“The Lemoine Law: One Year In, Over 200,000 Loan Insurance Changes Recorded”

The Lemoine Law, which now allows you to change your borrower insurance at any time, will celebrate its first anniversary in a few days (since June 1, 2022 for new loans and since September 1, 2022 for current contracts). The opportunity to confirm the success of this measure which had only managed to impose itself after a long legislative process hampered by the actions of the banking lobby.

The loan insurance broker and comparator Magnolia indicates that it has registered more than 200,000 change requests over the past year (+250%). At Magnolia, this activity is now increased to approximately 80% by changes in insurance contracts (termination), against only 20% by new loans.

A choice sometimes under duress

When a buyer takes out a home loan, he has the option of refusing the insurance offered by the bank on the condition of presenting an offer that displays the same guarantees. However, some banks use many schemes to dissuade borrowers from resorting to delegation of insurance, particularly in terms of acceptance times, whereas obtaining a loan has become much more difficult today with the sharp rise in interest rates.

This is how Magnolia notes that the delegation acceptance rate when the loan was granted has fallen by more than 30% in one year. ” More than ever, lending banks are reluctant to let customers choose competing insurance. As for borrowers, they avoid compromising the acceptance of their request for financing, the Lemoine law allowing them to negotiate their loan insurance at a later stage. “, explained Magnolia.

Borrowers change from the first months

Magnolia notes that loan insurance change requests mainly concern couples (60%) and more of the over 36s among the age groups. Another observation that testifies to the new freedom of choice of borrowers: they no longer wait to change by making their request for substitution in the first months following the signing of the loan offer. They are also quite right since the sooner you do it, the better the savings will be. The residual duration of repayment on the delegations provided by the broker appears on average at 18.1 years when the average duration of a mortgage is 19 years in France.

An average insurance rate up to three times lower

The broker estimates that people under 35 who borrow together can benefit from an average insurance rate of 0.11% for amounts borrowed less than or equal to €200,000, when banks rarely do better than 0. .34%. The youngest are thus the first winners with an average saving estimated at more than €18,000 over the total duration of the loan for a couple (i.e. around €100 per month).

These differences in rates still tend to decrease with the age of the borrowers, in particular from 40 to 45 years old where the delegated insurance often becomes less competitive. Magnolia still calculates savings well above €10,000 for a couple aged 46 and over.

« While the rise in interest rates has caused those who have managed to obtain bank financing to lose 20% of their borrowing capacity in one year, the Lemoine law allows them to immediately regain some precious points of purchasing power. “, emphasizes Astrid Cousin, spokesperson for Magnolia.