Life and multi-risk insurance are mandatory insurance when taking out a Housing Loan to purchase a property.
Banks immediately present some proposals for this service, and in most cases, when taking out insurance there, you will be able to benefit from a spread bonus. Despite this “benefit” suggested by the bank, it's always up to the customer to decide where to take out the insurance, although this spread penalty almost always ends up conditioning the final decision.
But after all, is it worth having life and multi-risk insurance in the bank or not? This is precisely what we talk to you about today.
At the end of 2023, the proposal from the National Association of Insurance Agents and Brokers (Aprose) was discussed in the Assembly of the Republic, which provided for the non-penalty of the spread if the client chose to take out insurance with an insurer on the free market, but the proposal was rejected by the PS parliamentary bench.
The Aprose moving these insurances to the free market would allow an average annual saving of 300 euros per contract,a mudança desses seguros para o mercado livre iria permitir uma poupança anual média de 300 euros por contrato, which represents an average global saving of around 300 million euros for families per year”, but with PS voting against, the measure ended up not going ahead.
Still, despite the spread penalty, we advise you to take out your insurance outside the bank where you took out your House Loan and there are several reasons to justify this decision:
The first is obvious: despite the higher spread, it's likely that you will be able to find insurance outside the bank with greater coverage and a lower value, which will automatically compensate for the worsening of the spread.
The second reason, and perhaps the most important, is that in the event that you want to transfer your House Loan to another bank one day because you have found a better offer, your bank's insurer may not authorize the change of mortgage lender.
In these cases, you would have to take out a new insurance policy which may no longer be as attractive if, for example, you have developed a health problem in the meantime.
This way, when the time comes to take out your life and multi-risk insurance, always try to receive some proposals from insurance companies outside the bank so that, after the calculations are made, you can make a conscious decision.
If you need help finding a good insurance offer, contact us.