Firstly, what is mortgage protection insurance and why would you need it? Well mortgage protection insurance basically pays your mortgage repayments if you become sick, have an accident or become unemployed. Sometimes it can also cover related expenses such as building insurance, but not always, so check the mortgage protection insurance policy if you want to know if that is covered too. Many people choose to buy their mortgage protection insurance with their mortgage lender as this seems convenient and logical, however many mortgage lenders charge high prices for their mortgage protection insurance. A much better option is to get a mortgage protection insurance policy from a specialist provider as this is usually cheaper. Even if you already have mortgage protection insurance from your existing mortgage lender, you can still switch it to a specialist provider and save money.

For those of you that are self-employed, another way to save money on your mortgage protection insurance is to opt out of the 'unemployment' part of the cover as this would reduce the cost of the policy which would most probably not pay out in this situation anyway.

The price of mortgage protection insurance is based on the size of your mortgage payment instead of the usual health, sex and age risk factors. There are a few policies which are age related and for those of you under 35 they would generally be cheaper than mortgage insurance protection policies that are not age related.

If you are thinking of switching your mortgage protection insurance from one provider to another, please check the new policy carefully as some policies have an initial exclusion period where you cannot claim, which is usually 3 to 6 months, in which case it's best not to switch as you don't want to be uncovered for up to 6 months.

Also some mortgage protection insurance policies won't pay out if you have a pre-existing medical condition or if it could be predicted that you were to become unemployed at the time of taking out the policy. If either of these are your current circumstances then it's best not to switch.