Mortgage Protection Insurance Discussion

legaleagles_2

I have alos just received a letter from British Insurance advising that my MPPI premium for £1700 of cover is increasing from £59 per month to £113 !! (£14.50 per £100)

I will obviously now be shopping around but one thing that bothers me is that my policy was with Assurant (I've never heard of British Insurance) and what seems to have happened is that BI have now taken over the policy. The main insurer underwriting the policy has also changed to Alpha Insurance AS

This worries me because they are a Danish insurance company and whilst the are FSA registered I am uncertain whether they are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if they were to go under and I needed to make a claim

Does anyone know whether General Insurers authorised with the FSA under an EEA passport are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme

Fliss_M

legaleagles wrote: »

I am going to shop around but obviously want to be cautious about the usual 90/120 day initial period exclusion clause - anybody know of a provider that will not impose this if you are switching from one provider to another and haven't claimed ?

Ususally with any MPPI if you give them a bell, they are happy to waiver the exclusion period if you have held a policy longer then that period, so with 5 years under your belt your safe. The only stumbling block would be if you got wind of redundency's before the swap. Then if they figured that out they may not pay out.

I myself am with Ant ins. so if my husband (2 policy's) and both have gone up by 90% so I am shopping round too. While I have had a policy for 2.5 years, husband only took his out in Dec, but that means 6 months is up 8th June, so hoping I can avoid the increased payment on the 28th June.

Fife_Bear

I have had a letter from my MPPI insurer (British Insurance) saying that they are increasing my premiums by from £22pm to £42 pm (a 92% increase!!). This despite saying that they were keen to ensure that any rises would be "minimal"!!

Neither my wife nor I have claimed on our policy over the 3 years we have had it. Niether of us is in a high-risk profession (wife is a local authoirty secondary school teacher, and I am a civil servant of 10 yrs service).

I asked for an explanation of why this increase was so huge, and all I got back was gobbledegook and industry speil. I think they were hoping to confuse me and put me off from asking any more awkward questions.

Can anyone shed any light on why this increase is so large? Is this commonplace in the industry justnow?

Is it likely that all British Insurance MPPI policy holders have been hit with the same 92% increase? - or have certain policy holders been hit more than others for some unknown reason?

Thanks for any advice!

Fliss_M

er claims! You havent claimed, but many now are, and like with any insurance industry, when people make claims, premiums go up.

Your best bet is looking round to try and move.

dunstonh

Neither my wife nor I have claimed on our policy over the 3 years we have had it. Niether of us is in a high-risk profession (wife is a local authoirty secondary school teacher, and I am a civil servant of 10 yrs service).

So why are you paying for MPPI? That is a complete waste of money. Standalone unemployment cover with a PHI is the better option given your long term sickness benefits.

Can anyone shed any light on why this increase is so large? Is this commonplace in the industry justnow?

As mentioned already on this thread, they were too cheap, even for pricing during the growth days. PPI costs came down during the growth years. So, its right they go up in the bad years. However, the scale of the increases varies depending on how cheap the company was to begin with and what underwriter they used.

Is it likely that all British Insurance MPPI policy holders have been hit with the same 92% increase? - or have certain policy holders been hit more than others for some unknown reason?

Most have seen significant increases of that size with them. Other providers have typically been closer to 10-30%

louisencore

I recently moved bank account's so changed my direct debit to pay the Mortgage Protection Insurance, Never made a claim and had the policy for 2 years.Then a week later a recevied a letter saying my payments have increased due to policy changes?

How do I find out if they can do this?

dunstonh

How do I find out if they can do this?

By reading posts already made which tell you that they can.

scope

Where do you stand if since taking out the mortgage protection cover (for say £800) the interest rate has come down and subsequently the mortgage payment has dropped to say £500.. So you have paid to cover £800, but the actual payment is £500 - should they still cover the difference? I dont recall anything in the T&C that says call us to adjust the mortgage payment if the interest drops.

Fliss_M

scope wrote: »

Where do you stand if since taking out the mortgage protection cover (for say £800) the interest rate has come down and subsequently the mortgage payment has dropped to say £500.. So you have paid to cover £800, but the actual payment is £500 - should they still cover the difference? I dont recall anything in the T&C that says call us to adjust the mortgage payment if the interest drops.

I asked this of iprotect as am changing companies but our rate has dropped from a fixed to a 0.99% tracker. Their answer was were you to become unemployed they would only pay the 500 (in your case) and currently you would be over insured. But that when our rate went up we should contact them via email and ajust the cover. so in your case, call the insurer, tell them the situation, and they should ajust your cover (and the price along with it )

dunstonh

should they still cover the difference?

No. If it was PPI and not MPPI then they would pay the full amount. However, MPPI has to match the mortgage and insurances (usually within a tolerance of around 125%).

I dont recall anything in the T&C that says call us to adjust the mortgage payment if the interest drops.

Its in the one's I have checked.