Norwich Union today announced a series of price reductions across
its Mortgage Life Insurance (MLI) and Term Assurance product ranges.
The move is designed to help those feeling the effects of the credit crunch and could ease the financial burden for the average house buyer. The reprice has focused particularly on providing affordable cover for sums assured of £175,000 and above. Notably the average house price now stands at £183,959.(1)
Those purchasing policies with critical illness cover will benefit in particular.
Decreasing term insurance with CI cover has been cut by an average of 3%, while level term with CI cover has seen an average cut in rates of around 2%.
To further help customers, the reprice will include MLI and term assurance policies lasting longer than the traditional 25 year lending term. This reflects changes in market demand, which has seen increasing numbers of consumers requesting cover for 30 or 40-year mortgages.
Darren Dicks, head of protection marketing for Norwich Union, says: "We constantly review all of our protection products to make them as competitive as we can to the widest possible audience. This latest reprice brings welcome news to the UK's 12 million(2) mortgage holders, at a time when many people are feeling the pinch.
"There is still a huge demand for people to get on and move up the housing ladder with around a quarter of a million mortgages(3) taken out in the last quarter alone. The credit crunch has meant that money is tighter for a lot of mortgage holders, so we are delighted if we can help people to save in other areas."
(1) Source: Nationwide Building Society
(2) Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders. Actual figure is £11,895,000 as of Q3 2007.
(3) Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
Term Assurance and Mortgage Life Insurance policies pay out a lump sum if the policyholder dies during the term of the plan. Critical illness cover pays out a lunp sum if the policyholder is diagnosed with a critical illness that meets our policy definition and then survives for 14 days.
These plans have no cash in value at any time.