Types of Insurance

Travel insurance
What you need to think about before you take out a travel insurance policy.

Buildings insurance
What buildings insurance usually covers how to choose a policy and how to make a claim.

Illness insurance
Types of illness insurance available, some of the benefits they provide and what you need to think about before taking out one of these types of policy.

Critical illness insurance
Information on critical illness insurance, what it covers, factors to consider before taking out critical illness insurance and how to buy an insurance policy.

Household contents insurance
What household contents insurance normally covers how to choose a policy and how to make a claim?

Vehicle insurance
Making a claim if you’re in an accident. Vehicle insurance if the accident wasn't your fault. Making a claim if your car or its contents are stolen. When you don’t need vehicle insurance

Income protection insurance
Information on income protection insurance, factors to consider before taking out income protection insurance and how to work out the level of cover you need

Payment protection insurance
Information on payment protection insurance (PPI) to cover loan or mortgage repayments including factors to consider before taking out a PPI policy and making a complaint about PPI.

A Remittance Advice

A remittance advice is a letter sent by a customer to a supplier, to inform the supplier that their invoice has been paid. If the customer is paying by cheque, the remittance advice often accompanies the cheque. The advice may consist of a literal letter (e.g., "Gentlemen: Your shipment of the 10th inst was received in good order; accompanying is our remittance of $52.47 per invoice No 83046") or of a voucher attached to the side or top of the cheque.

Remittance advices are not mandatory; however they are seen as a courtesy because they help the accounts-receivable department to match invoices with payments. The remittance advice should therefore specify the invoice number for which payment is tendered.

In countries where cheques are still used, most companies' invoices are designed so that customers return a portion of the invoice, called a remittance advice, with their payment. In countries where wire transfer is the predominant payment method, invoices are commonly accompanied by standardized bank transfer order forms (like acceptgiros (Netherlands) and Überweisungen (German)) which include a field into which the invoice or client number can be encoded, usually in a computer-readable way. The payer fills in his account details and hands the form to a clerk at, or mails it to, his bank, which will then transfer the money.

The employee who opens the incoming mail should initially compare the amount of cash received with the amount shown on the remittance advice. If the customer does not return a remittance advice, an employee prepares one. Like the cash register tape, the remittance advice serves as a record of cash initially received.

Modern systems will often scan a paper remittance advice into a computer system where data entry will be performed. Modern remittance advices can include dozens, or hundreds of invoice numbers, and other information.

RAs can be very complicated, especially in specialized fields like medical insurance payments. For example, there is a 188 page document entitled Understanding the Remittance Advice for the Medicare health insurance program