Protect your monthly loan repayments with loan cover

Just as you would go with a big name in electrical supplies if you were looking to buy a new TV set so you should go with a specialist provider when it comes to looking for loan cover. Loan cover can give you peace of mind and the security of an income in the event of you becoming unable to work, but you have to choose it wisely.

Just as with anything you buy there can be pitfalls and with loan cover it is the exclusions in a policy which can cause problems if you have not checked them against your circumstances. There are certain conditions which could mean that loan cover would not be suitable, if you are retired, self-employed, suffer a pre-existing medical condition or only work in a part time position.

When bought correctly with the exclusions in mind, loan cover can give you the income each month if you were to lose your own through coming out of work due to an illness, if you were to suffer an accident or should become unemployed. The cover would kick in with a tax free income to cover yours up to a certain amount each month once you had been out of work for between 31 and 90 days dependant on the provider. A policy would then continue to provide you with peace of mind and security for between 12 and 24 months

Depending on where you buy the cover will all depend on how much information you will get regarding the exclusions. The lack of information was the main problem when it came to policies being mis-sold and which has been widely reported in the press over recent years. High street lenders add cover onto loans and mortgages while not always making the consumer fully aware that exclusions exist. This led to an investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and several high street names receiving fines before the sector was referred to the Competition Commission by the Office of Fair Trading for review. Some changes have been seen and many firms have taken the recommendations set out by the FSA to heart, however others are still putting huge profits ahead of the consumers best interest by failing to follow the guidelines.

The FSA recently announced that in 2007 over 4,000 cases of mis-sold insurance have been investigated, this is double the year before. They also urge consumers who own the 20 million policies in the UK to check the terms and conditions because half of these could have been mis-sold.

by Simon Burgess