Why Travel Insurance?

Travelling has become a leisure activity for many and many feel there is a need to travel to rejuvenate them. Around 81% of the searched topics in internet is related to travel.  Most of them had started to travel locally and internationally due to great discounts they get on the air travel and also on room rentals. In India we have got makemytrip, yatra, goibibo etc which offers great package on international travels and they also provide hotel room arrangements. In addition we have got AirBNB which offers free available rooms to lodges to villas at various prices.

All these online companies make great arrangements from your day of travel to the arrival back at your home, but there may be sudden unprecedented things may happen as the city is new to you and no one you can rely on. These online Travel insurance will help you in getting things settled quickly, it can be either trip cancellation, missed flights, medical expenses, theft to your belongings etc

Things to check;

Read the inclusion and exclusion list carefully as it cannot be questioned during emergency and it is the buyer’s remorse. Below is some of the important inclusion items which you must check,

• Personal Accident
• Medical Expenses
• Loss of Passport
• Delay in flight
• Cancellation of trips
• Baggage Lost
• Risks while travelling abroad

Exclusions are common items like loss must be reported within 24 hours to the local police, delay of baggage, any medical complication arising out of existing medical condition of the insurer etc

Will I get return of my premium?

Suppose if your travel plan is cancelled before you start then the entire premium will be returned with small cancellation charges. If the trip is shortened then the proportionate amount will be refunded if the claim is submitted within stipulated duration prescribed by the insurer.

Other than these conditions the paid premium will not be returned to the insured. Suppose if the insured completes the travel safely without any hassles, then also the premium will not be refunded.

Raising claim or reaching insurers;

If there is emergency situation in your traveled city, you can call the emergency number provided by the insurer and explain them of your situation. Cash will be settled immediately to the hospital in case of medical emergency and if there is a need for cash it will be settled through the account number provided if you possess an international travel card.

General Insurance

   

    

                                                        

General Insurance or Non life Insurance policies provide payment depending on the loss of financial event if insured. This doesn’t cover life and hence the name General insurance. It is called as property and casualty insurance in the U.S. and Canada and Non-Life Insurance in Continental Europe.

The main products of General Insurance includes,

Motor Insurance

Home Insurance

Personal Accident Insurance

Health Insurance

Travel Insurance

Risk covered under this Insurance;

Any insurance covers certain risk and for which they provide solution. In general the common risk covered under this are,

ü  Loss arising due to damage or lost,

ü  Damage caused by ourselves against any third party,

ü  Accidental death or injury

We can see a brief on these insurance types now,

Motor Insurance – It is generally issued while buying a bike, car and any vehicle. Many had accepted that this is mandatory at least for the sake of showing it to the Traffic police and to some for getting money from Insurance companies in case of any accident.

Home Insurance - All insurance are risk protection instrument and follows the principle of ‘prevention is better than cure’, this Home insurance specifically for risk protection from burglary, damage due to riots, vandalism, earthquake etc. This insurance protection provides complete coverage for your building as per the value and content that are insured by you.

Personal Accident Insurance – Personal accident insurance are generally provided nowadays along with 2 wheeler or 4 wheeler policy renewal, but your life is more worth than 1 or 2 lakhs. Get a comprehensive policy which can provide compensation during the time of accident and which takes care of hospital costs. This is mainly needed as no one follows the traffic rules in India and no one cannot be sure on their safety, until they reaches home or office safely.

Health Insurance – Health insurance is one of the essential insurance needed for every one along with term insurance. You may be provided with one in your office which may not be sufficient and it may not be comprehensive. It is better and advisable to get one comprehensive health insurance policy separately.

Travel Insurance – Travel insurance may be helpful when you are going on a travel to a new destination. Problems arising out of baggage miss, losing your documents, any medical emergency etc can be covered under this Travel insurance.

Opinion differs among who had taken any of these insurance based on its usage to their life, but remember this is risk protection rather than an investment. Don’t worry if you had traveled safely and returned without any medical complications or loss of documents with your travel insurance because this provides protection that you will be safe at any point of time till you return to your home.

Similarly never worry when your health insurance is not useful as you are not using, say thanks to yourself for not getting any health complications as some of the disease may continue for lifetime though you can protected with health insurance.

