I have been in the industry for 8 years and it blows my mind that a customers choose to make very serious baseless assumptions on how their policy works then they throw a fit over it when it doesn’t go their way. They blame the adjuster and the agent but never themselves.
Why do people choose not to educate themselves on their insurance policy?
byu/Poeticq60 inInsurance
Posted by Poeticq60
18 Comments
It is dry/boring and they feel it is difficult to understand. In other aspects of one’s life, it would be easy to overlook something that anyone in that line of work would recommend paying more attention to.
It’s easier to assume you know than to actually educate yourself.
I will say that I am truly impressed and relieved when someone actually listens to what I tell them, is open to be educated, and takes my advice. Unfortunately, those people are few and far between.
I would say it’s easier to understand when you are incentivized by it being your actual job and getting payed to learn. But then again here we are all on Reddit, so maybe you just have to be a masochist.
Because policies are written to be interpreted by lawyers not normal people…..
because people are told by everyone they need it, never use it till something bad happens and then get mad when it doesnt work like they think or they dont get their way
Laziness
Because people fly by the seat of their pants and go to great lengths to find people that affirm their beliefs regardless of validity.
How many people ask for ‘Full Coverage’ and then choose liability only with State Minimum limits.
“what do you mean I dknt have Collison on my financed car, I told them six years ago when I started the policy to put it on” sir you’ve had 11 renewals, we send you the docs every time, we provide technology for you to see the coverages you have, this is a you problem jot a me problem, claim denied have a good day.
I’m older than the internet and I swear the more info you present to people the dumber and lazier they get and expect someone to tell them everything rather than take a few minutes to read things for themselves
Personal opinion: Too many people are used to having information spoonfed to them that they don’t know how to figure something out for themselves.
An example: I had a friend who bought what he was assured was “full coverage” insurance for his motorcycle. He then wrecked, and discovered he had nothing except the state minimum required coverage, so his medical bills were all his responsibility. He was pissed that he was “lied to.” It didn’t occur to him to ask what “full coverage” meant.
As an aside, this is why Trump can get away with saying people in Ohio are eating cats and Harris can get away with saying Project 2025 is Trump’s policy. People just don’t know how to educate themselves.
I ask non glibly – did you have this same opinion 9 years ago?
You may be an exception and say yes. But it’s really not wild to me. It’s inconvenient for me as an insurance professional, sure, that my customers aren’t truly don’t have a great understanding of how their policy works. But it’s certainly not a surprise to me.
Amazes me how Geico and others allow people to get quotes and bind online when they may not know what they are buying.
Everybody assumes they know how insurance works, so they don’t have to read the contract or educate themselves.
They’re really shocked when they find out insurance isn’t like the cable company. You can’t get a discount by threatening to leave, a supervisor isn’t going to make coverage exist, we don’t work for them, “fight for them” doesn’t mean denying all claims, etc.
Because I say you need the full coverage. And when they gonna wreck, they say I gots that full coverage. And pricing.
My agent pays a 3rd party company to make a call to every insured every year to set up time to review your policy. Honestly the reason he does it is to cover his butt if a claim happens he can say we reached out to review and you declined
How much specialized training do insurance agents, adjusters, etc go through? There are people lucky to read at a third grade level… many that can’t read at all. Do you really expect the average person to have a true understanding?
lol how many people are even capable of even understanding the ins and outs of the entire policy? Its standardized forms written in dry language and thrown together. Personal auto policies aren’t horrible but who is an insured and what’s a covered auto aren’t always straightforward; homeowners are like only 50 pages but I don’t think they’re entirely intuitive and dif insurers lay them out differently; and for a small biz owner a 300-page CGL policy is a big ask.
The insuring agreement alone has a number of terms, both defined and not, that may need to be laid over the facts of a loss. People aren’t going to get all this, to the benefit of the insurer.