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.

Unfortunately, the unexpected is inevitable and often causes damage; this means that comprehensive insurance is necessary to guard yourself and your family against the financial strain of having to deal with the damages.

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.

When you have an accident of this severity, it is virtually inevitable that you will sustain physical injury of some description and will probably have to be hospitalised. Hospitalisation can be very expensive, depending on how long you have to stay and the severity of your injuries. This is where accidental disability cover and health insurance or a medical aid would come into play. The medical aid will cover most of your hospital expenses whilst the accidental disability cover will pay out an amount each month that you are incapacitated.

It is worthwhile to note that health insurance in South Africa and a medical aid are not the same thing and you should do some research before deciding what to buy. There are also varying levels of medical aid available, some only cover hospital expenses whilst others will cover out of hospital expenses 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.

Insurances that are generally considered vital are life insurance, auto insurance, household insurance and health insurance. The eventualities that other insurances provide for can usually be taken care of by setting up a trust fund or something similar to save money for them.

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