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FNB Add Credit Life Claims Function To Their Banking App

As awareness of the option to claim on credit life insurance policies (that cover income loss) has increased so have claims.

Credit Life insurance is a type of insurance that credit providers force you to have when you apply for credit. This insurance covers them should you die (and then not pay your debt). It also often covers your payments for some time should you become unemployed or lose income. Many newer policies can be claimed against due to the Covid-19 lockdown and temporary income loss.

‘FNB has seen claims shoot up from about 50 a day in the past to 1500 claims each day’

As claims have increased, FNB has seen claims shoot up from about 50 a day in the past to 1500 claims each day over the last few weeks (you have to claim within a short time of the loss of income). They are now aiming to be able to process 4000 claims a day.

Now on the App

FNB has now included the option to start the claims process on their banking App. The App also allows users to track the progress of their claims (so you don’t have to keep calling them). At present, there are almost 40 000 people waiting for their FNB credit life claims to be processed.

If you were permanently and formally employed and have lost income for a full month then FNB will be paying your instalment for you though this insurance (for a number of months as needed).

Those Who Could Never Actually Claim

If you are self employed in the informal sector then you probably were paying for a benefit all along you could not actually receive and there are probably going to be some issues with the NCR looming in these insurers future (as we have seen with other cases where pensioners had insurance for employment income loss in their policies that they could not actually claim).

‘it is possible that your policy does not have income loss protection’

Due to the nature of different policies saying different things you should be aware that it is possible that your policy does not have income loss protection. Most newer ones do. It also depends if you took the insurance provided by the credit provider or decided to replace it with your own policies.

You can ask for copies of your credit life insurance contract and read through it if you feel that you might need to make a claim in the near future.