Interesting Stuff Archives - Insurance Agency Singapore | Commercial Insurance and Personal Insurance

Do You Need Travel Insurance?

10 December 2019 By admin Leave a Comment

This is the million-dollar question — and ultimately a personal decision. I’ve met plenty of people who travel without travel insurance and I’ve contemplated doing the same.

But after over 6 years of constant travel, hearing horror stories from other travelers, and getting into a few dangerous predicaments myself — if someone asks for my opinion on the subject I answer with:

YES. Everyone should carry some kind of health/property insurance when traveling.

Why? Because shit happens. Whether you think it will or not. Despite your best-laid plans and preventative measures. Sure, if you sprain your ankle, it might not be a big deal.

But what if your appendix bursts? Or your bus crashes? Or you contract a deadly disease? Or require medical evacuation after breaking your leg?

These things definitely happen to travelers from time to time, and could cost you tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars. Without insurance, you’re screwed!

My recommendation is based on listening to countless first-hand tales of disaster from other travelers, as well as my own personal experiences.

by Matthew Karsten

See Full Story at expertvagabond.com

Don’t know what kind of insurance to get? Here are the most common types

26 November 2019 By admin Leave a Comment

Taking a closer look at insurance, you can count on the fact that without it you would lose a lot more money in particular circumstances. Yes, paying insurance might seem like a step back from profit, not a step forward, but considering the aftermath of an accident or a natural calamity, it’s quite safe to say that you are making a beneficial investment. There are lots of different insurance types, and people insure what they think they need to protect the most. Here are some of the insurance types you might run into most often and should consider getting for yourself.

Health insurance

This one is mandatory in quite a few places, but many people don’t have it because they think it’s too expensive. However, in the eventuality of you ending up in the hospital or being in need of medication or otherwise health care, having insurance is extremely important and not having it limits the medical staff in what they can and cannot help you with.

Property insurance

Property insurance protects your property from all sorts of harm and makes sure you are reimbursed in a situation where you lose your property, or it gets damaged. For example, if your house burns down, having insurance is extremely important, and while you might think that you are saving up a lot of money by avoiding insurance, you are gambling under extremely dire odds because your assets and belongings would also be gone and they may exceed the amount you save tenfold.

Vehicle insurance

Just like health insurance, this is something many countries deem a mandatory necessity. You can’t drive on the main roads in many countries without having insurance, and it is for a good reason. Getting into a vehicle accident can be extremely costly, not to mention there is the risk of personal injury as well. Having insurance makes sure that you can sustain the costs of car repairs, not to mention any other costs that might appear in the aftermath of an accident.

Life insurance

While this is a rather somber thing to think about, many people get life insurance as a form of protection for their loved ones. In the case in which the person with life insurance dies, his survivors are reimbursed and receive payment as per the agreed policy. Of course, it’s the kind of payment no one really wants to receive, but it’s better than not having anything in that kind of sad scenario.

By Steve Biddle

See full story at praguepost.com

When your Travel Insurance does make sense?

19 November 2019 By admin Leave a Comment

Veteran travel reporter Ed Perkins, who writes for SmarterTravel, says cancellation insurance only makes sense if you have a non-refundable ticket or cancellation penalties “that amount to more than you can afford to walk away from — thousands not hundreds of dollars.”

“The policies the airlines sell are pretty meager,” Perkins said. “If you need travel insurance, you generally need more than the policies the airlines sell.”

Perkins suggests that if you want insurance, skip the airlines or the travel website and use a site such as InsureMyTrip, QuoteWright or SquareMouth to compare various policies from different companies. You want to look for coverage and exclusions.

For travel outside the U.S., you may want to consider international travel insurance to cover medical expenses should you get sick or injured while abroad. (Medicare does not cover foreign healthcare costs.) These policies will also pay for the staggering cost of medical evacuation if you need to be taken to a place with better medical care, and your health insurance plan does not cover the expense.

