Car Insurance Terms and Glossary

Posted by admin in All about Insurance on January 1, 2012

No car insurance resource would be complete without a comprehensive glossary of car insurance terms. We’ve compiled a list of terms and their definitions to better help you navigate the sometimes confusing world of insurance

Accident - This is an unexpected sudden event that causes property damage to an automobile or bodily injury to a person. The event may be an at-fault or not-at fault and it may be report or unreported. An accident involving two vehicles may be termed a collision.

Accident report form – This is the report filed by police, often called the police report, containing the important information regarding the vehicle collision. This report will include the names of all individuals involved, vehicles involved, property damaged and citations that were issued.

Adjuster - This is the person who will evaluate the actual loss reported on the policy after an accident or other incident. They will make the determination on how much will be paid on the auto insurance policy by the Insurer.

Agent – This is a licensed and trained individual who is authorized to sell and to service insurance policies for the auto insurance company.

At Fault – This is the amount that you, the policy holder, contributed or caused the auto collision. This determines which insurance agency pays which portion of the losses. Read the rest of this entry »

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5 Key Benefits of Car Hire Excess Insurance

Posted by admin in All about Insurance on January 1, 2012

When renting a car, taking out the additional car hire insurance could save you a great deal of money and anguish. Think about it logically, you are driving someone else’s car and if there is damage you are liable for the excess on the insurance which is usually several hundred pounds, depending upon the company you hire from and the hire period.

Excess insurance is just that. It covers you in the event that there is an accident or other type of damage to the vehicle so that you aren’t left with a hefty bill to settle before the rental company’s insurance begins to pay. You also need to be aware of just how much cover you are getting when you pay for the car hire insurance. Not all policies are the same and some give you the minimum amount of cover, meaning that there are some types of common damage which will just not be covered by car hire insurance. For example, many policies exclude the cost of damage to tyres or windscreens; others exclude damage to undercarriage or vehicle roofs.

Most drivers using a hire car will not be aware of the amount of excess that is being charged on that particular policy. They may assume that there is a similar excess figure as they would have on their own car insurance policy, but this is rarely the case as typical rental excess is between £750 and £1500. Depending upon where you are in the world you may be required to take up car hire excess insurance, but this is not always a standard practice so you would need to think about the pros and cons when you hire the car.

Buying excess insurance gives you peace of mind and some policies have a number of important benefits. It means that you will not be liable in the event of accident or other damage and you will be covered for a number of eventualities including damage to the roof of the car, the tyres, the underneath of the body and the windscreen. You will also be covered in the event that the car is stolen, catches fire (deliberate or otherwise) and for any kind of vandalism. Nobody wants to wake up in the morning and find that their hire car has gone for a joy ride with the local criminals, or that a vandal’s brick has left the windscreen in pieces. Taking out that excess insurance can give peace of mind. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Importance of Insurance in the Modern World

Posted by admin in All about Insurance on December 27, 2011

Many younger people feel that they don’t need health insurance. They engage in various other financial services such as having a bank account, credit cards, college loans, home loans and even small business loans but for some reason insurance and especially health insurance is seen as not being necessary. In countries that have socialized health care, having extra health insurance is not really necessary but in the United States, if you are not already receiving health insurance coverage from your place of work, it is vitally important to buy adequate health insurance. With medical costs skyrocketing, even a simple injury can drain your savings account very easily. People have gone into severe debt because of their medical expenses and that is why it is so necessary to have a good health insurance plan.

I was thinking the other day about insurance in general and was wondering how many people would buy car insurance if it was not mandated by law? My answer to that is not many. People have an illusion that they are safe drivers or that they are healthy people to whom no harm can befall. But as we have seen time and time again, bad times always come as a surprise and it is for this eventuality that you must plan. In previous articles, I talked about having a savings account to ward off debt and bankruptcy but none of this will matter if your entire savings are wiped out because you slipped on the snow and ice and broke your leg.

So if you are young and single, try to at least have some money in your insurance fund. The premiums are not that high if you are young and you will know the true worth of your plan when you eventually use it. Insurance is psychologically counterintuitive. You don’t actually want a calamity to occur but that is exactly when you see the fruits of your planning. If nothing bad happens, then you remain healthy but you also start feeling a little silly for paying into an insurance plan. Read the rest of this entry »

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