Mortgage Protection Irish Life | Review

If you’re here, I’m assuming you’ve already got a scooby about what mortgage protection does?

No?

That’s cool. Head over to this First Time Buyer Mortgage Protection Guide to brush up on your knowledge.

Back already?

Deadly.

Get ready to wade through the nitty-gritty of mortgage protection Irish Life stylee.

Before we begin, I’m not going to lie, these topics can be pretty damn dull, but I’ll try to get you to the end without inducing a coma.

Let’s get into it.

If mortgage protection from Irish Life is on your radar, you’ll want to know what makes them better than anyone else and what kind of benefits you can get from these boyos that you might not be able to get from anyone else.

First up is one of the biggies: Protection Flexibility

What is Protection Flexibility from Irish Life?

The only thing predictable about life is its unpredictability, so it’s best to have a flexible mortgage protection policy that works for you as your life changes.

Suppose your policy is set in stone. It may work for you now, but in the future, it will feel like it’s made of stone as you haul it through Life when it’s no longer fit for purpose.

Irish Life understands our lives will change, so for the first five years of your plan, you can reduce or increase the number of years or the amount of coverage on your policy without, let’s be frank, the pain in the hole hassle of cancelling your plan and starting from scratch.

Now, of course, there’s always a little bit of fine print to keep in mind.

If you’re reducing your term or cover,  cha-ching, Irish Life will reduce your premium, saving you a few quid.

But what they give with one hand, they take with the other

Irish Life will jack up your premiums if you increase your cover or term.

And if you want to go ahead and change the actual term – that’s how many years your cover will last – your original policy needs to have been for ten years plus.

If you need to hike up your cover or stretch out that payment term, you’ll need to be under 50.

Anything else?

Of course, there is silly.

You can’t extend your term by more than five years
You can only increase a benefit or term once
the maximum increase is 20% of the amount outstanding on your policy

So look, it’s not perfect, but when it comes to a flexible mortgage protection policy, it’s the fairest that’s out there.

Next up on the offering table is…Drum roll, please Guaranteed Insurability.

What is Guaranteed Insurability from Irish Life?

This little gem allows you to increase your life insurance or mortgage protection insurance policies in the future without having to answer medical questions.

Still a little confuzzled?

Meet Bill.

Bill bought a mortgage protection plan when he was a single, carefree bachelor, stylin’, wilin’, livin’ it up in the city.

Then he meets Hilary, and they make a baby.

So the old bachelor pad doesn’t quite fit the bill (or the Hilary) anymore. They need to knock it down and start again.

Having been struck down with a dose of the dreaded Dermot Bannon’s, Bill needs to re-mortgage to pay for this splurge.

He needs an extra €150k that will likely end up being north of €250k if Room to Improve is anything to go by.

So he’s stressed to the max, but at least he doesn’t need to worry about his mortgage protection.

Whoop.

He has guaranteed insurability so he can increase his cover without answering any medical questions (handy because he’s on the verge of a coronary)

Fast forward, and baby Dermot is here (there were words over the choice of name, but Hilary won).

With the arrival of his bouncing bundle of joy, Bill is straight onto his broker because he knows he can increase his cover again without answering medical questions.

As you can see, Guaranteed Insurability is a handy number.

However, as always – snags.

With Irish Life, you can only avail of this guaranteed insurability twice, so make sure you don’t use up your golden tickets too early.

Okay, we’re almost there. I still have you.

Welcome on to the stage:  The Conversion Option

Go back and say that in your head with the voice of the WWE announcer, and it’s a lot more fun.

If not, we can’t be friends.

What is the Mortgage Protection Conversion Option from Irish Life?

This option lets you extend the term/years on your mortgage protection without answering medical questions.

It’s a godsend if you ever need to extend the term of your mortgage. If God forbid, you fall ill and have to stretch out the term to reduce your monthly repayment.

The last biggie I think is important to know is

Accidental Death Benefit

Look, we don’t ever really want to think about the inevitable end, especially the idea of ‘leaving before your time, but it’s a necessary ugly.

Irish Life offers an accidental death benefit at no extra cost. It is a temporary benefit, so it doesn’t last for your entire policy term. It’s to cover you during the in-betweeny moment from when you first apply for policy cover with Irish Life until one of the following happens:

Application accepted
Special terms offer
Application refusal
Application postponement
30 days have passed

As you can see, Irish Life has some rather valuable benefits for its policyholders.

But are there any gotchas that you should be aware of?

Are there any drawbacks with Irish Life Mortgage Protection?

Yes, there are a few.

Going back to The Conversion Option – with Irish Life, you can only convert to another reducing mortgage protection policy. You can convert your reducing mortgage protection policy into a level life insurance policy with other insurers (New Ireland, Royal London and Zurich LifE)

Irish Life doesn’t offer dual Life mortgage protection (Royal London, Aviva and Zurich do)

With Aviva, you (plus your partner, children and parents) can get access to a free medical second opinion from the world’s leading consultants and access to free counselling and psychotherapy.

Irish Life premiums are higher than the competition, so if you’re budget-conscious, you may want to shop around.

Finally, if you have a health issue, depending on what the condition is, there may be a more understanding insurer.

Over to you

Still not sure?

Lookit, this insurance business can be overwhelming and “crawl under a rock until it all disappears” anxiety-inducing, I get it, but that’s what I’m here for.

Complete this questionnaire, and I’ll be back over email with some options for you.

Fair play if you stayed awake this far.

Thanks for reading,

Nick