Speak with an experienced advisor! In this article, we will help you answer the question “Is Mortgage protection insurance a scam.” If you recently purchased or free financed at home, you may be surprised by all the mortgage protection offer letters you received in the mail.
These unsolicited offers in your mailbox for mortgage protection insurance lawyer are an annoyance to many new home buyers, and interesting (if not a bit confusing) to many more homeowners.
It is not unusual for people to think “is mortgage protection insurance a scam?” after getting their 30th letter in 30 days.
How do these companies obtain my personal information?
The information about your recent home purchase or refinance is public information that can be purchased or accessed through public information data requests.
Mortgage protection insurance companies use publicly available data to contact homeowners immediately after their purchase information becomes public records to offer them mortgage protection insurance.
What is mortgage protection insurance?
Mortgage protection insurance is a type of life insurance intended to help your family stay in your home if an income earner were to pass away unexpectedly. Your family can use this insurance money to pay off your mortgage, to pay down a portion of your mortgage, or to keep making payments on your home in your absence.
Mortgage protection insurance allows your family to stay in the home you shared with them until they decide what to do with your home.
Your lender does not require mortgage protection; it is, however, recommended. Having mortgage protection insurance coverage is a caring and loving thing to do for your family, but this insurance policy is entirely optional.
Read our mortgage protection insurance Q&A article to learn more about mortgage protection insurance.
Scammers often target homeowners with new mortgages
Your new home purchase information is publicly available information. Your name, address, loan amount, and bank or lender information is all publicly available information. Scammers can easily use this information to contact potential victims.
Read all mortgage protection letter offers carefully; just because a letter has your name, your address, your lender’s name, and your exact loan amount, it does not mean they are legitimate or can be trusted.
The majority of mortgage protection offers you receive are legitimate and trustworthy, but you can never be too careful with your personal information. Many scammers are looking for your personal information to commit identity theft.
There are some ways to identify the mortgage protection insurance scam:
THEY ASK FOR TOO MUCH INFORMATION:
Legitimate mortgage protection insurance agents only need some basic information to get you some accurate insurance coverage quotes. Usually, all that is required is your age, gender, height and weight, and limited health information.
They do not need your social security number, credit card information, bank account number, or any other financial information to get you mortgage protection quotes. Reputable insurance companies will never ask for this information up front. If a company requests this information from you right away, they may be trying to scam you for your personal information.
THEY DON’T SAY WITH WHOM THEY ARE AFFILIATED:
Legitimate insurance agents and mortgage protection insurance companies must have a disclaimer on their mortgage protection offer letter to let you know the message is not coming from your lender.
The letter should also have a statement somewhere indicating that your bank or lender did not provide the mortgage protection insurance company with your personal or financial information.
If these two disclaimers are not included in your mortgage protection insurance letter, then this letter is probably from a scammer.
THEY LIST A FAKE ADDRESS (OR NO ADDRESS AT ALL):
Fake addresses can be hard to determine as these letters often come from post office boxes. A post office box can be purchased by anyone, anywhere, for any purpose. Rarely will mortgage protection offer letters include a physical address of an insurance company.
There should be a legitimate address and phone number on the mortgage protection letter, which you can verify by doing a Google search on the Internet. If your mortgage protection letter has no address or phone number, you’d be smart to dispose of the mortgage protection letter.
THEY DON’T LIST A LICENSE NUMBER (OR LIST A FALSE LICENSE NUMBER):
Always check to see if there is an insurance license number included in your mortgage protection letter offer.
All states require insurance companies, insurance agents, insurance brokers, and IMO’s (Independent Marketing Organizations) to have licenses and be registered with the Department of Insurance.
To confirm whether an offer or insurance company is legitimate, you can quickly verify an insurance license number by contacting your state Department of Insurance.
If there is no license number on your mortgage protection insurance letter, it may be from a scammer.
THEY THREATEN YOU WITH LEGAL ACTION:
Some scammers are very creative. Fear is the primary tactic used to get your personal information. They may even threaten you with foreclosure if you don’t purchase mortgage protection insurance from them.
If you get an official-looking letter that says you must buy mortgage protection insurance by a specific date, it’s likely from a scammer. If you get an official-looking letter says you will violate the terms of your mortgage if you don’t buy mortgage protection insurance, it’s likely from a scammer. If you can official looking letter stating that your home will go into foreclosure if you don’t buy mortgage protection insurance, is likely from a scammer.
