What a rip off!! Loan protection cover!

lizzie417

I'm hoping someone out there can help me!! 5 years ago I took out a small loan protect policy (not with the loan company but independently as advised!) with Bestinsurance.co.uk who are now trading as Assurant Solutions (Ireland). It is only a small premium of £8ish a month & I have paid it for about 5 years. It covers a loan payment of £270 per month for sickness & disability.

I have recently been off work for 5 weeks after suffering a fall & fracturing my elbow. Out of this period of 5 weeks sick I received only 4 days pay from my employers - a total of about 658.oo. My previous payslips showed take-home of about 3k.

Because I received 658.00 sick pay from my employers & it is more than the payout benefit of £270 the Assurant Solutions won't pay the benefit! I have tried to reason with them that I actually need the money as I am about 2,400.00 short in my monthly salary but they won' have it! This protection is supposed to pay my loan when I am unable to because of sickness or disability so what is the point of paying for cover?!!

You would not believe the amount of paperwork I have had to send them for weeks & they keep sending asking for more proof of everything & then refused to pay out!!! HELP!!!!

dunstonh

I have tried to reason with them that I actually need the money as I am about 2,400.00 short in my monthly salary but they won' have it!

The insurance companies cant bend rules that they do not make. There are possibly two issues here. 1 - overlap with employer sick pay 2) policy doesnt kick in for an initial deferment period. You dont state which it is (or could be both). My guess is number 1.

This protection is supposed to pay my loan when I am unable to because of sickness or disability so what is the point of paying for cover?!!

Good question. One that should have been asked at the time. If you bought off your own back then the seller has no liability for checking what is right for you. If you bought with advice, the seller has to make sure the product is right for you.

However, it depends on how long your employer pays sick pay for. i.e. if they pay for say 2 months and there is just one month overlap then it wouldnt be a mis-sale as its not always possible to get an exact match.

What you have is not a rip off as £8pm is a good price for the cover and by having it standalone, it avoids the main PPI mis-sale reason of being single premium and added to loan and charged interest on. Had all loan PPI been set up this way, there wouldnt be a PPI issue currently.

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Welcome to MSE, lizzie417. :hello:

I know we're supposed to "be kind to newbies" so please don't take this too harshly.

Is it possible that you didn't read the Terms and Conditions properly before taking out this policy? You have posted your question in The Stoozing: Free Cash from Credit Cards Board rather than The Loans Board or The Insurance & Life Assurance Board which would be eminently more sensible. It makes me wonder about your reading skills.

Please take this as constructive criticism. You may get better answers there.