Homeowners insurance policies have their limits.
Posted on | July 17, 2010 | Comments Off
Sometimes life just is not fair. You think you have done everything absolutely right and then circumstances show you everything is turning out wrong. So it is that you get to see the end of hope played out in court cases. You know it should never come to this but, when it comes to people’s lives, there are few real choices if you feel you want justice. You do your best to be reasonable. You offer to settle. But the other side just fights on. It all comes down to willpower. Whoever is strongest will be left standing.
We need to go back to a time before the recession. This was a time of great optimism. People were getting married and planning their families around the idea of buying a new home. The first home would be the perfect nest for their first child. Property values would continue to rise and, as the family grew, they would keep trading up and cashing in their positive housing equities. This one family found a new estate just starting to build. They signed a contract in which the builder said it would deliver a residence in “a perfect condition”. There was also a set of minimum warranties imposed through the New Home Warranty Act of 1986 in Louisiana. As a third string to their bow, there was a cheap home insurance policy. During a tropical storm, the roof leaked and the carpets were soaked. What the couple did not realize is that the water triggered the growth of a toxic mold behind the leaking walls. Their newborn baby’s health was permanently damaged by this mold and, during the resulting stresses and strains of medical treatment and disputes with the builders and the insurance company, their marriage collapsed.
In court, the three members of the family now claim for their losses. The parents claim for the loss of value in the property and the failed marriage. Their daughter claims for personal injuries. Midway through, the builder’s insurance company agrees to pay out on the loss in value of the house caused by the defective workmanship. In the end, the parent’s claim for failed marriage is dismissed because it was caused by the poor construction of their home and that claim was settled. The first moral to this story is that you can only make two claims when they are independent of each other. If one claims flows naturally from another, settling one means losing the other. But the daughter can claim because she was not a party to any of the contracts. Her remedy is in negligence for personal injuries. The builder and insurers are therefore looking at third party liability and that falls within the scope of the home insurance policy.
Unintentionally, the court has done the right thing. It has protected the interests of a baby whose life was wrecked by defective workmanship. It has approved the payment to the parents for the loss in value when the property became uninhabitable. But dismissed their claim because the marriage collapsed. These things happen and, unless in exceptional circumstances, they are not covered by homeowners insurance policies. The only problem is that, in arriving at this result, the parents are liable to pay the builder’s and the insurers’ costs. In effect, therefore, they get nothing out of all the stress of events and their legal consequences. Supposedly, they will be wiser for this experience.
Auto insurance and your age
Posted on | July 16, 2010 | Comments Off
There are many people out there who still don’t know how insurance providers calculate their rates for insuring their autos. It comes to the point when people ask their insurance agents why their neighbors have lower rates while driving the same car and getting insurance form the same provider? Unfortunately, it’s quite common for insurance industry workers to deal with cases like this, because lack of necessary knowledge makes the customers very suspicious and unfriendly.
To go straight with the question, there are different factors that will impact the rates you will be charged for insuring your auto. One of the most important factors is the age of the policyholder. They say that age doesn’t matter. Well, probably for many other things it really doesn’t matter, however when it comes to insuring your vehicle, age plays a very important role in the overall equation. Below you will find some explanations on why the policyholder’s age plays such an important role and in what way does it influence the final rates.
Fresh drivers behind the wheel
Insurance company statistics tell that younger drivers tend to take risk far more often when behind the wheel than those who have are older and have more experience in driving. The direct consequence of such tendencies is that teen drivers tend to get involved in serious accidents far more often than drivers from other age groups. That is why insurance companies charge young inexperienced drivers with higher rates. However, if the young driver maintains a good record and doesn’t file any claims for a specific period of time, the rates can be reduced significantly.
