It is unavoidable to have insurance for our car when we own one. Car insurance not only covers the money required to do rework on a car after an accident, but it also covers the life of the passengers inside. Hence, driving without car insurance is a huge risk that a person is taking. And most of the times a car insurance is mandated by the laws of a nation. Then it becomes all the more important to have insurance for our car.
There are umpteen insurance companies that offer car insurance to the public. They offer various schemes with varying options. So much so that sometimes we have to do a thorough research before finalizing on a particular insurance company. That’s where websites that provide auto insurance reviews come to our rescue. They provide all the information one would need when he is going for car insurance.
The site allows us to compare car insurances offered by several companies so that we can make an informed decision before we purchase one. It also helps the users to evaluate insurance coverage and rates of various insurance policies and has good articles that can educate an interested person. Thus finding car insurance that is appropriate for one’s personal needs would be quite easy while using the site.
Showing posts with label Insurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Insurance. Show all posts
Monday, December 14, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Now, EMIs can be covered on Job Loss
The global economic downturn has created uncertainty in employment in India as well. In such a situation, what if one has a couple of EMIs to pay, say home loan and auto loan, when the retrenchment strikes?
Like it exists in other developed countries, ICICI Lombard has introduced in India, a cover that will pay three equated monthly installments (EMIs) on any individual loan when the policy holder faces job loss. Considering the severity of the economic situation, ICICI Lombard is even reviewing the possibility of increasing the three month EMI cover.
The job loss cover is sold as an add-on cover with the company’s critical illness policy. However, one thing to be noted is that the policy does not cover retrenchment due to underperformance, voluntary resignation or early retirement. But then, it’s a great product that came at a crucial time.
Related Articles
- Endowment Policies – when it comes to maximizing returns
- Term insurance to become cheaper
- How to protect yourself from credit card theft or loss?
Like it exists in other developed countries, ICICI Lombard has introduced in India, a cover that will pay three equated monthly installments (EMIs) on any individual loan when the policy holder faces job loss. Considering the severity of the economic situation, ICICI Lombard is even reviewing the possibility of increasing the three month EMI cover.
The job loss cover is sold as an add-on cover with the company’s critical illness policy. However, one thing to be noted is that the policy does not cover retrenchment due to underperformance, voluntary resignation or early retirement. But then, it’s a great product that came at a crucial time.
Related Articles
- Endowment Policies – when it comes to maximizing returns
- Term insurance to become cheaper
- How to protect yourself from credit card theft or loss?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Investing in times of recession
One of the reasons why the stock markets are taking time to comeback is the lack of ‘investible’ money in the hands of people. Most of the money is tied up in various investment options such as shares, mutual funds etc. and are not in a position to be liquefied through their sale and reinvested.
Adding to this, people are losing their jobs due the retrenchments that are happening these days, which significantly affect their income. But for those who have money, there is not a better time to invest. The markets are low, shares are trading low.
But then, there is one entity that seems to have enough money to invest in the times of recession; Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). The firm had increased its stakes in ICICI Bank, IOB, GAIL etc.
This might be due to the job insecurity that the people feel, which makes them insure themselves and their assets through insurance companies making the companies have enough money to invest. And not to forget the cash reserves they have.
Adding to this, people are losing their jobs due the retrenchments that are happening these days, which significantly affect their income. But for those who have money, there is not a better time to invest. The markets are low, shares are trading low.
But then, there is one entity that seems to have enough money to invest in the times of recession; Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). The firm had increased its stakes in ICICI Bank, IOB, GAIL etc.
This might be due to the job insecurity that the people feel, which makes them insure themselves and their assets through insurance companies making the companies have enough money to invest. And not to forget the cash reserves they have.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
How to protect yourself from credit card theft or loss?
Credit card/debit card theft or loss may happen to anyone, anywhere, any time. To its worst case, consider a situation where a theft or loss of your wallet happens when you have traveled along with your family to a foreign city and all that you have with you is a little cash for your daily expenses! And that the wallet contains your credit/debit cards, travel documents, travel tickets etc.
The stolen or lost card could end up in mischievous hands and we have been hearing stories of what all happen afterwards. Generous swipings, exorbitant buyings and what not! And the loss of travel documents and tickets would be another nightmare. So is there a service to tackle this? To protect us from the trauma associated with a card loss?
