Insurance World

You know full well that it’s the law, but you’ve been driving around without car insurance for a while now. Why? Car insurance is of supreme importance to any driver, no matter how good you think you are. Accidents happen, plain and simple, and you need to be protected in case it does. Not all car insurance is the same, though, and you may be a little confused as to the concepts.

The first term you need to know is liability car insurance. This covers you from claims arising from an accident where there’s bodily damage or damage to property. Generally, there are three main sections of any liability car insurance policy: bodily injury liability coverage, liability coverage for damage to property, and uninsured coverage. The first type of coverage protects you in the case of an accident, for which you are at fault, and others have been injured. Your liability car insurance company will pay any legitimate claims for medical expenses or lost wages. If you’ve run into someone’s wall, or the side of their house, you’ll need liability insurance for property damage, which will pay for repairs. In the instance where you are not necessarily at fault and the other driver does not have liability car insurance, you are protected by uninsured, or under-insured, motorist coverage.

Liability car insurance is not the same as collision car insurance. As you can see, nothing was mentioned about fixing your car in the above description. That’s because it’s not covered under a simple liability car insurance policy. You’ll need collision car insurance, unless you’re willing to pay out of your own pocket. Collision car insurance covers repairs to your car in the case of, you guessed it, a collision with another object. If you’re one of those people who gets their kicks by running over poor, defenseless animals, this coverage isn’t for you. You’ll need comprehensive car insurance to fix that cracked headlight.

Generally, you can choose you’re deductible rate, i.e., the amount that your car insurance company will pay out to repair your car. Typically, the higher the deductible, the lower the car insurance premium. You will definitely need collision car insurance if you are leasing a vehicle, if you own a fairly new car or if you are making payments to a finance company. Owners of much older cars may want to skip this form of car insurance altogether. If your car is totaled, the car insurance company will pay you that market value of your car, minus the value of your deductible. If you are able to absorb the cost of replacing your car yourself, you may want to forgo this.

Life insurance, also known as term assurance, is a popular form of insurance that people get so in the event of their death, their family and dependants will be able to cope financially. However, not everyone has a family and children, so do they need it? Read on to find out more.

Put simply – if you don’t have debts (like a mortgage, credit cards, loans) and you have no dependants, then you probably don’t need life insurance. If you die and you do have debts, it is your next of kin that will be faced with paying the debts off, and also paying for your funeral, which generally cost at least Ј1000.

So even if you don’t have dependants, but you do have debts, then it is probably a good idea to get life insurance so you’re not potentially leaving a member of your family with the responsibility for paying the debts off for you. Because unfortunately, just like a sum of money can be inherited, so can a debt.

Many mortgage companies require you to get life insurance so the mortgage is covered if you die. A particular type called mortgage life insurance is a popular choice for people with repayment mortgages as the premiums go down over time as the mortgage debt decreases. However some people leave it to chance, so if they did die, the dependents would probably need to either sell the house, or continue the mortgage repayments themselves.

There are choices to be made on the way you want your life insurance to work too. There are three types: level, decreasing and renewable, and they all charge you differently.

Level term assurance means that the premium and sum covered stays the same, so it’s good for those with interest only mortgages or those who want to leave a lump sum behind.

Decreasing term assurance decreases year by year in line with a repayment mortgage – as the sum you are insuring is going down. It’s not the choice for those who want to leave a lump sum.

Renewable term assurance offers insurance for a short period of time, usually between 5 and 10 years. You have the option to renew at the end of the term but it will be a lot more expensive, which is the downside to this type. You can insure quite large amounts however, and the premiums are usually quite low for the initial policy.

If you decide that you do want to leave a lump sum behind, then think about how much your dependents would need to maintain the same standard of living. For example, your yearly salary would be a good indication. Then multiply that amount by the number of years that you think they will need to be financially supported – and that’s the amount you need to insure for. Don’t listen to the life insurance company’s estimation of how much cover you need, they invariably overestimate by a large margin.

Life insurance doesn’t have to be expensive either. A 35 year old man wanting Ј100,000 worth of cover for 20 years can be covered for less than Ј8.50 a month from insurers like Sainsbury’s, Virgin Money, Asda, AA and Egg – and a number of other big name insurers like Norwich Union, Standard Life and Legal & General come in at less than Ј9 a month – so it’s not going to break the bank!

Search on the Internet for the best deals and you’ll also benefit from discounts exclusive to Internet applications. By filling in the quotation forms over the Internet, you’re saving them time and money, so they pass on some of the savings to their customers.

If you think you might need life insurance, then why not get a few quotes – you may be very surprised at how cheap it is.