Tag: excess

Categories
Car Insurance

Top tips to find the cheapest car insurance

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Car insurance is a significant financial cost each year, however legally you cannot drive a car without holding the required insurance. Although, it is possible to compare quotes to ensure you benefit from the cheapest price for the cover you need.

How much will my car insurance cost?

There are many factors that determine the cost of your car policy, from the type of vehicle you drive and your age to your previous driving history. There are many car insurance providers operating in the UAE, with every company calculating the risk of your cover differently. The cost of your car insurance is personal to you, so it is always worth comparing insurers to find the best deal for your specific requirements.

Do not automatically renew your car insurance

Although it may seem easy to accept the automatic renewal quote from your current car insurance provider, you should never accept the price without comparing other alternatives. The price may end up being the best deal available, however, you will never know unless you compare other providers quotes.

In many cases, when you choose to accept the auto-renewal you end up paying an additional amount for the convenience of this. Over the years, this amount can significantly add up and you could save hundreds by comparing and switching to the cheapest deal every year.

Pay for your insurance annually

When you find the best deal, you will be given the option to pay via monthly instalments or with a single monthly payment. Although monthly payments can be beneficial if you are unable to cover the full cost upfront, you will pay additional interest for the privilege.

Consider multi-car insurance for your household

If your household owns more than one car, you may be able to secure a cheaper quote by insuring every car under a single policy. There are some insurers that will allow you to combine multiple car insurance policies, which is likely to work out cheaper than separate covers.

Increase your excess

If you are willing to pay more of an excess charge in the event of a claim, you may be able to secure lower premiums. However, it is important to ensure that you are able to cover the required excess charge.

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Categories
Health Insurance

What to know about claiming on health insurance

If you’ve had an accident or illness abroad, you will want to claim on your health insurance. But when is the right time to do so? Some companies only refund, whereas others will pay upfront. And, if you have only had to pay a minimal amount, your insurance company may not pay at all! Here are some tips on how to know when to claim on your insurance.

Read your policy carefully

It’s important to know exactly what your policy includes when you buy it. If you read it carefully, it will tell you a lot of important things. These include:

Your excess – this is the amount that you must contribute up to. If you pay less than your excess, then your insurance will not cover it. You can generally reduce or even eliminate the excess by paying for a more comprehensive insurance package.

Whether the insurance pays upfront – for some things, you might be able to just give your insurance details. In other cases, you may have to pay and then the insurance will compensate you. Don’t worry – for very expensive things, you can normally just give your insurance details.

Speak to the admin staff when you arrive at hospital

If you are able to, contact the payment staff when you first get to the hospital. This is when you should make them aware that you have insurance and work out whether you will be paying upfront or if the insurance will pay them directly. Use this as an opportunity to find out roughly how much the total bill will be too – medical care can be very expensive in some countries and this will avoid any nasty surprises!

Make sure that you don’t leave without paying or signing

In some hospitals, it can be easy to walk out without paying. Make sure that you do make a payment or sign a form stating that your insurance will pay, otherwise you could be given a hefty fine.

If you know exactly what your mediclaim insurance policy entails, you should have a good idea of how much and when they will pay.

Categories
Travel Insurance

A simple guide to travel insurance policies

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The variation in travel medical insurance can be as complex as deciding where to go on holiday. Be incredibly wary of policies that appear surprisingly cheap and make sure you fully understand what you are paying for! A cheap policy generally means poor levels of cover and high excesses. There are good deals out there, they just require a little more time and diligence to find. The following guide aims to make this a little easier for you.

Are you an avid traveller?

If so, it doesn’t make logical sense to take out a new policy every time you make a trip abroad, so look into multi-trip policies. These will cover all the trips you may make in a calendar year. If you tend to holiday more than the average person/family, it would be foolish to look past the various multi-trip options. Bear in mind, however, that these policies often include limits regarding the length of each trip.

Read the exclusions!

If you’re not a fan of reading more than you have to and normally skip the small print, you may want to revise this. Travel insurance policies all include a list of sporting activities or pursuits that are automatically covered, but lookout for the one’s that aren’t! This isn’t necessarily ad-hoc and is a common staple of many travel policies. However, some have exclusions for relatively ordinary activities such as hiking. This is where you could get caught out, so read the policy properly.

Protection against airlines and operators

Providing coverage in case an airline or holiday operator ceases to trade is not something that many people think about, but that doesn’t stop it happening and leaving travellers out of pocket. This is often not included in your average travel policy, so again, make sure you analyse your potential policies correctly.

There are many more methods for making sure you take out the most appropriate policy, so do your research, tailor your coverage, and make sure you don’t get caught out if something goes wrong!

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Categories
Travel Insurance

5 ways to get cheaper travel insurance

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After spending your hard-earned wages on a lovely holiday, it is understandable that you want to get the best deal on the best travel insurance.

Just by making sure that you are insured for your trip may save you money. Unforeseen cancellations, costly medical bills and losing your luggage – each of these things could cost you dearly if you are uninsured.

Here are 5 other quick tips on saving money.

