When you choose to make an insurance claim on a policy, you need to be prepared for quite the process. It is often not as simple as submitting the documents and then receiving the payout. You should prepare for this to be an ongoing process in which you might need to provide several rounds of evidence. However, if all goes well, you should hopefully be able to receive your payout.
A Change to Your Existing Policies
The first thing you can expect is for your policies to change in some way. While your insurance company will not give you a new policy completely from scratch, there is a chance that you might lose some of the benefits that you have built up over the years.
It is not unusual to see brands offer customers better deals if they do not make a claim and stay loyal to the company over several years. However, once a claim has been made, these benefits obviously have to vanish. Though you will still get a good, comprehensive insurance policy, it might not offer you the same benefits that you were able to find before.
The terms of your old policy will obviously stand for the purposes of completing the investigation and claim, so you don’t have to worry about that. However, when putting your new coverage in place, you could be getting something quite different. When you receive your new policy, make sure to read it thoroughly so that you understand where the changes have occurred.
A Visit from the Adjusters
Once you have put your claim in, it will need to be verified by the insurance company to ensure that everything can go ahead and you receive the correct payout. This assessment is conducted by a professional known as an insurance adjuster – click here for a definition. They will be the ones responsible for gathering the evidence to support your claim – but remember that they work for the insurance company and not you!
For example, if you had put in a claim regarding damage to your home, they will visit and inspect the damage for themselves. They will want to verify that any damage you have reported is indeed present on your property. This process can involve them bringing in a third-party expert to verify the damage and give an estimate of how much it would cost to replace or repair the issue that you are claiming against. Make sure you have your own costs arranged too. If they are the same then it is great, if the insurance providers come back with something lower, you need to be able to justify your choices.
Choose Your Replacement
Sometimes, you won’t be able to get a strict insurance payout for your claim. What we tend to see instead is what is called “like for like”. This means that the insurers will give you a payout but they intend for it to be spent on an item of equal or similar value to the one that you initially insured.
For example, if you put in an insurance claim to deal with a broken window in need of replacement, you might not be able to use this as a chance to upgrade to something more energy efficient. The insurer might only give you a payout equal to the cost of the initial window, and if you want to upgrade and choose something nicer you will probably have to pay the excess.
Be Prepared for a Long Process
Unfortunately, not all insurance payouts are going to be smooth sailing. You need to prepare for something particularly taking a long time to process before you are able to make your claim. The insurance company will need to verify exactly what happens. This can occasionally seem like they are deliberately trying to take a long time and stall the process, but this actually could not be further from the truth.
As they try to work out what the best path to take is, you need to ensure that you are doing your part to keep things moving forward too. Gather together evidence to support your claim yourself – don’t just leave it to the likes of the adjusters – and be prepared to submit it when it is required.
In an ideal world, your claim will be processed and delivered to you are quickly as possible. This is how the majority of payouts do go. However, there is always the chance that some detail will cause the case to pause. In this instance, it is vital that you have evidence to back up your side of the story so things can get back on track as soon as possible.
Pay Your Deductible and Get Your Payout
Most insurance policies are built to have a portion of the cost that you pay for yourself. This is called the deductible, and you will have to pay it in order to gain the rest of the money from your claim.
This is something that you need to pay attention to closely when applying for the insurance claim in the first place. There are some deals that will offer higher deductibles for lower premiums each month. Depending on your financial situation, this might be attractive to you. However, if you do need to make a claim, you can expect to have to pay out a higher deductible before that claim is released.
These are five key things you can expect to happen once you make an insurance claim. Make sure you choose the right policy with the right provider – it always makes the claim process much easier to manage! Hopefully, you will never have to make a claim. In the event that you do, you need to make sure that you know precisely how to respond in the future, and what will be expected of you as the claimant. No matter what the nature of the claim might be, ensure that you always know what the next step will be so that you can do everything in your power to ensure that the claim is progressing as it should be.
