Halifax mortgage insurance not stopped when Halifax mortgage paid off

Poppythepuppy

We took out a mortgage via Halifax in 2004 and also the mortgage protection insurance sorted out by the same person at the same time. We sold our house at the end of April this year & paid off mortgage -no mortgage at the moment. We assumed as these were both Halifax and we didn't have a mortgage anymore that these payments would stop. We realised on August that they hadn't and we stopped them. Halifax state they are not entitled to refund us. They stated that they wrote to us in June, we can't locate this letter - it was sent to our old address. Halifax insurance state they are completely separate from the mortgage department - if that is the case why did they write to us? Halifax would not disclose if anyone else had been caught out by this- I take it we were not the first.!
It seems very unfair for them not to reimburse us - we have no mortgage so didn't require the cover - apparently we would have claimed for income protection in the time we paid unnecessarily, but if that is the case, why is it called "mortgage protection"? It looks like another way a multimillion pound company is making money.
Has this happened to anyone else?

dunstonh

We assumed as these were both Halifax and we didn't have a mortgage anymore that these payments would stop.

No. It is very common for people to retain their life assurance etc and not stop them. It is not the lender to make that decision for you.

It seems very unfair for them not to reimburse us - we have no mortgage so didn't require the cover

They are not in control of your finances. You are. Why did you not cancel it?

If you had suffered a claimable event only to find out Halifax had cancelled the insurance without your permission then no doubt you would be complaining then too.

why is it called "mortgage protection"?

A marketing name. It is not uncommon for some products to be linked to mortgages but not actually have anything to do with mortgages.

JimmyTheWig

dunstonh wrote: »

Why did you not cancel it?

Because they believed it was one and the same thing.


Out of interest, OP, and I don't know if this is particularly relevant, but when you had the mortgage did you have a single direct debit that paid the mortgage and insurance, or were there two direct debits, one for each product?

roonaldo

Halifax MPPI is a paid by a seperate direct debit, as its stand alone product. It would still cover them if they switched mortgage provider, which is why its up to poppythepuppy to cancel it.

If you sold your car and no longer had one, would you just leave the car insurance running?

JimmyTheWig

roonaldo wrote: »

as its stand alone product.

I know that, but the OP didn't.

But I would say that

Halifax MPPI is a paid by a seperate direct debit

is quite a big clue that they are seperate.

roonaldo

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I know that, but the OP didn't.

thats who we're helping here, this isnt your original post.


whats wrong with you?

JimmyTheWig

roonaldo wrote: »

thats who we're helping here, this isnt your original post.


whats wrong with you?

Nothing's wrong with me, thanks.
I assumed that you were answering my post (#3) that came directly above yours.