Loans Against Insurance Policies
September 16, 2014 4 Comments
The news that Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India has recently surpassed banks as the largest personal loan lender in India has turned the focus on insurance policies as collateral. Apart from LIC, other life insurers like ICICI Prudential Life and Edelweiss Tokio Life, and several banks, including the State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, offer loans against life insurance policies.
Loans are granted only against traditional policies that have life cover along with a savings element in them. Term insurance covers and unit-linked insurance plans cannot be pledged to secure loans against them.Policies must acquire surrender value -the amount you would get if you terminate the policy after a certain years -to qualify for loans. You must assign the policy in favour of the insurer to get a loan. Typically, insurance companies offer loans up to 85-90% of the surrender value. LIC charges an interest rate of 10%, to be paid every six months. Read more of this post