Personal Finance, Loans & Insurance

More or less every site offers advice on saving money when buying insurance. One of the standard tips is bundling auto and homeowners policies with the same insurance company. If you check around the companies, the discount varies between 10 and 15% and, if you agree an increase in the deductible from $500 to $1,000 this increases the discount to 25%. At this point, many people are sold on the idea. A saving of up to 25% looks like a good deal and frees up cash in the family budgets for a whole range of other basic necessities. So is it worth it? The first question is whether you are getting the standard auto and homeowners policies. If you are starting off in the same position as the stand-alone policyholders, you have more protection. But there can be problems with limitations and exclusions if the company produces a single policy to cover both home and vehicle. You must read such a policy very carefully before deciding whether it represents good value for money. Secondly, what are the rules about overlaps between the two policies? Suppose, for example, you have a traffic accident while carrying your laptop and other property potentially covered under your homeowners policy. Is all the damage and loss covered under the auto policy or are you expected to file separate claims for damage to the vehicle and loss of household contents? This could make a big difference if there are separate deductibles on the auto and homeowners policies.

So, assuming you do bundle, how should you protect your interests? First off, never assume it’s enough just to buy the policies. When it comes to the homeowners policy, always make a full inventory of the contents of your home. You can do this by making a simple list and taking a few pictures using your cellphone. But it’s better to take a more professional approach. Go room by room, make a full inventory and record the purchase price and current value. Where you have the original receipts and invoices, put everything together in a file. If you want to store information outside the home, you can use a site like http://www.knowyourstuff.org/ which offers a free and secure service. Why bother? Because it gives you a realistic basis on which to decide how much contents insurance to buy, identifying any individual more expensive items that should be separately insured. More importantly, it saves time and effort should you have to make a claim. The faster you can make a comprehensive claim, the quicker you can rebuild your home and restock it with the “stuff” you have lost. Hopefully, your homeowners insurance pays for alternative accommodation while repairs are underway. Finally, never do any major repairs before the loss adjuster arrives. You bought all this coverage and you want the adjuster to see the full extent of the loss. That said, you should take emergency action to prevent the condition of the property getting worse like sealing broken windows and securing doors. This is the time to use your video camera to record the damage before and during emergency repair.

Homeowners insurance is always a balancing act between buying coverage against the most obvious perils and not making small claims to keep your record clear for the sad day when a big claim comes along. If you have bundled the policies, it’s more likely you will have to make a claim and this can produce a premium hike on both policies.

The lawmakers in Colorado are debating a change in the law to correct the gender discrimination currently requiring women to pay more than men to insure their health. The facts are uncompromising. In some 90% of all private health plans, women have premium rates 60% higher than men. This is so even though the statistics show women enjoy better health than men and make fewer claims. This is so even though the men used for comparative purposes are significantly older. And, if you feel you need any more confirmation of the basic unfairness, even men who smoke pay less than female non-smokers. As one of the women promoting the bill commented: insurers often refuse coverage because the applicant has a pre-existing condition. The way the premiums are loaded, it seems being a woman is a pre-existing condition.

The people who are paid to speak on behalf of the insurance industry usually fall back on the tried and trusted defense that women have medical needs specific to their gender. The most often quoted example is maternity and prenatal care. Ignoring the fact that men also have problems specific to their gender, such as erectile dysfunction, women are still quoted premiums 60% higher on policies excluding reproductive health needs. In other words, the discrimination persists even though the scope of the medical coverage is identical. So what’s going on? The answer, in this instance, is slightly complicated. If we start with auto insurance, it’s common knowledge that young men are statistically more likely than any other group of drivers to crash into another vehicle or some stationary object. Thus, where the policy discriminates between different groups of drivers, young men pay significantly more than women who tend to drive more safely. Not all auto policies do discriminate. By spreading the risk among a big group of drivers, the good subsidize the bad. But, most auto insurers do set different premium rates for different groups of drivers distinguished by gender and age. In medicine, it’s a fact that men fall ill and die, whereas women tend to recover from illnesses. This is one of the reasons why women have a longer life expectancy than men. But it also explains why women cost more. They survive for longer with chronic problems requiring continuing treatment. Thus, if the premium is a reflection of the likely costs of treatment over a person’s lifetime, it may appear slightly more reasonable to charge women higher premiums. Except this ignores the general rule that private health insurance stops at 65 as Medicare kicks in. The major long-term costs tend to occur after 65.

Colorado looks as though it may join the one or two other states with equality provisions. There’s no evidence from these other states that men now have to pay significantly more. For now, insurers simply make less profit. As a woman, it’s particularly important to research exactly what the different companies offer. Because of this, searching for cheap health insurance is a greater challenge. Always refer to the websites of the companies making the best quotes to see if there are additional discounts available or special policies for women. If there seems to be no cheap health insurance available, talk directly with the insurers to see whether the difference between the male and female premium rates can be reduced. Not everyone is lucky enough to live in a state committed to equality. It is for you to protect yourself as best as possible.