By Andrew Burton

See Full Story at www.nbcnews.com

Disadvantages of a cheap car insurance policy

24 October 2019 By admin Leave a Comment

The disadvantages of a cheap car insurance policy are the following:

The coverage can’t be enough. The liability coverage has some really low limits. While experts are recommending to have at least $500,000 of liability coverage per accident and $2 million to be fully protected, cheap policies are offering only $10,000 to $30,000 liability coverage per incident. These small limits can easily be exceeded even in a minor accident with a few passengers that require costly medical treatments.
Drivers won’t be able to fix their cars after a collision. Insurance companies will cover the damage inflicted on other drivers, property, passengers, and vehicles if the policyholder only has liability coverage. Liability coverage does not cover the costs to repair the policyholder’s damaged vehicle.
Drivers can remain without their cars after a claim. Drivers that have cheap car insurance are more likely to remain without a car after filing a claim. Policyholders that don’t have the money to repair their vehicles after a crash, and their cheap policies don’t cover the costs will probably remain without their cars until they can afford to repair them.
Bad customer service. Some insurers will offer better customer support to persons that have expensive policies compared to those that have only liability coverage. Although this doesn’t sound that bad, drivers that are dealing with an insurance claim will need to have good customer support.
High deductible. Raising the deductible is one of the most common methods used to lower the insurance premiums. Drivers will pay less on their monthly insurance, but if they are required to make a claim, will have to pay a significant amount of money upfront before the insurance kicks

See Full Story at www.prweb.com

Find out how Homeowners can save car insurance money

22 October 2019 By admin Leave a Comment

Drivers that own a home can pay cheaper car insurance premiums. Bundling car insurance with home insurance can help drivers save money on car insurance. Most insurers that sell car insurance policies are also selling home insurance policies.

Homeowners can save car insurance money through other methods, besides bundling like the following:

Good credit score. Usually, homeowners have a better credit score than renters. The credit score is used by insurers to determine the insurance rates paid by a policyholder. Policyholders with a good credit score will pay less on their premiums than drivers with a poor credit score,
Better neighborhood. Drivers that live in areas that are considered safe by insurers will pay less on their premiums. The ZIP code of a driver is very important for any insurer. Insurance companies will use the ZIP code to find out how many claims are in an area, vehicles theft ratio, number of break-ins, or acts of vandalism.

See Full Story at finance.yahoo.com

What is the difference between Car Insurance Agents And Car Insurance Brokers

8 October 2019 By admin Leave a Comment

Insurance brokers and insurance agents are industry professionals that act as intermediaries between policyholders and insurance companies. The most important difference between insurance brokers and insurance agents is who they represent. The insurance broker represents the policyholder. The broker can help a driver find the best car insurance policy. The insurance agent represents one or more insurance companies. Insurance agents will try to sell policies from their companies to any potential customer.

Drivers who haven’t decided with whom to work should consider the following about insurance brokers and agents:

Insurance broker. Brokers work for the customers and not the insurers. Brokers can help drivers to determine their own insurance needs and they can assist them when looking for a policy that can satisfy those needs. While some customers need brokers to find cheaper insurance policies, other customers have complex insurance needs and they require assistance. Brokers can recommend drivers insurance products that can help them save money on insurance. Drivers who got involved in an accident can get assistance from the broker when making a claim. Brokers can help drivers manage the claim, organize the documents, or handle the insurance company. Usually, brokers work for smaller companies that represent large insurance. companies
Insurance agents. Usually, an insurance agent represents a single insurance company. An insurance agent serves as the link between policyholders and insurers. Some insurance companies have a business model that is based on bundling personal connections between insurance agents and customers and they are selling policies only through their insurance agents. Some insurance agents have the best interests and they will help drivers compare insurance plans and look for better deals. Other agents just want to sell policies that bring the largest commissions.

See Full Story at www.benzinga.com

4 steps to Lower your Car Insurance

26 September 2019 By admin 1 Comment

Negotiating lower car insurance can help you save hundreds of dollars each year. Here’s how to lower car insurance in 4 steps today

Step 1: Find how much coverage you need

Most U.S. states — besides New Hampshire and Virginia — require you to get car insurance as well as a certain amount of liability coverage you need.

When it comes to the amount of liability that’s required, you’ll typically need to find coverage in three areas

Step 2: Find your current plan

If you don’t have your current plan in front of you, how can you know how to lower your car insurance?

