Insurance World

There are many risks that people are accustomed to insuring against. These will include, health insurance, auto insurance and fire insurance. There are others that are less familiar, such as dental and flood insurance but there are many reasons why you should reassess the insurances you currently have in place and perhaps consider relocating them to cover the risks that you are most afraid of experiencing.

For example, did you know that losses due to floods are thirty times more likely to occur than fire losses? This is especially true if your home is located in a flood prone zone. While flood loss is generally less devastating than fire loss, if your home is located in a flood prone zone, the chance of even experiencing catastrophic damage is still 25% greater from flood than from fire.

Flood loss

Most basic home insurance policies do not automatically include flood loss as standard. Commercial property policies are the same, with flood loss only being covered if it is specifically mentioned in the policy. If the flood is extremely severe, it may be classified as a disaster site by the federal government. This will cause some protection to be made available in the form of loans. These loans, which come through the Federal Emergency Management Assistance program, are not like insurance however, as you are required to pay back the loan that they give you, as well as any other home loans you already have. They will also require you to carry flood insurance in the future. The other thing about the Federal Emergency Management Assistance program is that it only kicks in if your area and flood are declared a federal disaster site. This can be fairly rare when compared to the amount of floods that are experienced annually.

Flood insurance will be offered by various insurance companies but should be backed by the National Flood Insurance Program. This type of coverage, which is supported and regulated by the federal government, is the only type of flood insurance that will fully protect your home and contents from rising water flood insurance.

Shop Around

If you are considering taking out a policy of this kind, shop around for the best rate and find out what is covered and what is excluded. It may be that a specific company’s exclusion is exactly the situation in which you require coverage and other companies may not have the same exclusion so you are wise to shop around. Also, all insurance companies vary in what they offer and what they charge. Do not accept the first offer or quote you receive and do not expect all companies to provide the same deals. You should always shop around when it comes to insurance and find yourself the best deal available.

You see people these days talking on their top-of-the-range mobile phones or listening to their costly MP3 players everywhere. So it can come as no surprise that latest police statistics reveal that the number of street muggings and robberies increased by 8% last year.

Statistics from the British Crime Survey of 45,000 people shows that the number of gunpoint robberies jumped by 10% for 2005. Perhaps the most startling result from the research is that robberies alone have rocketed by 22% to 311,000. This is the highest level in four years.

You have a situation where property is being stolen more in public places, but less from homes, according to the numbers, which says the rate of household burglaries dropped by 7%.

So is the number of people carrying mobile phones really to blame for the rise in robberies and muggings? Home Secretary John Reid thinks so. He has been reported in the media as saying that the rise in this sort of crime has been driven by the number of young people carrying expensive goods like mobile phones and MP3 players with them.

Most mobile phone companies are quite insistent with customers of the benefits of taking out insurance should their phone get stolen. But what many people do not realise is that these policies only usually cover phone theft, rather than the loss of your property. And you often do not actually need this insurance anyway because your property might already be covered for these sort of street thefts through your home contents insurance.

Association of British Insurers spokesperson Kelly Ostler says many home contents policies offer an All Risks Extension. An All Risks Extension is the technical term for cover of property taken outside the house.

“You have to check your household contents insurance has got it,” she says.

Ostler reminds people, however, that insurance or no insurance, people also need to take simple precautions with their property when they take it outside the home. “We tell people to take care and use your common sense when you are going out – not to leave your mobile phone or your mp3 player on the table or a bar.”

You have to pay extra for ‘All-risks’ cover, but it means your property will not only be covered for theft, but accidental damage and loss.
And you need to check and compare the price to make sure it is worth your while.

Insurance company Endsleigh offers home contents insurance with an All Risks Extension for an annual home and contents policy for almost Ј280. This covers up to Ј1000 worth of property taken outside your home. Norwich Union UK offers an annual cover for a minimum of Ј15,000 worth of property with an All Risks Extension for Ј260.99. This covers everything inside your home including Ј6000 for valuables like mobile phones. It also covers Ј2000 worth of your property away from home. For this you pay a Ј100 excess.

So before you sign up for insurance with your mobile phone company, check you do not already have cover with your home contents provider. You might be pleasantly surprised that you have insurance for your property outside the home already.

Source: ABI, Insurance Companies and BBC website article ‘Phones and MP3s fuel robbery rise’ 20 July.