There are many different types of policy you can buy when insuring your vehicle. Because of the rapidly rising cost of the premiums, many more people are driving either underinsured or uninsured. It’s therefore wise to add the relevant coverage. In most clauses you can expect to see a promise to pay the damages for bodily injury or property damage which a covered person can recover from whoever owns or drives an uninsured motor vehicle. For these purposes, a “covered person” is you, a family member or anyone else inside your vehicle when the accident occurs. If you have the right to sue the owner or driver of the other vehicle, your own insurance company will pay the damages you recover (assuming that owner or driver does not have the money to pay you in full). The key consideration is the limit on the amount you can recover. All insurers put a limit on liability. This is usually a maximum and a provision to prevent you from being paid twice. So, if there’s another possible claim you could make under a workers’ compensation law or something similar, you must use that remedy first and only claim the additional amount from your own insurer.

Many people think the maximum limits on uninsured and other policies are inadequate and so buy an umbrella policy. As in the case of rain, this tops up their personal coverage. This is a two-way street. It can be a financial life-saver if your policy limits will force you to use your own savings to pay some of your medical expenses. Equally, it will protect your assets if a court orders you to pay damages exceeding your conventional policy limits to a person you injured.

This brings us to a new case in Texas where Sandra Gervais Laine sued Farmers. The facts are simple. Ms Laine was driving her mother home when a drunken, uninsured driver crashed into her car and killed her mother. She had an uninsured policy limited to $250,000 and an umbrella policy adding $1 million. A jury awarded Ms Laine damages of $175,000 for the wrongful death claim and exemplary damages of $1.5 million for causing the death of her mother while drunk. You might think this looks good for Farmers making a total payment of $1.25 million. Except that, under Texas law, there’s a fixed legal principle. An insured cannot recover from his or her own insurance company the exemplary damages awarded against another driver. So the most Ms Laine could recover was $175,000. The moral of this case is a hard truth. Everyone is assumed to know the law. So even if you read and understand the terms in the different policies offered through the auto insurance quotes, you can still be caught out because you do not know the law of your own state.

For most people, it’s not economic to take legal advice on all the different policies before deciding which to buy. Even if you could afford it, just how much of the law of insurance are you supposed to learn before you can make an informed decision? This leaves you with little real choice. When you receive the auto insurance quotes, read as much as you can. If there’s anything looking important you do not understand, ask the insurance company what it means. Before you sign up, the companies are always helpful. Get as much as you can clear before you sign. It’s usually too late to ask when a claim is being made.

Going online with a specialist car finance website is the easiest way and ultimately the cheapest way to get the best car finance deal. Car finance is a confusing matter – you have to understand the difference between variable rates of interest and fixed rates of interest along with being able to calculate the APR when it comes to comparing them.

While the specialist can help you when it comes to getting the best car finance deal there are some factors that you have to consider yourself. One of the most important is that you make sure how much you can afford to pay for your car finance well before you go looking for quotes. It is essential to work out how much you want to borrow in total but also how much you can afford to pay each month. Factors that have to be taken into account when deciding this is the interest – if you can afford to repay more each month then you will be able to take the loan out for fewer years and so reduce the amount of interest that you pay in total. If you have the keep the monthly repayments down then this could mean taking the loan over a longer period and so in the long run you will pay more.

Rates of interest do vary greatly from lender to lender as do the bonuses and special offers that you can get on your car finance deal and this is one of the biggest reasons why you should allow a specialist to do the work for you. A specialist will know where to go to find the cheapest quotes and will wade through the technical jargon so that you have a loan which saves you money and where you understand the terms and conditions.

The easiest and cheapest way to buy your life insurance is to buy online, not only do you get access to hundreds of online insurance companies, but you can also check them out and get quotes online to compare for the best deal. However in order to be able to compare quotes you have to know what you are looking for. Here is some help and advice on how to compare life insurance.

The two most popular levels of life insurance are fixed term life cover and mortgage life cover.

Fixed term life cover will pay out a lump sum over a fixed period of time should you die within the period of time that is specified as the term of the policy, the amount of the cover remains fixed throughout the term of the policy.

Mortgage life insurance is a decreasing policy which decreases each year in line with the amount of your mortgage balance and can be referred to as mortgage protection. As long as the initial sum and the term of the mortgage are the same at the outset then should the insured person die there will be enough to cover the mortgage as long as the rate of interest hasn’t risen above 12% per annum.

Whichever form of protection you choose to take; there are some factors which remain the same for both policies.