Compare the market

Don’t just go with the travel insurance offered by your chosen travel agent. Make sure that you have thoroughly researched the market for the best deal. The easiest way to do this is with an online insurance comparison site, such as Compare Insurance.

Only pay for what you need

Insurance policy documents are often lengthy and can be tricky to read. However, take the time to go through the document carefully and make sure that you are not paying for something that you don’t need. Removing extras like winter sports add-ons, for example, can help reduce your premium.

Increase the excess

This option has pros and cons. Paying an ‘excess’ refers to the amount of money you will have to pay towards any claim that you make on your travel insurance. The amount varies, and the more money that you are prepared to pay towards your claim, usually the lower your overall travel insurance premium.

Think carefully though before you go for this option. If you do need to claim on your travel insurance, have you got the money readily available?

Is this your only trip?

Although an annual travel insurance package works out more expensive than a single trip premium, it could work out cheaper if you are planning any other trips in the coming 12 months. Paying for several single cover travel insurance premiums will work out more expensive in the long run.

Avoid countries with expensive healthcare

The United States, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean all have expensive healthcare. This will be reflected in the high cost of your premium. If you really want to keep the cost of your travel insurance low, avoid these destinations.

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Categories
Car Insurance

3 myths about car insurance debunked

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Car insurance can be a tricky thing to wrap your head around, so we’ve debunked a list of the top three myths about car insurance to save you money.

1. My premium should stay the same or go down if I don’t claim

In a perfect world, this myth would be true, as every year that you fail to claim, you are building a no claims bonus. However, there are a number of external factors to consider that will affect the cost of your insurance. It’s worth noting that most insurance companies have a maximum no claims bonus, so, after a set number of years, you will stop building a discount. Insurers will also consider your age, so once you reach a particular age, your premiums might increase as you will be seen as a higher risk.

2. If a claim wasn’t my fault, I won’t have to pay excess

If you put a claim forward that was not your fault (for example, if a third party collided into you at a traffic stop), then your insurance provider will usually release your excess if you can prove that it was not your fault and they’re able to claim back costs from the third party. However, you will bear the responsibility of paying your excess upfront, even if you are entitled to a refund later on. It is important for you to select a policy that has an excess that you will be able to afford.

3. Young drivers should get insurance under the name of their parents

It’s no surprise that many parents will want to give their children financial help, which may lead them to consider noting themselves as the main driver on their insurance policy or take out insurance in their name to reduce costs. While this might seem like a good idea, registering for insurance in the name of someone else in order to reduce costs is a form of insurance fraud known as ‘fronting’. This is an illegal practice and can lead to thousands of pounds in fines, penalty points and disqualification.

If you’re looking to compare the best auto insurance quotes, take a look at the rest of our site at Compare Insurance today.

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Categories
Health Insurance

What’s the best way to compare health care plans?

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Health insurance differs from other types of insurance, and it is really important to compare different health care insurance plans.

These plans can widely differ from each other in three or four main areas, and understanding them can allow you to compare policies on a like for like basis.

These differences relate to types of costs, where the treatment can be carried out and by whom, and the type of medical care provided.

Cost

Every insurance policy has a premium, but health insurance plans have other features that can affect the overall price of the policy. These costs can be referred to by different names, but are normally called deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance.

A deductible is similar to an excess on most other types of insurance, but is normally a much higher percentage of claim retention than say a car or home insurance policy.

Co-payments and Co-insurance are costs that relate to two different areas.

Co-payments are normally for relatively small areas of payment, such as frequent visits to a primary care physician, and Co-insurance normally relates to an overall percentage cost of any overall treatment that the policyholder incurs.

Taken together, these costs can be quite considerable. A thorough comparison of healthcare plans beforehand can help clarify which companies are likely to be most cost-effective.

In / Out Networks

This is a key feature of many healthcare plans.

A network refers to a specific number of hospitals, clinics and clinicians, that the insurance company will have arranged contracts with, and will specify where any treatment needed will have to be carried out, and by whom.

These hospitals and clinicians, are referred to as being in network, i.e. centres that the insurance company works with.

If a policyholder wants to seek treatment at another hospital or clinic, then these are referred to as being out of network, and either will not be covered by the policy, or will cost significantly more than ‘in network’ treatment.

This area of networks affects the choice of clinicians. For some people, this will be an issue, for others not so much so, but it is important to be aware of it when comparing policies.

Pre-existing conditions

This is a term that many people will be familiar with. It is really important to check whether the health care plan excludes any existing medical condition, that has either been treated in the past or currently exist. Policies differ widely in this area.

Aside from pre-existing conditions, it is also important to check if the policy covers recurrence of other conditions that might not be pre-existing conditions but occur for the first time during the time of the policy.

These might be treated successfully, but then recur later. Some policies might exclude such a recurrence, others would not.

Dental / Optician costs

A number of healthcare plans specifically exclude any type of dental or optician related treatment and costs. If a plan does include them, they are likely to be quite expensive. It is always worth getting alternative quotes for these types of policies, and then being able to compare them on a similar basis.

Finding the best health care plan is easy, all you need to do is make the most of our comparison tool on Compare Insurance – make your application now and get results in minutes.

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