Credit Life Insurance for Bad Credit Car Loans

Weighing the pros and cons of credit life insurance as part of a bad credit auto loan

Now what?

Once you’ve picked out a car and received the final approval for a bad credit car loan, there are a number of decisions you may still have to make. We know, because at Auto Credit Express we’ve been working with poor credit car buyers for over two decades.

Having seen the embarrassment and frustration that many customers with bad credit often face, we even created a web site to accept applications and match these people up with local dealers that specialize in customers with credit issues.

The alternative – buying a vehicle from a tote the note, we finance anyone car dealer – can be a problem because normally these dealers don’t report your payments to the credit bureaus. But even taking out a loan through a dealer with a legitimate national bad credit lender can end up badly simply by choosing the wrong kind of vehicle. Both situations can create problems and either one might even result in repossession.

The car loans with bad credit process can also be confusing, because in addition to the loan itself, the special finance manager who helped to arrange the loan is bound to offer you a number of “back end” products that you may never have heard of, one of which is bound to be credit life insurance.

Credit life insurance explained

Credit life insurance is a form of term life insurance. Term insurance refers to an insurance policy that, unlike whole life insurance, is in force for a fixed period of time and cannot be renewed. And, also unlike a whole life policy, a term insurance policy builds no cash value.

In addition to being a form of term insurance, credit life insurance is also considered to be a “decreasing” term policy. This means that the payout on the policy is designed to match whatever the loan balance happens to be at any point throughout the loan term. As the loan is paid off, the loan balance decreases and the amount of life insurance covering the loan balance also decreases to match the amount owed on the loan contract.

Buying credit life insurance

If you decide to buy credit life insurance, you usually have to do it at the time you sign the loan contract. The monthly insurance premium is based upon the original loan balance and the cost is added to the finance contract and becomes part of your monthly car payment. This means that because it is part of the finance contract and not paid in a lump sum, you will be paying interest on the life insurance premium as well as on the vehicle loan.

Is it worth the cost?

Whether or not it’s worth the cost is a decision that you’ll have to make. Here are a few of the facts:

Advantages:

1. Peace of mind – credit life insurance will pay off your car if you should die before the loan contract is paid off.
2. A single payment – the insurance payment becomes part of your monthly car payment, so there is no separate insurance premium you’ll need to pay.
3. If the loan is covered by credit life insurance, your estate won’t be responsible for the loan balance or loan payments if you die before the car is paid off.

Disadvantages:

1. Generally speaking, credit life insurance is usually more costly than if you were to take out a separate term life insurance policy for the loan amount.
2. In addition to paying insurance premium, you are also paying the interest expense on the balance of the policy cost every month.
3. If there is no co-signer on the loan and you are single, even if the loan isn’t paid off before you die your family is not legally responsible for the loan balance.

As we see it

The decision to carry credit life insurance on your loan contract is one that you will have to make. If you have a family or a co-signer and you’re worried that they might not be able to make payments on your car if you die, you might want to first look at the costs of a term life policy before you sign on the dotted line making credit life insurance a part of your car loan.

At Auto Credit Express we have helped thousands of people with bad credit buy cars and reestablish their credit at the same time. Our nationwide network of affiliate dealers specializes in bad credit car loans. Unlike other sites, our toll free number is listed on every page in case you have any additional questions.

So why not begin the process right now by filling out our secure online bad credit car loan application to see what we can do for you.