Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!
Psalm 40:4
Many people end up
paying for insurance they do not need and is no use at all to them, persuaded to buy it by people who are not thinking at all about their customers' welfare but their own commission and career.
The insurance
that was often sold when people took out a mortgage, loan or a credit card was
called payment protection insurance, or PPI, and it was often miss-sold, for
example to unemployed or retired people in case they lost their jobs before the
loan was repaid. Today, banks and other lenders are having to repay millions of
pounds in premiums and compensation!
These are other things
to consider when thinking about buying insurance.
- Do not insure something unnecessarily. When you are invited to extend the guarantee on something, think if it is really a good idea. But think again! Might you replace the item for a later or better model before then?
- Do not pay for overlapping insurance. For example, some building insurance covers water and gas pipes, and some home insurance covers what children take to university, so separate policies for these things are not always necessary (but check your policies to be certain).
- Do not over-insuring something. This is where you insure something for much more than its value, and so pay more in premiums than you need to, perhaps in the hope of getting a windfall if you do have to claim.
Just to be clear, I
am not suggesting that it is wrong
or unnecessary to have insurance. Sometimes it is a legal requirement and
sometimes you are obliged contractually to have it. And it can often be a sensible precaution,
especially if you would not be able to cover the loss from your savings or some
other way.
But the modern fad to
ensure almost anything is an expensive way to protect possessions and lifestyle that, really,
would not seem so very important to us if the advertisers and sales staff were
not so persuasive!
The excerpts from
the Psalms at the start of this weekend’s Reflections are about trust. We
should trust in God but we have also to be wise. We should lock the doors and
windows of our homes when we go out, we should drive carefully on the correct side of
the road and follow other conventions of the societies in which we live. Doing these things do not detract from our trust in God. So, some insurance is necessary
and some sensible. But choose it wisely.
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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