The minimum that you can be assured for if you are under the age of 40 is £30,000 and the minimum if you are over the age of 40 is £20,000. Usually the maximum amount you can be assured for is £2 million.

Both of the policies can be taken out as single life or joint life and there is no surrender terms of the policy, which means that there is no payout if you don’t die.

There are several options available to maximize the chance for children to be included in a health plan. Employer-provided plans routinely offer cover for family members and adding children to private plans is relatively inexpensive. For those families with low incomes who cannot afford cover, there are federal and state funds available to pay for basic cover. But all these options disappear when the child becomes an adult. This is the magic time everyone used to look forward to. Finally, the law recognizes people are old enough to take responsibility for their own actions and removes the built-in protections. Except, of course, these new adults are either still in full-time education or joining the group with the highest unemployment rate in the country.

For young adults going through college and university, this is the time when debts are really starting to mount up. Tuition fees and living costs take years to pay off. Adding in the cost of a health plan is often the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Even though all the better colleges and universities offer good value group insurance, this is one additional cost too many. Younger people take the rational view. They have good heath and statistics on their side – the statistics show the vast majority of people enjoy good health during the prime of their lives. The main risks come from accidental injuries with many hit with big bills following traffic accidents. So most young people put off the decision on buying into a health plan and hope their parents will solve the problem for them.

This calculation may be about to change. The insurance industry applies a simple formula to set premium rates. It guesses how much it is going to pay out over the next twelve months, adds its operating costs and a profit margin, and then divides this total among all the people holding a policy, i.e. everyone in the group pays a more-or-less equal share. Because millions of young adults opt out, the cost of medical treatment falls unevenly on older people and those with existing medical conditions. The premium rates for everyone would fall if the cost of the nation’s medical bills was divided between all adults. That’s why the legislation working its way through the House and Congress includes proposals to make holding an insurance policy mandatory or to fine people who do not have a health plan. This is a form of single payer program because it matches the idea that all the employed should contribute a percentage of their earnings toward universal health coverage.

Health insurance is the big political hot potato right now. But, if medical costs are to be controlled and everyone is to pay only a fair amount for insurance, some changes will have to be made. Mandating insurance for the young is not a bad way of paying for universal coverage. As it stands, health insurance companies routinely refuse cover for people with pre-existing health problems. Allowing a redistribution of the additional costs of treating these people among the fit and healthy is the fair option. Whether the politicians will think so is another matter. The Republicans believe this infringes basic liberty. The Democrats are not united. It’s going to be interesting to see who wins the argument.

Have you felt the earth moving on 26th February, 2008? If you felt the earthquake that night a year ago, or not, since then the UK home insurers have received tons of claims related to the damages brought by it.

In contrast to the floods of last summer, when lots of homeowners didn’t get their coverage for the damage, leading providers state that most home insurances will be covered for the earthquake damages. In case you have also suffered the property damages, the Association of British Insurers provides several advices to assist you on getting your coverage fast without the noise.

Contact your insurance provider as fast as you can

The sooner you contact your provider, the faster they may get an appraiser to value the damage. As well, contact your home insurance company to learn the exact procedures that must be followed. Some companies might have set up a process to proceed with the payouts faster, due to the large amount of claims related to the recent earthquake.

Immediately check if your property has damages that threatens your safety

The earthquake’s strength could have caused damage, which makes your home not safe. One of the first things you have to do is check your property to value its safety. Some of the most prone places are roofs, subsistence, tiles, chimneys, and walls.

ontact appropriate services to check your property, in case you think the pipes or wiring are damaged

Fallen masonry, or cracks in walls frequently point to the structural damages of your property. In such case the damage might bring more troubles in the future. In case you think that water, gas, or electric lines into your house could have been damaged, contact appropriate services instantly.

Go to the alternative lodgings, if you have any at your home

Check your home insurance policy for certain advantages, which will make life simpler, in case you must evacuate your property. If the property is damaged by an earthquake and becomes unsafe, your cheap home insurance might cover the expense of alternative lodgings till it’s fixed and safe to live in. Certain policies might supply the necessities’ replacement coverage, if you can’t enter the property to use them.

Take pictures of the damages to support your claim and get your home insurance quotes

Photos might help your home insurance provider to value your damage faster. Sometimes, the insurer could value your claim without the help of an assessor, but that’s odd.

Don’t begin repairs till the insurer approves your claim

Be sure that you only hire valid workers and repair contractors. Don’t trust doorstop builders.

Do not destroy the evidences

Hold damaged possessions for appraisal and evidence of your loss. Wait till all work receipts are done to receive full home insurance quotes.

