They certainly are. Recognising this very early in life I took the decision to be my own insurance company, not paying anything other than house structure insurance and the compulsory third party insurance on vehicles.
It's saved me a small fortune throughout the last 55 years and partly in consequence I've always had the access to capital to cover any possible risk. In fact I've never had to claim on myself and pay out!
Many more people should do this, since it means one always has cover for any sudden unexpected expense as well as immediate cover without conflict for misfortune.
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Very wise advice flecc, you're a wise old owl!
I think the insurance industry is a massive racket, they're absolutely terrible most when it comes to paying out, finding any excuses and going to ridiculous lengths to avoid paying out legitimate claims in many cases, you're treated automatically as though you're a fraudulent claim by many.
I'll give you another example from my own experience recently which is totally bizarre and shows how bad this industry really is (and why IMO it needs much more regulation)...
After I had my second major seizure and was severely cognitively impaired...I had several accidents around the house. One accident was where I slipped and dropped a cup of coffee over my bed which unfortunately flying across the bed, hit the wall and smashed, and the coffee went all over my laptop and a tablet which were stacked ontop of each other on the bedside table. As I knelt on the bed to try and quickly wipe the coffee off them, another tablet I was using, slid off the bed and landed screen down (as they do!) on the hard wooden floor and smashed.
So my claim was on the household contents for which I have accident damage..since it was around £500 of damage at least (second hand, even more new), and I had £100 voluntary excess, I decided to make a claim for £400 which I thought was reasonable.
The insurance company were an absolute nightmare from the word go (this is Legal & General insurance btw). After I put my claim in, I was contacted by another company an insurance claims assessment was needed to be carried out. They asked for photographic evidence. I had no problems providing this, as I had photographed the entire scene with the coffee all up the wall and the devices covered in it, and a broken cup on the floor. Knowing what insurance companies can be like, I took the wise decision not to clean that mess up fully, and to leave the coffee on the wall, just in case they decided to send a claims assessor out.
I didn't expect that on a claim so small, but sure enough, the photos weren't enough they said, and they wanted to see the devices themselves, all of them (which would not be returned if the claim was paid out - I indicated to them I needed to remove the hard disk from the laptop since it was used for business use and contained personal details of third parties and it would be a breach of the Data Protection Act else. They said, no, you must leave the hard disk in, else the claim cannot proceed. I pointed out to them, that the laptop does not power-up at all, with or without the hard disk, so its immaterial to the claim. Still they insisted, no hard drive = no claim).
Regardless, I removed the hard disk and put a note on it saying "removed for Data Protection Act compliance, this device does not power up with or without a hard drive, plug a USB bootable stick in if don't have an internal drive to test as this laptop can be booted that way as the BIOS is set to").
Courier arrives and collects all the non-working devices.
Then I got told: Our engineers report was inconclusive, cannot establish the damage was caused by coffee spillage. A claims assessor would need to visit my property and see the scene where the accident occurred (this was like a good 3 weeks after they had received the laptop). So this chap turns up, and he asks me to repeat what I did, step by step and demonstrate how I walked into the room and slipped by the bed, where the devices were etc, while he watched (there was still dried coffee all over the wall right in the area, and even on the floor below). Then he queried my medical condition (the seizure, lasting cognitive impairment and motor-coordination difficulties, all of which was proven by a hospital visit for 3 days, many visits to the neurology department for brain scans, medications being prescribed, and many visits to my GP, as well as income insurance claim for being unable to work - that's another story!). He asked if he could take the paperwork away. Some couldn't be taken, so he took photos instead! He also photographed the coffee on wall and the floor.
He went said he would make his report, and went away. 1 month passed...and I get a phone call. It was the most bizarre call I could expect. It was the same guy who had visited my property and looked at all the medical paperwork and seen all the coffee up the wall etc...he asked me this:
"Can you tell me exactly how the accident happened again. Oh and lastly, do you take sugar in your coffee?"
Bizarre. Wether he was trying to see if I told a different version or test my cognitive impairiment I'm not sure. The sugar in coffee was just weird. As it goes, I don't take sugar. That makes you wonder though whether they actually carried out some chemical analysis on the residue coffee inside the laptop and tablets?!
You cannot make this up can you! How much would all that cost, probably more than the actual amount being claimed surely?! A courier coming out to personally collect and box up the devices... An insurance claims assessor inspector coming out to visit the property...workshop or lab analysis on the devices to assess the extent of damage and cause.
I contacted them about a dozen times, and was always told "oh we're still assessing the claim" or "oh our underwriters are asking for more information". This went on for THREE MONTHS. I had no laptop, no tablets, and didn't want to replace them if the insurance company was going to replace new for old as the policy stated..they wouldn't tell me whether that would be the case even, or whether it would be a cash payout. So I was put to considerable inconvenience as I needed the laptop for my OU business course I was in the middle of.
After 3 months and numerous failed promises by the manager after escalating it to a formal complaint and giving them a 21 days deadline legal notice of pending legal action via the Small Claims Court for breach of contract...surprise surprise, they decided to pay out after a final phone conversation with the manager.
The Manager: "We're actually in a difficult situation here, because we have a chain of 4 different underwriters to deal with and each one has different criteria to support claims (so basically he was trying to tell me I'm a contract with 4 other companies I know nothing about). Due to the unusual nature of your claim, and 3 devices all being damaged at same time, the principle underwriter is not able to pay out, and my bosses won't allow us to pay-out until our underwriters do, company policy."
I said, I don't care how many companies are in your business chain or what underwriter arrangements you have. My contract is with YOU and I expect you to pay out and honour this claim since I have paid for accidental damage and that's exactly what this is, and it's not even a large amount of money. You've been provided with ample evidence impossible to fake, and if this goes to court you will lose for sure and have to pay my solicitors legal fees, court costs and a lot more than the amount I originally asked for, as I will ask for new devices, not the second-hand value I'm claiming presently, so the amount is likely to double.
Upon hearing this he said...2 minutes...then returned...as a gesture of goodwill my boss has agreed to settle the claim for £370. And about a week later they finally paid out.
