Whether you’ve recently made property upgrades or added a few new items to your home, it is time to spring clean your insurance policies to check that you are adequately covered. Your short-term insurance policy is automatically renewed almost...
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Lower medical premium increases thanks to lockdown
An unexpected side-effect of lockdown has been smaller-than-usual annual medical aid premium increases. Despite fears that the outbreak of COVID-19 would result in high claims from medical scheme members, and a resultant increase in the cost of...
Don’t let your life policy lapse
It is important to understand how your life policy works and what your options are if you find that you are no longer able to afford your premiums. While the outbreak of COVID-19 raised awareness around the need for life cover, especially for those...
Listen: How financial advisers choose their insurance
Maya (@mayaonmoney) and Mapalo (@womanandfinance) speak to independent financial adviser Markus Bauriedl on what to look out for when selecting life insurance to make sure it pays out as promised. Not all cover is equal, and some products work...
Stay on top of your repayments
Most agreements to suspend debt repayments or monthly premiums have come to an end. Make sure you understand how this will affect your finances. In the initial stages of lockdown, most banks, insurers and retirement product providers offered...
Video: Review your insurance and save
We should be in the habit of regularly reviewing our insurance cover, but if you haven’t done so for a while, COVID-19 lockdown is the perfect opportunity to make sure you have the correct cover in place and even save on premiums. You may find that...
Income protection for ‘gig workers’ – finally!
By Elmarie Samuel, Senior Technical Marketing Specialist at life insurer FMI (a Division of Bidvest Life Ltd) South Africa’s gig economy is booming. More people than ever before are earning a living as so-called ‘gig workers’ - working as...
COVID-19: When would your income protection pay out?
If you get COVID-19, will your income protection or life insurance cover you? And what can you do if you can’t pay your premiums because the pandemic has affected your income? These questions are top of mind right now as the lockdown affects...
Make sure you’re covered for a power surge
Do you know whether you're covered if a power surge damages expensive electrical appliances? Identified by Google as South Africa’s most searched term in the past decade, loadshedding continues to cause a huge amount of frustration and...
Video: Car and handbag insurance for women
I always maintain that actuaries never lie, and women on average pay less for car insurance than men, so is it true that women are better drivers? In light of Women's Month, I am speaking to Christelle Colman of Elite Wealth Assets Insurance to...
Previous Articles
When your credit shortfall insurance leaves you short
Despite having credit shortfall insurance, many policyholders find themselves out of pocket when it comes to claiming because they don't properly understand how the cover works. In its 2019 annual report the Ombud for Short-Term Insurance (OSTI) found that 49% of...
How new drunk-driving law will affect your car insurance
The days of having a beer after work and driving home will soon be over – and that’s not just because of the lockdown restrictions. Once South Africa’s strict new drunk-driving laws have been passed, drivers won’t be allowed to drink alcohol at all. Currently, it’s...
Financial products leave self-employed in the cold
One of the things to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis is that the financial industry needs to innovate in order to keep up with a rapidly changing workforce that is increasingly comprised of self-employed people. Most financial products remain rooted in the idea that...
Premium relief on medical schemes unlikely
Don’t expect a blanket premium relief, but if you are struggling, contact your medical scheme for options. If you are struggling to meet your medical scheme contribution this month, don’t hold out for a blanket offering of a premium waiver. Medical schemes pay out on...
Video: What does travel insurance cover?
This video was done when travel operator Thomas Cook collapsed last year, however it is just as relevant for holiday-makers facing COVID-19 cancellations. Travellers may not be aware of the limits around travel insurance which has exclusions depending...
Listen: Tips to cut that insurance bill
One of the ways to find that extra cash to start saving is to review your fixed costs, like short-term insurance. In this episode Maya (@mayaonmoney) and Mapalo (@womanandfinance) discuss some of the new insurance players in the industry that are using technology to...
Video: Joint life insurance
A recent survey found that middle-class households are cutting back on insurance and medical cover as their budgets come under pressure. However, if you have a family, life insurance is essential to provide for them if something happens to you. If you are a married...
The real cost of death
Funerals are big business in South Africa, with an estimated R10bn a year spent on funerals and related services. Insurance companies have found a lucrative product offering in funeral policies, with around 15 million such policies currently held in South Africa. A...
Find medical cover that fits your pocket and your needs
It is that time of year when you will receive a letter from your medical scheme confirming your benefits and premiums for next year. This year the average scheme increases were between 8% and 12%. According to Alexander Forbes Health, these price increases have been a...
Video: Understanding credit insurance
If you have taken out credit, you mostly likely have a credit life policy linked to that loan for which you are paying a monthly fee. While it has many names such as credit life, credit protection insurance or payment protection insurance, it is essentially an...