Saturday, May 29, 2010

Tips You Should Follow - Shopping for Insurance

Shopping for Insurance - Tips You Should Follow


Shopping for insurance is the most difficult part of buying a protection plan. There are various methods of shopping for insurance. You can call insurance agents, contact companies directly or visit an online policy rate comparison website. Whichever method you use, you should keep the following points in mind to make the right decision.

Decide Your Requirements

Even before you start shopping for insurance, you should decide your requirements. For example, if you want to buy a life insurance, you should know the exact amount of cover you need. This amount should be calculated based on several factors, such as number of dependents, annual income, amount of life cover you already have, and liabilities. You may take the help of a financial expert or an online insurance calculator for this purpose. Also, you should decide the type of policy you want to buy. This decision should be partly based on the premiums you can afford. If you have a low budget, a term policy may be good for you, otherwise you may think of buying a whole life policy.

Check The Different Policy Plans

Once you know your requirements, you should start searching for the right policy. While getting quotes for the different plans, make sure to get important details about them, such as what kind of risks the policy covers and under what kind of circumstances. For example, if you are doing car insurance shopping, you should know if the policy has third party liability cover, who will pay for the repairs if the car gets damaged in an accident, and how much is deductible. These details will help shortlist some plans that will best serve your purpose.

Compare The Same Type Of Policies

While shopping for insurance, people often make the mistake of comparing two different types of policies. You should always compare the policies having same features, benefits, and terms and conditions. This will help you figure out which one is the cheapest.

Ask For Discounts

Do not forget to contact your existing insurance provider while shopping for insurance. Usually insurance companies offer good discounts to their existing customers. So if you are doing health insurance shopping, you should contact your life insurance or auto insurance firm to get policy quotes. You might get the best deal through them.

Check The Credentials Of The Company Before Buying The Policy

During insurance shopping, you should ensure that you approach only legitimate companies. The company you choose should not just provide low premium policies but should also have a good track record of settling claims at the earliest. Taking a policy from a firm that has several cases of "acting in bad faith" against it is useless. You should check the rating of the firm.

Review The Policy Carefully

You should read the fine print of the policy carefully before buying it. If you are not able to understand the legal jargon, you should seek advice from an insurance agent or a lawyer in this regard.

If you keep the aforementioned points in mind, shopping for insurance will become quite easy for you, and you will be able to buy the best policy at the cheapest rate.

0 comments:

Post a Comment