What is an insurance premium?

Rija24 · September 27, 2020, 2:01pm

What is an insurance premium?

In order to understand insurance, the foremost thing that you need to know about is what the insurance premium is. Insurance premium is the sum amount of the money that is agreed to be paid by the insured to the insurer. This is a policy that is adopted by both the parties while choosing an insurance policy. It is like a contract that you sign with the insurance company, in which you have to pay a small amount of money so that in the future, the insurance company may help you to overcome any loss.

These premiums depend upon the type of insurance that you are choosing for yourself. It can be a life insurance, car insurance, medical insurance, gap insurance etc. In life insurance for example, the premium depends upon your age. If you are young, then you will have to pay a less amount of premium and vice versa. So basically the premium depends upon the following factors:

The coverage that you are choosing such as whole life insurance coverage or term life insurance coverage.
For some policies, the age is also an important factor.
The claims that have been agreed upon in the past and you want to renew the policy on the basis of it.
The state, country or area in which you live. This plays the biggest role as the amount of premium may vary from state to state.
An agreement that is peaceful and the behavior of both parties are appropriate.

What are the different types of insurance premiums?

It depends upon you that what is the type that you want to choose keeping in view the situation that you want it for the whole life or for a specific period. A premium has 2 types:

1. Level Premium:

This is also known as the fixed premium. In this premium policy, the policyholder has to pay a fixed amount of money till the policy expires. No changes can be made in the amount of the premium.

2. Flexible Premium:

As it is evident from the name, this premium policy is opposite to the fixed one. It allows you to make changes in the policy. For example, at a certain period you might not be able to pay the amount that you paid initially or you want to increase the amount if your need increases and you want to add more factors in the coverage. So flexible premium can help you to make as many changes as you want to.

What are the different modes of insurance premium?

The mode of the insurance premium is the method you adopt for paying it. As you have to pay a sum amount of money to the company, it’s in your hands to decide that how you want to pay it for example, either monthly or yearly. This will determine the frequency of your payments. Thus, there are four major modes; annual, semi-annual, quarterly or monthly.

I. Monthly premiums:

It will be easy to pay these monthly premiums as you can set your budget monthly wise and keep separate money for it. However the disadvantage is that it will cost you more as you have to pay each month.

II. Quarterly premiums:

As you know that quarter means 4, so that means that you have to pay the premium 4 times in the whole year, which will cause you less to pay.

III. Semi- Annual premiums:

This allows you to pay premiums 2 times in a year. As the cost is paid only two times, so definitely you have to pay a lot of money together. So if you cannot do it, you can choose other options and if you want some time to collect the money then it is good for you.

IV. Annual premiums:

Instead of paying the amount in installments, you can pay the amount once in a year through this policy. This allows you to be carefree for the whole year but at the same time requires you to pay a heavy amount of money in a single go. So it’s better to choose the policy that will be easily payable for you.

How to calculate the insurance premium?

As far as the amount of the insurance policy is concerned, nothing can be said as fixed because it totally depends upon the factors mentioned above and on you that which policy you are adopting. So, here is a list of factors that the companies consider while setting a premium:

Factors	Description
1). Age	The age is taken into account as a major factor for an insurance premium because this tells about the age of the policy too. For example in a medical insurance, an old person will have a high premium as it is a surety that he will need to pay more visits than a younger one. So the companies keep their profits. Similarly, in car insurance an experienced driver will have a less premium as he will drive the car expertly and doesn’t need it much as compared to a new driver.
2). Type of coverage	The type of coverage is selected by you. It depends upon you that what is the time period and what are the factors you want to include. If the coverage is high the amount will be high automatically. For example, in a homeowner’s insurance, if you adopt the basic damages then the premium will be low. But if you include damages such as the damages by natural disasters, then the premium will be increased.
3).Your Personal Information	The insurance company also considers your life history and background information such as gender, previously adopted policies, marital status, hobbies etc. For example in a medical insurance if you have a history of a smoking and other harmful hobbies then your premium will be decided accordingly. .

A list of countries and their Gross Insurance:

Gross Insurance premium is the total amount of insurance premiums reported in the countries. So here is list of 55 countries from 1983-2019.

No.	State	Average
1	United States	2,772,049.95
2	United Kingdom	457,685.41
3	Japan	401,004.04
4	France	339,945.79
5	Germany	334,434.27
6	South Korea	199,783.73
7	Italy	162,942.94
8	India	100,841.01
9	Netherlands	87,643.54
10	Canada	86,942.00
11	Spain	78,248.20
12	Australia	71,799.81
13	Switzerland	70,423.46
14	Brazil	58,574.88
15	Ireland	49,754.72
16	Sweden	49,465.49
17	South Africa	42,152.83
18	Singapore	39,397.48
19	Denmark	38,297.43
20	Belgium	32,672.81
21	Mexico	28,605.08
22	Luxembourg	24,925.50
23	Russia	23,095.25
24	Norway	21,897.65
25	Austria	21,107.31
26	Argentina	20,285.25
27	Indonesia	19,214.28
28	■■■■■■	18,825.55
29	Poland	17,123.89
30	Malaysia	16,667.78
31	Portugal	14,205.88
32	Chile	14,191.75
33	Turkey	12,307.30
34	Colombia	9,465.59
35	Czech Republic	6,910.16
36	Finland	6,415.20
37	New Zealand	5,371.53
38	Slovakia	5,046.33
39	Greece	4,289.67
40	Peru	3,901.67
41	Hungary	3,690.66
42	Slovenia	2,784.54
43	Uruguay	1,605.09
44	Costa Rica	1,375.26
45	Sri Lanka	1,172.52
46	Estonia	1,090.38
47	Lithuania	1,021.40
48	Guatemala	986.91
49	Latvia	863.70
50	El Salvador	666.62
51	Iceland	657.00
52	Honduras	630.55
53	Bolivia	549.36
54	Paraguay	413.77
55	Nicaragua	228.15

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: What is the difference between a premium and a rate?

A rate is the smallest unit for measuring insurance such as the price per unit of exposure. The premium is found out by multiplying rate by units of exposure for protection.
Premium = Rate x Number of exposure units

Q: What is premium refund?

This is a procedure in which you are allowed to have the refunds for your policy. This refund is related to the payment of the amount that has to be paid by the company as well as the refund of all the premiums that you have paid earlier. It is provided for life insurance as well all the other insurances such as the medical insurance.

Q: What happens if you switch the insurance companies?

It will not cause you any damage or penalty if you switch to any other insurance company. Many companies allow you to do it for free and don’t charge anything on it. So in most cases you will not be charged any cancellation fee.

What is an insurance premium?