Paying life insurance for mortgage cover twice

Michael57

We have stupidly just realized we have been paying for life insurance to cover our mortgage twice for a very long time . My wife rang to cancel but it obviously carried on and it was so long ago we have no record of trying to cancel. One of the companies involved changed its name which added to our stupidity . Can anything be claimed back or do we have to live with our stupidity

Michael

vaio

My guess……

If the policies are general life insurance then you have just insured yourselves for twice as much as you intended and you’ll struggle to get any premiums back as both would have paid out in full in the event of death.

If the policies are specifically linked to clear the mortgage then if you had died the total payout would have been limited to the outstanding amount of the mortgage and each company would have paid a share. In this case it seems fair that you get a proportion of the premium refunded as their risk was less than they thought it was.

Frankly unless it’s a big sum involved the grief you are going experience trying to get a refund isn’t going to be worth it.

dunstonh

certain things you can claim dual insurance and get a refund. i.e. house insurance or motor insurance. However, with life assurance you can almost have as much as you like (within reasonable limits).

The adviser you buy it through has a liability to ensure you do things right. So, if you used an adviser, you may have some scope there to make a complaint as they should have told you to cancel the direct debit and policy. If you dont use an adviser then you take on that responsibility for yourself. The adviser may still not be liable. If they told you to cancel and you didn't then the adviser does not have liability.

It may be hard to prove you did anything as you have two points of contact. One to cancel the direct debit and the other to the insurer to cancel the policy. Whilst its possible one thing may go missing in the post or not get actioned, its unlikely that both would.