If by luck you’ve escaped the February’s earthquake damages, you should still remember certain things. The ABI assumes that every fourth UK homeowner doesn’t have a home insurance at all, and many of those, who do, are underinsured. Thus, you have a chance to review your home insurance quotes and policy and make certain you’re properly protected.

Did you make a clam on your insurance policy? If you did it because of the recent earthquake or not, please take several minutes to share your experience – write a home insurance review. It’s an awesome way to recompense good client service or express your discontent for all those who read, including your home insurance providers.

Georgia gives people lots of opportunities to save some cash. You can save on services quite easily. When it comes to saving on your car there is only one way to do it. Go online and get a good deal from the Internet. You will find it the best and truly the cheapest variant for yourself. Internet is the best place to research on all the companies there are in the state. You never know how many there are and what credit of trust they have with people. You can log onto the site of each company and read feedbacks to be 100% sure you get yourself into the right thing. There is a huge range of possibilities and at first you might get a little confused not knowing what to choose from. This is how people compare prices and offers and get the best one there is. Make a list of needs and try to match them with each company you have written out. Point out the criteria that will satisfy your preferences and benefit your car in the best possible way.

Georgia has a system that is called Tort presented in the state. According to this system there should always be somebody at fault responsible for the accident. At least one person has to pay all the expenses and cover the losses that occurred during an accident. All the damage and injury payments have to be made by the person that was found guilty for the accident. Of course, to know more about this Tort system you have to research on it and read lots of terms and conditions rules but the general information about the system is the following – the state requires a driver to be found to pay for the expenses among those who were involved in the accident. The solution is to get yourself the coverage called – motorist bodily injury coverage for the uninsured or underinsured people. The state doesn’t require getting this type of insurance but we advice you to get it as it is very precious in Georgia.

There is a world of possibilities, as one would say and it is definitely so. You are not limited in your choice. You are allowed to purchase the minimum state required package and go along with it. No one forces you to get anything expensive. You decide for yourself where to buy auto insurance in Georgia. But we would not recommend you the cheap version of auto insurance as everything else that is not included in it you will have to pay from your own pocket, so consider that for a minute.

Companies set different prices for their services. They also have different conditions so know this too. If for some reason something doesn’t satisfy you, don’t think you have to go on with the company, it is not a must. Of course, it would be better to think good before you make up your mind to avoid any unpleasant circumstances.

Georgia has a very few people uninsured. All the citizens of the state know the important of having car insurance in Georgia. They are willing to sacrifice something and get themselves insured even when the conditions and financial moments get tough. It can’t be a negative thing – on the contrary people finally learned to be responsible and caring. You need this especially much on the road.

Before a person decided to purchase a new vehicle, they need to check with their insurance company about gap insurance because it might already be included in the auto premium. If is not, this will be something that you can purchase for a decent cost.

There are some insurers that do not offer this type of insurance at all. If this is the case, you should try to find a company that offers gap insurance before you decide to purchase it through the dealer.

Gap insurance is the insurance that will pay for the difference between what you would owe on an automobile and what the insurance company is going to say it is worth. This insurance is a must for someone who may be considering purchasing a new vehicle since a new vehicle will depreciate in value as soon as it is moved from the dealer’s lot. You will appreciate this insurance if you are ever in an accident and still owe money on your car.

Usually gap insurance is built into a lease for any of the leased cars that a consumer may decide to use. Do not just assume that it is. Make sure that you are asking questions and finding out the information that you need to make sure that you are covered incase that you are ever involved in an accident. You have to make sure that you are protected.

The premiums are usually low for gap insurance. This is not going to be something that you are going to spend a lot of money on. For new purchases, it can be automatically added into your monthly car payment. This is hardly noticeable and it will allow you to have the protection that will make you feel secure each time you decide to drive your car.

Investments in oil & gas private placements, or direct participation projects should only be made by investors who understand, or learn how to implement a deliberate plan to minimize risk, while clearly understanding a likely, and reasonable risk/reward ratio…investors need to accept the over-all risk they must take to achieve the upside necessary to justify taking the risk in the first place.

Investing in oil & gas projects usually takes a check-list approach in my view. Investors should realize that almost all oil & gas development operations involve technical challenges. Deals take time to develop and come to fruition, actually, often up to two years before significant pay-back of capital is possible.

Oil & Gas investing is not for investors who don’t need the tax advantages, or who simply think they are going to get steady, and fixed rates of return each month immediately after they first start investing. The only exception that I know of is when you find an oil and gas investment which is nearly fully funded already, and is one which is beginning to achieve some level of success when you find it.

Spreading-out your capital in multiple well drilling programs with people who control, or operate their own deals makes more sense to me than trusting a promotional company who wants to test a new drilling location with your money.

Investing in the Stock market where you get liquidity with public stocks on the larger exchanges, and your principal is typically safer is a better place to start when considering oil & gas investing.