House Insurance quotes

Snot

Any advice on the correct way to answer these questions when requesting a quote.
1.  I’ve stopped work in my early 50’s and have no plans to work again,  can I legitimately select Retired,  wasn’t sure if there a specific definition of Retired ?
2.  Mortgage is paid off but there is still a token amount left and the bank still has deeds and a charge on property;  so can I say no mortgage ?

Cloth_of_Gold

I can't see what else you could say. They know your age so they can see you are not of state pension age. I retired well before the state pension age and have always answered 'retired' to such questions. I opened a building society account recently and again the staff member knew my age, which is still below the state pension age, and when he asked me what I did I answered 'retired' and that was fine.

Aretnap

Unless the insurance company gives you a specific definition of "retired" on the form that it asks you to fill in, you can interpret it as having its ordinary meaning. In ordinary parlance, if you have finished your career and have no plans to work again, you are retired. So yes, you can put retired.

(The alternative would be "independent means" I guess, but that more implies someone who is living of an inheritance or a lottery win than someone who has saved enough from work to retire early)

As for the mortgage, I'd say you either have a mortgage or you don't. I'm not sure how you can have paid it off if there is still some of it left. A small or even "token" mortgage is still a mortgage.

user1977

And I suspect that if anything being mortgaged is advantageous.

DullGreyGuy

Snot said:

Any advice on the correct way to answer these questions when requesting a quote.
1.  I’ve stopped work in my early 50’s and have no plans to work again,  can I legitimately select Retired,  wasn’t sure if there a specific definition of Retired ?
2.  Mortgage is paid off but there is still a token amount left and the bank still has deeds and a charge on property;  so can I say no mortgage ?

1) If they want a special definition to be applied they must state what it is, otherwise it's a plain English understanding of the words. Depending on how you are funding yourself, your general household situation and the reason you stopped at 50 you could be retired, housewife/husband, independent means, medically retired etc

2) How can you have both paid the mortgage off and still have a token amount outstanding? Sounds like you've nearly paid it off in which case you need to declare it as mortgaged (unless you pay it off in full today before buying the insurance)