Card Protection is a new service offered in India, which helps credit card customers from the ordeal associated with credit card or debit card loss or theft. In collaboration with CPP Assistance Services, banks such as Kotak Mahindra, Citibank, Standard Chartered, HSBC etc. are offering card protection service for theft and loss for their customers who opt for the service for a nominal fee. A customer can register all his cards, not just the bank's ones, for the service.
All financial and non-financial cards (credit, debit, loyalty cards etc.), fraud protection insurance, emergency hotel and travel assistance, emergency cash assistance etc. are covered under this service. A person who had lost his wallet will just have to call the helpdesk of CPP and they will do the rest; like contacting all the respective banks to block his cards, arranging for the money etc. I guess it’s a good service one can opt for especially the ones who are constantly on the move.
Related Articles
- Credit card and effective interest rate
- How to best manage your credit card?
- Interest rate on credit cards to increase to 49%
The stolen or lost card could end up in mischievous hands and we have been hearing stories of what all happen afterwards. Generous swipings, exorbitant buyings and what not! And the loss of travel documents and tickets would be another nightmare. So is there a service to tackle this? To protect us from the trauma associated with a card loss?
Card Protection is a new service offered in India, which helps credit card customers from the ordeal associated with credit card or debit card loss or theft. In collaboration with CPP Assistance Services, banks such as Kotak Mahindra, Citibank, Standard Chartered, HSBC etc. are offering card protection service for theft and loss for their customers who opt for the service for a nominal fee. A customer can register all his cards, not just the bank's ones, for the service.
All financial and non-financial cards (credit, debit, loyalty cards etc.), fraud protection insurance, emergency hotel and travel assistance, emergency cash assistance etc. are covered under this service. A person who had lost his wallet will just have to call the helpdesk of CPP and they will do the rest; like contacting all the respective banks to block his cards, arranging for the money etc. I guess it’s a good service one can opt for especially the ones who are constantly on the move.
Related Articles
- Credit card and effective interest rate
- How to best manage your credit card?
- Interest rate on credit cards to increase to 49%
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Financial Products Information
Information is of highest value in the world of finance, especially when we have an umpteen number of finance related products and services available at our finger tips and would want to choose one from those. The ubiquitous internet gives us all the information we need, but being so large also has certain side effects, as the information we seek in the internet would be as scattered as it can be. That is where having a single platform or website for accessing all the information we need helps. Money.co.uk is one such website, where information related to finance can be read.The portal contains thousands of articles related to the finance area, which is arranged into various categories such as loans, credit cards, mortgages, savings and accounts, insurance, stock markets etc. It also tells us of various financial products and services available around. And the best part is one can do a comparative analysis of various products and services, for example to compare mortgages, and select the best out of the set that fits his or her need. And for those who do not want to buy anything, but just want to know of the latest news in the world of finance, there are separate sections dedicated for the latest finance news.
The credit card section of the site lists down the most popular credit cards available in the market. Also there are various comparison tables in the credit cards section, which are based on features of a credit card such as balance transfer, cash back and rewards, air miles etc. Each comparison table lists down providers of cards having the selected feature. The site also provides credit card quotes. The insurance area is detailed in the site using which we can select quality insurance policies having minimal cost. In both these cases, we can apply for the product right from the website.
The site is updated with latest contents (news, articles etc.) everyday and to keep us updated of new content, they have an RSS feed in the website. Readers can subscribe to this feed in their feed readers to get to know of new articles as soon as something is posted in the site. The site also has a weekly newsletter to which the readers can subscribe to just by entering their email ids. This would useful for those people who wants themselves to be updated with the latest happenings in the finance world but don’t have enough time to visit the site everyday.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Elderly Travel Insurance
Travel insurance is used to cover medical expenses, financial and other losses (due to theft, delayed departure etc.) incurred while one is traveling. Travel insurance is available for students, businessmen, tourists, adventurers and for that matter, even ordinary domestic and international travelers. While it is widely used in developed countries such as USA, UK etc., it’s becoming increasingly popular in countries like India.
Like any other insurance products, travel insurance products also are unfriendly to the senior citizens as most of the policies would either have strict age limits or higher premiums for the elderly. This comes as an irony when we have retirement plans, low cost airlines and holiday packages that enable more and more people to save and travel during old age.
Recently, I came across a site called Covermytravels that offers travel insurance for senior citizens at a very lower cost compared to other insurers. Elderly Travel Insurance gives travel insurance quotes with in seconds (which is completely online) and is very user friendly. They have single trip per year and multi trip per year policies and also have some optional benefits such as ‘Winter Sports Cover’ that could be added to the travel insurance. They also give assistance to customers over telephone who want clarifications before deciding on the travel insurance they require.
