How To Make A Car Insurance Claim

It’s all very well knowing how to get cheaper car insurance and how to find the right policy but what if the time comes when you actually need to use your motor insurance. Would you be confident in knowing what steps to take when making a car insurance claim?

Every year, insurance companies process thousands of car insurance claims and pay out millions of pounds to people whose cars have been the victim of theft or damage. Even more is paid out to motorists involved in accidents on the roads.

Whether its personal injury or the theft or damage of a vehicle the process of claiming on your motor insurance policy can be a stressful one. To make things easier here is our guide to making a car insurance claim.

• The first step is to contact your insurance provider as soon as possible after the event. Most insurers have a 24hr number you can call so use that to reach the right person more quickly.

• If your claim is crime related such as theft, damage or vandalism immediately report the crime to the police and take note of your incident number. Should a police investigation result in any prosecutions your insurer will need to know the incident number.

• Write down all the details concerning the incident and refer to these notes when making your written claim.

• Be sure that your version of events is accurate and consistent. Changing your story further down the line could arouse suspicions that jeopardise your claim.

• Get all the help and information you need from your car insurance company to support your claim. Don’t be afraid to ask your insurer questions as its essential to have all the correct documentation and evidence to back up your car insurance claim.

• Retain any documentation relating to your claim in a safe and secure place and ensure that your insurance company can contact you easily.

• Keep copies of any communication regarding your claim; be they letters, emails or telephone conversations and take the name of any person you speak with.

• Before going ahead with any repairs to your vehicle you need to get absolute verification on the status of your claim. Until your insurer confirms they will cover the price of repair you are accountable for all costs.

• If your car requires repair most insurers will recommend a garage where the repairs will be guaranteed for a specified period of time. If you take your vehicle in for repair yourself there is a good chance the cost will not be covered by your insurance company.

Having to claim on your motor insurance is never a pleasant experience but following these easy steps will help make the process run as smoothly as possible.

Life insurance, an investment

LISTEN TO AN INSURANCE SALESPERSON FOR EVEN A few minutes and you'll come away convinced of one thing: Life insurance is so insanely complicated you couldn't possibly understand it, so you better just buy some quick. Self-employed people, in particular, are targeted by an industry that would have us believe that its policies are the tax-favored ticket to comfortable retirement, college funds, and the orderly transition of family businesses. They'd like to sell you a policy without even mentioning the words death benefit.

But don't invest in life insurance unless you need that death benefit. Life insurance carries commissions, fees, and charges (including the so-called mortality charges that pay for the death benefit) that most mainstream investments do not.

Still, death benefits are what life insurance is all about for any worker, self-employed or not. If you have a family that depends on you for money, you need life insurance. That's not so complicated, is it? If you already know you need life insurance and want to add a few investment wrinkles, there are products that do that. Here's your orientation to the world of life insurance.

All About Home Insurance

Residence insurance isn’t a specific insurance type, but simply refers to any type of homeowners policy that you purchase to protect the financial investment you've made in your abode.

What it Covers

This type of plan is often referred to as a "package policy." That's because it provides coverage for:

1. Damage to the structure of your home
2. Damage to your personal belongings
3. Additional living expenses if you're temporarily unable to live in your home after it's been damaged
4. Liability if someone is injured on your property

Of course, the specifics of these coverages are determined by what kind of policy you have and how much you've insured your home for. To help you figure out what kind of policy you need, let's take a look at some general coverage options.

Coverage Options

As you shop for home insurance, you'll notice there are a handful of policies from which to choose.

According to the Insurance Information Institute (III), the most common examples include the following:

Limited (HO-1): This bare bones policy covers 10 perils, including damage caused by fire, smoke, lightning, theft and vandalism.

Basic (HO-2): This policy covers 16 perils, including damage caused by the weight of snow and ice, frozen pipes and other accidental water damage from appliances.

Special (HO-3): This is the most popular residence insurance policy, as it covers all perils, except for damages from flood, landslide, mudslide, and war.

