesn’t fall under an exclusion).

There seems to have been quite a few impacted during COVID and losing out on buying their homes so I would recommend that those people contact Insurance Ireland, Central Bank & local TD’s as there should be some measure in place to prevent this from happening during these unprecedented times.

Best of luck with your new home!