Home Loan Protection - Frequently Ask Questions - Zurich Australia

Zurich Home Loan Protection offers:

1. Life Benefit - If you die or are diagnosed as terminally ill with less than 12 months to live
2. Illness and Injury – If you can’t work due to illness or injury
3. Involuntary Unemployment – If you lose your job through no fault of your own

Cover options: 

1. Life-Only: Includes only the Life benefit
2. Income Security: Includes Illness and Injury & Involuntary Unemployment benefits 
3. Full Protection: Includes Life benefit, Illness and Injury & Involuntary Unemployment

Note: Illness and Injury & Involuntary Unemployment covers must be taken out and remain together for the life of the policy. They cannot be taken out individually. 

You need to meet the following criteria to be eligible for ZHLP:

1. Home Loan between $30,000 and $1 million
2. Age between 18 to 59 years old
3. An Australian or New Zealand citizen or hold an Australian Permanent Residency Visa
4. Meet the employment definition if applying for disability benefits

You can only hold a Zurich Home Loan Protection policy if your primary residence is within Australia.

When a claim is approved, payments are paid:

1. directly to the policyholder for:
   • illness and injury Cover
   • Involuntary Unemployment cover
   • Terminal Illness Benefit
2. To the 2nd policyholder on the same loan or your estate
   • For the death benefit

Yes, you have 30 days to cancel your ZHLP policy and get a refund of any premiums paid if you haven’t made a claim.

There are some exclusions on this policy.  Please refer to “What we don’t cover” in the PDS 

If you refinance your home loan and get a new loan number, your current policy will end and you will need a new ZHLP policy for the new loan. 

You will need a new ZHLP policy if you refinance and get a new home loan.

If you pay off your home loan, your Zurich Home Loan Protection policy will end as you won’t need the cover anymore

If you work less than 20 hours a week, you may not be eligible for illness & injury and involuntary unemployment benefits under the ZHLP policy terms and conditions. 

Open Banking is a system introduced by the Australian government. It allows you to safely share your financial data with organisations accredited by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

For ZHLP, we only collect your loan amount and monthly repayment to:

Consumer Data Right allows you to share your data safely between service providers. If you choose to use CDR, the chosen information will be transferred using secure automated data technology.

No, ZHLP is structured to align your sum insured amount with your loan balance. This ensures we have the most current sum insured value and can charge an accurate premium. To achieve this, we need to obtain the monthly home loan balance through Open Banking.

No, you need to give us consent every 365 days. We’ll send you a reminder 7 days before your current consent runs out.  

If you would like Zurich to stop using your data, please contact us, and we will provide you with a link to remove your consent. Please note that this may affect how we calculate your premiums. We will use the most recent data we have received from open banking to calculate your premium, which could result in you paying for more cover than necessary. 

When you buy a Zurich Home Loan Protection policy, you need to agree to Open Banking. Your consent allows safe sharing of financial data for 365 days. 

We take your privacy very seriously. You can read more about how we keep your information secure in our Privacy Policy.

We only have access to the data that you have provided permission for us to use. The data needed to manage your policy includes:

• Loan amount balance
• Minimum Monthly repayment amount
• Loan expiry date
• Loan BSB and account number

Generally, under CDR, you can ask for 'redundant data' to be deleted or de-identified. Redundant data is information no longer allowed to be used under CDR Rules or Australian law (including contract terms).

However, for Zurich Home Loan Protection, under the terms of the policy, we need to keep records related to your policy to verify cover amounts and to correct errors, even after the policy ends. Please refer to the PDS for more information. We might also have other legal reasons to retain information. Any data we keep will be handled according to Zurich’s Privacy Policy. See the Privacy Section in the PDS for more details.

Please check your loan details, as the information we collect relates to your loan balances and does not include any offsets. If your information is still incorrect, please let us know by calling us on 1800 039 915. We will contact your bank directly to confirm the details and inform you of any updates.

You can only apply for ZHLP policies online. Complete the application in under 10 minutes through this link: https://zhlp.zurich.com.au/

Yes, you can. Each ZHLP policy covers a specific home loan mentioned in the Policy Schedule. The total loan amount across all policies can’t be more than $1 million.