Gender
This may sound la bit sexist, however there’s pure statistical fact that women tend to be more attentive and careful while being behind the wheel than men. Women file far less claims when having auto insurance, that’s why they usually have cheap auto insurance as compared to their male peers. However, male drivers still have the possibility to prove that they are better drivers by maintaining a good clean driver’s record and not getting involved in any traffic accidents. This way you can opt for premium discounts that will diminish the difference in rates according to gender.
Safety measures
Auto insurance is closely related to safety and security of the vehicle. The safer is the car, the less likely its owner to file an insurance claim, which eventually leads to lower premiums as compared to riskier vehicles. Things like anti-theft devices, alarms, airbags, additional seat belts, anti-lock brakes and other features that are used for increasing the safety and security of your vehicle will substantially reduce your rates regardless of your age. However, before installing such gadgets into your vehicle, make sure that your insurance company will provide you with such a discount and make sure that the devices you are trying to install comply with the company’s requirements. Still, having a secure and safe vehicle matters a lot, even if you don’t get a special discount for that.
Homeowners insurance does not cover damage to land
Posted on | July 16, 2010 | Comments Off
What happens when the gulf oil comes ashore?
There is a sad fact of life when it comes to dealing with insurance companies. You should read all the small print before you buy a policy and, if you are surprised at how the insurer decides to interpret the policy when you make a claim, you must be ready with an attorney. Telling it as it is: insurance companies like to make a profit. If they have to pay out too many big claims, their profit starts getting small. That gives them an incentive to keep finding new ways to avoid paying out. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast, home owners discovered their policies covered storm damage, but limited or excluded claims arising from flooding. The cause of much of the damage was a storm surge where the wind drove the water to higher than usual levels. The issue for the courts was whether the resulting damage was covered as storm damage or excluded as flood damage. The practical reality was that, for the people whose homes were damaged, the precise cause and effect mattered little. They had lost their homes. For the insurance companies, the courts were deciding claims worth billions of dollars. Needless to say, the courts at state and federal levels gave often wildly different interpretations and produced very different results. That is what happens when vast numbers of people line up to sue multiple defendants. Some win. Some lose.
One of the more interesting outcomes of the litigation was the decision of some insurance companies to stop selling policies in the Gulf states. They gave as their reason the increasingly uncertain legal environment. The companies that still write homeowners insurance coverage now have different language. Policyholders hope the law will be on their side. The attorneys acting the the insurance industry remain confident they now have their clients protected.
Over the last few weeks, we have been watching a new slow-motion threat emerge in the Gulf of Mexico. The Deepwater Horizon rig operated by BP exploded and, with the pipe broken on the sea bed, crude oil is now pumping out into the water. Oil has already started to come ashore in Louisiana. Residents in the other states are taking out their policies to see what the small print says. So let’s say the average home owner with a property on the coast has a standard home insurance policy, federal flood insurance, hurricane and windstorm coverage, sinkhole coverage, and so on. What will happen when the oil comes? Well, there will be terms allowing claims in the event of an explosion. Unfortunately, the destruction of the rig happened too far away for it to count directly. A court would have to find the explosion was the main cause of the oil coming onshore. Winds and tides play their part in this process. So then we come to the terms allowing claims if the property is damaged by “pollutants”. Crude oil is a natural substance and not a pollutant as defined by insurers. But it is possible that, if it did damage the structure of your property, you would have a claim. Except, most properties are built on the land, not on stilts over the sea. Very few homeowners insurance policies cover damage to the land on which the house stands. The result? Win or lose, a lot of attorneys are going to get rich suing BP.
Homeowners insurance is getting more expensive in Texas.
