1. Mortgage payment protection insurance
This sounds great in theory - your mortgage is covered if you are unable to work for a period owing to illness or unemployment. Thankfully, these policies are optional, which is just as well since they are exorbitantly expensive.
For every pound policyholders spend on this cover, typically less than 20-25p is paid back in claims. The upshot is that the mortage market is making a whopping profit of around 80 per cent on every policy sold.
2. Credit card repayment protection plans
These are even more of a hair-raising con than mortgage payment protection. Once again, with a huge mark-up on premiums, payment protection insurance is of little value to people with better cover in place, such as income protection insurance, and it only covers the cost of low-priority debts.
So having the minimum payment made against your credit card bill would be little consolation if you couldn’t pay food and energy bills. When receiving quotes for a loan online some companies don’t ask whether you want to include PPI in your quote, but add it automatically.
3. Life insurance as part of a mortgage ‘package’
When taking out a mortgage, borrowers are expected to take out a life insurance policy. This is designed to pay off the outstanding mortgage loan in the event that the borrower dies while the loan period is still running.
One of the biggest scams in recent years is when mortgage providers or brokers try to include life insurance as an integral part of their mortgage package. You are under no obligation to buy this life policy and are free to shop around for cheaper premiums.
4. ‘Free’ travel insurance from credit card providers
Travel insurance is a must for those going abroad but “free” travel insurance policies from bank or credit card providers can often leave you dangerously under-insured.
Many of these polices only offer very basic insurance - for instance, they are likely to exclude cover if you travel to the United States, South America and more exotic locations. There will inevitably be no cover for skiing or other dangerous sports, either.
5. Travel insurance sold with holiday packages
Another common bugbear with travel insurance is policies sold by travel agents. Policies sold when a holiday is booked come with a huge mark-up. It might seem more convenient via the agent, but it only takes one simple phone call to set up a policy direct with an insurer yourself - and it’s much cheaper.
6. Extended warranties
When you purchase electrical goods such as a new hi-fi, washing machine, cooker or dishwasher, the retailer will inevitably give you the hard sell on an extended warranty. This is an area where the retailer makes money on high-margin protection products.
These warranties are extremely expensive - and in many cases a repair bill further down the line, if needed, could prove significantly cheaper than paying for a warranty you never use.
7. Credit card protection plans
A credit card protection plan allows you to protect your card from theft and misuse. The fee is usually around Ј10 a card. But given the amount of credit and store cards Brits like to carry around, you only need to have five cards and you are paying Ј50 in card protection alone. If you are going to insure your cards, insure them all collectively.
8. Third-party car insurance
Car drivers who are involved in a smash caused by a joy-rider or a driver without insurance or a licence cannot claim on another policy - and if they have only third-party insurance, they will have to pay for all their repairs themselves.
For younger drivers, third-party policies can often be the only affordable option as fully comprehensive premiums are so heavily loaded against them.
9. Ski insurance
Ski insurance policies often exclude off-piste skiing, but in many cases off-piste could actually mean a short unmarked path linking one ski run to another. You may unwittingly be negating your policy and having to shell out if you need to be transported down to a hospital for treatment.
10. Private medical insurance (PMI)
Private medical insurance (PMI), particularly budget plans featuring small print littered with exclusions, are rarely satisfactory. Often the conditions covered and the choice of hospitals offered for treatment will be restricted.
You could be paying out monthly premiums but when you need to make a claim, you may discover that the outpatient treatment you need (scans or physiotherapy) is not covered.
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