This is my last day of leave before I head back to work tomorrow. I know you are wondering why I’m going back to the office on a Fri and not take the whole week off. It’s because I usually prefer to have a day to catch up on all the work stuff that I have missed out on since being on leave.
I usually read through my emails and do the necessary preparation for the start of my full work week on next Mon. Rather than come in on the Mon itself and get overloaded with so many things to do. I started practising this since taking time off from work after my wife had the baby and find that it gives me peace of mind during the weekend since I know what to expect on Mon.
Anyway, this post is going to be about a topic that is important but not a favourite of mine – Insurance. The weakest link in our personal finances. I finally reinstated my health insurance policy after filling up the relevant forms and paying the outstanding cash premium. It’s the 1st year the insurance premium is more than what can be deducted from my CPF Medisave Account.
And it coincided with my recent change in residential address. So I didn’t get the outstanding cash premium payment notice and my health insurance policy lapsed. A stupid mistake that could have been costly if I had not picked up on it when reviewing my personal finances. Errors are possible no matter how careful you are.
A good thing that came out of this is that I had to fill up a GIRO application form as part of the reinstatement of my health insurance policy. This means that future outstanding cash premiums will be automatically deducted from my bank account via GIRO. One less thing for me to monitor and forget about.
As for my corporate maternity insurance claim, I have been locked in a battle with my company and the insurer on it. There is an issue with my eligibility for the corporate maternity insurance claim that remains unresolved. It’s currently being reviewed and could go either way.
I’m annoyed because I clarified on this eligibility issue upfront and was told it’s okay. That’s why I went ahead with the process of submitting all the relevant claim documents. Which was painful because it meant getting doctors’ forms and signoffs. I’m hoping the effort has not gone to waste but there’s not much I can do at this point.
This once again puts me in a position of disliking handling insurance matters. Dealing with insurers and agents is the worst thing ever. It’s easy signing up for insurance policies but they make it tough for you to claim against them. By making you jump through as many hoops as possible in the hope that you will either fail to get all the relevant claim documents or give up along the way.
It’s the same problem when dealing with banks as well. Which is why I’m all for increased competition and higher standards of code of conduct for insurance companies and banks. Anything to regulate such heavily profit-driven firms better. We must continue to closely align their interests with the customers and consumers so they won’t take advantage when they can.