Insurance and Credit

Understand what you purchase before you buy is always important, but no more so when it comes to disability insurance. Find out about the different kinds of insurance so that you can choose the right one.

One important feature is what the definition of disability is according to the policy. This may be very critical to protect yourself. Be sure whether it covers whether it covers “own occupation” or any occupation”. Your own occupation is what your job is in, and if you can no longer earn a salary in that area, it is understood that your income will be greatly reduced. This feature means the policy will only cover you if you cannot perform any occupation, no matter what it is. Imagine an airline pilot who has been demoted to a clerk.

If you expect to make a comparable salary if you are disabled, but you opted for the “Any Occupation” definition, you may not be eligible for your disability insurance and be forced to take a low paying job. It is important to make sure you amply insured to substitute your old salary.

The next area of question is the benefit period. Normally this goes to 65, but some people might have income expected before this age, and therefore can be sure of not needing the benefit all the way until that age. Retirement funds that become available, or a spouse’s social security may mean that you may not need coverage until 65 after all.

The benefit amount is something that should be carefully examined when you are purchasing a mortgage disability policy. You should calculate collecting at least the amount of the mortgage payment. However, if you have lost your entire salary, will you be able to keep up with taxes, hazard insurance and maintenance? Of course, insuring these will raise the premiums, but it is a good idea to do the cost/benefit analysis.

It is important to understand the basics of an insurance policy. Some policies can also carry riders, which are optional benefits you can subscribe to.

The inflation protection rider is a popular one. Your monthly benefit will go up as the cost of living goes up. Inflation is a fact of life, and you may need to protect against it. There are two kinds, simple, where a percentage is added to the amount received, or compound, which compounds previously granted increases.

Some other riders that might be offered to you are non cancelable policy, guaranteed renewable policy, guaranteed future insurability or waiver of premium.

It’s not cheap to work on your house. The costs for buying construction supplies, hiring a qualified work force and paying the various fees for permits can quickly add up.

You could borrow cash from a bank to help pay for all the work, but banks always expect you to pay back not only the loan, but also the interest. A $10,000 bathroom remodel may actually end up costing you $15,000 by the time you’ve paid back all the interest. Instead of going for a bank loan, why not look into some of those credit cards offered by the larger home improvement store chains? As long as you have decent credit and a plan to pay them back, it’s usually an option worth considering. Those credit cards have several distinct advantages:

Zero Interest for a Limited Time: Many of those hardware store credit cards give you a period of 6 to 12 months with zero interest charges as long as you use the credit card in their store. Those savings could add up to big money if you are able to pay back all of the amount you borrowed on the credit card. Even more importantly, big stores like Lowe’s Home Improvement stores may have multiple credit cards available for your unique personal situation.

Big Store Discounts: Hardware store credit cards often give you sale prices on items you buy or services you contract through the store. You might save 3% – 10% on the total cost of the project, which could be a pretty good chunk of money by the time you’ve added it all up.

All-In-One-Solution: There is something to be said for buying all your home improvement supplies for a specific project from one store. Instead of visiting a dozen stores to find a refrigerator you can go to one store and buy a faucet, a sink, a refrigerator, all the cabinets and even hire and schedule the installers all at one time. You don’t need a big hardware store credit card to necessarily do this, but things do seem to go much smoother this way.

These hardware credit cards can end up being a win-win for both the customer and the store. The store sells more inventory and makes more profit while the customer is able to “borrow” more money to make home improvements without having to pay any interest for a limited time! A limited time of no interest payments, possible discounts and the ease of ordering everything in one store makes those large hardware store credit cards a pretty good idea in many cases!

Are you looking for alternatives to your current car insurance and want low cost auto insurance? Maybe you’ve come to realize that your premiums are through the roof even though you’re clean as a whistle when it comes to driving. Not to mention your car is so old that fuel injection was the wave of the future when you bought your set of wheels.

One of the first things you can do to qualify for low cost auto insurance is to make sure that you have an excellent driving record. Most people can request a discount if they’ve been accident free and have not incurred any traffic violations for a period of at least three years. Not all insurance companies will offer it automatically, so check to make sure you’re eligible and claim your discount with your insurer.

In all likelihood, you’ve kept the same insurance that you had when you first bought the car. You might have even gotten what seemed like a low cost auto insurance policy from your insurance agent at the time because you bought a car that had great crash test safety ratings from the government. But you never knew to check things like industry data for the car model like repair record, cost of repairs, accident and theft statistics. Believe it or not, all these factors influence rates for comprehensive and collision coverage ..

A car’s safety rating is not the only criterion for setting rates. The type of car, its sticker price along with your own credit rating can impact whether you can get a low cost auto insurance policy. Even if you have good credit, if you opt for a sleek, pricey Ferrari, you can expect to pay an even higher premium. Obviously settling for a sturdy family sedan would dramatically lower your risk profile.

One of the easier ways to get low cost auto insurance is to raise your deductible. This is the amount that you would have to pay before insurance payment a claim kicks in. Most people think that a $100 deductible is adequate, but in truth you should consider taking a $1000, or at least $500, deductible. This results in a substantial savings even over a short period of 2 to 3 years. You’re better off accumulating the savings to allocate towards your deductible.

If you are not a frequent driver or don’t use your car to commute to work, then there’s a good chance you can qualify for a low annual mileage discount. Most companies will require some evidence of this, but it’s one way of getting low cost auto insurance. Dropping your comprehensive and collision coverage will also reduce your premiums if your car is older and it’s no longer makes economic sense to maintain it.

To assist you in locating a low cost auto insurance policy, it would be a good idea to search using any of the rate quote services that are now available. To get a quote for a car make or model, you simply answer a few questions concerning your driving history along with the car information and in seconds you can have quotes from several companies. If you’re shopping for a car, this can be a tremendous help in deciding what will fit within your budget.