Overall, an outstanding option senior traveler could bang on and I hope sites like this would be a great relief for elder travelers.
Like any other insurance products, travel insurance products also are unfriendly to the senior citizens as most of the policies would either have strict age limits or higher premiums for the elderly. This comes as an irony when we have retirement plans, low cost airlines and holiday packages that enable more and more people to save and travel during old age.
Recently, I came across a site called Covermytravels that offers travel insurance for senior citizens at a very lower cost compared to other insurers. Elderly Travel Insurance gives travel insurance quotes with in seconds (which is completely online) and is very user friendly. They have single trip per year and multi trip per year policies and also have some optional benefits such as ‘Winter Sports Cover’ that could be added to the travel insurance. They also give assistance to customers over telephone who want clarifications before deciding on the travel insurance they require.
Overall, an outstanding option senior traveler could bang on and I hope sites like this would be a great relief for elder travelers.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Term insurance to become cheaper
Wait for some time, if you have decided to buy a term insurance. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is looking at ways to promote term insurance as they feel the general attitude among the public to deem insurance as a savings opportunity should change.
In India, life insurance is generally seen as an investment option rather than a cover for life. As a result we have insurance products like endowment policies, money back policies, ULIP etc from various insurance companies. Previously, I had talked about how inefficient an endowment policy is, where one pays huge premiums for small sum-assured to get a return that’s way less compared to what he/she would get from other investments made for the same period.
The main reason for the inclination towards savings oriented insurance policies was the lack of other investment options till a few decades back and to a lesser extent, the lack of awareness people had on the alternatives. But now we have quite a few efficient investment opportunities such as mutual funds, realty, commodities, equities etc. that can give a person much higher returns. And hence the affinity towards endowment and money back policies, ULIPs etc. shall come to an end; which triggered the IRDA move.
IRDA has identified two ways to popularize term insurance, one by incentivizing the insurance company and two, by incentivizing the insurance agent (Agents usually push ULIPs and endowment plans as they provide higher commissions). IRDA would reduce the solvency margin for the insurance company so that the reserves need to be maintained by the insurance company would come down. Thus, the amount to be allocated by the insurance company for writing a term insurance would reduce by 60%, making it cheaper than before.
In India, life insurance is generally seen as an investment option rather than a cover for life. As a result we have insurance products like endowment policies, money back policies, ULIP etc from various insurance companies. Previously, I had talked about how inefficient an endowment policy is, where one pays huge premiums for small sum-assured to get a return that’s way less compared to what he/she would get from other investments made for the same period.
The main reason for the inclination towards savings oriented insurance policies was the lack of other investment options till a few decades back and to a lesser extent, the lack of awareness people had on the alternatives. But now we have quite a few efficient investment opportunities such as mutual funds, realty, commodities, equities etc. that can give a person much higher returns. And hence the affinity towards endowment and money back policies, ULIPs etc. shall come to an end; which triggered the IRDA move.
IRDA has identified two ways to popularize term insurance, one by incentivizing the insurance company and two, by incentivizing the insurance agent (Agents usually push ULIPs and endowment plans as they provide higher commissions). IRDA would reduce the solvency margin for the insurance company so that the reserves need to be maintained by the insurance company would come down. Thus, the amount to be allocated by the insurance company for writing a term insurance would reduce by 60%, making it cheaper than before.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Endowment Policies – when it comes to maximizing returns
“Back in July 2002, I took an endowment policy. I was in my first job and for the first time in my life I was submitting investment proof to claim the munificent tax rebate. I had heard from someone that taking an endowment policy would be a better option as the higher premiums I pay would take me near the magical, tax rebate figure of One Lakh and to top it, I would get good returns on policy maturity! I didn’t think twice; called up an insurance agent. All he told me was about endowment policies. Finally, for an annual premium of around Rs. 21,000, I took an endowment policy with a policy term of 25 years. The rest I managed with National Savings Certificate.”
“It’s been three years and having diligently paid all the premiums, now I am a loyal customer of the insurance company. But some of my colleagues who had invested in stock markets that time, directly or through Mutual Funds, have already tripled or quadrupled their savings. Some had made even more. That’s when I started thinking about my endowment policy and the kind of returns it gave me with respect to the investment I made in the form of premiums. Is my endowment policy actually giving me good returns?”
