Cydesdale Life Insurance Review 2023

Clydesdale Bank is an older British financial institution dating back to 1838.

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Clydesdale Bank is an older British financial institution dating back to 1838. The service recently modernised, becoming part of Virgin Money in 2018, rebranding and offering more diverse services.

Clydesdale offers a series of life insurance services to meet the needs of the modern client, and this guide looks at how they fare in the marketplace.

Types of Life Insurance

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Despite being accredited as one of Britain’s leading insurers, Clydesdale have relatively limited offerings compared to other more prominent providers on the market. The core offering is life insurance with either decreasing or level terms and an optional add-on of critical life cover.

Find out more details unique to Clydesdale’s plans below.

Life Insurance

Clydesdale’s life insurance follows industry standards when it comes to its plans. Beneficiaries will receive a lump sum payout should they pass away within their agreed term, providing financial protection to loved ones. However, the products tend to get geared toward those with mortgages.

It’s essential to note that life insurance at Clydesdale is not provided directly by the institution but has paired selected products from Legal & General to suit their market. With that in mind, the two types of plans on offer are a decreasing and level term policy, which we go into more detail below.

Decreasing Term

The decreasing term life cover is one of the more chosen options considering Clydesdale offer a broad range of other financial products. The policy runs parallel to the outstanding debt on a mortgage, decreasing the amount paid out over your contract term.

Level Term

Level-term life insurance is a policy that will pay a fixed amount to the beneficiary no matter the stage of the contract. Clydesdale, in particular, syncs the terms of the plan to those with an interest-only mortgage.

Critical Illness Cover

Clydesdale’s critical illness cover is not a plan like some leading insurers will offer. Instead, it’s an add-on to the existing methods to give policyholders peace of mind that they’ll be able to continue paying their mortgage.

So with the products in mind, let’s look at the defining features of Clydesdale life insurance.

Overview of Clydesdale Life Insurance Key Policy Details

Find critical details of this insurer in the table below.

Clydesdale will pay out on your policy if: The policyholder dies or gets seriously ill during the contracted term.
Options: Term Life Insurance (level or decreasing)
Policy Coverage: Single/Joint Coverage
Terminal Illness Cover: No
Critical Illness Cover: No
Minimum Entry Age: 18
Maximum Entry Age 65
Guaranteed Insurability: No

Clydesdale’s insurance product details show that they work well if you have an existing mortgage. They highlight how each product should have adequate cover if linked with the debt on your home. This notion showcases that they’d be ideal for protecting your family against a mortgage burden.

So what’s the general opinion from those that have used or interacted with Clydesdale life insurance?

Clydesdale Life Insurance

We compare plans from the leading life insurance providers

Because Clydesdale does not manage the products, there’s a split between how customers see the service and insurance policies. The overwhelming opinion of the service is negative, whereas the product finds itself in a positive light.

We’ll first look at the most significant factors defining Clydesdale life insurance before proceeding with the critique. The noted aspects of the insurer include:

  • Scoped life insurance products geared towards a demographic with a mortgage
  • Insurance gets managed by Legal and General, a revered provider
  • Experienced financiers that can tailor policies to needs

So now, let’s put the public opinion on Clydesdale into the spotlight.

Key Points

Customer feedback on Clydesdale is unfavourable, not limited to their insurance policies. While the available public commentary isn’t specifically about life insurance, some specific cases refer to poor experiences.

Critical notes about the life insurance products from Clydesdale include:

  • Difficult to speak to representatives about the products
  • Staff unwilling to help
  • Inconsistent prerequisites to apply for insurance
  • Overcomplicated quoting process

The negativities refer to Clydesdale directly, but not the actual products. We’ll highlight how the plans get rated by peers in the next section and the customer ratings given to the institution.

Ratings

It’s essential to recognise that the negative public feedback does not necessarily represent the quality of the products, as Clydesdale are only the front that sells the policies. The rest get managed by their provider, Legal and General.

However, initial interactions are significant when finding the right policies. We’ve broken down customer experiences through different trust platforms below.

Trustpilot

The customer-centric Trustpilot ranks Clydesdale very low, where many reviews highlight their particular difficulties getting quotes and applying for insurance policies. See the breakdown of the feedback below, which scored an overall 1.2 out of 5.

Rating Percentage of Feedback
Excellent 5%
Great 1%
Average 1%
Poor 2%
Bad 92%

So how do the industry professionals perceive Clydesdale life insurance?

Defaqto

Defaqto is a professional platform that uses experts to deduce the quality of financial products. They had particular praise for Clydesdale’s offerings, awarding 4 stars out of 5 for their products.

That ranks high in comparison to other leading insurers. However, we note again that the policies are managed by Legal and General, meaning that Clydesdale only sells the plans through their financial services portal.

Is Clydesdale Life Insurance Right for You?

Do you think Clydesdale still could be an option despite the negative feedback? Many people opt for the policies as they are well-geared to tackle a mortgage should something happen to them.

Clients can contact expert brokers to learn more about whether Clydesdale life insurance is the right choice for them.

Defaqto ratings

Type Plan name Rating
Critical illness (decreasing) Mortgage Protection Plan 4
Critical illness (level term) Mortgage Protection Plan 4
Critical illness (direct with life cover) Mortgage Protection Plan 5
Life assurance (direct) Mortgage Protection Plan 5
Life assurance (decreasing) Mortgage Protection Plan 4
Life assurance (level term) Mortgage Protection Plan 3
Defaqto ratings were reviewed on 01/10/2023