8.1 Insurance – setting the scene
How do you choose between the various types of insurance available?
What are the details that you, as a consumer, should focus on to ensure that the cover you’re buying is both necessary and appropriate for your circumstances? Under what circumstances can doing without a policy – known as ‘self-insurance’ – make sense?
Download this video clip.Video player: ou_futurelearn_money_vid_1077.mp4
Transcript
Newsreader
Insurance assessors now put the damage of the floods at 1.5 billion pounds. They say, you know, there have been 27,500 domestic claims and nearly 7000 claims by businesses.
Newsreader
Car insurance premiums could rise by a staggering 25 percent next year, that's according to a survey by the industry consultants Mintel. Insurance companies are blaming a large increase in personal injury claims and the high cost of motor repairs.
Adrian Chiles
The Competition Commission has written to electrical goods shops like Dixons, to consult on possible ways of improving competition in the market for the extended warranties. The aim is to give us the information we need as consumers to make an informed choice of whether we want an extended warranty.
Interviewee
The health insurance has to pay, it has to cover the actual costs of healthcare. We know that people who move from the 45 to 50 age bracket, up to the 50/55 age bracket, cost us 30 percent more in the cost of their claim.
Interviewee
The Financial Ombudsman's says it's had many more calls from holiday makers who found the policies aren't paying out when they expect it. The insurance companies say they're just following the rules we sign up to when we take out the policy.
Reporter
A lot of people look forward to more travel when they retire. The trouble is, it can get quite expensive getting travel insurance as you get older. That's because insurance companies see older people as a bigger risk.
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