Are you prepared to file an insurance claim?

I don't really know all that much about insurance. Except how to pay the bill. I have never in my life had to file an insurance claim. We pay out more per month in insurance than we do to the bank for our house. Sucks. Watching all the coverage of the anniversary of Katrina here in the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, I learned a couple things about insurance that I thought I would share with you.

The Big Mistake

When you sign up for your insurance policy, for home owners or renters. The insurance company will ask you to estimate the value of your belongings. How much would is cost to replace your belongings? You estimate and the rate you pay is based on this estimation. I was under the impression that if all my stuff is destroyed, this is the amount my insurance company would give to me and I would go replace my things at my discretion. Not the case, according to the people here who are still battling the insurance companies for their money.

You Need Proof

If your things are destroyed that amount that you estimated is the very most your insurance company will give you for the replacement of your belongings. The insurance company will require you to provide for them some sort of proof of the things you owned and proof of the value of those items. If you don't have proof, you don't get any money. If you don't have proof you might as well stop paying for your insurance because they aren't going to get any money from them.

Making A List

Create a list of all your belongings. Make sure you have a picture of each item on the list, not a separate picture of each item you can do a lot of items in each picture. Make sure you include: brand name, model number, the year you bought it, the price you paid, etc. Keep a file that has this list along with a picture of each item along with a scanned copy of the receipt. Now you have a digital record of all your stuff. Anything not on this list will not be replaced. Add up the value on this list, that is all the money you will get, so don't pay for 100 thousand dollars worth of insurance for your belongings when your list only ads up to 10 thousand like mine.

Secure Your List

Now if your house is destroyed by fire, flood, or meteor; you have to make sure your list is somewhere safe that will not be destroyed as well. Some suggestions are: a memory stick on your key chain with an encrypted password, online storage-password protected, your grandma's attic. Having the info on your computer is not going to be helpful if your home is destroyed.

Have you any insurance company experience? I believe that better regulation of the insurance industry is the single most important factor in this upcoming election. The health insurance, home owners insurance, auto insurance, etc. If you take a look at the Forbes list of most profitable companies these all top the lists, they are raping us and then not doing the job they are designed to do. People who get sick, people who lose their homes, they are not being helped. They have so much money and so much power that their is no regulation. The majority of the people harmed the most are the poor. It is shameful. I think it is time for an alternative, in the meantime make a list of all your stuff. You would think if they wanted verification of what you owned they would seek that verification before they entered into a contract with you to insure you for said amount, before they take your money which seems to me to be a contract of good faith that they will insure you for the replacement value of your belongings. Of course as you can see I am not a lawyer and have absolutely no knowledge of how insurance works.