It's important to remember that this is not an all-inclusive list; there are other comparable residence insurance policies available for other types of homes, such as condos, mobile homes or historic homes.

Levels of Coverage

Once you've decided which type of policy is right for you, you'll need to consider the level of coverage you need: actual cash value, replacement cost or guaranteed replacement cost.

Actual cash value: This level of coverage pays to replace your home and possessions, minus depreciation. That means if you bought a laptop two years ago for $1,200, you probably won't be reimbursed the full $1,200.

Replacement cost: This level of coverage pays to replace your home and possessions without a deduction for depreciation. This means if you can show you paid $1,200 for your laptop, you'll be reimbursed for that amount (up to your policy amount).This is the most popular level of residence insurance coverage.

Guaranteed replacement cost: This level of coverage pays whatever it costs to rebuild your home and replace your possessions—even if it exceeds the policy limit. As protection is concerned, this offers the highest level of coverage.

Saving Money

Whether you live in a house, mobile home or condo, you can save on residence insurance by:

Shopping around. Online shopping sites like InsureMe.com allow you to compare multiple quotes from local insurers to find the policy that's right for you.

Increasing your deductible. Agreeing to pay more out-of-pocket on claims will automatically shrink your premium. Just remember to choose a deductible you can afford!

Combining your home and auto polices. Most insurers give a nice discount to homeowners who insure their vehicles with the same company.

Making home repairs. If you've recently replaced your roof, upgraded your plumbing, or purchased a new heating system, you may be eligible for a discount!

Installing electronic alarms and fire safety equipment. Make sure to tell your agent if you have an electronic anti-theft alarm, sprinklers or live near a fire department. All of these things may be worthy of a premium discount.

Disaster and Insurance

While many of us don't like the idea of paying our insurance premiums each year, we're always glad we did when we need to file a claim. But how many of us even think about buying insurance against disasters? We might even be lulled into complacency because we're thinking that our existing homeowners policy insures us against natural disasters. But as we'll soon explain, that's not necessarily the case.

In this article we're going to explain what coverage you can expect from a "standard" homeowners insurance policy. We're also going to talk about events that might not be covered under an existing policy that can lead to devastating losses. With those two pieces of information, you can then make an educated decision as to whether or not you need to purchase disaster insurance.

Homeowners Insurance Coverage

The specific protection you're buying in a homeowners insurance policy that we're going to discuss in this publication has to do with property coverage. We're going to talk about the protections available for damage to the home, or dwelling. A homeowners insurance policy offers other protections too, such as liability insurance, but that particular topic is covered elsewhere on this website.

An insurance policy that offers the homeowner adequate protection will pay the costs required to rebuild the entire structure, as well as the replacement of much of the home's content. But while your insurance company pledges to pay these costs, there is a limit to their generosity. This limit is often stated in terms of the "perils insured against."

And while the exact coverage will vary from policy-to-policy, the following list should give you a good idea of the types of natural "disasters" that a standard policy covers:

• Fire / Lightning
• Windstorms / Hail
• Freezing of Plumbing / Pipes
• Damage from Weight of Ice
• Volcanic Eruptions (with exceptions)

On the other hand, your policy will also spell-out the disasters you're not insured against. The most common exclusions to a policy include water damage, as well as damage caused by earth movement.

Disasters Not Typically Covered

If we examine the typical natural disasters that can strike home, our list is relatively short and includes:

• Earthquakes - while certainly more common in states like California, earthquakes can happen (albeit with low probabilities) nearly everywhere on earth.
• Floods - typically the result of abnormal rainfall, flooding can be the result of localized storms or hurricanes. As is the case with earthquakes, floods resulting from hurricanes are more common in the Gulf Coast states and North Carolina.
• Windstorms - again, a windstorm can range from a localized burst of wind to more organized storms such as tornados. Windstorms and tornados occur with a greater frequency in a stretch of the United States known as Tornado Alley which stretches through the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.
• Volcanic Eruptions - the least common of disasters, volcanic eruptions encompasses lahar (wet rock flow), lava flows, and pyroclastic flows (a high-speed flow of hot, dry, gas and rocks).
• Landslides - typically the result of rainfall, volcanic eruptions, avalanches, earthquakes or other events triggering large land movements.
• Fire - in the context of naturally occurring disasters, the typical even might be a forest fire / wildfire resulting from lightning strikes.

