A lot of people are feeling the pinch of being ‘insurance poor.’ There seems to be no end to the monthly payments to make sure your family is adequately protected, but carrying insurance is absolutely necessary. If something devastating happens and you don’t have enough insurance coverage, you could end up paying out-of-pocket for years. The best thing to do is bite the bullet and carry an adequate amount of coverage to ensure your family can suffer through a financial disaster without breaking the bank. Even though insurance can be expensive, there are ways to save money. Following are a few tips on how to save on health, life and disability insurance.
Decide What Type of Insurance You Need
The first thing you need to do in order to save on insurance costs is to decide exactly what type of insurance you need. The next step is to determine how much coverage is necessary. In order to completely protect your family, you should carry health, life, and disability insurance. Being without this type of coverage can be devastating to the family’s financial structure if someone comes down with a debilitating disease, is involved in an accident, or you pass away suddenly.
Health Insurance
If you try to go without health insurance and someone in the family gets sick or is injured in an accident, your family could be severely limited in health care options. Carrying health insurance is important because you never know when it will be needed. Without insurance coverage your bills will have to be met out-of-pocket. If you aren’t able to pay for hospital bills or repeated visits to the doctor’s office you may even be forced to declare bankruptcy, which will follow you for years to come. Paying for health insurance doesn’t have to be unnecessarily expensive. Check into whether or not your employer offers a health care plan. Because a company can get group rates, you may not have to pay as much.
Life Insurance
As the breadwinner of the family, you also need to be aware of the necessity of having a valid life insurance policy. If you were to pass away unexpectedly, your family would be left to fend for themselves without a life insurance policy to fall back on. If you’re trying to save money, you should look into various types of term insurance policies. Because term insurance expires on a predetermined date it carries much lower premiums than a whole life policy.
Disability Insurance
Disability insurance is similar to health insurance, only it is designed specifically to replace income if you’re disabled and unable to work. Saving money on a disability insurance policy is possible if you sign up for limited coverage or get into a group plan. Check with your insurance agent for details.
High Deductibles
One of the best ways of saving money on any type of insurance payment is to increase the amount you would have to pay out-of-pocket if you ever need to file a claim. This is called a deductible, and it is standard within the insurance industry. Having a deductible simply means that if something happens and you need to receive benefits, you will have to pay an agreed upon amount before your insurance policy kicks in. The higher the deducible you agree to pay, the less your monthly payments will be. Sometimes the savings can be significant. There is one important thing to remember–if something bad does happen you will have to have access to enough money to pay the deductible before the insurance company will validate the claim. A good way to make sure you will have the money on hand is to open a savings account and set aside a few dollars each pay period for that account. You will have to use your will power to keep from dipping into the account for unrelated purposes.
Combine Your Policies
Another way to save on insurance coverage is to have all your policies in place with the same insurance provider. Since you will have a number of different insurance policies–health, life, and disability–most insurance companies will offer special combined rates. Check with your agent and find out whether or not they offer price cuts for combining your policies.
Shop Around
Probably the single best thing you can do in order to save money on insurance is to shop around for the best prices. Go online and get some quotes, then compare them to the prices offered by brick and mortar insurance companies. Weigh the pros and cons of each quote, and then make an informed decision on an insurance carrier. Keep in mind that most insurance companies will reward longtime customers with discounts.
Guest post from Payton Price. Payton writes TermLifeInsurance.org.