Payment protection insurance could give you a tax free sum of money each month with which to pay your loan repayments and keep you out of getting into serious debt problems. Payment protection insurance is a generic term for mortgage payment protection, income protection and loan payment protection insurance and all do the same thing which is to be your lifeline if you should come out of work due to accident, long term sickness or unemployment.

Payment protection insurance would begin to give you a monthly income with which to pay your essential outgoings once you have been out of work for 30 days or more and it would continue to give you an income for up to 12 months and with some providers for 24 months. If you take out mortgage payment protection then your home won’t be at risk as you would have the money each month to ensure you could keep up with the repayments.

If you want to safeguard your monthly loan repayments then loan payment protection could be suitable when it comes to making sure you can carry on meeting your loan repayments. And income protection gives you a replacement income up to a set amount each month.

The payment protection insurance cover can be taken out to guard against coming out of work due to accident and sickness only, unemployment only or for accident, sickness and unemployment together. The quotes for payment protection insurance vary widely and it is essential that you get several quotes for the cheapest premiums. Shopping around for your payment protection insurance cover will enable you to secure you the cheapest premiums while getting you a quality product providing of course that you have ensured a policy would be suitable for your needs.

Always take into account there are exclusions and the most common of these include only working part time, being retired, being in self-employed or suffering from a pre-existing medical condition at the time of taking out your policy. There are of course many more and it is essential that you read the small print before purchasing your payment protection insurance.

Simon Burgess is Managing Director of the award-winning British Insurance, a specialist provider of payment protection insurance, loan protection insurance and income protection insurance.