Eagle Star Life Insurance

Long-established and fiscally stable, a bit old-fashioned, but innovative at times.

Website: Eagle Star Life Insurance

The Eagle Star Life insurance range isn’t huge, and as you would expect offers to protect your family or your mortgage. There is one clever addition which is the option to retrieve some value from expired policies by receiving a cashback- it won’t be that much, but it’ll go part-way to a holiday; not bad for something that would otherwise be gratingly worthless.

Eagle Star Life Insurance is one of the longest established life offices in the UK- and since 1998 has belonged to the global finance house, Zurich. Their site is easy to get around, in fact if anything it’s sparse- this is a site for people who already understand a little about financial products, as there’s not much explanatory assistance.

The Eagle Star Life Insurance range extends to a term life policy, a mortgage protection policy, and something called “cashback” term assurance. The latter partially mollifies the fact that a term policy is worthless once it expires, by giving you a cash rebate of half your premiums when the policy expires. Over a ten year period that’s a fairly nice surprise- basically it works in the same way as “no claims bonus protection” on your car insurance.

All three Eagle Star Life Insurance products are available from age 16, and must expire by age 70; and all observe the usual term rules: there is no redemption or intrinsic value. The maximum cover is £250,000; and unlike some policies which allow you an annual cheque payment, remuneration must happen by direct debit. You can’t get a quote online, though- but once you’ve filled in a basic form, you can opt for an immediate call-back from their agents- which at least saves holding on the phone.