Switching mortgage protection insurance.

mickmac76

Hi

I took out a mortgage by myself with halifax in 2009 and went with their suggested insurance which is with Irish life. The plan I signed up for includes specified illness cover. I rang Irish life today to cancel the illness cover only as I felt it was a waste of money. However Irish life refused to cancel the illness cover claiming it was too late to cancel.
Does anyone know if this is allowed. Can I switch to a new insurance policy with a different company and would i need permission from halifax bank to do so. Seems wrong to me not to allow me to cancel the illness cover.

Mick.

NewCorkLad

In order to cancel your policy you will need to take out a new policy and send this to Halifax who will take asignment over it, then you will be allowed to cancel your old policy.

If you are sure you want to cancel your Serious Illness it will probably be a lot cheaper if you switch from Irish Life anyway who are generally expensive. If you want the cheapest policy out there speak to a broker who should be able to help you.

Aimeee

Yes you can switch but you'll have to start new policy first I think.
We were with Irish life to for a few years, then switched when we got a cheaper policy via a broker. Had major trouble with Irish life and direct debit errors.

coylemj

mickmac76 wrote: »

Does anyone know if this is allowed. Can I switch to a new insurance policy with a different company and would i need permission from halifax bank to do so. Seems wrong to me not to allow me to cancel the illness cover.

Yes you can. If I was you I'd immediately stop paying the Irish Life policy and take out a new policy, most of the local life companies will quote you online for mortgage protection.

You don't need Halifax's permission to do anything and if you ask them you'll probably get wound up in red tape. Just take out the new policy and tell the new crowd to note the interests of Halifax on the policy, job done. For peace of mind I'd make sure there isn't a gap in cover or if there is that's no more than a few days. As soon as you get the paperwork with the policy number for the new policy, write or e-mail Halifax to inform them of the change.

NewCorkLad

coylemj wrote: »

Yes you can. If I was you I'd immediately stop paying the Irish Life policy and take out a new policy, most of the local life companies will quote you online for mortgage protection.

You don't need Halifax's permission to do anything and if you ask them you'll probably get wound up in red tape. Just take out the new policy and tell the new crowd to note the interests of Halifax on the policy, job done. For peace of mind I'd make sure there isn't a gap in cover or if there is that's no more than a few days. As soon as you get the paperwork with the policy number for the new policy, write or e-mail Halifax to inform them of the change.

You don't need Halifax's permission to cancel the old policy but if they have set up the assignment correctly on the mortgage protection policy, Irish Life won't cancel it until Halifax release it.

coylemj

NewCorkLad wrote: »

You don't need Halifax's permission to cancel the old policy but if they have set up the assignment correctly on the mortgage protection policy, Irish Life won't cancel it until Halifax release it.

If you stop paying the premium, the assignment becomes meaningless. Mortgage protection doesn't have any accrued benefits, it's like home or motor insurance in that if you stop paying the premium, the policy lapses.

All the OP has to do is take out a new policy and assign it to Halifax. The new insurance company isn't going to care what assignments are out there already.