Protect against losing your income with an income protection insurance plan
- 4TH NOVEMBER 2007
The majority of people plan ahead and take out life insurance to safeguard against the unknown happening when it comes to financial matters and their family, so it’s a sensible idea to safeguard against losing your income in case you were to come out of work after suffering from illness, an accident or unemployment. If your circumstances permit it then an income protection insurance plan could give you the income you need to carry on living your lifestyle and meeting your essential outgoings without worry.
Income protection insurance will allow you to insure up to a certain amount of your monthly income so that if you should be out of work you would still have an income to rely on. Policies differ from provider to provider and can be expensive but if you shop around with standalone providers for the cover you can make great savings while securing a quality product. One of the cheapest quotes for the cover can be found with ethical specialist in payment protection, British Insurance.
British Insurance offer free advice regarding payment protection and Managing Director of British Insurance, Simon Burgess is considered to be one of the “good-guys” in the sector; Simon warns the consumer that it is essential to shop around for the cover and to be aware that there are exclusions which could mean that payment protection insurance isn’t a suitable product. Simon urges consumers to steer clear of the high street banks and lenders when it comes to purchasing the cover and that buying this way can cost up to 80% more than had the consumer got a quote from British Insurance.
An income protection insurance plan taken out from British Insurance will begin to provide you with a tax free income once you have been out of work for 30 days or more and then carry on providing you with an income for up to 12 months. Other providers do vary so it is essential that you check the terms and conditions set out in a policy, some policies wont payout until you have been out of work for longer, which can be up to 90 days and they could continue to payout for up to 24 months.
Reading the terms and conditions, the key facts and the exclusions and understanding them are essential if you want to have the peace of mind and security which the product is supposed to give. Mis-selling of payment protection products hit the headlines in 2005 when it was revealed that mis-selling was wide spread and many consumers had been left holding policies they couldn’t hope to claim against because they weren’t aware of the exclusions and hadn’t been told about them at the time of taking out the policy. Fines were handed out by the Financial Services Authority and the sector was referred to the Competition Commission who is conducting an in-depth inquiry into the sector which will conclude in February 2009.
The majority of mis-selling focused on a lack of information being given or made available to the consumer at the time of buying the policy and while some changes have been made and providers have changed their way it is still clear that some providers are still mis-selling policies. If you want income protection insurance that you can rely on because you have the facts then you have to shop with a specialist such as British Insurance and rely on their expertise and years of selling payment protection products.
