Does Your Insurance Exclude You? Part 3

Another little-known fact of travel insurance is that the majority of policies which cover lost or delayed baggage will only apply on the way out. If you arrive back in the airport after a holiday, and your luggage fails to make an appearance on the carousel, there may be little you can do. Your insurer might not include inbound luggage loss as part of their standard policy, but you should be able to obtain cover if you inquire about it, and pay extra.

Payment protection insurance is perhaps the most exclusion-riddled insurance of all. Commonly offered at the time of taking out a loan, mortgage or a catalogue order, PP insurance is usually optional, but can be a good idea if you have dependents and/or several financial commitments. The premiums are typically high, so if you decide to take out PP, read the TOS very carefully to make sure you could claim if necessary; otherwise you could waste your money.

Not many people know unless they've had a claim refused, but if you have to take time off work due to common condition like stress or backache, you won't receive a payout from your PP. Even if the condition didn't exist at the time you took out the policy, a claim won't be accepted by the majority of insurers for loss of income due to the most common complaints. Your PP may also be invalid if you are self-employed or have been at a place of employment for less than 12 months on a permanent contract.

No matter what type of insurance you take out, it's important to read through all the paperwork carefully to make sure you could make a claim if necessary. Check all the terms and conditions, all the exclusions, and ask your insurer if there's anything you're not sure of. You generally have a week or two in which to check all the documents before you're tied into a policy, so make use of this time to familiarise yourself with the small print and make sure the policy is right for you.

Does Your Insurance Exclude You? Part 2

The length of a holiday can factor in another exclusion. Many travel insurance policies expire after 28 consecutive days per trip unless you pay extra. Don't make the mistake of assuming that your annual travel insurance will cover you for an unlimited length of time; inform your insurer if you intend to be away longer than 28 days so they can arrange extra cover. The same goes for home insurance; if you are planning on leaving your property unattended for more than 30 consecutive days you must inform your insurer. Many policies include a clause which states you can't leave your home empty for longer than this. Arrange for a friend or neighbour to stay in your house if you need to take an extended trip.

If you're an adrenaline junkie, check your insurance policies carefully. If you have travel insurance you may find you can't claim if you're injured while on an adventure holiday involving any type of extreme sport; this can include sky-diving, off-piste skiing and bungee jumping among others. Your life insurance could be compromised if you regularly take part in extreme sports on a professional or semi-professional level; activities such as wrestling, boxing and competition martial arts are commonly excluded from cover.

The majority of car insurance providers will not pay up in the event of an accident if you were found not to be wearing your seatbelt. This falls under the category of negligence and can apply if you allowed an uninsured or unlicensed driver behind the wheel of your vehicle. Negligence can also take the form of having your car stolen after leaving the keys in the ignition, or failing to lock up your bike outside a shop and having it stolen. If you lose something due to your own negligence your insurer could refuse to pay, citing you didn't take 'reasonable care' of your belongings.

You may also be refused a payout if you were under the influence of alcohol at the time of an incident. This not only applies to car insurance - drink driving is not just illegal, but can invalidate a claim - but can also mean that if you injure yourself on holiday after an exotic drinking binge you can't claim for any medical expenses incurred as a result. Home insurance is also affected by alcohol; If you hold an alcohol-fuelled party in your house and anything is damaged or stolen, your insurer may not pay out.

Does Your Insurance Exclude You? Part 1

Very little about insurance is straight-forward. There are so many clauses, sub-clauses and exclusions to consider it's a wonder anyone gets the coverage they need. So before applying for any kind of insurance, it's best to read the terms and conditions thoroughly to find out if any of the exclusions would apply to you.

The main types of insurance are car, travel, life and home insurance. Payment protection (PP) insurance and boiler insurance, also called heating cover, are becoming more commonplace too. Each insurance type will have different exclusions which may apply, and just to make things more confusing, not all exclusions will apply on each policy. Only by reading the T&C carefully or asking the insurer will you know for sure.

Perhaps the number one exclusion which affects travel, life and PP insurance is pre-existing conditions. When taking out one of these policies, your insurer should ask you a number of health-related questions. If they don't, it's your duty to inform them of any past or current health issues. Anything from diabetes to the fact you quit smoking 3 years ago should be declared otherwise a subsequent claim could be rendered invalid. Even though the insurer may not probe deeply into your medical history at the time of application you can rest assured they will go through it with a fine-toothed comb if you try to make a claim. Omitting any details at the start could cost you more than a possible increase in premium.

A little known fact of travel insurance is that if you travel to a country which is currently classified as a 'war zone' - such as Iraq or Afghanistan, you won't be covered. Checking the Foreign Office website will inform you of countries which they advise against visiting, and would therefore invalidate your insurance should you do so. A number of travel insurance policies actually exclude any terrorism-related problems; if your luggage is destroyed or your hotel is bombed in a terrorist attack you may not be able to claim.

Working on Insurance Comparison Websites

There is no doubt that the UK has gone crazy with price comparison websites, especially those that sell financial products, such as insurance, loans or credit cards.
There are probably a few reasons for this.

First Is Cost
There is no doubt that substantial savings can be made using this type of service say to buy your next car insurance policy. Each policy is presented to you, with the basic guide of what cover is offered and the price of that policy. For those who are used to automatically renewing will probably get the biggest benefit, here with real savings. It is probably this customer base that each website uses as an example to show how much money they could save. But it often not as easy as this: Often when you read the full policy details, you can find differences between the cheapest option and one more expensive, even if the basic top line requirements have been included. Insurance comparison is especially prone to this issue, as drivers often need a policy to suit all the different factors that go into making up the quote. For example, how many miles a year they drive, what make of car they drive, do they have any points on their licence, how many accidents if any have they had etc. This means that each driver is often looking for a unique quote for their personal circumstances, which is why you don't buy car insurance off the shelf, like say breakdown insurance. So this is where insurance comparison websites, sometime do not deliver, yes they show the best prices, but often do not show the real difference between the policies, even though they may present charts to attempt to.

The next benefit is saving time
Gone are the days where you needed to take time off work, because your car insurance agent only worked 9 to 5 Monday to Friday and possibly to 12pm on Saturday morning. Being able to look at quote in your time and in seconds really has changed the insurance industry. As a car insurance comparison provider, if you do not have a way of showing quotes on the internet in seconds, then it is unlikely your business will grow. The internet is no longer a new thing; even my 75 year old parents' use the internet to buy all their financial products with no help from me.

Immediate Cover
Most sites now also offer immediate cover on all insurance polices, although a final signature is needed at the end. Personal loans and credit cards still require a signature before you receive any moneys or a card. But as far as insurance goes, being able to cover your vehicle the second you put your credit card details in, is a major benefit to the user, especially those who always wait to the last minute with these things. Even those who are away from home and have access to any online computer can sort out their financial affairs online, even those who choose to live abroad.

So there are good things and a few things not so good with insurance comparison sites, but there is no doubt it has changed the way we buy financial products and I can't see us going back to how we did it before.