It seems like everywhere you turn these days, you see drivers chatting away seemingly to no one at all. Of course, by now we usually assume they’re talking to someone on their hands-free cell phone headset or their built-in OnStar phone.
As the economy continues on its downward spiral, consumers across the nation are tightening their belts and trying to save money wherever they can. Unfortunately, many people don’t realize that they’re losing untold amounts of money by overpaying on car insurance.
Most people who buy homeowner’s insurance tend to think about protecting themselves from financial loss should the house burn down. A much more common cause of damage to homes, though, is water. Leaky roofs, broken pipes, and blocked drains can produce a mess that is expensive and difficult to clean up and repair. However, insurance coverage for these losses is not always certain.
Homeowner’s insurance policyholders usually have the option to insure to actual cash value (ACV) or replacement cost value (RCV). To make the best decision, the individual first needs to gain a clear understanding of the difference between the two policy options.
You just bought a new car, and now you’re searching for affordable auto insurance. Once you supply an insurance company with some information, including the make and model of your car, your age, your address, etc., they give you a quote for your monthly premium. But how exactly do they calculate that number?
If you’ve been lucky enough to avoid car mechanic nightmares yourself, you’ve probably heard plenty of horror stories from your friends and co-workers-whether it’s the mechanic who charged your sister for a new carburetor when she just needed an oil change or the jerk who convinced your boss to purchase a brand new set of tires when a good patch job would have done the trick. As unlikely as it may seem, there are plenty of good car mechanics out there. It just takes some research to find them.
On average, there are more than six million auto accidents on U.S. roads every year. Sadly, 34,017 of these crashes proved to be fatal in 2008, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Based on these shocking statistics, it may seem inevitable that we’ll all suffer from an auto accident at some point.
Bob is a sales manager for a chemical equipment company. He drives his employer-furnished car thousands of miles each quarter on business. He also drives it on weekend trips, errands around town, and vacations. Focused on his job, he doesn’t give much thought to who will pay if he has a car accident.
About two out of three U.S. homes are underinsured, according to a 2008 survey by Marshall & Swift/Boeckh LLC (MSB), a leading provider of building replacement cost data. Based on this new data, the average homeowner’s policy only insures the home to about 82% of the projected replacement cost of the home. Over the past decade, this point has been driven home as the U.S. has endured hurricanes, wildfires, and tornadoes. Throughout the course of natural disasters, thousands of homeowners were left without enough coverage.
Is your property at risk of damage from flooding? If you answered “no,” think again. Every property has a flood risk; some may have a more severe risk than others, but all have some risk. A home on a lakeshore has a pretty obvious exposure to flooding. So, however, does a building miles from a body of water, located on a street with storm drains on it and a steady water supply. Because standard homeowner’s and commercial property insurance policies do not cover flood losses, the federal government makes insurance available through the National Flood Insurance Program. The NFIP evaluates the risk (and determines the insurance premium) for each property in a participating community according to its location on that community’s Flood Insurance Rate Map. Recently, those maps have been changing, and some property owners have received big surprises.