You can only apply for individual policies, but you can have up to two policies on any loan. A maximum of two borrowers can be insured on one home loan and each borrower will have their own policy. Even though each borrower has a unique policy number, the home loan the policies are linked to will be the same.

You can apply for individual policies, with up to two policies allowed on any single loan. A maximum of two borrowers can be insured on one home loan, and each borrower will have their own unique policy. Although each borrower has a distinct policy number, both policies will be linked to the same home loan.

In some cases, your bank may not provide your minimum monthly loan repayment via open banking. We use this information to determine coverage for involuntary unemployment, illness, and injury. If we do not receive this information, we will calculate your minimum loan repayment based on your loan amount, interest rate, and remaining loan term.

To apply you will need your personal details such as, name, address and date of birth. You will also need to know your internet banking log in details for the home loan you want to insure.

Congratulations! You’ll receive your welcome pack soon. Please take the time to check all the details and read through the information to make sure you’re well informed. We’re here to support you every step of the way.

Yes, the ZHLP policy will automatically end if:

1. the policy is cancelled. Cover remains in place for the paid period with no refunds for premiums already paid
2. the home loan is cancelled or ends
3. the life insured passes away
4. the insured is diagnosed with a terminal illness, and the Life Benefit is paid
5. ZHLP policy linked to the same home loan is paid in full
6. Zurich pays out $1 million under the policy for Illness and Involuntary Unemployment benefits
7. you are no longer an Australian or New Zealand citizen or an Australian permanent resident
8. you reach the policy anniversary after your 67th birthday
9. Zurich cancels or avoid the policy, within legal rights ("Avoiding the policy" means canceling the insurance as if it never existed due to false or missing information.)
10. Zurich cancel the policy due to unpaid premiums
11. Zurich issues a replacement policy
12. Zurich learn the home loan was obtained fraudulently

All ZHLP policies are paid monthly by Direct Debit from a bank account or a Credit Card (Visa or MasterCard only).

You can provide your Home Loan details to Zurich via Open Banking. 

If you miss a premium payment, we may try to debit your nominated bank account or credit card a second time. If this doesn’t work, we will contact you to discuss alternative payment methods for the outstanding premiums.

If the missed premium remains unpaid, we may cancel your policy. However, we’ll write to you first and give you the chance to pay the premium.

If your policy is cancelled due to non-payment and you try to make a claim, we may refuse to pay your claim.

As the policy design is to automatically update your loan amount, if you have provided us with consent to collect your loan details and these are incorrect, we will lodge a request to your bank to review the data. Please refer to our Consumer Data Rights Privacy Policy at [web address from compliance]. If you want us to contact your bank to have your details checked, please call us on 131 551 or email client.service@zurich.com.au. 

To make changes to your personal details, contact us on 131 551 or email client.service@zurich.com.au.

Get in touch with us to make a claim. Follow these steps:

1. Call us on 1800 025 015 and tell us the details of your claim
2. We will send you a Claim Information Pack including what information we need to consider your claim. We will tell you the relevant evidence that we need to support your claim and explain why it is required.
3. Complete the claim form and collect any supporting information we have asked for. See the section Information we need for your claim on page 34.
4. Send us the form and all the information. Make sure all sections are complete.

Contact us as soon as you think you might need to make a claim. If you’re unsure, don't hesitate to reach out. We’re here to help.

Claims benefits are paid directly to your nominated bank account as soon as the claim is approved. 

Reach out to our customer care team using the details below if you have any questions, concerns, or feedback. We are commited to addressing and resolving your concerns promptly, fairly and respectfully. We will keep you informed of the progress as we work with you.

If you are not satisfied with our response, your concerns will be escalated to our Complaints Resolution Centre.

Phone: 1800 025 015

Email: disputes.resolution@zurich.com.au

Mail: Zurich Australia Limited

     Locked Bag 994

     North Sydney NSW 2059

If the policy is held for personal purposes, the premium is generally not tax deductible. You should always seek independent tax advice about your personal circumstances.