Should I go for Home Insurance - 2

                         

                                                               [image source : destinyroseinsurance]

This is continuation of our last blog on home insurance, let us look at the benefits of having this home insurance with a case study

Benefits of Home Insurance;

Though there are several clauses which may be put in by insurance companies during claim, it is advisable to plan and make a point to ask each and every doubts or clarifications while you are taking this policy to your home. Any theft, vandalism, wreckage caused by riots, fire, explosion, flood, damage caused by any animals etc are covered under this policy.

Let us have a case study to understand how this Home insurance works. One of my friend had taken building insurance for his shop. He has taken this insurance only after first theft had happened. After taking his insurance again a theft had happened by breaking the main door and they had looted available cash in the shop. On checking by insurance companies they provided compensation for breaking the shop and not for the looted money as the cash box was not mentioned in the insurance policy.

Something is better than nothing and no one knows what will happen the next day, so it is better to go for comprehensive home insurance policy. Most important thing while taking policy is to get sum insured to the actual value, don’t under insure or over insure as during claim process they will be assessing the value of the building and component before paying the amount.

Who is offering?

      Almost all the General insurance companies in india are offering this insurance with varied                 features, choose the one which suits best for you and your home. Some of them are HDFC, ICICI,       SBI etc

Should I go for Home Insurance, definitely yes, but after careful analysis of your requirement for coverage

Should I go for Home Insurance - 1

                         

                                              [Image source : flyingsparrow]

Just like our life our home is also very much close to our heart. Any theft, fire and allied perils, earthquake etc can cause damage to our home and home insurance can compensate for the losses if taken adequately. Insurance can be taken on the construction value of the home and it can be increased by certain percentage every year. Even the contents of the home can be covered and adequate coverage needs to be taken for every possessed item in the home. Home Insurance Policy can be taken for consecutive years or for the long term.

Home insurance policy contains;

Building Insurance – any damage to the buildings will be covered under this

Content Insurance – any damage to the content of the home will be covered under this

All risk cover – Anything just outside home will also be covered if this is chosen

Liability Insurance – Any injury arising out of your home will be covered with this

We can choose the policy having all these sections or the one which we want, further it can be also be taken by the people who are staying in rented house.

General Exclusions;

Ø  Damage as a consequence of war, invasion, act of foreign enemy, hostilities, civil war, rebellion, revolution etc.

Ø  Any damage due to confiscation, commandeering, requisition or destruction by order of any government or lawfully constituted authority.

Ø  Any damage directly or indirectly caused by or contributed to or arising from ionizing radiation or contamination by radioactivity.

Ø  Depreciation and damage caused by wear and tear or gradual deterioration.

Ø  Damage to property and contents due to pollution of any kind.

Child life insurance policy

                                        

Marriage is bounded by love and every one will agree that kids are the proof of love. Getting a kid is a different feeling altogether where every father and mother wish to do everything to groom the kid and in every possible way to make it happy to see the world which is beautiful. Everybody is dependent on their parent until we start earning on our own. Indian’s differ from the west in this aspect of grooming their kid until they stand on their own. So the need for money to grow the kid from child to a man or woman is very much needed in our country. Now you can see the need for money and the reasons to choose or not choose these child insurance policies.

Child Insurance Policy

Most of the child insurance policy insures the life assured; the person who takes the policy for the child and the child itself. The minimum entry age is from 0 years and restricted mostly from 13 in all the insurance companies. The premium paying term may be for 7 years or more depending on the policy chosen. For selling the policies the most effective tool chosen is that the premium can be shown for tax rebate and it is for your kid. If someone says won’t you protect your child’s future with this beautiful policy, it will surely touch your emotion and you will give up your resistance in taking this policy. Have you analyzed the pros and cons in choosing this policy? A PPF account in the name of a kid and invested for 15 years will earn more than these policies.

Different case studies

Consider this example, Engineering at present may cost you 7, 00,000 and after 15 years including Inflation @ 7% the amount required may be 1655419 after adjusting for tax. For accumulating this amount you need to pay 6254 monthly. If you pay the same amount every month by opening a PPF account in the name of a kid it may generate 22.5 Lakhs more than what you get in your child insurance policy.

