Credit life is a type of insurance that will pay off the remainder of your mortgage if the insured should pass away. This is a costly insurance and only covers the balance of the mortgage that is left. Therefore, if something happened 13 years into a 15 year mortgage and the outstanding balance remaining was only $7,500, this is the amount the insurance would pay for after paying for the insurance for 13 years. Explore all of your options before obtaining this type of insurance. Many times a term life insurance policy will be cheaper and it will pay the full insured amount for the entire term of the policy.