Insurance, when it works, of course, it’s very welcome.
Indeed insurance is reassuring - that is until you make a claim.
For the insurance industry often relies on not doing what we think it’s going to do when we take out a policy.
Most of us will have had the experience of trying to make a claim for something we thought we had insured, only to find that the policy we bought in good faith has some pickety nickety small-print clause that allows the insurance company to deny the pay-out.
The burst pipe is covered but not the damage to the ceiling...etc...I could go on.
As John Lanchester points out: 'Mobile phone insurance, for example. It is possible to insure a mobile phone against loss or theft. Except, when you look at the small print, they have clauses saying that the insurance does not cover situations in which the phone is ‘left unattended’ or ‘left in a public place’, and in relation to theft, the usual wording goes something like this: ‘Theft from the person is not covered unless force or threat of violence is used. Theft while in any form of public transport or public place is not covered unless force or threatened force is used.’ What this means in practice is that an enormous number of possible cases of loss or theft are simply not covered – and this by insurance policies which, if you have a smartphone insured by the phone company itself, will cost £10 a month. In other words, it’s a scam, designed to extract extra revenue from gullible punters.'
Indeed insurance is reassuring - that is until you make a claim.
For the insurance industry often relies on not doing what we think it’s going to do when we take out a policy.
Most of us will have had the experience of trying to make a claim for something we thought we had insured, only to find that the policy we bought in good faith has some pickety nickety small-print clause that allows the insurance company to deny the pay-out.
The burst pipe is covered but not the damage to the ceiling...etc...I could go on.
As John Lanchester points out: 'Mobile phone insurance, for example. It is possible to insure a mobile phone against loss or theft. Except, when you look at the small print, they have clauses saying that the insurance does not cover situations in which the phone is ‘left unattended’ or ‘left in a public place’, and in relation to theft, the usual wording goes something like this: ‘Theft from the person is not covered unless force or threat of violence is used. Theft while in any form of public transport or public place is not covered unless force or threatened force is used.’ What this means in practice is that an enormous number of possible cases of loss or theft are simply not covered – and this by insurance policies which, if you have a smartphone insured by the phone company itself, will cost £10 a month. In other words, it’s a scam, designed to extract extra revenue from gullible punters.'
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