You always get something out – at least, that’s what they promise and that’s how they sell it to you. I’m talking about the “out-bonuses” that direct insurers promise to pay you 5 years from now. Based on my quote with OutsuranceLife, they “promised” to pay me 10% of the premiums paid over 5 years as long as I have not claimed on the policy. (What’s the point of the insurance if you’re not supposed to claim on it then...

Following on from my post last week about direct insurers being so much more expensive than normal insurance companies (even at full commission) I thought I would get a few quotes from them. I asked for R1million life cover for a 44 year old male, non-smoker, top income and health bracket and this is what we got back. We also tried to compare apples with apples and so the premium escalation structure is a simialr as we could get...

There seems to be a big drive by the direct life insurers at the moment with vast amounts of money being spent on some very expensive prime time television advertising…Outsurance Life is the latest culprit. The direct insurers may differ slightly but their big claims are all the same…”cut out the middleman”, “no broker, no commission”. The (not so hidden) message is that using a broker is expensive and therefore...

Just saw the 1Lifedirect TV advert again this evening and it really gets my goat – their advert is so incrediblymisleading. It should come with a huge health warning similar to that on cigarette packets. They were offering a 44 year old male R1million life cover for just under R500 (if i remember correctly) and at the same time boasting about how cutting out the broker would save up to 22%. While the 2nd part of the claim may be true,...

I recently received a marketing offer from 1lifedirect to take out some life cover directly through them, thereby cutting out the paperwork, expensive medicals, the broker and therefore the commission. All of this, they promised, would save me up to 22% on the premiums. Having seen their rather funny TV adverts and being the curious sort I decided to give them a call to see if things were as good as they promised. After all, their flyer...