Safeguard your loan and credit card repayments with cheap payment insurance
- 3RD NOVEMBER 2007
If you have loan and credit card repayments to make each month then you should give some thought as to how you would continue to repay the payments if through an unfortunate accident, sickness or through unemployment by such as redundancy you should lose your income. Safeguarding your repayments is essential and one back up plan comes in the form of cheap payment insurance from a specialist provider.
When taken out correctly cheap payment insurance will begin to payout between the 31st and 90th day of being out of work and continues for between 12 and 24 months depending on the provider, the tax free income means that you don’t have to worry where to find the money to continue repaying your loan or credit card repayments each month.
Specialist providers offer some of the cheapest quotes and premiums for loan payment protection or ASU insurance as it is also known. When it comes to purchasing cover you do have the option of shopping around and don’t have to take it out alongside the loan or credit card at the time of taking out the loan, although the majority of high street lenders will push the cover alongside their loans and some would even have you believe that you have to take it, however it isn’t compulsory.
You first have to determine if payment protection insurance would be in your best interests and to do this you have to realise there are exclusions in policies that mean it might not be suitable for your circumstances. Most high street lenders who sell the cover alongside loans or credit cards fail to mention these and so mis-sell the cover as the investigation which began in 2005 showed. Firms were failing to mention that the consumer had the option of shopping around for the cover and that exclusions meant it might not be in your best interests, on top of this high premiums were charged for payment protection.
The investigation by the Financial Services Authority has focused mainly on the high street lenders as opposed to the more ethical standalone specialists such as British Insurance, providers like British Insurance are more ethical and as they specialise in offering cheap payment insurance they offer free honest advice along with the essential facts needed to determine if a policy is suitable. Some of the most common exclusions include being of retirement age, self-employed, having a pre-existing medical condition or only being in part time work, although there can be others which are dependant on the provider so always read the key facts and small print.
Currently in the hands of the Competition Commission who are conducting an in-depth inquiry into the sector of which the results will be shown in February 2009, meanwhile the Financial Services Authority still watch over the sector and results have shown that the investigation is still needed and more changes need to be made. Mis-selling of insurance has doubled over the last few months despite the fact that the FSA outlined changes that had to be made when selling the cover.
British Insurance are one of the most ethical standalone providers of cheap payment insurance and as such will give you the vital information needed along with helping you save up to 80% on cover when compared with high street lenders.
