Customers will not seek mortgage payment protection or loan payment protection until they have either a mortgage or a loan. These insurances are therefore often sought at the time of taking out the primary credit arrangement or soon after. This differs from other types of insurance such as house insurance or car insurance where the customer may make the effort each year to obtain the best insurance deal.
Because of the above the customer may not be fully aware that the product exists, in the same way as he / she may be aware of car or house insurance. For this reasons it is common practice for such insurances to be sold through those connected with the primary credit product rather than someone in the insurance industry. This could be a lender such as a bank, Finance Company or Building Society.
Lenders reach their customers through various channels including mortgage brokers, estate agents and Independent Financial Advisers and anyone of these could be involved in selling mortgage protection insurance. These additional channels may source the mortgage protection product through the lender or more commonly direct from an insurance company.
Less common in the past has been insurers selling and marketing direct to the end customer. This requires either the insurer under taking direct marketing or cross selling into someone else’s data base of clients. This extra selling effort is usually covered by a increased monthly premium charge, however that may be totally compensated for by use of low unit priced selling mediums such as the internet.