My Personal Finance Blog

Did you notice that S&P has threatened to downgrade our credit rating on the international scene. If that does happen and the dollar drops, there’s an inevitable conclusion. Suddenly everything we import is going to be that much more expensive. Our recovery from the recession has been slow enough. If everything imported goes up in price, families will not be able to cope. Worse, if the world thinks the US might default on its debt, the country will have to pay more interest on the money it borrows. That will force the banks to raise the interest rates for us. Mortgages and loans will go up. Of course, this is all a horror story and it will never happen because the Democrats and Republicans will agree on how to cut the deficit. . .

Meanwhile that leaves us struggling to make ends meet and trying to find every possible dollar of saving there is to be found. When it comes to insurance, there’s an interesting balancing act going on. The number of people driving uninsured has been rising steadily. In some states, it’s as high as 20% of drivers on the road. Mainly this is forced by the high rates although some ignore the law anyway. The irony of this is the more drivers without insurance, the more the rest of us have to pay. That’s either directly as premiums or indirectly because we take out additional cover against uninsured or underinsured drivers crashing into us. All this is putting the profits of the insurers under pressure. If they keep increasing the premiums, this is a vicious cycle and more people stop buying. So the insurers are now playing games with us. They increase the premiums and then offer us discounts or bonuses. The idea is to keep as many people as possible paying about the same total.

So you have to play the game and shop around to find all the discounts and then check out whether you qualify. Let’s see how it works. Any driver passing into their 50s is one of the safest on the road – statistics never lie. So insurers could lower the premiums automatically, or offer a loyalty bonus if you renew, or offer discounts. Most offer discounts to “mature” drivers. To qualify you usually have to go through a defensive driving course. The AARP’s website has a locator tool telling you where the nearest course is being run. This can give you up to 10% saving. At the other end of the scale, young and inexperienced drivers also qualify for a discount if they go on a safety course approved by their insurer. To qualify, ask your insurer which courses are accepted in your area.

So when you get the first round of car insurance quotes, check which discounts you have. Then run the search again changing, say, the amount of the deductible. Each time you run the search, change a variable so you can work out what discounts are available and how much they are worth. It costs nothing to run the search. If you have more time, telephone the insurer offering what looks the best car insurance quote and ask about what additional discounts are available. The rule is, if you never ask, you cannot receive. Find out how you qualify to save money.

Whenever you ask a talking head paid by the insurance industry, “How do you calculate the premium rate?” the answer is always the same. There’s a big smile of sincerity and that reassuring voice says, “We look at the driver. It’s all about who you are and what you drive.” And that, of course, is how it should be. Actuaries are paid to estimate the risk of accidents and, as they keep telling us, the statistics never lie. These actuaries are like pack rats. They collect every last detail of every accident that gets reported. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a police report, a claim to the insurers from a hospital for treating accident victims, or reports in local newspapers. They have information about accidents going back to the time we were switching over from real horses to horse-powered engines. So ask how many men aged 33 have had an accident at 2 a.m. while driving a red Ford Contour in the rain with a new moon and, with the click of a mouse, you will have the answer by return. It’s the detail that’s so impressive. More importantly it shows exactly how many claims are made by male as opposed to female drivers, and what the average value of the claims is.

All around the world, the statistical evidence shows women making fewer claims and, when they are involved in accidents, the amount claimed tends to be lower.

The reason for this is that, in general, women drive within the law. They do not try to beat the lights or drive too fast on city streets so, if there is an accident, they are traveling more slowly and the impact is less damaging both to the vehicles and the people inside. Not surprisingly, this excellent safety record has been rewarded by lower premiums. Where the risk is lower, drivers pay less. Except, in Europe, this will change next year.

The European Court for Human Rights has just ruled that men and women must pay the same premiums. At the end of 2012, there must be a new system in place to calculate premiums without relying on gender as a key factor. So what’s going on? Well, ask yourself, is it fair to charge someone more to insure their vehicle just because they are male. No one asks to be born male or female so why penalize all those who have the bad luck to be born male? Keeping this real, men don’t crash because their sexual apparatus gets caught in the steering wheel. People get into accidents because they drive badly. There’s no point in forcing people to pay more because of something they are powerless to control. There’s every reason to base auto insurance quotes on actual driving records because, if the record is bad and the premium rate is high, it gives those drivers an incentive to improve their driving. Calculating premiums should be very personal, looking at how well each individual drives. Grouping everyone together on the basis of their gender for issuing auto insurance quotes is arbitrary and unfair (at least, in Europe).

Life assurance is risk coverage in the potential case of dying during a fixed time period. Insurance firms habitually use a person’s medical record and family medical record in checking eligibility for life insurance. It allows for a payment of an amount of money upon the death of the insured. Additionally, life insurance can be used as a way of investment or saving. What are the options and costs of involved?

Term life insurance is temporary protection. Term life assurance is uncomplicated. It may be employed to cover temporary demands such as debts and to supply extra security for the insured. Needs and obligations change throughout a person’s life. Term policies may be used to cover those needs when they are close at hand. Term assurance is generally low-priced. This can make it appropriate for folks with limited financial resources.

What is the general price of term life insurance? The answer may depend upon how healthy you are. The cheapest rates are assigned to the people with the best health. Futhermore, you pay a premium every month established by the length of the policy and the amount of coverage you select. You may choose term durations such as 10, 20 or 30 years.

The coverage you select may be from around 100,000 dollars to several million dollars. It is safer to compare quotes from different insurance firms in order to discover better premiums and prices. Many websites on the world wide web offer price quotes and other information free of charge. Look at more than just the premium when buying a policy. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of every policy.

