When you first start getting your own insurances then you’ll be sure to come across the term Insurance premium, which is a term that you may have never heard of before. Such another term is insurance deductible, which can also sound like a lot of complicated financial information. Of course, you understand that you need to pay for your insurance, but it can be a little hard to know what actually you’re paying and what you’re paying for. If you want to have this clarified then you should definitely read this article where we’ll be going through the definition of insurance premium and insurance deductible.
What is insurance premium?
An insurance premium is actually quite simple, in short, it’s the amount of money that you need to pay for your insurance each month or year. The insurance premium is the way that the insurance company makes money and how they are able to pay out all the insurances. Paying your insurance premium ensures you that you’ll also get your claims if you would need to.
The insurance premium is calculated by using a formula that is not really that complicated, but the price is adapted per person depending on some personal information. This includes information like your age, your health, your location. It depends on the kind of information which personal information matters to them. In general, the insurance premium is determined by a couple of factors that we’ll go over here.
The first factor, which you probably know, is that the type of coverage partially determines how much your insurance premium is. You can probably figure out for yourself that an all-risk coverage will cost you more each month than the basic package. This goes for every kind of insurance. From health insurances to a car insurance, they all offer different levels of coverage for different prices.
On top of the kind of coverage, it also depends on the worth of what you’re insuring. Not all cars cost the same and it makes sense that an expensive car will need a higher insurance premium than a cheap car. This also goes for houses for example, but it’s not the case when it comes to your health. This typically goes for all the insurances that ensure an item with a certain type of value.
I also mentioned that your personal information plays a role, which is because an insurance company will use your personal information to determine your risk factor. The risk factor is the size of the chance that you’ll need to actually make a claim on the insurance. When you’re in bad health then you will need to pay more for health insurance as you have a bigger risk factor of needing to make a claim for your health. It differs per kind of insurance what personal information matters to them. For a car insurance, age and drivers experience is important while for a health insurance your health will matter
The amount of insurance premium you have to pay can also vary per year, after all, it’s the income for the insurance company. When the insurance company had a bad year they might need to raise the insurance premiums in other to keep their company running. If the insurance premiums were to go up and you think it is too expensive right now then you can always look for a different insurance. Each insurance company uses different insurance premiums so the chances are great that you’ll be able to find an insurance company with lower insurance premiums.
You can pay your insurance premium in multiple ways. It depends on the insurance company what they allow and what they do not allow, but in most cases it is possible to pay your insurance monthly, semi-annual or annual. Sometimes an insurance will want you to make one payment before the insurance starts, especially when you have a history of not paying your insurance.
What is insurance deductible?
Now that you understand what your insurance premium is and where it comes from we can focus on the next term which is the insurance deductible.
The insurance deductible is the amount of money you need to pay for your claim before the insurance company will start paying, they will pay what is left over from the claim after you’ve paid the insurance deductible. This means that you should always have some money put aside for paying the insurance deductible, otherwise the insurance won’t pay the rest of your claim and you can’t pay for the thing you have your insurance for like fixing your car.
You will probably have to pay an insurance deductible for each claim that you make, even when these claims happened very close to each other. This can be an unpleasant surprise but more often than not there is little that can be done about it. This is why you should always have some put aside for if something were to happen.
There are two kinds of insurance deductibles. The first kind is just a number of dollars that you’ll need to pay off the claim, which sounds rather logical right? But another option would be that you have to pay a certain percentage of the claim. Both kinds of insurance deductibles are common so you probably want to check what kind of insurance deductible your insurance has.
You have signed up for this insurance deductible when you signed the policy of your insurance, which is also where you’ll be able to find how much the insurance deductible is. You will probably be able to find the insurance deductible on the declaration page of your insurance policy. When you know how much the insurance deductible is then you’ll also be able to put aside this money.
In most cases, you’ll be able to choose what the insurance deductible will be at the beginning of your insurance, and this choice will have an effect on your insurance premium. As you might be able to predict, having a higher insurance deductible will lead to a lower insurance premium. You’re basically choosing how much you need the insurance company to pay for you and what part you can afford yourself. Most insurance companies do have a minimum insurance deductible so you will also need to pay some part of the claim yourself. The amount that this minimum deductible will depend completely on the kind of insurance. Now, this doesn’t mean that there are no insurances without a minimum deductible, but you will probably have to pay extra for an insurance without an insurance deductible.
If you’re smart then you make use of the insurance deductible in such a way that you save money on your insurance premium. If you have an insurance that you are certain of that you will not have to make claims from often, or not ever, then you can choose to get a high insurance deductible. This can save you quite a lot money on your insurance premium each month.
As you’ve been able to tell, you can save money on your insurances if you make smart use of insurance premium and insurance deductible. Each insurance has a different insurance premium and the kind of coverage you choose for will also affect the insurance premium that you need to pay. This means that you can save a lot of money when you look into it and find the best insurance premium for the best kind of insurance. Yes, it might take some time and a lot of research, but you could be saving yourself a lot of money when you take this effort.
Now you understand what insurance premium is and what insurance deductible is you can use the knowledge to your advantage and save yourself some money.
Guest post by Jerry Lim.