Scammers are a creative bunch of hoodlums, so don’t fall for their silly tricks!
Are you interested in mortgage protection insurance, but still hesitant?
After receiving your 30th mortgage protection offer letter after being in your home less than 30 days, it’s easy to understand why people are hesitant to send in these letters.
Which one do you send in? Whom do you trust? Will I get the best service? Will I get the best price? Can I afford it? Do I even need it? These are all questions you will be asking for yourself.
Here are some tips to help identify the legitimate offers from those who want to scam you:
FIND OUT WHO THEY ARE:
Look their information up on the Internet. If they have no website address, they are not legitimate. If they have no phone number, they are not legitimate. If they have no email address or contact form, they are not legitimate. Run for the hills if these are absent from your mortgage protection letter.
Call them up and asked some questions; give no sensitive financial information to the person you’re talking to right away.
CHECK OUT THEIR REVIEWS
Check out any reviews online. Most legitimate companies will have some reviews online. Throw out the best reviews, and throw out the worst reviews; the truth is often found in the middle reviews.
CHECK OUT THEIR WEBSITE:
Check out their websites to see if they are mortgage protection experts. If they just have one page on their website about mortgage protection (out of the hundreds of pages on their website), then they are not mortgage protection experts. They are simply insurance agents trying to funnel you into a different insurance product that may not be best for you.
Make sure they offer information to help educate you on the insurance products you are considering, and offer plenty of resources on their website to educate yourself to see if mortgage protection is right for you.
WORK WITH MORTGAGE PROTECTION SPECIALISTS:
Find a company that deals only in mortgage protection insurance. If you want the best help and the most expertise, go to a company that only works with people to protect their homes and mortgages when a loved one dies.
DON’T SPEND TOO MUCH:
Be skeptical if they want you to buy the most expensive insurance product available; your insurance agent should be worried about your budget, not theirs.
It’s important to find something that comfortably fits into your budget and gets you the protection you need. If you feel like your insurance agent is trying to upsell you to buy more coverage than you need, you must find a different insurance agent.
MAKE SURE AND PRICE SHOP FOR THE BEST DEAL:
Make sure your mortgage protection insurance agent shows you more than one insurance company and identifies the features and benefits of the policy they are recommending.
Price is not the only thing to consider; the financial strength of an insurance company should always be your first consideration; A-rated insurance companies are preferred for mortgage protection.
Here are some final thoughts:
When you send in a mortgage protection letter, you are giving permission for the insurance company or IMO to contact you by phone or visit your home. Your personal information is often sold to an insurance agent, or multiple insurance agents. You may get phone calls for up to two years offering you mortgage protection insurance.
Most mortgage protection offer letters are legitimate, and the insurance companies do want to help you get your home and mortgage protected. We support these companies in their goal of ensuring your home and family are protected financially should you die unexpectedly; we just do things differently.
What we don’t do
Because we don’t have to mail out thousands of letters to get a few of them back in the mail, our business operating costs are low. We are proud of this, and we are even more proud to offer the best mortgage protection insurance rates available.
Because we keep our expenses low, we never feel forced to sell you a more expensive policy than you need. We love price shopping for our customers and are passionate about getting you the best pricing mortgage protection so your family can keep your home when you are gone.
We respect your time
Most companies that send mortgage protection letters will have an insurance agent want to visit you and your home to sell you an insurance policy; we do things differently. There’s no need for us to visit you in your home to help you find a mortgage protection policy.
Time is the most precious gift that any of us has. Everyone is busy these days, and all the families we meet with never have hours to spend with an insurance agent in his or her home.
We make it fast and easy!
We make shopping for mortgage protection easy. We have a free online quote form, we have a toll-free phone number, and we can use screen-sharing technology to show you real-time quotes, benefits, and features of the best insurance policies.
We hope this article helps you better understand your mortgage protection options, and how to find a legitimate mortgage protection insurance agent. We would love to help you understand your options, and find you the best price policy for your home and family. We won’t sell your information, and we will always respect your privacy.
Fill out our free mortgage protection quote form and get some instant insurance rates today.
