Personal Accident/Injury Insurance - anyone have it, used it? Why and when?

[C_Claycomb]

I am looking for some advice, and to hear any personal experiences folk have had.

Many years ago, when I first started getting interested in wood working and knife making, my parents took out a Personal Accident Insurance policy for me (about £100 per year). The sort of thing that would pay out if I chopped off my hand or had an eye taken out.
Example:

https://www.aviva.co.uk/library/pdfs/personal-accident/fpap/fpap-cover-policy.pdf

I took over the policy and just kept paying for quite a while, until I found that I could get a cheaper deal through my work's benefits package. Having stopped working for that company I find myself wondering whether I should start up a new policy again. My parents are quite keen for me to, but I am wondering whether it is worth it. I am a hobby maker (pillar drills, bandsaw, belt grinder, hand held power tools), and very occasionally use a MS181 14" chainsaw for turning small trees to fire wood.

While I can well see that accidents could happen, the policy I had would have only paid on (mostly) "Total loss of xxxx" and I can't help but think this could be a bit of an insurance scam, like the extended warranties on electrical goods; costs a lot, very low odds of requiring a claim, even lower odds of meeting the requirements to get a pay out.

What do folk here think? I know there are a lot of people who are self employed and a lot who use tools far more frequently than I do.

Cheers
Chris

 

[Allison McKenzie]

Don't chop your fingers off Chris!

 

[Toddy]

We know of knife makers whom we really, really hope had good insurance.
Thing is though, that insurance only works if you see it from the wider picture. Everyone pays but very few need it.
It's the only way it can work.

If you earn enough to pay a decent premium, it's often more worthwhile investing the money. It means that you personally need to engage with sussing out a decent investment though.

Insurance companies make enough profit to pay all the staff wages, bonus' and the shareholder's dividends.

Many don't have life insurance, many have a paid for funeral plan, and/or money in the bank/investments, but we are well aware that many people cannot afford that risk, so the best advice for them is to have insurance.

It's basically up to yourself which you choose.

It's a bit like the national lottery.

Premium bonds though, you'll get your initial investment sum back.
Think about how many years the insurance policy you had ran, and work out how much money you might have had, plus any potential winnings (and folks do win, Himself and sons regularly get cheques for £50 and £100 ).
When interest returns are low, it's often a better return than on savings, etc.,

That said, £100 a year is buttons really.

 

[Broch]

It is included in my household insurance for my own injuries and third party liability but I will need to take out additional insurance for anybody that works in the wood with me even if they are volunteers. I don't know if that is unique to NFU insurance but it would be worth carefully checking.