Choice Insurance Agent

For most of us, we know the importance of car insurance. We are told this by our parents, the TV, magazines that we read and just about anyone that doesn’t like the idea of financial risk when it comes to their automobiles. We would happily go out and buy their car insurance, most of the time a comprehensive plan and think that we are covered by a non-existent bubble of security. This false impression however falls to pieces when something untoward happens and you turn to your car insurance for the protection that they are supposed to offer.

In this article we will look at policies for car insurance that might not be all that they are advertised to be. It pays to be very careful with your car insurance policy and know exactly what you are signing-up for. We will look at some underhanded methods that car insurance companies might use to either get themselves off the hook or to squeeze more money from you. It is very important to note that almost all car insurance companies are “for profit” enterprises. This means that they are in the business to make as much money as they can. This means that they will generally have a tendency to over promise and under deliver. The insurance companies are also very aware of potential insurance fraudsters too and as such normally structure their products very tightly. They will throw in some escape clauses here and there should they need to get out of their obligation. Below we will explore further ways the insurance companies attempt to get off the hook and also how they will try to get you to pay for more than necessary coverage.

When it comes to trying to escape their obligations, the most obvious way that car insurance companies do it is to flat out deny your claim citing whatever reasons that they can think off. For many customers this can be a very devastating moment as they wouldn’t have even thought that this condition would have existed. The situation can be so bad that it can even drive some people into depression as their little bubble that promised to look after them was never really there in the first place. The thing is, in all countries there are insurance watchdogs called insurance commissions or regulators whose main purpose is to make sure that insurance companies settle their customer’s insurance claims fairly and promptly. It is the job of these insurance regulators to ensure that companies are being fair to customers. If you are unhappy with the response that your car insurance company gave, the first step is to write a letter to the insurer asking them to reconsider their response to your claim. If they don’t change their tone, then you can take it up with the insurance watchdogs and inform them of your case. Most of the time they have a department specialized in looking at small time cases and will help you at no cost. If your claim is large enough you can even look to insurance attorneys so you can get your claim and some extra compensation for “hardship”.

Customers should also be very careful with how car insurance companies sneak charges into the policies of current customers to try increase their profit margins. Most car insurance companies work on the assumption that some people actually expect car insurance policy premiums to increase over time. This is especially the case when you might have made a small claim the previous year or if you have made your premium payments late for whatever reason. Sometimes insurers will even sneakily add extra coverage items into your policy hoping that you might not notice. This is even the case for coverage items that you have decided to omit the previous year. You might find that they have mysteriously reappeared in the new policy. If you don’t catch this at the time of renewal and actually pay the insurance companies, you might find it very hard to get back the money even if you request for it.

A report recently published by an auto insurance watchdog suggested that the majority of car insurance companies spend at least 75% of their resources on obtaining new customers. On average they would only spend 25% on servicing their current customers. By this we can see there the car insurance company’s priority lay. Car insurance companies have a habit of offering very good promotional incentives for you to move over to their company however very rarely will extend the same deals to their current customers. It is the responsibility of the policy holder to be aware of any deals that your car insurance company might have and pester them enough that you get the same deals that the new customers receive.

Another way the car insurance companies try to squeeze more money from you is to reduce your deductibles to the bare minimums. When it comes to car insurance, the lower your deductibles the higher your premiums are and vice versa. It is to the benefit of the car insurance policy provider to keep your deductibles as low as possible so they can get extra premium from you. You would sometimes find that it is a default that insurance companies put the deductibles very low. For those who don’t pay much attention to it, they will just happily pay the premiums year after year without thinking twice. Even if you have previously increased your deductibles, you might find that during renewal that the deductibles have returned to “default” setting.

More often than not, the root cause of misunderstandings and general problems when it comes to the claims process is often the policy that is not thoroughly understood by the insuree. The car insurance policy is a contract between you and the insurer, everything about your arrangements are put into wording in the policy documentation. It is for this reason that it is very important to fully understand your policy before paying a cent. This is even true when the time for renewals, some small things may change that might lead to substantial differences in claim ability.

Find the real truths when it come to a standard car insurance policy. It might not be all that you dreamt it up to be. Never be complacent with you car insurance or it will bite back at you when you try to claim.