Quick Insurance Tips

If you have a homeowner’s insurance policy, a condo policy or an apartment renters insurance policy you have coverage for your personal jewelry. However, this coverage is probably not enough to cover your diamond engagement ring or other expensive jewelry.

Is $1500 Enough To Cover Your All Jewelry?

Most homeowner’s insurance policies are HO-3 policies. This is probably the case regardless of which insurance company underwrites your policy.

These policies may do a good job of protecting your home. This may not be the case for your jewelry. An unendorsed HO-3 policy covers only $1500 of jewelry. A condo or renters policy may cover less.

The jewelers you patronize may want more than your unendorsed policy will reimburse you if your personal jewelry were stolen from your home. If the money you’d get after filing a claim would not be enough you may want to increase your coverage.

If you want more coverage you can contact your broker and request that your insurance company add an endorsement to your coverage. This can increase the limit your homeowners, condo or renters insurance policy will pay for jewelry. If you need more coverage than an endorsement will provide, you may need to purchase a separate jewelry insurance policy.

Your car insurance and homeowners insurance both provide protection against theft.

The protection provided by your car insurance policy is part of the “other than collision” coverage. You may know this coverage as “comprehensive.” This coverage is optional so you may not have it on your policy.

If you have “other than collision” insurance, your auto is covered against theft. The items that might be in the car are not covered by your car insurance however.

You may be surprised to know that homeowners insurance covers your possessions against theft, even if they are in your car when they are stolen.

Your homeowner’s condo or renter’s insurance policy provides coverage for theft of most types of personal property. Your personal property is covered all over the world against theft.

There are limitations, but the coverage provided by house, condo and renters insurance policies is probably a lot more robust than most people think. Most people realize that their house will be replaced or repaired if they have a fire, but few people realize that their possessions are covered from theft all over the world.

The theft coverage on both your auto and homeowners policy will probably be based on the actual cash value of an item. This means that you will not be paid enough to replace an old item with a new one. The insurance company will try to estimate the current value of a stolen item before paying a claim.

Your payments will also be reduced by the amount of your deductible. A lower deductible will give you better coverage, but it will also increase your premiums. Most people do better in the long run when they have moderate or higher deductibles.

Your insurance deductible is one of several cost shares that you may have on your insurance policy. Cost shares are what you the policyholder have to pay when you have a claim.

On car insurance policies and homeowners insurance policies your deductible is applied to each claim. On medical insurance policies, the deductible applies to claims made over a period of 12 months. This can be a calendar year, or a year that starts on the date the policy was effective.

Car Insurance

When you buy car insurance your policy only has a deductible if you have physical damage coverage. Physical damage coverage pays you if your car is damaged by one of the covered perils. One of the perils is vandalism.

If it costs $3,000 to repair your car after it is vandalized and you have a deductible of $1,000, your insurance company will pay $2,000 towards the repair. The amount of your deductible is deducted from the amount of the claim.

On a car insurance policy the deductible only affects the physical damage coverage. This part of your policy pays you for damage to your car. Your deductible will not apply to payments made to fix another party’s car.

(The section of the policy that covers property damage and bodily injury payments to others is the liability section. This section never has a deductible.)

The only cost share on auto and homeowners insurance policies is the deductible. This is not the case for many medical insurance policies.

Health Insurance

You can expect to have more than one type of cost share when you purchase health insurance coverage. You might have copayments, coinsurance and a deductible.

You might have no cost shares on certain types of claims; you might have more than one type of cost share on other types of claims. A preventive care exam might not have a deductible or any other cost share. A doctor visit for the flu might have both a deductible and a copayment.

There is a lot of inconsistency to the way these cost shares are applied. Copayments, coinsurance and deductibles can be applied differently to different types of expenses. The rules will be different on different policies. This is often the case on different policies offered by the same insurer.

A copayment is paid per incident. You might have a $20 copayment for each prescription refill. You might have a $30 copayment for each doctor’s visit.

Coinsurance is always expressed as a percentage. The most common coinsurance percentage is 20%. For certain types of claims, you may have to pay your 20% coinsurance.

You can expect to have annual limits on your deductible and your coinsurance. This reduces the amount you have to pay if you have a catastophic claim.

Your will have only one deductible over the course of the year. You can reach this deductible in by having one larger expense or several smaller expenses. If you have a $2000 deductible, you might satisfy that deductible by one $2,000 visit to the emergency room or by ten $200 visits to your doctor.

Coinsurance is usually limited by your out-of-pocket maximum or stop-loss. When you have paid a certain amount, you can expect to stop paying coinsurance. You might have a maximum coinsurance of $2000 on some policies. Your copayments may or may not be limited.

If your policy has a deductible, you will probably have to satisfy your deductible before your coinsurance goes into effect. In another words if you have a $1,000 deductible, you will have to pay the first $1,000 of applicable expenses over the course of the year. You will have to pay the coinsurance percentage on any expenses that you have until you have met your out-of-pocket maximum.

What Happens to an Insurance Premium when a Deductible is Lowered?

Higher deductibles mean lower insurance premiums and vice versa. Deductible choices give the consumer choice. The consumer can decide how much risk they are willing to accept in exchange for a lower price.

The objective when choosing a deductible should be to find the best balance between your risk and your monthly premium. Usually a moderate or a higher deductible will give the consumer the best value.

The primary homeowners insurance coverage that most people think about is called the “A Coverage” or “Dwelling Coverage.” In a standard homeowners policy, this covers the house and structures that are permanently attached to it.

When it’s time to learn how to file home insurance claim, neither a home insurance company in Houston TX nor a provider of home insurance Chicago IL will be likely to pay you more than you are covered for. They are also unlikely to refund monies to you if you have over-insured your home.

Often home owners will base the amount of coverage on the market value of the house. This is incorrect for two reasons.

The first reason is that market value of the home includes the land the home sits on. A homeowners insurance policy does not cover land.
The second reason that this is incorrect is the fact the coverage amount should be based on the cost to repair or rebuild a home. Often the market value of a home is much higher or lower than the potential cost of rebuilding it.

When selecting a value for the Dwelling Coverage of your homeowners insurance policy make sure that you select an amount that will cover the cost or rebuilding your home. Saving money on health insurance just requires a little homework. Keep reading and keep saving.