Insurance Claims: Understanding The Lingo
Short term insurance coverage is as much part of our lives as breathing, eating and going to sleep! If you think of insurance car insurance is usually the most obvious sort of short term insurance that comes to mind. The simple fact of the matter is that most insurance claims processed are due to automobile accidents and thefts.
When you have been involved in an accident, or if your motor vehicle has been damaged or thieved, the first thing you need to do is put in an insurance claim so that your insurance company can pay to fix the damages or replace your car or truck. There are various keyword phrases linked to insurance car companies and claims, let’s have a look at a few these:
A reported claim is pretty self-explanatory. As soon as you’ve been involved in an incident or accident, you need to notify the insurance firm of the loss or damage that occurred.
The insurance car firm will then assist you with quotations from different service providers (for example panel beaters) and try to resolve your claim as quickly as possible. Once a claim has been paid out by the insurance company, and their clients are happy 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 number of times that an insured claimed against his/her policy in a certain period of time. If you have a claim frequency of 12 each year, you will be considered to be a high risk consumer and you will most likely be reprimanded with increased monthly premiums. Following a financial year, an insurance company will take a look at the number of claims that they processed in that time frame. This will then be divided into the total number of insurance policies that they manage to give them an average claim frequency. As an example, if an insurance company has 100 customers and they process 200 claims, their average claim frequency will be 2.
When an insurance company reports on their claims experience they are speaking about the number of claims that they have dealt with during a certain period. If a firm has a high claims experience, you can normally feel comfortable knowing that you will be in good hands once you need to put in a claim.
Different insurance providers have different claims processes. Do not forget that if you need to put in a claim against your insurance, you will not be in the very best of moods. You might have been in a car accident or even involved in a hijacking, therefore it’s important that you entrust your insurance automotive policy with a company with a decent claim reputation. Make sure that your premiums are always paid up and you have quick access to all your paperwork and records before getting in touch with your insurance carrier for assistance with a claim. Always document the incident or collision at the earliest opportunity, typically starting at the police station to get a case number and hopefully to find the accountable parties in the eventuality of a hijacking or stolen vehicle!
Claiming from your insurance is not a difficult task - just just be sure you have all your ducks in a row!