Monthly in PPF	No of years	Total Amt paid	Amt @ Maturity
6254	15	1125720	2253621

As future costs of education is bound to increase and if the child chooses different stream which may requires more money PPF may be the good option among these two examples. If the sole intention of these policies is to have some amount accumulated for your kid, then you can open Recurring deposits and Fixed deposits which will generate more returns.

Monthly in MF	No of years	Total Amt paid	Amt @ Maturity @ 12%
6254	15	1125720	2952000

Consider investing the same amount in mutual fund which has returns only at 12%, you will end up accumulating around 30Lakhs. Now which one will you choose among the three?

Are you Insured?

           

[imagesource : rising23.com] 

Insurance is In-assurance; the person who is insured will be assured of getting this money. Insurance has evolved over the years with different products with the combination of investment return options. To make the people insured insurance companies had started selling policies for 10 or 15 years with fewer sum assured through agents, after the end of the period the total maturity amount would have been lesser than fixed deposit amount. Do you know that roughly the insurance returns will work out to be around 5-6% and this cannot be considered as an investment. Insurance and investment are different and both should not be confused while choosing.

Risk Protection

Everyone should be insured to have a risk protection in their life. Just like wearing helmet for safety while riding the bike this is very much in need. Loss of a person can cause great grievance, but when they are insured that makes their family from getting not drowned in debt. Are you not risk averse? The daily bike ride, even if you drive safely there are times when you lose your life if hit by a car, bike or bus if you don’t wear helmets. Even if you eat safely you may get food poison or allergic once in a while, the reason for cancer is still unknown. Life is uncertain and at those uncertain times, insurance can give a helping hand.

                       

                                                           [imagesource : imagecarde.com]

Are you sufficiently Insured

Insurance should be taken considering the debt he\she has over the years and including monthly expense. For example, Sam draws a salary of 40k per month and has debts of around 15lakhs and till now he has taken insurance policy of 5lakhs for which he makes a premium of 30k per year. If he completes the full 20 years term he will be getting around 10lakhs, if he doesn’t survive his family will be getting only around 10lakhs. His family will not be able to close the debts and has he been the only earning member everything will turn upside down in his home now. Suppose if he has taken a 50lakh term policy, his family would have ended up 50lakh with which they would have closed all debts and would have been happy enough to lead a life in the society till someone starts earning.

Motor vehicle insurance policy

                                                                                      [Image source : policyboss.com]

What is Motor Insurance?

Motor Insurance the only type which everyone is forced to take while buying a bike, car etc. Even while driving the owner needs to keep the insurance papers with him to escape from the wrath of Traffic police. It has been made mandatory by The India motor vehicles act 1988. All the motor Insurance in India is governed by IRDA, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority which has been given the status to foresee the matters related to this. The Act came into force in 1989.

Vehicle Insurance provide financial protection against physical damage and/or bodily injury resulting from traffic collisions and against liability that could also arise there from the specific terms of vehicle insurance vary with legal regulations in each region. To a lesser degree vehicle insurance may additionally offer financial protection against theft of the vehicle and possibly damage to the vehicle, sustained from things other than traffic collisions.

History of vehicle Insurance

History goes back to First world war were constant damage to cars and other vehicles at that time which required constant repair. In United Kingdom during 1930 they had made vehicle insurance compulsory for the drivers or owners to be insured for their liability for injury or death to third parties whilst their vehicle was being used on a public road. German followed United Kingdom and enacted similar legislation in 1939. After this, any country followed suit and enacted such laws to protect the insured and as well for the citizens who get damaged because of collisions.

Need for Vehicle insurance

Be Responsible:

The damage with car or any vehicle could be higher and if you had caused damage to a friend you will rush to help, the same logic has to be applied to all the strangers on the street. Vehicle insurance protects every one and if you had got into any collision you will also receive compensation on that day. Accident is just a probability and it may be caused by anybody driving outside by collision also, ca insurance is a risk protection and financial protection which will be barred by insurance companies.

Other benefits:

Apart from damage due to collisions it also protects the owner financially if it has been vandalized in riot, stolen by unknown, destroyed by fire etc. There are ranges of extra benefits which are being provided as add on benefits nowadays.

Renew your vehicle Insurance periodically and on time to get all the benefits.