Insurance Exclusions

In the same way that insurance companies are up-front about identifying the perils insured against, policies are also very clear on what's not covered - the exclusions. Again, depending on your geography, as well as you insurance carrier, the two most common exclusions are:

• Earth Movement
• Flooding

So the good news is that you're very likely insured against many natural disasters already just by owning a homeowners insurance policy. The bad news is that if you're in a flood prone area or live in an area of the country where earthquakes are relatively common, then you're going to have to purchase insurance against these disasters.

Disaster Insurance Policies

Before making any purchase decision, we suggest you take the time to open up your homeowners insurance policy and read through your existing coverage. The exact coverage should be clearly spelled-out in your policy's buyer's guide or in the policy itself. Only then will you have a clear picture of the types of disasters that are already covered by your policy.

As promised, we're going to finish up this article by explaining some of the options you have when it comes to purchasing disaster insurance.

Flood Insurance

Flooding can occur in nearly all 50 states. In fact according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) around 30% of all flood claims originate from areas that are categorized as moderate-to-low flood risk.

Fortunately, flood insurance is universally available to homeowners via FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). A home located in a moderate-to-low risk area can purchase $250,000 in coverage for just over $300 annually. This same level of coverage in a high-risk area will cost in the neighborhood of $2,500.

Earthquake Insurance

In most states, earthquake insurance can be purchased directly from your homeowners insurance policy company. The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) is a state-run insurance pool that is responsible for most of the policies sold in California.

The cost of earthquake insurance will vary by geography, the value of the home, the dwelling type (year built), as well as the number of stories (multilevel versus single story). The factor having the biggest influence on cost, however, is the location of the home. For example, a $1 million policy for new, single-story home will cost around $450 in the San Diego area, while that same policy for an identical home located in Oakland will cost closer to $2,300.

Accident Insurance

Accident insurance provides a cash cover to a policyholder when s/he suffers injuries as a result of an accident. While insurance helps a policyholder pay off hospital and medical bills in case of accident injuries, it provides cash benefits to family members if the policyholder dies in the accident. This insurance, applicable 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is also commonly referred to as personal accident insurance

Under personal accident insurance, the policyholder, if injured, receives cash benefits every month, just like income, for as long as s/he is unable to work due to the accidental injuries. This income is non-taxable and does not exceed the policyholder’s after-tax earnings minus the state benefits s/he can claim. In case of death of the policyholder due to an accident, the family receives a specific lump-sum amount.

Why Insurance

Insurance exists because risk exists. There is a possibility that anyone could become a victim of fire, theft, auto accidents, other injury accidents, illness, severe weather, lawsuits and more. We are subject to risk at home, at work, in our cars, traveling, in the hospital or anywhere at any time.

Insurance cannot remove the risk or the likelihood that one might become a victim of any of these events, but what it does is transfer all or some of the financial impact of any of these events. Insurance exists to help individuals recover from the financial consequences of these events by pooling the resources of a large group to pay for the losses of a small group.

Insurance has been around in some form since traders first began to travel over water to trade their goods. There is documented evidence that Chinese and Babylonian traders began to protect themselves against risk as far back as the 3rd century BC. Traders realized that if they spread their goods among multiple vessels, rather than putting all of their cargo on one vessel, they had a better chance of avoiding complete loss.

In later years, shippers in Great Britain reasoned that if 100 ship owners each chipped in money, if some of those ships were damaged or lost, the money collected from all 100 ships could be used to repair or replace the few. Extreme losses following the Great Fire of London in 1666 led to the creation of the world's first actual insurance company, The Insurance Office, or The Fire Office. And in the United States, the first insurance company was started in Charleston, South Carolina in 1732. Benjamin Franklin is recognized as helping to make insurance popular and to standardize the practice of insurance.

