Insurance World

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.

If you’re lucky, you’ll get a life insurance quotation that you are happy with, progress to application, and get yourself insured within 48 hours at the original price quoted. Unfortunately this isn’t the case for 66% of applicants - who face delays and loaded premiums.

So why is this happening? Well, life insurance companies provide quotes based on the ‘perfect person’ – which basically means you must be 45 or under and in excellent health, have no hereditary illness in the family, work in an office and want no more than Ј250,000 cover. If you fall outside these strict boundaries, you can expect delays, and expense.

When you request an initial quote, you only have to provide a few details, namely your age, sex and whether you smoke. The insurer calculates how long you are likely to live, and uses that prediction to provide a quotation. This is what is known as their “Standard Terms”.

If you like the quote and want to apply, you’ll have to give them a lot more information. You can either fill the form out yourself or give the details over the phone, a service that many online insurance companies offer. It speeds up the process, and ensures that you don’t miss any important details out. Failure to include a detail that later on turns out to be important could invalidate your claim. They will then send the completed form for you to check and sign, so you need to be 100% sure that you have not omitted any details.

The insurers then use the information on the application details to make a more detailed analysis of your health and lifestyle, to try and predict any future concerns. If you have health problems of your own, you will instantly face loaded premiums, but they also look at more insidious issues such as your weight, alcohol and nicotine intake. Also if your father died of a stroke, or your mother from breast cancer, this will have an impact on their assessment of you.

Your lifestyle will also have a part to play. If you work in an industry where accidents happen, such as construction or farming, or if you have a dangerous hobby like paragliding or mountain climbing, your premiums will feel the heat. They will also ask if you regularly visit countries that have historically represented health risks for visitors, like Africa and parts of Asia. And even though the law doesn’t allow discrimination against same sex relations, the insurance companies will invariably ask you to have a full medical examination before agreeing to insure you.

Insurance companies have admitted that their list of questions has grown somewhat in recent years, and continues to do so. They say it’s to reduce the number of claims they reject, but whilst that may be partly true, the proportion of applicants facing loaded premiums has increased at a noticeable rate. A few years ago, it was more like 40% - but many of today’s insurers are loading premiums on 66% of applicants.

So just how much more will you have to pay? It’s impossible to say because it’s based on individual circumstances, but here’s an example to help illustrate. A 40 year old woman suffering from post-natal depression and receiving treatment for it was recently faced with a 50% increase on an initial quotation of Ј7.60, as was a woman whose mother had breast cancer. Overweight people also face higher premiums ranging from 50% to 100%, and in extreme cases - refusal.

So what can you do to avoid being charged these higher premiums? There is nothing you can do per se, other than avoid the insurance companies that give the cheapest initial quote. They are the ones that are most likely to have very strict medical criteria, because that’s their way of keeping their quoted prices at rock-bottom levels. Try a more expensive provider like Friends Provident and you may find that they are more lenient – in any case, it’s worth a try!

If you pay over the odds, you will be doing yourself a great disservice. Think about it, an extra Ј10 a month becomes an extra Ј3,000 on a 25 year policy. If you don’t have the time to get quotes and apply to different life insurance companies, talk to an online life insurance broker, they will be able to find a way around your particular problem to get you the cheapest quote possible. You will also benefit because of the competition on the internet – this means extra reductions as online brokers cut their commission.

Don’t do all the hard work yourself – let the professionals do it for you!