Archives for August 2012

Watch Out For These Gaps In Your Home Insurance Policy

When you have a home insurance policy, you often assume that you are covered for damage to your home. And, while this is the case for many situations, the truth of the matter is that you might actually be missing out on some coverage. Indeed, there are some rather costly gaps in many home insurance policies.

Double Check Your Homeowners Policy

Before you assume that any sort of damage will be covered by your homeowners policy, look through the document. Find out exactly what is covered. You might be surprised to find that the following acts of nature probably aren't covered by your policy:

home insurance gaps

Floods: Most of the time, you have to buy flood insurance if you want to be protected. Floodsmart.gov offers you a way to check to see if you need flood insurance. Realize, though, that even if you don't live in a flood zone, you might still want coverage — especially if you are afraid of some freak natural circumstance.
Earthquakes: There are a number of homeowners policies that don't cover earthquake damage. If your home has been damaged in an earthquake, you could find yourself bearing the brunt of the cost.
Mudslides: If something happens and your home is damaged by mudslide, you probably can't expect your home insurance policy to cover the costs. If you live on a hill, or your home is built on the side of a mountain, you need to be aware of the possibilities that can come with rain runoff.
Tornado: Don't assume that your home is covered in the event of a tornado. Otherwise, you might be unpleasantly surprised.

If you live in areas that are prone to extreme weather, you need to make sure you are properly covered. Chances are that your homeowners policy won't cover those types of damages. You might need to purchase extra coverage — or purchase a separate policy.

You should also find out whether or not the policy covers home business activities. Many policies won't cover damage possessions that you use for home business purposes, or pay out liability claims if someone is injured on your property while coming to conduct business. There are some policies that will protect up to a certain amount, but it is usually less than what your homeowners policy generally covers. If you are running a home business, you'll want to double check the terms of your policy so that you know whether you need to add more coverage for your home business.

Make Sure You Have Adequate Insurance

Realize, too, that you might not have adequate coverage for the items inside your home. Often, insurance companies cap what they will pay out on possessions. Additionally, you might find that insurers adjust the payout due to depreciation.

Also, you should understand that you might not be covered for the total cost to rebuild. Some homeowners, who have had their homes for a long time, find that their houses have gained in value — but they haven't upped the coverage. Go through your coverage and determine whether or not you need to increase the amount. Otherwise, you might find yourself paying out more than you expected.

Have you ever had a catastrophe only to realize you didn't have enough coverage?

Get A Quote On The Homeowner's Insurance Coverage You Need!

Why You Should Have Life Insurance Even If You Are Young And Healthy With No Dependents

By Mr. Money 3 Comments

Life insurance isn't always something that I've thought very seriously about. Before I became more serious about my finances it was kind of an afterthought, especially when I was in my 20's and I didn't have a care in the world. I was single, no kids and nobody depending on me except myself. I really didn't think there was much of a reason for me to be buying life insurance when I wasn't married or didn't have kids. It was just like flushing money down the toilet, right?

The thing is, even if you're young and healthy there may be quite a few good reasons for you to buy good term life insurance. It isn't just for old people, you know!

September is life insurance awareness month, and to start the month off with a bang today Jeff Rose of Good Financial Cents and a list of 115+ personal finance bloggers and financial companies are proclaiming importance of having life insurance. To find out more about the life insurance movement, or to read articles from some of the other participants, head on over to the site’s page, or follow it on Twitter Hash Tag #LifeAWARE:

Life Insurance Movement At Good Financial Cents

So today I thought I would examine a question that a lot of people are probably asking today as they read all of these life insurance posts. Do you really need to have life insurance if you're young, unmarried and have no dependents?

The answer to that question is a resounding.. maybe. There are some pretty good reasons to consider getting life insurance, even while you're young.

Buy Life Insurance When Young

When You're Young, You're Probably Healthy

Typically most Americans will wait to buy insurance until they're a little bit older. At that point they've had years to get into bad eating habits, smoking, drinking and a whole host of other issues that can greatly affect their health. Having those health issues on your resume isn't going to be a good thing when it comes time to get life insurance, in fact, in some cases it will disqualify you from getting coverage at all! At the very least it will mean your premiums will be greatly increased to the point where it may be hard to afford a policy.

Instead of waiting until you're middle aged to get life insurance, why not buy it when you're young and healthy and in the prime of your life! The rates will be much cheaper, and you won't have to worry about being denied because of health issues.

Term Life Insurance Is Super Cheap

Another reason to consider getting insurance even when you're young is that the premiums are just so cheap. When I bought my insurance recently I was able to buy a good term life insurance policy of $500,000 for right around $30/month. That policy could have been even cheaper if I hadn't waited so long myself – I could have stood to lose a few pounds.

Rates have been dropping over the years, with standard risk term life insurance policies dropping 50% from 1994 to 2008.

