The Insurance Weblog

Don't Let Your Fears Sell You Insurance

WSJ's Terri Cullen explains why you should think twice before buying these four types of insurance: Cancer Insurance, Sports-Injury Insurance, Terrorism Insurance and Identity-Theft Insurance. Here is why.

Cancer Insurance

For a premium of $300-$600/year, the insurance company will make one-time payout of $2,000 to $5,000 upon diagnosis of cancer per occurrence. One should not consider it because it is far from adequate to provide good treatment of cancer -- devote the money for a better comprehensive medical plan.

Sports-Injury Insurance

Premium ranges from $8 to $150/year for comprehensive coverage. One should not purchase it unless health-care insurer excludes such injuries.

Terrorism Insurance

Homeowners generally do not need terrorism insurance as it is coverage in the homeowner insurance plan. Condo and co-op owners may need to check if the commericial insurance by the condo/co-op association needs the terrorism coverage.

Identity-Theft Insurance

TransUnion offers up to $25,000 coverage for $10.95/quarter. However, the coverage is only for expenses to clean the name -- it does not cover the actual loss when the identity is stolen. One probably does not need it because the process to clean the name can be done on one's own without much expenses, and credit card issuers usually cover most of the actual loss when someone else squanders your credit card.