Articles: Insurance

If there is one breed of people I absolutely detest, it is insurance agents. The reason for this is fairly simple. They are the only people who plague me constantly. Each time I see a banking or financial institution stall on the roadside or at a mall, I tend to avoid. For nine times out of ten, the people peddling their wares there are you guessed it! Insurance agents.

There was a time when I thought that insurance was god`s gift to mankind. Of course I could have been biased by my then circumstance. Being fresh out of college and with the baggage of student loans to boot, I could afford little more than a second hand car as my first car. So, I paid what the owner asked for it and drove away. Fortunately for me, the car came with insurance premiums fully paid up. Less than a month later, I was involved in a major accident (which of course wasn`t my fault!) and the repair shop declared that it would be better to scrap the car and claim the insurance money rather than attempt to repair it. With a heavy heart, I followed their advice. It was the best thing I ever did. For the insurance payout was even higher than the amount I shelled out for the car in the first place!

At that point in life, I loved nobody more than the insurance agents who handled my case. If I didn`t have the student loans to content with, I would have taken them out for a royal treat then and there. But thanks to those kind hearted souls, I not only bought myself a bigger and more recent model second hand car, I also had a little bit of money left to subsidize my loan payments! But that initial impression of insurance agents was not destined to remain the same.

Ever since, insurance agents have done little more than trouble me for various schemes that I am not interested in and which are not even that useful to me. Else, they are always trying to access my group provident fund in order to invest in mutual funds of some sort or the other. Even more irritating are the insurance agents who actually try and confound me with terms like term life, endowment and the like, making my life seem like a tradable commodity with an expiry date. The last straw was an insurance agent, who in a bid to beef up his own commission payout actually tried to sell me a plan that had been declared as unsuitable just a while ago!

There are very few people in the country that do not need some type of insurance in their lives. This means that buying the right insurance policy is important. The most common types of insurance that people have are car, home, and health insurance, and many people find it important to have some type of life insurance as well. There are other types of insurance that are important in some cases, but not everyone is going to have the same needs. There are even times when you may want to have some short term insurance that you are not going to have to renew once your short policy runs out.

One type of short term insurance is renter`s insurance. If you are going to be renting, this is something you must have. It protects your things inside the rental property even when you do not have to worry about insuring the property. That is the responsibility of the landlord. If there is a fire or something else happens to destroy or damage the property, their insurance will cover it, but it will not cover your personal belongings. This type of short term insurance is relatively inexpensive, so carry it while you are renting until you own your own home.

Another type of short term insurance that you can get is health insurance. Unlike renter`s insurance, however, this may be somewhat expensive. This is something that you may get while you are unemployed and can discontinue once you have secured a new position. If you have a new job that has insurance, but it does not start until you have been with the company for a certain amount of time, this short term insurance helps you stay covered in the event that you have an emergency or need routine medical care until your benefits kick in.

If you are planning an event to raise money for charity or perhaps you are having another type of gathering, you may want to get short term insurance for that event. This is great because if something were to happen to someone, you would not have to bear the brunt of the costs. If someone were to slip and fall, or perhaps something else bad happens, you are liable in many cases. If you have gotten insurance for the event, you will not have to worry as much. You still have to follow guidelines for safety and have rules in place or your insurance may not cover things, so make sure you understand the terms and conditions on this type of short term insurance when you purchase your policy.

Some insurance is normally long term, but can be bought for just as long as you need it. Your car insurance is something that you must have, and your policy will renew each year or every six months, depending on your company and agreement, but you may only need to have insurance on a particular car for a short period of time. Perhaps you are borrowing a car from someone for a few months and only need to have it covered for that time. In the even that you decide to buy the car from them or use it for a longer period of time, your short term insurance easily coverts to regular or long term as needed.

You may probably be wondering if you should add some appliances insurance to your monthly mortgage payments. This is understandable when you consider that if your heating and conditioning equipment breaks, this can bite a large chunk out of your savings which you may probably have reserved for other things like the automobile or a vacation. Actually, the real challenge is not so much whether to get an appliances insurance or not, but rather, which of the two to go for; a savings account or an insurance.