Whole life assurance merges term insurance with an investment fund. This can make whole life insurance more expensive. You are not just paying for insurance but for an investment fund as well. This additional price tag may be ignored. However, these policies are normally not the best investment fund for your money. Whole life insurances barely generate a sensible return unless maintained for 20 years or more.

The rate of return on a whole life insurance policy is very modest compared to other investment funds, even after you have factored in the tax savings. The tax benefits and cash value may be viewed as an additional bonus.

Life insurance prices are estimates of the premiums you will pay for a life assurance policy with a specific insurance firm. Discovering low-priced life insurance does not have to be hard. You may find inexpensive life insurance rate quotes online from top companies. For example, a 25 year old male may receive coverage of around 500,000 dollars for a monthly premium of 25 dollars. The same male, if aged 50, may only receive coverage of around 100,000 dollars. A woman of who pays a monthly premium of 25 dollars may get life coverage of about 600,000 dollars at age 25 and 175,000 dollars at age 50. Therefore it is better to buy life assurance when you are younger.

You can talk to your life insurance agent to determine which insurance policy is better for your financial needs. This may help you to secure your financial future and minimize risk. Compare the average life insurance prices of different insurance companies and make an informed decision.

Replacing cash value with cash value.

The classic objections to replacement strike with particular force if you’re contemplating replacing one cash value policy with another. You’d have to pay another hefty front-end load. And you’re older, so your new premium would probably be higher. Compare term life insurance quotes quotes online before you make a decision.

Still, if your current whole life or other cash value policy is high in cost, and if the proposed replacement is low in cost and provides equal or better coverage, the switch could be worthwhile. Such a situation is most likely to arise with policies issued quite a few years ago, especially nonparticipating cheap life insurance policies.

Replacing cash value with term.

Since we recommend term insurance for most buyers, you might think we’d be all in favor of replacing cash value policies with term policies. Not necessarily so. Once you’ve bought a cash value policy, assuming it was a reasonably good one, it often pays to hold on to the policy. In effect, the company amortizes its front end load during the early years of the policy’s life. So, it will take some time before cash values and dividends begin to accumulate to the point of compensating for the sizable premiums you’ve already paid out. Get a life insurance quote from several providers to compare rates.

If you switch the policy soon after purchase, you risk taking a substantial loss. If you’ve already paid in for a number of years, you might be approaching a time when dividends and cash value buildup start to justify your substantial investment. In other words, don’t pay for the meal and then leave before the main course.

There are two exceptions to this general advice. First, some cash value cheap life insurance policies are poor investments. With these policies you may well be considerably better off buying term life insurance quotes and investing the difference you save on the lower premiums.

A second exception: You may need to replace a cash value policy, even though it means taking a loss, if you simply can’t afford the annual outlay the policy requires. Sometimes, the situation can be salvaged by borrowing against the cash value of the existing policy to help pay the premiums and then purchasing supplementary term coverage. This can be done only if sufficient cash value has accumulated in the existing policy. Get a life insurance quote now!

A few other cautions are also in order. Don’t forget to check out the financial stability of the company you might switch to. Take into consideration the kind of agent service you’ve been getting.

Discuss the proposed switch with the agent for your existing policy as well as with the one for the policy you’re actively considering. After you’ve done all that, and you still are convinced the switch is in your interest, go ahead and make the switch.

The main thing to understand about discounts is the thinking behind them. The insurance companies want to encourage you to act in ways that favor them. If you are contrary and do the opposite, you will probably cost them money so your premium rates will be higher. Let’s take a few examples and see how it works. Obviously the point of insurance is that, if you have one of those unfortunate accidents or someone steals your vehicle, you get to claim money from the insurance company. From the insurer’s point of view, this is bad news. It wants to be able to treat all your cash as profit. The more it has to pay out, the more it should raise premiums. Except, at some point, you throw up your hands and say, “We’re not going to pay that.” So a balance has to be struck. The insurer wants all the safe drivers like you, and aims to discourage all the drivers with bad records – they are the ones who get the really big premium hikes. Although loyalty bonuses go some way in the right direction, there are more ways in which the insurer can save money. It all starts with the make and model of vehicle you are driving.

Risk assessment is done by the actuaries. These are the math wonks who collect details of every accident reported in the US. This is not just the data from claims on vehicle insurance. This is every incident reported to the police, attended by the firefighters or ambulance crews, or dealt with through claims on health insurance. Put all this together and the actuaries can tell you the probability of an accident in any make and model of vehicle, given its color, whether it was fitted with any additional features, who it was driven by, the time of day or night, whether the driver and passengers were badly injured, so on. Yes, it’s that detailed. Turning this around, if you drive a vehicle that’s statistically unlikely to be involved in an accident or stolen, your premium will be lower than average. Put a safe driver in a safe car and the chances of the insurer having to pay out are small and the profit is higher. Everyone is happy. So how do you find out which are the safest vehicles with the lowest premium rates? Well, you start with http://www.safercar.gov/, a site run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This allows you to get the safety ratings from all the tests carried out by the NHTSA. There’s a guide published at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/Vehicle%20Safety/Articles/Associated%20Files/2009_Insurance_Costs_Comparison.pdf which is also helpful. Finally, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety publishes its own list of safe vehicles at http://www.iihs.org/ratings/

The safer the vehicle you drive, the greater the discount on the premium rate. So when you are filling out the questionnaire for those auto insurance quotes, aim to have a safe vehicle. If you vehicle is not safe and you cannot afford to change it, try to upgrade it by fitting safety features. Look at the questions asked in the questionnaire and talk to insurance agents to find out what features save the most money. Similarly, fit better locks and any systems making your vehicle more difficult to steal. Anything you can do to reduce the risk of a claim will be reflected in low rates in the auto insurance quotes you receive.