Insurance is a necessary precaution to protect yourself against a wide variety of unpredictable risks and considering the current state of affairs in South Africa, it pays to have insurance. Insurance in South Africa will help you pay for damages caused by natural disasters, robbery, car accidents and a host of other threats to our financial well being.
It is an unfortunate fact of life that the unexpected in inevitable. Comprehensive insurance is a good way to cover yourself and your loved ones against the tragedy of an unexpected robbery or car accident.
Consider the following scenario, you have just dropped your children off at school and are on your way to work, when a taxi suddenly (as usual) stops dead in front of you to pick up a passenger. You swerve violently and connect with the car in the lane next to you. The taxi merrily drives of, oblivious to the mayhem it has caused. These taxi antics are a common sight in South Africa and cause a number of insurance claims every month. Fortunately auto insurance in South Africa is required before finance is authorised when buying a car, so you now have somewhere to turn for the finances needed to repair your car. You may have to pay an excess, but this is generally nowhere near the amount you would have had to pay to fix your car yourself.
This same accident may have caused you some serious physical injury, such that you are unable to work for a period. One of the other options insurance in South Africa has is that of accidental disability cover. This means that should you be injured in an accident and are proven to not be able to work and provide for your family, the insurance company will pay out an agreed upon amount to assist you with survival until such time as you are able to work again.
A good provision to have as far as insurance in South Africa goes is also that of health insurance or a medical aid. Since an accident like this is likely to cause you to be hospitalised, a health insurance or medical aid should take some of that financial burden from you as well.
Admittedly, insurance can be expensive, especially in a country like South Africa, which has a high crime rate and many dangerous drivers on the road. As such, you should take care to ensure that you do not over insure yourself. If you have too much insurance you will never get the full benefit of your cover as it is unlikely that some of the events you are insured against will never happen. Only buy insurance according to what you need and do not let yourself be persuaded by slick salesmen into buying more insurance than you will ever use.
Some of the most vital insurances to consider are: life insurance, car insurance, home insurance and health insurance or a medical aid of some kind. Other insurances can generally be provided for by setting up trust funds or similar accounts in order to save money for those eventualities.
About the author
Adam Coleman manages the site http://www.afi.co.za, an insurance south africa company.
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