Moneyextra and MSN join to offer new life cover service available in a matter of minutes

April 25th, 2007

1.4 million MSN Money users to benefit from the right cover at the right price per month

MSN, the UK's leading portal, and online IFA Moneyextra today launch a brand new financial service, which will give MSN users full access to life insurance policies from across the whole market.

By answering a few simple questions, users will be able to obtain quotes and gain access to expert advice on a variety of life insurance and critical illness cover products, including level term cover, decreasing cover and Family Income Benefit (FIB).

The new service's first life cover was put in place after just two phone calls in the space of two hours, the first 14 minutes long and the second 35 minutes long. The customer was seeking £80,000-worth of life insurance for 23 years. Cover was offered with immediate effect and policy documents posted out to arrive the following morning.

Moneyextra's Senior Editor, Robin Amlôt commented "A significant proportion of UK consumers are paying over the odds for their life insurance and many of those with insurance don't have enough*. This new tool could help to save the great British public millions of pounds in premiums, simply by sourcing them a more cost effective and suitable policy for their individual needs."

Alex Marks, UK Head of Marketing for Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, said: "The new tool, launched on MSN with Moneyextra, brings cutting edge technology and exciting new content to MSN UK's 16.8million users per month and is an example of how we're continually striving to improve the user experience."

When seeking life insurance, consumers should consider the following questions as these will all have an impact on the monthly cost of their policy:

• Why do you want life insurance? Is the policy to cover the mortgage or to provide an income?
• How much do you want to insure? If you want insurance to provide an income, then it might be appropriate to insure your salary, whereas mortgage-linked term assurance will need to be the value of the mortgage taken.
• How long do you want your insurance to last for? Mortgage-linked policies will need to have the same term as the mortgage itself, whilst other policies can provide cover for almost any length of time.
• Are you happy for your monthly premiums to change over time? If not, then you should opt for a policy with a guaranteed premium.
• How often should I review my life insurance? As life insurance premiums and your own circumstances can change regularly, it is advisable to review your situation every 12 to 24 months.

In addition to the above, the following will also have an effect on the monthly premium:

• The age of the insured person
• Their gender
• If they're a smoker (n.b. to be classed as a non-smoker you cannot have smoked any tobacco products in the last 12 months)
• If they have any serious medical conditions (such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart condition)
• If they have any hazardous hobbies / employment (such as working offshore, the armed forces, steeplejacks and hobbies such as sailing, flying, climbing or parachuting)

Moneyextra's new life insurance service on MSN can be accessed on http://moneycentral.moneyextra.com/protectionquote/.

 

For further information, please contact:

Robin Amlôt
Senior Editor, Moneyextra
Tel: 0870 191 5626
public.relations@moneyextra.com

 

For further information on MSN, please contact:

Kate Gillman
Tel: 020 7025 6523
kate.gillman@redconsultancy.com

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Moneyextra.com

"* Some 50% of the adult population has insufficient life cover" - Swiss Re Term & Helath Watch 2006.

Moneyextra.com is one of the UK's longest-established personal finance websites. It has 536,000 unique users and delivers 5.5 million page views every month and has 513,000 registered users.

As at 22nd March 2007, Moneyextra.com featured:

• More than 10,000 Mortgages from 126 providers
• 161 Personal Loans from 69 providers
• 205 Credit Cards from 64 providers
• 1,506 Stocks & Shares ISAs from 58 providers
• 173 Cash ISAs from 91 providers
• 123 Current accounts from 36 providers
• 858 Deposit accounts from 149 providers

Our contact centre is available between the hours of 9am and 8pm, Monday to Friday.

AWD Moneyextra is a trading name of AWD Moneyextra Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Not all products and services on AWD Moneyextra are regulated by the FSA.

About MSN UK and Windows Live

MSN is a division of the Microsoft Corporation.

MSN UK (http://uk.msn.com) attracts more than 20 million unique users worldwide per month. MSN is a world leader in delivering compelling programmed content experiences to consumers and online advertising opportunities to businesses worldwide.

Windows Live, a new set of personal Internet services and software, is designed to bring together in one place all the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with enhanced safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web.

Windows Live and MSN provide a number of world class innovative communication and information services including:

• MSN Hotmail, the UK's most popular free web-based e-mail service with over 9.4 million users in the UK (Nielsen//NetRatings October 2006) and over 230 million active accounts worldwide (MSN Internal Data)
• Windows Live Messenger, the UK's number one instant messaging service on the internet with 14.6 million monthly users (Nielsen//NetRatings October 2006) and over 205 million active users worldwide (MSN Internal data)
• Live Search, one of the UK's top search sites with 5 million users. (Nielsen//NetRatings October 2006). Live Search is available in 33 markets worldwide and 13 languages.
• Windows Live Spaces, one of the leading blogging and social networking sites in the UK, has over 2.6 million users in the UK (Nielsen//NetRatings October 2006). Windows Live Spaces is one of the fastest growing communication networks in the world.