Union Insurance Savers

If you’re a member of a not-for-profit organisation or a trade union, you may well be able to save money on all kinds of different insurance needs. Some members of these organisations are well aware of these potential savings, but others simply aren’t. And for many of us, dealing with a mutual insurance company feels nicer, morally speaking, than does dealing with an entirely private insurance provider.

With a mutual insurance company, that company is owned entirely by its own policyholders. This means that any profits generated are either given back to policyholders as a dividend, or more commonly, are reinvested into the company for the “mutual” benefit of all policy holders.

It’s this ethos that makes them such a natural fit with trade unions and it’s the reason that certain trade unions sign up with mutual insurers – provided certain conditions are met, such as the encouragement of trade union membership by the mutual insurer etc.

This is the case, for example, with the UK’s largest public sector union, Unison. Unison insurance is provided by a mutual insurer for the benefit of all Unison members.

The same is true of Unite Insurance– which is available to all members of Unite, the largest single union in the UK today, with over 1.5 million members in all types of workplace.

Incidentally, the whole idea of the provision of mutual insurance started at around the same time as that of the earliest trade unions – in England during the late 17th century. They were designed to cover losses due mainly to fire.It wasn’t long before the idea spread across the Atlantic to the USA when Benjamin Franklin set up the Philadelphia Contributionship for the “Insurance of Houses From Loss by Fire” in 1752. Today, such companies are found in virtually every country in the world.

But as savvy shoppers, we’re more interested in the deals for things like car and house insurance, life and health. So if you’re a union member – don’t miss the trick of giving your union’s preferred mutual provider a try.