Check my policyHome / Your options / Loan or surrender
A policy loan gives you cash and keeps the policy. Surrender gives you more cash now and ends it. For an eligible policy, selling may give more again. Here is how they compare, including the costs that are easy to miss.
Last reviewed 15 October 2026. General information, not financial advice.
The broad rules are similar across insurers. The rate and the limit are not.
Up to a limit your insurer sets, as a share of the policy's cash value. No credit check, because the policy is the security.
At a rate your insurer sets and can change. As one example, Manulife states 6.75% a year for its Singapore dollar policies.
There is usually no fixed repayment schedule, so the loan keeps growing until you repay it.
If the loan and interest grow past the cash value, the policy can terminate, and you may get little or nothing back.
Whatever is owed is taken from the maturity payout, death benefit, surrender value or sale price.
Three ways to raise cash from the same policy.
| Policy loan | Surrender | Sell to a buyer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash now | Up to the loan limit | The net surrender value | The agreed price, if a buyer takes it |
| The policy | Stays yours | Ends | Continues under the buyer |
| Cost to you | Interest, for as long as the loan runs | The maturity payout and future bonuses | The maturity payout and future bonuses |
| Premiums | You keep paying | Stop | The buyer pays them |
| Can you undo it? | Yes, by repaying | Usually not | Not once assigned |
You need cash for a short time, you can repay it, and you want to keep the policy and its maturity payout.
You no longer need the policy, no buyer will pay more, and a loan would only grow.
The policy is eligible, you don't need the cover, and a written offer beats your net surrender value. Check my policy
Often, yes. The loan stays with the policy and the price reflects it, just as your insurer would take it off a surrender.
A loan some insurers make to pay a missed premium, so the policy doesn't lapse. It works like any other policy loan. Ways to stop premiums
A share of the cash value set by your insurer. Ask for your current loan limit and rate before you apply.
You don't have to. The amount owed is taken off. Repaying first only helps if you have spare cash and want a larger payout from the policy.
Manulife Singapore: What are your options if you cannot afford premium payments? (checked 15 October 2026)
If we would buy your policy, our written offer sits beside your net surrender value. No NRIC, no obligation.