As a result, many buyers take out a policy via their mortgage lender and miss out on saving running to thousands of euro over the lifetime of their policy, according to Bonkers.ie.
The research which was carried out in September by Bonkers.ie, an Irish price comparison and switching service, and a broker for both life insurance and mortgages.
It looked at prices from the five leading life insurers and the main banks.
For a 35-year-old couple, who are non-smokers, taking out a €500,000 mortgage over 30 years would require a €500,000 joint or dual mortgage protection policy for the same time period.
This would cost €53.47 a month with Bank of Ireland. However, the same cover could be got for €43.18 a month with Zurich or New Ireland through bonkers.ie, which equates to a saving of just over €10 a month or over €3,700 over the life of the policy, they said.
For smokers the difference is even bigger.
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – September 18th
A 40-year old single person who is non-smoker, taking out a €300,000 mortgage over 25 years would pay €32.61 for a mortgage protection policy with PTSB or €27.29 with Bank of Ireland.
However, the same cover is €22.26 a month from Zurich and €22.54 from Royal London Ireland, where the first month’s cover is also free, the Bonkers study found. Bonkers acts as a broker for a number of insurers.
First-buyers don’t realise they have the option to shop around for mortgage protection, said Daragh Cassidy the head of communications at bonkers.ie.
“Mortgage customers are free to shop around and get cover from any insurer they choose. And in some cases you’ll get cover more quickly by using an online broker. So you can save time and money.
“It might not sound like much but over the 20 or 30-year term of your mortgage it adds up to thousands. And it’s the price of a nice glass of wine, a cinema ticket, or a music subscription every month for decades.”
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