Posted on | July 16, 2010 | Comments Off
Tough times for the Commissioner
One of the most important lessons of the last two years is that having regulators in place does not mean having consumer safety. Wherever you look from the failure of the SEC to police the banking industry, to the failure of the FDA to keep food and drugs safe, to the failure of the Minerals Management Service to prevent the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s clear the regulators have been asleep at the wheel of a Toyota car speeding out of control thanks to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It does not matter who you want to blame: the politicians who take the money of business and industry to pay for their expensive election campaigns, the leaders of business and industry who want the maximum profit with no accountability, or the regulators who sit in the middle and hope no one will notice they do nothing. The result has been a catastrophic series of failures. And who gets to pick up the bill? Why taxpayers and consumers, of course. Tax revenues are used to bail out the companies too big to be allowed to fail, and everyone who buys goods and services gets to pay a little more every year in prices to keep the wheels well greased.
Why are we thinking about this right now? Well, every US state has a department or office of insurance run by a Commissioner who is supposed to protect our interests. In some states where the political wind blows more to the left, the Commissioners can be crusaders who protect our interests. But in states where the political wind blows to the right, the lawmakers pass weak regulations and fail to back-up the regulators who might want to “do something”. A classic example of the problem can be seen in Texas where the Commissioner has been fighting a losing battle with the insurance industry in general and State Farm in particular.
State Farm submitted rate plans announcing its intention to raise premium rates by 13%. The reality has proved rather different with some ZIP codes seeing hikes of up to 39%. Not surprisingly, the Commissioner is angry and has posted a lot of the correspondence on the state website. It seems State Farm thought the 13% increase was justified because of rising costs in the building industry for both materials and labor. It was also concerned this year might see more hurricanes, tornadoes and hailstorms. The Commissioner is also telling State Farm policy holders where to find cheaper coverage. He is fighting what he terms the insurer’s deceptions and misstatements. Even the lawmakers have become concerned as Texas now has the second highest average rates in the US for homeowners insurance cover. They are actually talking about giving the Commissioner the power to refuse premium increases!
Let’s be clear. There is nothing wrong with an insurance company increasing its rates to cover rising costs. If it believes there will be more losses in the next year, it can raise rates. But State Farm has crossed a line in Texas and even a GOP state can fight back when the electorate starts to complain. As it stands, if you live in Texas, you should check out the Commissioner’s website at Texas Department of Insurance for the latest information on the State Farm situation. You should also get the maximum possible number of homeowners insurance quotes to find cheaper alternatives to the State Farm policies.
Auto insurance purchasing FAQ
Posted on | July 14, 2010 | Comments Off
Q: Should I carry insurance with my car?
A: Almost all states make it mandatory for the car owner to carry insurance with his vehicle as a proof of financial liability in case there’s damage or injury delivered to third parties while being on the road. Not having sufficient insurance coverage (lower than the state minimum) is illegal and may result in a substantial fine, license suspension and even time in custody. This only applies to the liability portion of your insurance policy, as other types of coverage are strictly optional.
Q: Should I purchase insurance prior buying a new car?
A: In case you’re purchasing your first car, you should definitely buy insurance first, otherwise you won’t be able to drive it from the dealer’s shop. Moreover, if you’re using a car loan to finance the purchase, your loan provider will make it a strict condition to purchase specific insurance in order to get the money you need.
In case you already have a car and want to replace it with a new one, you should inform your insurance provider about that and get new rates for the car make and model you want to purchase. You usually have between 2 to 4 weeks to contact your provider regarding the purchase, depending on the company.
In case you’re purchasing an additional vehicle and want to include it in your current policy, the regulations vary from company to company. Usually, companies require notification within a period of 30 days, after which they will inform you about approval (or non approval).
Q: How to get cheap auto insurance rates?
A: First of all, shop around to see what different providers on the market have to offer. You will notice that different companies set different rates for the same car and amount of insurance. This is because of competition, different claims history, and classification of vehicles and drivers. So make sure to get as much quotes as you can in the first place and choose the most competitive policy from what you are offered with.
You can also buy an insurance-friendly car, if you’re looking for a new vehicle at the moment. Ask the dealer or the insurance agent, which cars tend to get lower rates. Sports cars, performance vehicles, SUVs, convertibles and luxury cars are usually more expensive to insure. Stay with the middle class cars that have high safety and security rating.
