Insurance Claims: Understanding The Lingo
bloggist
Short term insurance policies are as much part of our lives as inhaling and exhaling, eating and going to sleep! If you think of insurance car insurance is normally the most obvious type of short term insurance you think of. The simple fact of the matter is that most insurance claims processed are due to car accidents and thefts.
When you’ve been involved in an accident, or if your car has been damaged or thieved, the very first thing you need to do is put in a claim so that your insurance carrier can pay to repair the damages or replace your car or truck. There are various words related to insurance car companies and claims, let’s take a look at a number of these:
A documented claim is pretty self-explanatory. As soon as you’ve been involved in an incident or car accident, you need to inform the insurance company of the loss or damage that took place.
The insurance car company will then assist you with quotes from various service providers (for example panel beaters) and try to resolve your claim as quickly as possible. Once a claim has been settled by the insurance carrier, and their clients are content and back on the highway again, this is seen as a closed claim. Done and dusted, time for you to move on!
Your claim frequency is the amount of times that an insured has claimed against his/her policy in a certain stretch of time. If you have a claim frequency of 12 per year, you will be considered to be a high risk consumer and you will most likely be reprimanded with increased month to month premiums. Following a financial year, an insurer will take a look at the number of claims that they processed in that time period. This will then be divided into the total number of policies that they manage to give them an average claim frequency. For example, if an insurance firm has 100 clients and they process 200 claims, their average claim frequency will be 2.
When an insurance company reports on their claims experience they are making reference to the number of claims that they have taken care of during a particular period. If a firm has a high claims experience, you can typically feel comfortable knowing that you will be in good hands once it’s time to put in a claim.
Different insurance agencies have different claims methods. Remember that if you need to put in a claim against your insurance, you will not be in the best of moods. You might have been in an accident or even involved in a hijacking, therefore it is important that you entrust your insurance vehicle policy with a firm with a decent claim reputation. Make sure that your monthly premiums are always paid up and you have quick access to all your paperwork and records before contacting your insurance carrier for assistance with a claim. Always report the incident or accident without delay, typically starting at the police station to get a case number and ideally to find the accountable parties in the event of a hijacking or stolen vehicle!
Claiming from your insurance is not a struggle – just just be sure you have all your ducks in a row!