Did you know that aside from credit cards, checking accounts and a variety of loans, you can also purchase insurance products from your bank? The concept is called “bancassurance”, where instead of having an insurance agent sell you insurance, you deal directly with the bank.
What’s great about this arrangement is that your insurance dealings are now included in your own banking transactions, and that you won’t have to look separately for such products. Here are some of the types of insurance products that you can take out from your bank.
Property insurance
This type of insurance protects your property against risks like fire, theft and natural disasters. There are also more specific forms of property insurance, including home (covers private homes), earthquake (protects you against loss of property from earthquakes) and flood insurance (protects you against loss of property from flooding).
Savings insurance
These are insurance products that are designed to help you save for a variety of special purposes such as buying a house, studying abroad or even wedding funds. Simultaneously, the savings product provides insurance coverage. Savings insurance products are typically for the long-term, but they also offer options like top-up premium payments and partial withdrawal.
Annuity insurance
Annuity insurance is a financial product that works like a pension: you first make a regular series of payments to the bank, in exchange for future payments. There are several types of annuity insurance; these include tax-deferred (part of your annual premium is deducted from your taxable income) and variable annuity insurance (benefits and yield depend on a certain fund’s performance). Annuity insurance is a great way to get income during your retirement.
Health insurance
This type of insurance covers your medical costs (thus the term “medical insurance”). Since this kind of health insurance is from a bank, it’s a private medical insurance that can complement your public medical insurance and provide additional protection against injuries and diseases. Private health insurance can protect you from medical costs not covered by public medical insurance. This type of coverage is typically owned by a private company for its employees.
Travel insurance
This health plan provides you coverage when travelling locally or to another company. Part of its coverage includes medical costs and other losses sustained during the trip. While this type of insurance protects you from a variety of travel-related issues (e.g. accidental death or injury, trip cancellation, and delayed baggage), it still comes with several common exclusions such as pre-existing conditions, certain acts of terrorism and injury because of drug use.
Pet insurance
Pet insurance is like a combination of medical and life insurance, except that it’s for your pets. For instance, pet insurance normally covers veterinary expenses if your pet gets into an accident or becomes sick. There are even some policies that disburse when a pet is lost, stolen or passes away. Like medical insurance, pet insurance also considers pre-existing conditions, especially in specific breeds. Likewise, older pets would cost you more expensive premiums.
Vehicle insurance
Otherwise known as auto insurance, vehicle insurance is used for financial protection against damages to the vehicle and physical injury, and liability against such accidents. There are four main types: compulsory third party, third-party property damage, third party fire and theft, and comprehensive insurance.
Payment protection insurance
This financial product insures the repayment of loans in case the borrower loses the ability to pay for the debt, either by unemployment, illness, disability or death. Payment protection insurance are sold by banks as an add-in for loans or any product with overdraft facilities.
Originally posted on December 1, 2012 @ 4:35 am