You can also increase your deductible, however it’s a risky technique. By increasing your deductible you increase the amount of money you’ll have to pay before the policy coverage kicks in. For example, if you have a deductible of $1,000 then you’ll have to pay for any damage below this amount out of own pocket. So make sure to choose a deductible you can afford.
Q: How can I get cheap auto insurance for my teen?
A: First of all, don’t haste to get insurance for your teen while he or she is still going through the learning process of driving a car. Wait until your teen driver gets a permanent license and then you can look for auto insurance coverage.
Second, see if your teen qualifies for the good grades discount, which applies to students with an average of B and higher. Most insurance providers offer such a discount.
Third, think of purchasing a less costly, old car for your teen that will assure lower insurance rates at the initial stage.
And don’t forget that your teen has to maintain a clean driver’s record in order to keep those rates low.
Keep you cheap auto insurance by avoiding accidents
Posted on | July 8, 2010 | Comments Off
No distractions, please. I’m driving!
There are many ways in which you can describe some of Big Government’s departments and their campaigns. Feeling polite and well-balanced, you can say some are worth every cent. Then you get others where you cannot help feeling a little insulted. Like this site: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Hey, come on, guys. We are all drivers here and we know how to drive safely. Except, perhaps, we “kinda” forget some basic rules when we get behind the wheel and back out of the driveway. So just how bad is it?
Well, the police are supposed to report the circumstances of all the traffic accidents they attend. This does not always produce a reliable record but, in 2008, the police recorded driver distraction as the main cause in almost 6,000 deaths (that’s about 15% of all the fatal accidents in the US) and more than 500,000 injuries. So just what is distraction for these purposes. The list is what you would expect:
* using a cell phone, PDA, etc. to chat or text;
* reading (usually a map but some people are more adventurous);
* talking to passengers;
* using the navigation system;
* watching a video;
* changing the station on the radio, or the CD in the player or fiddling with your MP3 player;
* eating and drinking; or
* personal grooming from combing your hair to applying make-up.
What it comes down to is taking your eyes off the road, or taking your hands off the wheel, or thinking about something else. That makes texting the worst offender because it involves all three levels of distraction. Perhaps not surprisingly, the worst group of offenders are drivers aged 20 or less, i.e. they are young and inexperienced and more likely to get into an accident than any other group of drivers on the road.
The distraction website is run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It hopes both to educate drivers and to work with motor manufacturers to produce safer vehicles to drive. Except that neither camp seem inclined to cooperate. The culture of the younger members of society, i.e. up to 29 years old, is now addicted to 24/7 communication technology. They have to keep in touch with their friends through texting, tweets and other messaging systems. Pandering to this, manufacturers are building ever more electronic systems into vehicles as information services and entertainment. Fifty years ago, you only had to worry about changing channel on the radio. Now there can be a display of buttons and levers that would challenge someone with the skills of the Borg (pick your favorite television or film series characters for this).
Any traffic accident is like a lead weight attached to the premium for your auto insurance policy. That means keeping your driving record clean. With more states now banning the use of technology in the car, being seen with any handheld device in one hand while holding the wheel with the other is a potential ticket or citation. To keep your cheap car insurance, turn off your devices to avoid being distracted or fined if a police officer sees you. If you are getting into an argument with someone in the vehicle, pull over, stop and finish it before driving on. If you are running late, do not eat or do other catch-up jobs while trying to drive. If you keep yourself safe, you avoid accidents and keep your auto insurance affordable.
More about California Auto Insurance
Posted on | June 30, 2010 | Comments Off
First, what is the problem with the range of insurance policies on offer from the insurance industry? Why is it necessary for the Department of Insurance to intervene in the market? The answer is simple. California has been hit hard by the recession. Gone are the days when people were proud to live in the “Golden State”. The problem is seen most obviously in the repeated failures of the state to deal with its massive deficit. Now translate this into the millions of people living in the state who cannot find work paying enough money to live on. Their poverty means it is impossible to pay for insurance and eat. Not surprisingly, millions of drivers are on the roads without insurance. In 2008, the Department of Insurance estimated about 18% of Californian drivers were uninsured. Since then, the unemployment rate has doubled.