I’m sure most of us who own an endowment policy would have thought like this at least once. This post succinctly examines the same. In the due course, we will find out how endowment policies don’t give much returns or insurance cover vis-à-vis some of the other investment opportunities.
Let’s have a closer look at Endowment Policies. Endowment Policies by definition agree to pay a lump sum on maturity while giving a small insurance cover during the policy term. Thus it’s a combination of both insurance and investment. The policy holder pays premium (this is the investment) reasonably higher than a term-insurance policy and gets yearly bonuses from the insurance company that get accrued and added to the lump sum. On the event of death or on maturity he gets the sum assured plus the accrued bonus (both constitutes the return on investment), which according the insurance company or the agent, is a formidable amount.
Thus, on policy maturity, the policy holder gets money in two ways.
Every year,
a) Reversionary Bonus: Distributed from company profits, based on plan, term and sum assured.
b) Terminal Bonus: Distributed from company profits for customer loyalty, based on plan, term and sum assured.
On maturity
a) Sum assured
So that the Total Amount on maturity = Sum Assured + Accrued Annual Bonuses.
Now let’s study an endowment policy in detail to calculate the returns from it. The policy under study has the following parameters.
Annual Premium = Rs. 21,000
Policy Term = 25 years
Premium Paying Term = 25 years
Sum Assured = 5 Lakh
Bonus declared by the insurance company for this particular policy during the years 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 were Rs. 53, Rs. 47 and Rs. 44 respectively, for every thousand rupees sum assured, i.e., an average of Rs. 48. Though I understand that the bonus amount would vary from year to year and may increase in the coming years, I take this average value for the calculations. Also, please to note the decreasing trend in bonus amount.
Thus for a sum assured of Rs. 5 Lakh, the bonus would come out to be Rs. 24,000 per year which is Rs. 6 Lakh for 25 years.
The terminal bonus is usually not made public by the insurance company. Hence we have no other way but to assume it to be on the range of Rs. 4 Lakh.
That makes the total amount the above policy holder would get after 25 years to be Rs. 15 Lakh. And the total premium he would have paid during the policy term would be Rs. 5 Lakh [21,000 X 25]. Thus the policy gives him an annualized return of 12%. [((15 / 5) X 100) / 25]
In this way you can calculate the returns you get from your endowment policy.
Now we got an idea about the returns from an endowment policy. Going ahead, let’s think about the next question. Is there any other way for us to get more returns and more insurance cover from the same investment amount? Is there a way to maximize our investments without compromising on the insurance cover?
So, let’s look at another investment option; say Mutual Funds. Over the years, mutual funds have been giving very good returns, in the range of 40% per year. But if we assume an average return of even 15%, an investment of Rs. 21,000 per year for 25 years would give the above person a return of Rs. 51 Lakh, had he invested the same amount in Mutual Funds every year! Quite amazed?
Unlike endowment policies, mutual funds don’t give any insurance cover. So how do we take care of the insurance part? Well, one way to do that would be to cut down the investment amount a bit and take a term insurance using that. Just to give you a hint, for an annual premium of around 6,000 rupees you will get a term insurance of about Rs. 25 Lakh for the same time period of 25 years! Hence splitting the endowment policy into term insurance + mutual fund combination would be an intelligent way to get more returns and insurance cover. When you play around with such a combination, probably you would end up with a better investment, having more returns and more insurance cover for the same investment amount.
Now one may ask, with endowment policies he will get a return for sure but if he invests in mutual funds, isn’t there a risk of losing money? Well yes, since the mutual funds invest in shares there is a risk of losing money. But mutual fund companies maintain a portfolio of shares to reduce this risk, due to which the downfall may be less. Also, for the less risky, there are balanced funds which invest only half the amount in shares. By the way, the bonus amount of an endowment policy is based on the insurance company’s profit. What if the company made a loss?
Thus there are better ways to invest than taking an endowment policy. Though I haven’t told you how to plan your investment or what to take, I hope that this post would have helped you to think a bit before going for an endowment policy.
Back Slash: An insurance agent gets commission for every premium you pay. For an endowment policy, you will pay premium for longer time periods; 25 years may be, possibly the reason why he may persuade you to go for an endowment policy and may not tell you about the more essential, term-insurance policies.
“It’s been three years and having diligently paid all the premiums, now I am a loyal customer of the insurance company. But some of my colleagues who had invested in stock markets that time, directly or through Mutual Funds, have already tripled or quadrupled their savings. Some had made even more. That’s when I started thinking about my endowment policy and the kind of returns it gave me with respect to the investment I made in the form of premiums. Is my endowment policy actually giving me good returns?”
