Life Insurance

[Tia]

If you have a French mortgage does the life insurance policy to cover this have to be taken out in France or can it be set up in th UK so the policy is in English. Also the same question for house insurance.

 

[Beryl]

We have several UK life assurance policies but the French company were insistant that we had a French policy assigned to the mortgage, which makes sense really as they have no control over my UK policies.

I did see an insurance company advertising on the LF website some time ago that does provide a copy of the house insurance in English. I don't use them myself, but it may be of help.

 

http://www.french-insurance.com/french_property_insurance.asp

[Tia]

Thanks ! It maybe an idea to get the French policy I have translated into English by someone so I can understand it all.

[united]

Tia, it all depends on the terms of the mortgage loan. I think I can say with a degree of confidence life assurance will be cheaper in the UK. If you are able to arrange that then do it but remember to have a conservative exchange rate for the amount of cover you will have in pounds for your euro debt.

[Benjamin]

Life insurance is a very simple product to buy. The only real area to look at is if there are any causes of death e g suicide , which will mean the policy will not pay out. Otherwise it 's all down to cost.

I suspect you really want to purchase term assurance which is normally taken out for the duration (term) of the mortgage and is considerably cheaper than life assurance.

Benjamin

[Pads]

I have house insurance through a English company called intasure, they are very helpful and give you a copy of your insurance in french and english, and I think they are a resonable price? especially compared to what i pay for my house in england. you can find them on google. You might need to ask your morgage people about your life insurance.

[Will]

Don't get confused between the British term 'life insurance' which is usually used for an assurance that pays out on the death of the policyholder, and the French term 'assurance vie' which is more of a tax-efficient savings scheme.

You can take out insurances in either country, I don't know if a French mortgage lender would accept a non-French policy though. At least for house insurance you will probably get much better value for money by covering a French house with a French insurer (I am careful to use the term 'value for money' here because there is far more to insurance beside cheapness).

[hastobe]

It will probably depend on the bank - ours wouldn't accept a UK life policy - it had to be a French one.  The house insurance they weren't bothered about - they were happy with either French or English.

Kathie

[Tia]

Many thanks for all your valued advices, much appreciated. It was mainly the life policy on mortgage in event of death. We took cover out on a 50/50 basis between my partner and myself but as it is all in French we are not sure if it is exactly what we want.