Why is this a problem? Well, although many drivers buy uninsured or underinsured cover, you have to be able to identify the other driver in the accident. If you cannot, say because it’s a hit-and-run, you cannot show the other driver was uninsured and so cannot claim on the policy. Since most uninsured drivers prefer not to wait around to admit their criminal offense (that costs them a fine and may result in their vehicle being impounded), all that can, drive away from the scene of the accident as quickly as possible. That is bad luck for you and great news for the insurers who take your premium and rarely have to pay out.
The Department of Insurance believed there were a hard core of the poor who felt guilty about driving without California car insurance so, in 2007, it persuaded the private insurance industry to offer a low-cost liability program for about $400 per year. This is not subsidised by the taxpayers. To qualify, you have to go through a means test, i.e. you must:
* be at least 19 years old;
* have held a valid driving licence for at least three years;
* have no recent claims involving injury or death;
* own a vehicle worth less than $20,000; and
* earn less than $55,125 for a family of four or $27,075 as a single person.
The premium buys you auto insurance for personal injuries up to $10,000, with $20,000 total injury claims from any one accident, and $3,000 for property damage. This is really basic coverage, but it’s a lot cheaper than the fine for not carrying insurance and avoids your vehicle being impounded. So look at the conditions. If you qualify, look at the renewal notice from your current insurer and check out what the online insurers are offering. Now decide whether you are prepared to accept this cheap auto insurance to stay legal on the road. There is a clear explanation of the program on the Department of Insurance’s website at California Low Cost Automobile Insurance Program. This may be the time when some car insurance is better than no car insurance.
Health Insurance Quotes and Financial Planning
Posted on | June 27, 2010 | Comments Off
The great temptation whenever you start shopping around is to assume you can afford to buy whatever you are looking for. It comes from those long-lost days when credit card companies would write you every month with good news about your borrowing limits. You were tempted into more debt, but it meant never really having to worry about whether you could afford to buy. The additional money would simply be added on to your overall debts.
Now the credit crunch has settled in as your permanent house guest, it’s a good idea to start doing a real set of accounts to keep track of your family’s spending. Why bother, you ask? The number of foreclosed property up and down your streets, the number of business shuttered on Main Street, should give you a clue. People who hope for the best when trying to live beyond their means usually come unstuck. Now’s the time to count the dollars and cents. When you are employed, you know exactly how much money you have coming in every month. When you are self-employed, your income is likely to go up and down, making it more difficult to budget. The best you can do is average the monthly income over the last twelve months. Now let’s list the main headings.
Go through all your check stubs and bank statements. Make a list of all the regular payments on utilities, mortgage, insurance premiums, credit and store cards, and so on. If there are regular payments you could cut, make a separate list. For example, everyone has to eat, but do you really want to eat out once a week? It’s often surprising to see how much you could save if you cut down on discretionary payments and leave only the necessary payments. These are lifestyle choices. When the times were good, you could afford all these “luxuries”. Now times are hard, you have decisions to make. When you have finished, you should have a number showing how much you can afford to spend on a health plan and leave a little over in case of emergencies. Never plan to spend more than you earn and hope you can juggle the numbers every month. Live within your means. Now pause for a moment. Are you going to accept a policy with a deductible? Can you estimate how much the co-payments might be if you have to get treatment. The deductible must be available as a cash sum to cover the claim. Co-payments must be made out of your pocket as you go along. What can you afford out of your budget? Do you have savings or a margin unused on your credit cards to fill in the gap?
