Insurance-Related Finance Troubles Providers Don’t Advertise

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12 Oct. 2018. We purchase insurance for a wide variety of assets and situations as a money-saving measure above all else. Eating the costs of a personal injury, a car accident, a home disaster and the like is enough to send anyone’s finances spiraling. However, the savings you could gain from your insurance provider aren’t always as clean cut as you might like them to be. Here are some of the unexpected costs that can come back to bite you and what you can do about them.

The wait

After an accident, that insurance payout can be one of the critical divides between you and financial distress. However, costs can mount while you’re waiting, and you might be out of pocket for some time. It’s crucial to organize your financial life and put together an emergency budget to scale back costs while you wait, as delays are the most common complaint across the board with insurance providers.

Not what you were expecting

Sometimes, you’ve been waiting and waiting and when the payout finally comes, it’s clear that it’s not enough to cover what you need to. If you don’t get what you believe you deserve from your insurance provider, you can negotiate them, and you can complain to your insurance commissioner to make sure that you correct the record.

They don’t always pay out

Even worse than getting less of a payout than you expected is getting no pay-out at all. Insurance denials can happen for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes customers fall into insurance traps that mean their policies no longer cover them. However, many denials are made in bad faith and suing your insurance might be the only option at your disposal. If you can’t find any reason on your policy agreement as to why you might have been denied, it may be time to get some legal help involved.

Cover this, but not that

Following an accident, such as a car accident, it might be common that an insurer asks you to sign a release once they’ve agreed to cover some costs. However, if you sign a release too early, you might lose out. Other costs can arise as a direct result of the original accident, or whatever you made the claim for. If you sign the release early, you will get full coverage on what’s agreed upon, but you can’t turn to your provider again for the costs that follow.

How to avoid the most common complaints

Simply put, you need to know that your insurer isn’t ready to pull a fast one on you. The best way to do that is to look at their complaints record. If they have a high rate of denials, delays, or other common complaints, it might be worth looking for another provider.

The simple reality is that living without insurance is a much more dangerous proposition, financially, than living without it. However, that doesn’t mean you have to sit down and accept every cost that comes your way. Be prepared to fight, negotiate and to ensure you get the coverage you pay for.

Editor’s note: The opinions in this post are the contributor’s and note those of Science & Enterprise.

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