Did you know that if you’re a member of certain trade unions or other not-for profit organisations, you may be able to qualify for cheaper insurance?
Now lots of organisations have affiliations with other organisations these days in the wider world of commerce which ostensibly offer cheaper deals as the collective bargaining power of many is greater than that of the individual, of course. And the key for the savvy shopper is to discern which of these are genuine and which aren’t.
In other words, it always pays you to shop around and, in the case of insurance, to get as many alternative quotations as you can bear to after you’ve inputted all your details into the various online quote systems – or spent hours chatting on the phone to some youth in the UK or perhaps India!
We all know this is about as much fun as root canal work, but it’s necessary and you have to go through the protracted process to get the best possible insurance deal; it’s just the way things are these days.
But if you qualify for cheap trade union insurance, this may well be a good short cut. That’s because the deals offered to union members are genuine as they’re from mutual societies. They’re within the same founding spirit as the trade union movement; collective bargaining power for the good of the community. And it’s not for profit – so the mutualsocieties’ insurance proceeds (not “profits”) are ploughed back into the collective pool for the mutual benefit of all members.
Members of Unison, for example, the UK’s largest public sector trade union which has over 1.3 million members today, all qualify for mutual insurance provision by UIA Insurance – and as part of the deal, UIA must encourage trade union membership for its staff and support the UNISON union’s branches and national campaigns. So for those of us with a moral conscience and looking to save money – it’s well worth asking for a quotation if you qualify.