Now get the health insurance quotes through this site. Look not just at the monthly amount you pay, but at how much you have to pay before the plan starts to pay out. If the health insurance quotes are unclear, get on the telephone and talk to a human being for clarification. Do not accept a plan unless you know you can afford to pay the deductible and co-payments on visits with your doctor, needed drugs, and so on. Even more important, check whether there is an upper limit on the amount the plan will pay out in a year. If there is a limit, do you want to take the risk? If you have an existing condition, how long must you wait before cover kicks in? Can you afford treatment while you wait? These are hard questions but, to protect yourself, you should ask them.
Movers Your Texas Movers Company
Posted on | June 5, 2010 | Comments Off
You are currently looking for one company that you can hire to move all of your furniture and stuff. Well, finding one reliable mover company in this matter is not as easy as you think. Actually, moving is one of the thing that many people love to do because by moving to a new place you have a chance to explore new places and meet new people. However, before you can enjoy all of those things there is moving process that you should pass first.
When you are about to move to or from Texas, there is only one Texas Movers that you should hire in this matter; it is Movers.com. The fact is this company is one of the best Texas Moving Companies that is not only providing you service locally but also long distance moving service. Well, from wherever you are in United States, with them in your side Moving To Texas is not as difficult as you think. Their professional team will take care of your stuff and furniture gently and carefully.
In other words, when talking about Texas International Movers or Texas local movers, don’t hesitate to hire this company because they are providing you nothing but the best services only.
Car insurance quotes higher because of fraud
Posted on | June 4, 2010 | Comments Off
Two completely different forces have combined to produce a perfect storm of fraud in the market for insuring all classes of vehicle. There always has been a section of the criminal community that specialized in all types of crime affecting vehicles. This starts with the simple use of force to steal or jack a vehicle, through slightly more complicated dishonesty to separate people from their vehicles, and into complex frauds designed to extract large sums of money from insurance companies. Local counties and states all have their problems in managing budgets for the police and, although violent crime gets a reasonable level of funding, fraud and “white collar crime” is a low priority. When the victims are large corporations, they are expected to look after themselves. The FBI’s policy does bend more towards funding investigations of fraud, but the results are inconsistent across the US as a whole. Some units are active and have a good prosecution success rate. Others do not try too hard.
Now look at the effects of the recession. Suddenly, black holes have opened in the local and state budgets. It is not only the investigation of crime that has been cut back. Some states are even releasing convicted prisoners because it is too expensive to keep them locked up. With rising unemployment and honest people coming under financial pressure, the temptation to try a little fraud is growing stronger by the day. As more people find themselves unemployed for six months, the results in suspected crimes and frauds is not hard to find.
The first and most obvious tactic is that your vehicle is stolen. When it disappears from outside or near your home address, this is raises a question mark. Then there are the inflated claims. When you have an accident, the body shop agrees to add in a “little extra” work and you split the cash. But the real problems come when people start to think bigger. Those who are safety conscious damage two vehicles somewhere quiet and then stage a collision at an intersection. The more aggressive have real accidents with faked injuries. The FBI has recently rolled up a ring of medical clinics and attorneys who were prepared to push insurance claims with fake or exaggerated personal injuries. Life is tough for doctors and lawyers. They too can be tempted.
Why should you care? Because except in the small percentage of cases that are investigated and the fraud discovered, insurance companies pay out. So when you get your next auto insurance quotes, they will be higher because every state’s level of fraud is rising fast. The days of cheap auto insurance will be gone unless the budgets of the police, state investigators and the FBI are given new priorities. You are the victims of all this fraud through the higher premium rates. You deserve to be protected from this outburst of crime. Even though the budgets for investigation work are under pressure, the amounts being lost are hundred of millions. If the investigators could keep a percentage of any money they recover, this would pay for itself. Since that will not happen, we need everyone to complain to the insurance companies and their state Departments of Insurance. The insurers should routinely report every suspected case of fraud and not simply pay out.