mortgage protection insurance

max174

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone can help!!
I would like some advice regarding mortgage protection insurance.

Recently we have been struggling to keep up with our finances, so we thought we would check all our Direct Debits and cancel unnecessary payments like sky, mobile contracts, contact lens contracts etc.

We found the DD regarding this insurance policy we didn't even know we have, and they are still taking a monthly payments from our account even though we switched our mortgage to a different bank, and have had no mortgage with them since 2012.
The unnecessary payment is just digging a further hole into our overdraft.

My partner took out a mortgage with HSBC in 2003, in 2012 he switched it over to another bank.
Recently we noticed a payment leaving the our account as a direct debit to HSBC, titled HSBC LIFE UK LTD.
We spoke to the bank regrading this they said it was a payment for mortgage protection insurance taken with the bank in 2003, and we are in a contract because its our fault for not properly checking everything first, and my partner singed all the papers.
We were not told about this at the time.
My partner was given loads of papers to sign at the time as banks do!!!
The reason we never noticed earlier was the we had all our insurance policies with them, i.e. buildings, contents, life, etc.

Is there anything we can do regarding this situation, i.e stop further payments, reclaim anything etc.

I would be very grateful if someone could advise me on this matter, because we don't know what to do.

dunstonh

Is there anything we can do regarding this situation, i.e stop further payments, reclaim anything etc.

If you no longer need the life assurance then you can cancel it. However, there is no wrongdoing by HSBC here.

They have no right to cancel your life assurance when you move the mortgage away from them or repay it. Can you imagine if they cancelled it and someone died? There would be media outcry.

Life assurance is not directly linked to the mortgage. Many people continue their life assurance after the mortgage is paid (often as alternatives are not as cheap as they are older or they dont have enough and decide to keep it).

max174

Thanks for you reply,

Can i ask is mortgage protection insurance and life assurance the same thing?

haras_nosirrah

Not necessarily but the lender cannot cancel a policy on your behalf. If they will only pay out if you have a mortgage with them you may be able to get premiums back but if they would still payout if your mortgage was with Santander for example then it is your responsibility to cancel as if they had cancelled and then you lost your job or something they could be sued as not having permission to cancel

dunstonh

Can i ask is mortgage protection insurance and life assurance the same thing?

Mortgage protection insurance is not a generic name for a product. It's a provider marketing name. Some life companies call their decreasing term assurance mortgage protection and some PPI companies call their PPI/ASU mortgage protection.

In the case of HSBC Life (which is a life assurance company), they used it for the life assurance. The HSBC MPPi product was called mortgage repayment protection IIRC.

max174

Thank you for your replies

Would it be advisable to ask the bank for some sort of copy of the contract regarding the situation, so I can try and get a better understanding!!!

dunstonh

Would it be advisable to ask the bank for some sort of copy of the contract regarding the situation, so I can try and get a better understanding!!!

You are welcome to pay £10 for that if you want it. However, it seems rather pointless as there isnt exactly much to know about life assurance.