For Motor or Home Insurance buyers in the UK, the obvious place to start looking for premium savings are on the Price Comparison sites. However, doing the same to buy short-term Income Protection Insurance or Mortgage Payment Protection cover could prove to be an expensive mistake. This is because this type of insurance is a niche product. Tips from an expert protection insurance Glasgow are essential for anyone looking to buy a policy to pay their mortgage and other bills if they cannot work.
In fact, a lot of people are unaware that this type of insurance exists. Short-term Income Protection Insurance is the cleaned up replacement for the now widely distrusted Payment Protection Insurance. It has just cost UK banks billions to compensate their customers for miss-selling Payment Protection Insurance. In fact, no surprise, most high street banks simply do not sell this any more. Fortunately leading Insurance companies decided to call the new cleaned up and highly regulated product a fresh name; short-term Income Protection Insurance. This distinguishes this type of cover so buyers will know that they are looking at the new type of policy that the Government's Regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has approved. The FSA now undertakes the enforcement of the new strict rules governing how this product is sold very seriously indeed.
So just to confuse things, Britain's biggest Building Society and several specialist providers decided to call this cover Lifestyle Protection. At least this stands out as being a totally different name from the disgraced Payment Protection Insurance. However, the FSA on their Money Advice Service website still call short-term Income Protection a version of Payment Protection Insurance! The first tip to getting a good deal is simply to know what the reliable and trustworthy suppliers now call this product.
At least the FSA's independent and unbiased Money Advice Service website does explain the difference. It also allows anyone to find these products and compare prices on their comparison tables for every policy of this type offered in the UK. Because the regulator has made it compulsory for every provider to place details of their products on their website, it offers a huge range of over 400 different products to chose from. Up until the FSA created this point of reference, there was nothing like it anywhere in the UK, however most of the public are still unaware that this valuable research tool is provided to them absolutely free.
The commission charging commercial price comparison websites - those heavily advertised brands on TV - simply cannot come close to the Money Advice Service offering. It is also the only place to find and compare the low cost direct products that do not appear on the TV comparison sites.
Using the FSA's Money Advice Service website, anyone can:
Look in one place at a huge range of products from all of the big brands as well as the low cost specialist providers
Have the confidence they are getting a true price comparison across the market
Get the best deal that suits their needs
Know every provider listed is authorised by the FSA offering a product they closely regulate
This is excellent information, but the Money Advice Service website can be complicated to navigate. It is hard at first to find an individual type of insurance policy for example. This is because the Money Advice Service covers so many types of financial products, not just short-term Income Protection Insurance. It is essential to preserver or to pick up on-line a simple guide to finding the lowest price on the Money Advice Service website these can be freely downloaded from one or more specialists providers. These guides provide a 'road map' to quickly navigate the Money Advice Service website.
Once on the right section of the Money Advice Service website, a single click will then take the individual from their chosen product to the provider. Then they can either buy the policy or simply look up more details before making their mind up. Most importantly, it allows a buyer to narrow down their choice and focus on the providers that offer the best deals.
The second tip to get good value; some of the smaller specialist providers, offer the same product as many high street brands, at less than a third of the price. The Money Advice Service website is very informative regarding the often staggering differences between the prices charged for the same cover. This is mainly a consequence of the big players in the market offering this insurance as a premium product or brokers taking a substantial commission for individual sales advice. If you do not require bespoke advice from an intermediary, there are massive savings to be had for going direct.
What's covered? By far the majority of policies pay out for up to a year if the insured person is unable to work due to accident, sickness or unemployment. Benefits are chosen by the individual according to their needs. Three of the leading UK specialist providers confirm that the majority of their customers chose an average monthly benefit of £1,000. For this cover their customers mostly pay a premium of between £20 and £40 per month. The actual price depends upon the buyer's age and the waiting period they select. The waiting period is similar to an excess on a motor policy, but it is the number of days before the claim is paid rather than a monetary amount.
If an individual were to walk into a Mortgage Broker or Financial Advisers office, the policy and price they would be offered reflects the personal service offered. It is easy to be charged double the price for the same cover, so it pays to do some research on line before protection insurance Glasgow visiting a broker. For anyone happy to buy on-line the process is straightforward. No medical evidence is required or an extensive lifestyle or health questionnaire needs to be completed. Contact details and a dozen or so questions mainly about the applicant's current employment tend to be the average.
The final tip to get a good deal is concerning when to buy short-term Income Protection Insurance or the similar Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance. This is a critical point. The individual must not be aware of any impending employment problems such as scaling back of their organisation or a pending takeover. This is because most insurers will decline to accept any application where there is a significantly higher than average probability of redundancy. Therefore the only time to apply for this product is when the individual is still in a steady job.