Statistics prove that people are living longer, healthier lives due to the advances in medical care. This means that the need to charge high rates is simply unnecessary because the risk is much lower.

So rates are falling and you can get a decent amount of coverage for the cost of one meal out at your favorite restaurant. What's stopping you?

Do You Really Need It If Single?

If you're single, you may not technically need life insurance, but it might not be a bad idea for singles to buy life insurance while they're still young for a couple of reasons:

Guarantee insurability: You never know when you'll have a health issue pop up, or whether or not you'll have an accident or some other issue that keeps you from getting life insurance later.
Better rates: If you're buying when you're younger and healthier, than your rates will most likely be better.
You have debt: If you have a large amount of debt to pay off, you may want to have a bit of life insurance to pay that off if you die – especially if there are co-signers on your debts.

Get Your Quotes Now!

The very least you can do even if you're reasonably sure that you don't want or need to get insurance – is to get a quote. Getting quotes on life insurance is easy in this day and age, just fill out a form or two and get quotes from a bunch of different companies. You can even do it through this site on our life insurance page. Check it out!

Get A Life Insurance Quote

Why Online Banking Is Better

By Contributor Leave a Comment

There are many things that can be done on the internet these days. You can buy car insurance online without having to fill out mountains of paperwork, or order an infinite amount of merchandise from shops like Amazon without a long wait. Banking is another sector that has fully embraced the internet.

Online Banking Is Convenient

You can now do plenty of financial operations online without needing to fill out any paper forms or visit a bricks and mortar branch of your local bank. Being able to do everything online provides a lot of convenience for customers, and it greatly speeds up many normal banking operations.

Today, nearly all financial institutions let their customers access their accounts online through a PC or from a smartphone. Transactions such as checking account balances, making payments and transfers, sending money to another person, or even depositing checks can all be done online.

Online financial services offer many advantages over traditional banking. First, there is less wasted paper. Most of us simply discard banking statements a few days after receiving them. For those that need to keep the records, keeping them organized would be quite a challenge.

Furthermore, in the case of online records, one can quickly filter down the data in order to search for specific date ranges, transaction types, payees, and more, which is something that is obviously impossible to do on a paper document. The records are accessible on any web based device, so one doesn't need to carry banking documents with them if they need to show them to someone else.

Online Banking Saves Money

Another way that online banking services are better is that they reduce the costs involved in running a bank. There's less paper used, so less costs for printing and mailing documentation. An increased number of people do their transactions online without the assistance of a bank employee, which means that banks won't have to invest as heavily in their branches.

Doing banking online is much faster and more convenient for the customer, as they won't have to take time to go to the branch, or fill out pages and pages of paperwork to get simple transactions done.

One can now find “online only banks”, which are financial institutions that only have one or two branches in each city, but the rest of the transactions are done either by web, phone or ATM.

These banks then pass on the savings to their customers, by paying higher interest rates on deposit accounts and reducing or eliminating many fees, such as withdrawal charges or monthly account maintenance fees.

Can You Contest That Will?

By Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

Most of us know the importance associated with solid estate planning — especially if we have assets to divide. One of the most important aspects of planning is the will. Many of us think of the will as the final word in inheritance. However, this is far from the truth. Some things, like beneficiaries listed on retirement accounts and life insurance policies, supersede what is in a will. And, there is always the possibility of contesting a will if you feel as though distribution wasn't what it should be.

Contesting A Will

can you contest a will As you might imagine, though, contesting a will isn't exactly a walk in the park. First of all, you need to find out the procedure for your state. If you feel that you have been left out for a reason that doesn't make sense, or you don't like what you received, it's vital that you actually determine whether you have reasonable grounds to contest the will, and that you know the law in your state.

Also, be prepared to pay. While you might be able to intimidate the executor of the will into giving in if your demands are small and you threaten to contest, there is also a good chance that it will cost you upward of $10,000, by the time you pay litigation and attorney costs. You also need to be ready for it to take two or three years to come to a conclusion. And don't forget about the ill will and relationship toll it can take.

Reasons To Contest A Will

If you decide that contesting a will is worth it, you need to examine the situation, and figure out if you actually have grounds. Here are some of the reasons that you can contest a will:

Accidental Disinheritance: Were you born after your parents' last will was made? If they never got around to updating their estate planning, or making a new will, many states allow you to contest the will on the grounds that you were accidentally left out.
Incompetence: This is one of the main reasons that wills are challenged. You have to show that the deceased was incompetent when he or she wrote the will. It doesn't count that dementia set in three years ago if the deceased wrote the will 10 years ago, in control of his or her mental faculties. It takes a lot to prove incompetence, including witnesses and medical records from the time that the will was written.
Undue Influence: Was the writer of the will subject to undue influence? In some cases, a will might be changed to illogically include someone who is in a position to influence the writer. This can include a new spouse who works to get the children excluded, or a health care worker that spends a lot of time with the writer.
Improper Execution: It's also possible to contest a will based on the idea that it wasn't properly executed. If there are multiple versions of the will, and they aren't clearly dated, you can also contest based on the fact that the will in question might have been revoked. You can also try to prove that the will is a forgery.