That’s why you need to find out what your current policy looks like. Go digging through the glove compartment for it, check your files, or call your insurance company. This is important information you can leverage when negotiating with your current insurance provider.

Step 3: Shop around

To start, you can use a rate comparer tool such as this one to compare quotes from different insurers.

I prefer talking to a rep on the phone, though, because they always tell me about other deals that the websites don’t offer.

When consulting with a rep or looking up quotes online, be sure to find out how much exactly you’ll be paying in these two areas.

See Full Story at www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com

What to look for in a great travel insurance plan

24 September 2019 By admin Leave a Comment

Insurance is a billion-dollar business, and everyone wants their hand in the cookie jar, thus you face a mind-numbing number of choices that can be confusing and overwhelming. And, often, in the fine print, you’ll find that plans aren’t as good as you thought.

First, make sure your travel insurance offers a high coverage limit on your medical expenses. A good company will provide up to $100,000 in coverage care, though more expensive policies will cover you for higher amounts. The maximum coverage limit you can find is around $1,000,000 USD, though I’m not sure why you would ever need a limit that large. High coverage limits are important because if you get sick, injured, or need serious attention and have to seek professional care, you want to make sure your high hospital bills are covered. The worst thing you can do is go cheap and get a policy with a $20,000 coverage limit, break a leg, and reach that limit before they are done taking care of you. Don’t be cheap with your health. Get minimum coverage of $100,000.

Second, you want to make sure your travel insurance policy also covers emergency evacuation and care that is separate from your medical coverage. If you are hiking in the woods and you break your leg, your policy should cover your evacuation to the hospital. If a natural disaster occurs and you need to be evacuated to somewhere else, your plan should cover that as well. This protection should cover an expense of up to $300,000 USD.

Additionally, evacuation also should mean from the hospital to your home country. Standard emergency evacuation coverage frequently only moves you if your current facility is inadequate, or if it’s “medically necessary”, and then pays for a flight home after you’ve recovered.

See Full Story at www.nomadicmatt.com

Is employer-sponsored insurance really a good deal for workers?

19 September 2019 By admin Leave a Comment

In a great historical irony, the evident faults of employer-sponsored insurance are helping fuel a new appetite for Medicare-for-all, a single-payer system where everybody gets health coverage from the government. But the work-based system, for all its flaws, could also be the biggest barrier to enacting single-payer. Shifting 160 million people from the coverage they currently get through their jobs to a new government plan is a lot of disruption — and disruption, especially in health care, has historically made a lot of Americans nervous.

If Medicare-for-all is ever to become more than a campaign slogan, its proponents must solve that riddle.

Ending work-based insurance is still a humongous challenge

Medicare-for-all has become incredibly popular among the Democratic base, but the primary problem it will face is that many people are fine with the insurance they have today. They might not love it, but they are familiar with it, and for the people who don’t incur regular medical bills but want to be protected from an emergency, the benefits you receive through work-based insurance are probably sufficient.

“It’s a real barrier to doing anything big,” says John Holahan at the Urban Institute, who helped create a proposal explicitly designed not to disrupt work-based insurance. “Most people with employer plans are reasonably happy with them.”

By Dylan Scott

See Full Story at www.vox.com

How blockchain technology disrupt the insurance industry

17 September 2019 By admin Leave a Comment

While blockchain technology has been subject to extreme hype, its true killer applications are likely to be in some of the most antiquated fields out there. And it has the ability to be a transformative force for industries like insurance, which require the coordination and cooperation of many different intermediaries with different incentives.

Of course, getting there will be no mean feat. Insurance companies and startups working with blockchain technology will have to overcome significant regulatory and legal hurdles before we see anything resembling industry-wide disruption. Skeptics point out that there are serious obstacles for blockchain technology in an industry that hasn’t even fully embraced the cloud.

It’s too early to tell whether blockchain technology can overcome the legal and regulatory hurdles to become the default standard across the insurance industry. But the possibilities are endless, and insurance companies and startups alike are exploring insurance applications for the technology at full throttle.

See Ful Story at www.cbinsights.com

Insurance Agency Singapore | Commercial Insurance and Personal Insurance