Mortgage insurance Switzerland

Is it possible to get insurance which would cover the cost of mortgage payments if I became unemployed?

Greetings,

Mortgage protection insurance is offered by a number of Swiss insurance companies, including Helvetia and Cardif (a division of French bank BNP Paribas). Some Swiss banks will offer this optional insurance when you apply for a mortgage.

Typically, mortgage protection insurance covers mortgage payments in the event of involuntary loss of employment for a period of 12 months. This helps prevent your mortgage from being terminated before you can find another source of income.

However many of these policies have a waiting period of several months between the point at which you lose your job and the point at which the insurance pays out benefits. The maximum benefit you can receive is often limited (to CHF 2500, for example), so depending on the value of your property it may not cover amortization payments in addition to interest.

If you do not expect to become unemployed, then a life insurance policy can provide a more effective way to insure your mortgage because you can insure the entire debt, rather than just a fixed number of repayments. A decreasing benefit policy, for example, is relatively affordable as the benefit decreases as you amortize your debt. You can use the moneyland.ch life insurance comparison to compare mortgages.

Best regards from Moneyguru