I’m sure most of us who own an endowment policy would have thought like this at least once. This post succinctly examines the same. In the due course, we will find out how endowment policies don’t give much returns or insurance cover vis-à-vis some of the other investment opportunities.
Let’s have a closer look at Endowment Policies. Endowment Policies by definition agree to pay a lump sum on maturity while giving a small insurance cover during the policy term. Thus it’s a combination of both insurance and investment. The policy holder pays premium (this is the investment) reasonably higher than a term-insurance policy and gets yearly bonuses from the insurance company that get accrued and added to the lump sum. On the event of death or on maturity he gets the sum assured plus the accrued bonus (both constitutes the return on investment), which according the insurance company or the agent, is a formidable amount.
Thus, on policy maturity, the policy holder gets money in two ways.
Every year,
a) Reversionary Bonus: Distributed from company profits, based on plan, term and sum assured.
b) Terminal Bonus: Distributed from company profits for customer loyalty, based on plan, term and sum assured.
On maturity
a) Sum assured
So that the Total Amount on maturity = Sum Assured + Accrued Annual Bonuses.
Now let’s study an endowment policy in detail to calculate the returns from it. The policy under study has the following parameters.
Annual Premium = Rs. 21,000
Policy Term = 25 years
Premium Paying Term = 25 years
Sum Assured = 5 Lakh
Bonus declared by the insurance company for this particular policy during the years 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 were Rs. 53, Rs. 47 and Rs. 44 respectively, for every thousand rupees sum assured, i.e., an average of Rs. 48. Though I understand that the bonus amount would vary from year to year and may increase in the coming years, I take this average value for the calculations. Also, please to note the decreasing trend in bonus amount.
Thus for a sum assured of Rs. 5 Lakh, the bonus would come out to be Rs. 24,000 per year which is Rs. 6 Lakh for 25 years.
The terminal bonus is usually not made public by the insurance company. Hence we have no other way but to assume it to be on the range of Rs. 4 Lakh.
That makes the total amount the above policy holder would get after 25 years to be Rs. 15 Lakh. And the total premium he would have paid during the policy term would be Rs. 5 Lakh [21,000 X 25]. Thus the policy gives him an annualized return of 12%. [((15 / 5) X 100) / 25]
In this way you can calculate the returns you get from your endowment policy.
Now we got an idea about the returns from an endowment policy. Going ahead, let’s think about the next question. Is there any other way for us to get more returns and more insurance cover from the same investment amount? Is there a way to maximize our investments without compromising on the insurance cover?
So, let’s look at another investment option; say Mutual Funds. Over the years, mutual funds have been giving very good returns, in the range of 40% per year. But if we assume an average return of even 15%, an investment of Rs. 21,000 per year for 25 years would give the above person a return of Rs. 51 Lakh, had he invested the same amount in Mutual Funds every year! Quite amazed?
Unlike endowment policies, mutual funds don’t give any insurance cover. So how do we take care of the insurance part? Well, one way to do that would be to cut down the investment amount a bit and take a term insurance using that. Just to give you a hint, for an annual premium of around 6,000 rupees you will get a term insurance of about Rs. 25 Lakh for the same time period of 25 years! Hence splitting the endowment policy into term insurance + mutual fund combination would be an intelligent way to get more returns and insurance cover. When you play around with such a combination, probably you would end up with a better investment, having more returns and more insurance cover for the same investment amount.
Now one may ask, with endowment policies he will get a return for sure but if he invests in mutual funds, isn’t there a risk of losing money? Well yes, since the mutual funds invest in shares there is a risk of losing money. But mutual fund companies maintain a portfolio of shares to reduce this risk, due to which the downfall may be less. Also, for the less risky, there are balanced funds which invest only half the amount in shares. By the way, the bonus amount of an endowment policy is based on the insurance company’s profit. What if the company made a loss?
Thus there are better ways to invest than taking an endowment policy. Though I haven’t told you how to plan your investment or what to take, I hope that this post would have helped you to think a bit before going for an endowment policy.
Back Slash: An insurance agent gets commission for every premium you pay. For an endowment policy, you will pay premium for longer time periods; 25 years may be, possibly the reason why he may persuade you to go for an endowment policy and may not tell you about the more essential, term-insurance policies.
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