If you decide that mortgage life insurance is not for you, then make sure to inform your lender that you don’t want it. If the lender insists that they will not give you a mortgage without this insurance, then report them to the Federal Trade Commission because what they’re doing is illegal. Mortgage life insurance should not be confused with private mortgage insurance. Private mortgage insurance is a type of insurance that your lender will require you to purchase if your down payment is worth less than 20% of the total value of your home.
Many people feel that mortgage life insurance is a bad investment for several reasons. One reason is because although your premiums remain level over the years, the amount of money required to pay off your mortgage decreases. For example, if you’ve been faithfully paying off your mortgage for decades and only have $5,000 to go when you die, your mortgage life insurance policy will only pay $5,000. It doesn’t matter that you’ve paid the insurance company way more than $5,000 over the years – that’s all they’re obligated to pay out.
Another reason why mortgage life insurance is a bad idea is because it is designed to serve the best interests of the bank and not the insuree. If the breadwinner of the family dies and the income dries up, the odds are high that the family will default on the mortgage payments. A default on the mortgage payments would cause the bank to lose money, but not necessarily the family.
A third reason as to why you shouldn’t buy mortgage life insurance is because it’s very expensive. Sure, when you break it down, it’s only a few cents per day, but when you compare the costs to the actual expected payout, it’s simply not worth it. You would have to die within the first year of owning your home in order to get a worthwhile payout. If you’re looking for some kind of mortgage insurance, your best bet is to go with term life insurance. For most people, it’s more worthwhile for them to increase the amount of coverage under a life insurance policy than to go out and buy mortgage life insurance.