Realize that you can't contest a will based on sour grapes. If the writer did everything right, and was of sound mind, the will stands, and it's a waste to contest it.

Using the Power of Cash to Your Advantage

By Contributor 1 Comment

As our society moves more and more away from cash and toward other methods of payment, many people forget just how powerful cash can be. If you'll use cash to purchase big ticket items, it can save you quite a bit of money. Here are a few things to consider about using cash more to help your financial situation:

Cash Prices

One of the big advantages of paying with cash is that you can sometimes take advantage of cash bonuses with certain merchants. Many merchants have one price for cash and another price for credit or debit cards. This is because it costs the merchant something to be able to accept a credit or debit card payment.

They have to pay the credit card processing company two or three percent of the purchase price. Because of this, they can afford to sell the product for less money when a cash payment is made. Any time you make a big ticket purchase, ask the merchant if they can give you a better price for cash.

Negotiation

When you use cash, you also have a little bit of room for negotiation. Many merchants may be willing to negotiate with you if you have a big stack of cash to work with. Ask them what the lowest price is that they would take for a cash payment. This can sometimes net you a pretty good deal. You can even negotiate in some places you might not have imagined, for example, on your hospital bills.

Be Patient

If you are shopping with cash, patience pays off. Instead of taking the first deal that you find, try and shop around a little. There are a lot of places that will give you a good deal for cash, and you can have fun shopping around a bit. You can always go to a normal store and buy the item for full price, but sometimes you can find a better deal.

Overall, having cash on hand can come in very handy. Whether you need to shop with a local department store, or with an automotive dealer, you can really get some great deals with cash. You also don't have to worry about finding a merchant that accepts credit cards, debit cards, or some other chosen payment method.

Almost everyone takes cash, and if you get in the habit of shopping with it, you'll be able to score some great deals and save money.

Amanda Green is a freelance writer who normally writes about personal finance and business. Her normal finance writing can vary on topics from saving money on groceries to using services like expertbail to stay financially afloat during times of trouble. You can read more writing by Amanda at paidtwice.com

Tired Of Credit Card Offers? Take Your Name Off the Marketing Lists

By Miranda Marquit 1 Comment

Lately, my mailbox has been stuffed full of credit card offers. To be honest, I haven't done anything about it because I'm actually in the market for a shiny new credit card. Hopefully one with a fat signup bonus, and a decent rewards program. So I'm ok with the credit card offers.

What I'm not happy about is the constant stream of solicitations for refinancing my home loan, switching my car insurance company, and changing my TV service. At some point, it needs to stop. Not only because it's annoying and wasteful, but also because it can be a bit of an identity theft risk.

Cutting Off The Junk Mail Stream

credit card junk mail At some point, I'll probably cut off the credit card offers. And I'll also want to stop the flow of other junk mail. The good news is that it's possible to do this — do it fairly easily. You have to online stops to make:

DMAchoice: Use this site to opt out of direct marketing campaigns. While you probably won't stop everything forever, this site can really help you slow the trickle.
OptOutPrecreen: This site is all about opting out of prescreened credit card offers. If you want to stop receiving offers for loans and credit cards, you can use this site to reduce your junk mail from that quarter.

Even though it seems as though the junk mail industry is one of the few things helping the USPS stay even remotely in the game, that doesn't mean I want to keep receiving that stuff. It's frustrating to have to wade through it all, and shred it. As result, I'll soon be heading them off.

Protecting Your Identity

While there is no completely full proof way to avoid having your identity stolen, you do need to do what you can to prevent identity theft. One of the ways to do that is by reducing the amount of information about you floating around. Stopping junk mail can also help.

When you have your name taken off marketing lists, you are in fewer databases that can be hacked. On top of that, there is still a risk when it comes to the way that identity thieves sometimes get your information — from marketing mail. Some unscrupulous could use the offers to pretend to be you, and get a credit card in your name. All it takes is a little extra information, and an address change, and the card goes elsewhere. (It's a good idea to keep on top of your credit by checking for these fraudulent accounts on your credit report.)

These days, it's all about information. Restricting your information can be one of the ways that you can reduce the chances of being a victim of identity theft. When you do receive marketing mail — especially if you are receiving prescreened credit offers — be sure to shred them. You don't want to throw out something that someone else can use to pretend to be you.

If you are tired of receiving junk mail, and if you want to do your part to live a greener lifestyle, you can put a stop to a lot of what appears in your mailbox. And it just might help you protect your identity as well.

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