Waiting Period: Increasing the waiting period on your insurance cover is one way to lower the cost of your insurance. The waiting period is the amount of time you must wait after fulfilling the conditions of your insurance before being eligible for the claim payment. For instance, with a 6 week wait on an income protection policy, you will have to wait 6 weeks after stopping work to become eligible for your claim payments. The higher your waiting period, the more discounts you will get on your insurance premiums. Therefore, if you have sufficient savings to cover the wait period if something unfortunate does happen, a higher waiting period can be a great idea for savings in the long term.
Excess: For certain types of insurance like fire and general or medical insurance, you can select a higher excess to achieve the same savings. An excess is the amount of costs or damages that you must cover on your own before your insurance kicks in to cover the rest. A $1000 medical insurance excess means that you will pay the first $1,000 of any medical procedure you need and your insurance will cover the rest. We recommend taking a balanced approach between saving on premiums and having an affordable excess if something happens, but if you're taking a long term approach, increasing your excess can be a good move.