Fortunately, there are no hard rules to the whole thing. You can either decide for the savings account, if you feel up to it or go for the insurance, if you feel this sounds better. Some people reason that since modern appliances are built to last, it makes little sense to pay monthly or yearly premiums to cover them. However, it is also good to look at the other side of the coin; most appliances break down during their warranty period. This infant mortality`, as it is commonly called will usually be covered by the appliance guarantee or the store from where it was bought. But as it nears the end of its life span and eventually outlives its warranty it will increasingly fail more.

Thus, some people have opted to have appliances insurance to avoid paying for routine maintenance and repairs and instead save that dollar for other needs. While this may prove to be less cheaper than doing the regular repairs, it also has the advantage of one not having to worry about repairing and replacements. Appliances insurance will usually cover all the repairs and maintenance issues. Sometimes, when several uninsured appliances break down at once, it can prove almost impossible to replace them all at once. However, with insurance, all you have to do is make a call and explain your problem and sit back and wait to either get the equipment fixed or replaced, all without paying a dime. In such situations, it is usually way cheaper to have the insurance company cover the expenses.

Companies have varying policies when it comes to appliances insurance. Some will demand an annual premium fee while others a monthly fee. Some companies will do repairs when the need arises while others will come to fix and replace appliances within certain time periods. Depending on your need, it is thus important to carefully read the contract in its entirety. In this way, you will be able to make an informed decision.

Some people put up with insurance agents who are never there when they need them, always seem to give vague answers, and try to push insurance that they don`t need. I know that agents must sell in order to make a living, but there is a point where they can go too far. When you are talking about the future and safety of your family, you do want the very best though, but how do you know you are getting that? There are some things you should always ask, and there are some things you should never put up with for any reason.

You want insurance agents who are there when you need them. You probably won`t need them unless something goes wrong, but what could be more important than that? When you have car insurance, you want to have a person`s name, not the name of a company. You want to know there are one or two insurance agents that you can call at any hour or any day if you have an accident. Imagine being stranded because you are getting an answering machine when you call a 800 number, and not knowing if anyone can help you anyway. Get a name and a number, or get a new policy.

You want to find insurance agents that seem insincere about what they do. If you get an icky feeling, it`s time to find someone else. We`ve all met the type. They seem to be more interested in how many different types of policies they can sell you, but don`t seem to hear when you say you don`t need something, or that you already have that coverage through an employer. These insurance agents are all about their commission, but aren`t really big on service. You may find that they are vague about what the policy covers and what it will not. Be aware of what you are getting, and if you don`t get your questions answered it is time to find someone else.

Don`t despair though, there are many great insurance agents out there. You can usually tell if someone is going to be there when you need them within the first five minutes of talking with them. It`s the same thing you do when you meet new friends. You already know what they are like. Don`t be afraid to go with your gut feelings. If someone seems to be fake or leading you on, you don`t want to be friends with them, and you can apply the same thing to finding good insurance agents. They are out there, but you do have to find them. You will be glad you took the time to do so.

Looking for the best rate and the best insurance for your car or your home is not as easy as the commercials would lead you to believe. There is a lot of work when you search on your own, and you spend a lot of time repeating the same information over and over again, only to be told that someone will get back to you soon.` When you don`t have the time or the inclination to do this type of search on your own, you can always find an insurance agent to do the work for you.

I have never used an insurance agent, but most of my friends do. We have always been with the same people, so we really have no need of an agent. However, if we decided to get some new policies for some new things, we would probably find an insurance agent to do it for us. You can usually find them in any town or city, and there are always plenty of them to go around. There are companies that are full of them, and all you have to do is call up and tell them what you need.

A good insurance agent should take some time to find the best deal for you and your particular situation. They also know things about insurance that you may not know, and that helps them make the right choice for you. If you are making payments on your car, you have to have full coverage rather than limited (in many states, at least) and they will know this. They will also know what types of insurance coverage you must have if you have a mortgage on your home, or they can come up with the best coverage for renters insurance.

You may also be able to find and contact an insurance agent in your community over the Internet. You could dig through the phone book, but the Internet makes it easier to find what you need very quickly. You can also find a listing of different companies in nearby communities to choose your insurance agent if you aren`t happy with what you have found close by. Sometimes it does pay to have someone in the next town if they can do a better job for you and save you more money. Best of all, some agents allow you to pay your insurance through them if you have a late payment for any reason.