What is loan protection and how does it work?
Getting a loan is always associated with certain risk factors. After all, no one can say for sure that they will be able to pay back their loans in the future due to unforeseen circumstances. These can be a severe illness, loss of work or a natural disaster. In these circumstances, the borrower will be in despair and won’t be able to make the repayments for a while. A question arises naturally; would loan protection insurance be helpful in these types of cases?
How Does Loan Protection Insurance Work?
Loan protection insurance is a kind of guarantee for unforeseen circumstances that can cause difficulties in repaying the loan. There are two types of insurance. The contract can be concluded between the borrower and an independent insurance company or the bank itself can act as an insurance organization. In all cases, the object of insurance is to uphold the client’s responsibility to the bank. In other words, according to the insurance contract, the company reimburses the bank losses of 50-90% of the loan amount of the borrower with interest within the period specified in the documents.
Loan insurances are generally for people aged between 18 and 65 that are employed at the time.
However, there are some drawbacks. First, the payment of a loan with insurance will be slightly higher compared to a non-insured loan.
It is understandable why borrowers generally refuse to get loan insurance, it increases the amount of debt resulting in increasing the monthly payments too.
It should be noted that insurance depends on the type of loan itself. For example, in the case of a consumer loan, the solvency of the customer is already acting as a type of insurance.
Getting this kind of insurance does not really lower the interest rates. When you look for an arrangement, be aware of loan suppliers that attempt to influence it to appear like your loan interest will diminish if you are to purchase the loan insurance that is provided by them. The reality is, the loan provider applies the decreased interest rate to the repayments of the insurance policy making it look like you received a discount.
As far as your credit score is concerned, loan insurance will help you keep your credit score stable in case you cannot pay your repayments – the insurance will pay it for you.
Whether you will benefit from loan insurance or not depends on what kind of policy it is. Various contracts are going to have different obligations and rates. Make sure you research it well and get some professional advice.
Moreover, some banks have the right to refuse a loan if the potential client does not agree to loan insurance. In some cases, banks offset their risks by increasing interest rates. Also, remember that the bank cannot force you to go with a certain insurance company; you should have some say on it as well.