Health Insurance

Drug spending estimated at $30 billion in 2008

April 16, 2009 - Total drug spending in Canada is estimated to have reached $29.8 billion, or $897 per Canadian, in 2008, according to figures released today by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). This represents an estimated annual growth rate of 8.3%, an increase that exceeds other major health-spending categories, such as hospitals and physicians. In 2008, spending on drugs accounted for 17.4% of total health spending—nearly doubling since 1985 (9.5%). Spending on prescribed drugs continues to grow faster (9.0%) than spending on non-prescribed drugs (4.6%). Prescribed drugs are estimated to have accounted for 84% of total drug spending in 2008.

“Over the last 20 years, drugs have consistently remained one of the major cost drivers in health care,” says Michael Hunt, Manager of Pharmaceutical Programs at CIHI. “Spending on pharmaceuticals has more than doubled over the past 10 years, outpacing growth in health spending by hospitals, physicians and other health professionals.”

Spending on prescribed drugs growing faster in the private sector

For the third consecutive year, private-sector spending on prescribed drugs grew at a faster rate than that in the public sector. Private-sector prescribed drug expenditure reached $12.6 billion in 2007, and is forecast to have reached $14.0 billion in 2008, representing annual growth rates of 11.4% and 11.0%, respectively. Public-sector expenditure on prescribed drugs reached $10.5 billion in 2007, and is forecast to have hit $11.2 billion in 2008, representing annual growth rates of 7.6% and 6.7%, respectively.

The public–private split for total prescribed drug spending remained relatively stable over the past 20 years, with approximately 45% financed by the public sector and 55% financed by the private sector. However, among private-sector spending on prescribed drugs, the share of spending shifted from out-of-pocket spending to private insurers. Spending by private insurers is estimated to have accounted for 67% of private-sector drug spending in 2008, compared to 55% in 1989.

“The economic downturn is resulting in many Canadians losing their jobs. Since many Canadians have private health insurance through their employment it may also mean a loss of private health insurance,” says Hunt. “In light of this situation, it will be important to document what the impact will be on both the public sector as well as out-of-pocket drug spending over the next few years.”

Variation among provinces on prescribed drug spending

Prescribed drug expenditure per person varies across Canada. In 2008, prescribed drug spending per person is estimated to have ranged from $651 in Alberta and $652 in British Columbia to $841 in Quebec and $865 in Nova Scotia.

There is also variation among the provinces in terms of the source of funding for drugs. On average across Canada in 2008, 44% of total spending on prescribed drugs was publicly financed. The proportion of public spending on prescribed drugs ranged from 32% in New Brunswick and 34% in Prince Edward Island to 50% in Quebec and 54% in Saskatchewan. Public-sector spending per person on prescribed drugs ranged from $236 in B.C. and $253 in P.E.I. to $377 in Saskatchewan and $420 in Quebec.

International comparison in drug spending

When comparing 23 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with similar health-reporting systems as Canada’s in 2006 (latest available information), Canada had the second-highest level of total per capita drug spending (including prescribed and non-prescribed drugs). The United States had the highest level of 2006 per capita spending ($1,015) followed by Canada ($770) and Belgium ($703)—the position of Canada has been stable over the past few years.

In 2006, Canada was below the OECD median in terms of what proportion of total drug spending was publicly financed. The public share of total drug spending in Canada was 39%, compared to the OECD median of 59%. Among the 23 OECD comparator countries, the share of total drug spending funded by the public sector ranged from 15% in Mexico to 84% in Luxembourg.

About Drug Expenditure in Canada, 1985 to 2008

Drug Expenditure in Canada, 1985 to 2008 provides a descriptive overview of Canadian drug expenditure trends from 1985 to 2006 and includes estimates for 2007 and 2008. Drug expenditure consists of prescribed drugs and non-prescribed products purchased outside hospitals and other health care institutions. The report draws upon data compiled from CIHI’s National Health Expenditure Database, Canada’s most comprehensive source of information on health care financing and spending, as well as Statistics Canada and the OECD.