Mortgage Life Insurance

A Knight of Ireland

Just wanted to know what grounds I have in relation to this:

5 years ago, we took out a topup mortgage to finish a house extension and of course, UlsterBank made us take out an additional life insurance policy for this top up.

Last year we paid off the top up mortgage and we have recently learned that UB never informed Zurich Life that the mortgage was paid off and even up to today, Zurich Life have been taking money out of my account.

When I called UB, they blamed Zurich and when we called Zurich, they blame UB and they say they cannot cancel the policy without a letter from Ulster Bank. UB say its not up to them to provide this.

Any ideas, who I can go to next? I want a refund for the premium paid since the mortgage was paid off.

Thanks in advance

coylemj

Your situation is nothing new, it's been discussed here in several threads.

A mortgage protection policy is life insurance, you had a potential death benefit if one of you had died in the past 5 years. The fact that you had no loan to repay is neither here nor there, the death benefit would have been paid 100% to the surviving party. So you have no grounds for a refund of the premium.

As to how you cancel the policy, is it a direct debit or standing order? If it's an SO, just cancel it.

AnRothar

You state that this policy was to cover a top up mortgage.
Which is now paid off.


Some questions spring to mind.
Is the old mortgage paid off too?

Do you/did you have a separate policy covering the old mortgage?
Or is this a "new policy" cover the old mortgage and the remortgage?

If its the latter and the old mortgage is still in force then you may not be able to cancel the policy.

You took out an insurance policy to protect both the banks and your interests in the house.

Read the policy document to see what exactly you bought in terms of the policy.

If it is your policy it would be your responsibility to cancel the policy when you no longer needed it.


If it is some sort of group policy which the bank took out on your behalf then the policy wording will guide you as to what to do next.

I want a refund for the premium paid since the mortgage was paid off.

If you or any other covered person had died since the mortgage was paid off would you be giving them back the money?

dudara

Moved to Banking, Insurance & Pensions

dudara

phormium

Was the new policy taken out with same insurer as old policy? If so then unless it specifically stated on that signed application form that the previous policy was to be cancelled on inception of the new one then you won't get a refund and it probably doesn't say that.

Neither the bank nor the insurance company can cancel a policy for you, the instruction has to come from you, the insurance company may then ask you to get a letter of 'no further interest' from the bank if their interest was noted on the policy but the initial cancellation would have to come from the policyholder.

You won't get a refund as it would have paid out if you died, you can get more than one payout unlike say duplicated house insurance. Why did you not notice for all that time that a second payment was coming out?

Henry Ford III

You had the cover. The fact that the mortgage was repaid didn't change that. It was your job to cancel the policy if it was no longer needed.