99% of insurance claims

I have seen/heard a couple of slightly odd averts lately. Yes, I try and avoid adverts, but these seemed a tad odd.

One was an advert for a life assurance company proudly claiming that they "pay 100% of claims". The implication (though, I think, not said) is that other companies do not.

This seems a very strange claim to me. That can't mean it, surely. After all, if true, I should put in a claim. I'm not a customer, but if they pay 100% of claims it would be a way to get free money.

So I assume they mean they pay 100% of valid claims. But then that is what I would expect, what is their contract, and indeed what I would expect of every such company. Surely no life assurance company refuses to pay a valid claim, else they just get sued.

The second advert was an insurance company proudly proclaiming that they pay "99% of claims".

Again, odd. If they mean 99% of all claims, then they seem to be proud that only 1% of claims are fraudulent. I have no idea if that is good or bad compared to the industry, but I cannot see how it is a marketing statistic in any way. How is only 1% of claims being fraudulent a "selling point". Or are they saying that actually there are more than 1% that are fraudulent but they pay them anyway, thus being proud that they are being ripped off (and hence the customers that pay premiums being ripped off, ultimately). Or are they saying they don't pay all valid claims? I.e. you have a 1 in 100 chance of your (valid) claim not being paid if you go with them.

I just cannot understand the marketing point being made by either of these adverts. Crazy!

Emergency plumbing...

Well, this happened...



Acting quickly

Obviously that is somewhat distressing, and before anyone else says it, yes I did turn off the water before making a video or tweeting. The water tank is sealed not open so draining that did not work, but even so it took some time for the water to stop. I think we must have had quite a lot in the ceiling still to leak out. Now it is eventually down to a drip.

Even so, it was probably 30 minutes before it had reduced to a drip.

Insurance (Hiscox)

I was not sure what was covered but remembered something about "Household emergency cover" for exactly this - i.e. sourcing (and paying for) a plumber to turn up on a Sunday lunchtime!

I had a scan of the renewal on my machine so had a quick look and saw the paragraph about improving the Household emergency cover this year, so great, I called the number.

First issue was it was 10 minutes on hold before someone answered, which surprised me slightly, water kept pouring out.

Then, they said they could not see the cover, so I re-checked, and to my surprise the emergency cover was "not selected". I am not sure why I did not select it, but read on, I may have been right not to!

They said that was no problem, they could call someone out just the same, it just meant I had to pay for it. Of course the policy may cover some of the cost anyway and I could make a claim later. Paying is not the issue to be honest, the issue was a small lake and shower in my kitchen!

So this means I was getting the same treatment as the "emergency cover" just on a "customer pays" basis.

I got a call from some company they use who confirmed details and said they would check who they have on call and get in touch.

That was around mid day.

Nothing happened!

Seriously, nothing! No call, no plumber. So in hindsight I am glad I did not bother paying for this as an insurance. At least this way they don't get paid having done "nothing".

In hindsight I would have been better googling a local plumber. As it happens the plumber we usually use is happy to come 9am tomorrow so we'll put up with no water until then.

So, overall, not impressed.

Why nothing happened?

Listen to the call.... Maybe skip the music...



Update: Next day (Monday) having had no water over night...

Sadly the kitchen ceiling needs re-plastering and decorating now. The problem, seems when old shower was removed many years ago the plumber at the time just used a push fit stopper. It finally gave up. Real plumber this morning cost me £20 and took him like 5 minutes at most. I dread to think what the emergency call out would have cost.

Update: Hiscox are taking it on as a complaint even though no claim.