Tips when buying new insurance
If you are new to buying insurance, you will find a lot of useful tips in this article. Remember that you should do proper research before buying insurance as this will help you to get the best value for your money. Do not be in a hurry to buy insurance as this can cost you dearly in the long run. Take your time to know about the best plans suited for your individual needs and then proceed to buy them from reputed companies. Note that there are many companies offering similar plans and you should read the features of the plans carefully before choosing them for your insurance needs. In this regard, when you want to buy insurance from reputed companies like National Insurance Company, you can check their previous track record with regards to claims settlement and then decide on purchasing their plans. The same procedure should be followed for every other company and every plan in the market.
Carefully assess your requirements
This is the first and most crucial where many people go wrong while buying insurance. They do not have a clear understanding of what they want and they buy what everyone else is buying in the market. Remember that the needs of every person is different and what suits best for one person may be a very bad plan for another person. In this regard, carefully note down the points about why you want to buy the insurance plan and what you expect from the plan in future. In this way, you will have a better idea about your requirements and you can discuss about them with other customers or insurance advisors in the market. Make good use of the Internet portals that provide comprehensive information about insurance plans and read the reviews about various plans before considering them for your future needs. In this manner, you will have complete information about them and you can easily notice the suitability of such plans for your individual needs. Also, it would be best if you considered additional requirements based on your circumstances. For example, if you’re a high-risk driver, getting car insurance might not be as simple as usual. You might need to fill-up additional forms and receive endorsements. You can check sr22 Florida to learn more about it.
Main factors to consider while buying insurance
There are many important factors you need to consider while buying insurance. This applies irrespective of the type of plan you are buying and make sure to note them carefully during the process to have complete clarity on the issue.
- Sum assured
Every insurance policy will have a sum assured value and this is the amount of compensation you will be eligible to get in future when something goes wrong with the insured entity. In the case of life insurance, when something happens to the person, the nominee will get the sum assured benefits. In the case of vehicle and other insurance, any damage will be covered with the sum assured amount. However, it is important to note at this stage that you can choose the sum assured as per your comfort level and eligibility level after consulting the service providers. Remember that higher sum assured plans command more premium. The sum assured value is the maximum amount of compensation you can claim from the insurance company in most cases. Say for example, when you want to buy a policy from National Insurance Company Limited or any other reputed company, you need to check for the sum assured value offered by the plan and then see if this is enough to cover your insurance needs.
- Premium
The premium is the amount of money you pay to the insurance company to get coverage for the sum assured amount. You can get to know about this rate even before buying the insurance plan. All you need to do is to provide the details about yourself along with the requirements in a detailed manner and you can easily get free online quotes from various portals about the premium amount charged for various insurance plans.
In normal cases, you can choose the annual mode to pay the premium and this means that you have to make payment every year for the policy. In the case of vehicle or health insurance, the plans may be valid only for one year in normal cases and you have to renew the plan after this by paying the premium for the plan. In other cases, the premium may remain same throughout the tenure of the plan or change depending on various factors. Many companies like National Insurance Company also offer different modes to pay premium like monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annually. In this manner, customers can choose any mode as per their comfort level. It is important to note at this stage that the premium amount is directly proportional to the sum assured value of the policy. It means that as the sum assured goes up, the premium also goes up for any insurance plan.
- Tenure
The tenure of the policy is the duration for which the policy will be valid. You will have to pay the premium for the entire duration of the tenure in most cases unless it is specified otherwise in the policy document. In most cases, you will have different options to choose from with regards to tenure and you should select this based on your premium paying capacity for that duration. The policy will become matured after this tenure and you will get the benefits as mentioned in the policy document. If some adverse incident happens before the completion of tenure, the insurance amount can be claimed and the policy comes to an end in that situation in most cases. However, coverage can still be continued even after getting partial compensation from the insurance company for the rest of the tenure.
- Benefits in future
This is usually termed maturity benefits when the policy ends in a natural way without any adverse incident. It is usually applicable in the case of life insurance and there will be no maturity benefits in the case of general insurance. However, you will have another type of benefits that will cover the risk as mentioned in the policy document and provide compensation as per the sum assured value of the policy. You should always calculate the risk involved in any situation and see if the benefits offered by the policy in this situation is enough to cover the risk in future. In the event of any risk to the life of the insured person, the benefits will usually be passed on to the nominee in the case of life insurance plans. When you want to buy any policy from National Insurance Company Limited or any other reputed company in the market, you can discuss about its benefits with the company executives to understand more about this concept.
How to buy the best insurance policy?
There are different ways of buying insurance and you need to be aware of the methods so that you can choose the best options as per your needs. Note that each method has its own advantages and you should consider all the options before buying insurance from the market.
- Consult a professional insurance advisor
This is the best option you should choose and it can give you lots of benefits in the long run. The advisors usually have registered offices and they can guide you in the right direction with their years of experience in this field. However, it may be slightly expensive and most people do not choose this option unless they want insurance for commercial ventures. Usually corporate companies choose such services and individuals either consult the agents or choose them on their own after enquiring with friends and family members.
- Approach insurance agents from different companies
The insurance agents can help you to understand the different benefits of buying any policy and this will also give you clarity of the premium charged for each policy. However, the agents can only talk about their own products and they are not supposed to market products from other companies. In this regard, when you meet any executive from National Insurance Company Limited, you can only get information about products offered from that particular company. When you need information about other plans offered by competitor companies, you need to consult the respective agents to know more about such plans.
Lucky for you, there are independent insurance agencies like G&G Independent Insurance that can help you find more information on the insurance plans offered by other insurance companies. The good thing is that they offer it for free. The insurance advisors from G&G can give you quotes from different companies based on your insurance needs, may it be home insurance, car insurance, flood insurance, etc. G&G has an in-house software that allows them to shop your needs from 50+ insurance companies. As a result, G&G can find the insurance plan with the best coverage that fits your budget.
- Buy it yourself online
This is by far the most suitable option for many people as you get comprehensive information about various plans offered by different companies. All you need to do is to visit the online insurance service provider portals to know about such plans. Apart from getting complete information about the plans, you can even get free quotes from them and this will help you to compare all the plans. You can even get some discounts when you buy policies online and this will help you to save money spent on insurance policy.
Finally, you need to understand that buying insurance is not just a one-time affair and you have to make provisions for further revisions. In the case of life insurance or health insurance, your existing cover may not be enough in future when there are more members in your family. In this situation, you need to review the situation time and again so that you can choose the best policy that will meet your changing needs.
