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It was not too long ago when contracts were made on a handshake and a promise. Individuals were not particularly concerned with things like insurance because they relied upon the goodwill of their neighbor to compensate them for wrongful damage. For a variety of reasons, including an increase in the speed and cost of auto wrecks, auto insurance soon became an important purchase for responsible individuals. Not long after, the federal government mandated that auto insurance be carried, at least minimally, by all car owners. The increase in the need for auto insurance over the last 10 years has led to increases in the complexity of insurance, while at the same time, amplifying the need to be more cost conscious in auto insurance purchases.
Buying auto insurance today requires as much dexterity as buying the automobile itself. It is important to know the factors that an auto insurance company considers when offering quotes. This will allow you, as the consumer, to know what steps you need to take in order to qualify for a lower quote. The five easy steps to a lower insurance quote are:
1. Portray yourself as a ‘safe’ candidate: Insurance companies are interested in managing risk. Consequently they offer drivers who are less likely to get into wrecks or at a minimum into wrecks of less severity, a lower insurance quote.
-Maintain a clean driving record, free of traffic violations or accident claims.
-Install anti-theft devices in your vehicle.
-Attend a Drivers Safety Training program.
-Buy a ‘safe’ vehicle. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety together collect information on safety related aspects of different vehicles. Buy an automobile that is officially designated as ‘safe’.
-Park your vehicle in a garage.
2. Show your Credit worthiness: As a risk management entity, insurance companies are also worried about getting paid on time. If you can show yourself to be credit worthy, there is less risk of you not making your payments on time, thus warranting a lower rate.
-Maintain a good credit score and clear up any errors on your credit.
-Cut down on the total number of outstanding credit cards to 2 or 3.
3. Practice Financial Wisdom: The way in which you structure and pay for your policy can lower the risk that an insurance company faces with respect to you as a customer. By taking steps to lower their risk, you receive a lower insurance quote and policy.
-Buy an annual policy instead of a six monthly coverage to get you a lower rate that remains the same for a year.
-Opt for automatic payment deductions from your bank account or your credit card to avoid getting charged for mail payments.
-Increase your deductibles on comprehensive and collision policies to reduce on the rates.
-Get loyalty discounts by buying your home and auto insurance from the same company.
4. Assess your Insurance Needs accurately: This is obvious, the more coverage you get the more it will cost you. Add-ons are killers in the insurance business, strip your policy down to just the minimum of what you need.
-If your vehicle is not used much or you have an old car with little market value, opt for minimum liability alone. It will cost you less.
-After fulfilling the legal mandate on auto insurance, insure according to your needs alone.
5. Other wise things that you can do: There are a number of other considerations that go into your insurance quote. Some of them are not reasonable steps to take, while others you can do with little effort which can translate into substantial savings.
-If your car is used only for a particular purpose, make your agent aware of it, as this will limit the cost.
-Students that make good grades are often eligible for a discount.
-Give up smoking; it can help you get better quotes.
-Change your occupation if you can help. A delivery boy carries a higher risk than a storekeeper.
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File Under :
Insurance
Although it makes sense to get in touch with a life insurance company to cover your dependents in the eventuality of your untimely death, there are integrity issues surrounding the insurance companies and agents. Broadly there can be 3 ways your life insurance company is scamming you. We have enlisted them for your benefit.
Selling Coverage that you don’t need!
The insurance companies thrive on the fact that most people don’t understand their life insurance needs. With standard products, they try to sell you coverage that you might not need, but, which are lucrative for them. The insurance agents expedite the process so that you skip the fine print and sign up for a coverage that is ill-suited to your needs. The trick is to play on your fear factor and sell you heavy insurance, even if you don’t have dependents.
Coaxing you to pay ‘Cash’
We strongly suggest, do not pay your premium through cash to an agent. Further, do ensure that you get a receipt for the payment. There are numerous fraudulent entities posing as genuine insurance agencies that extract hard cash from you in lieu of insurance premium. They ask you to sign at blank spaces in a form, assuring you that it is just a formality. Once you have fallen for their trick, you are left without an insurance coverage. The worst part is that most victims only come to know of this scam, when they have met with some mishap and there is not insurance to cover them.
Luring you with benefits!
Insurance agencies and agents have a way of promising you unbelievable benefits out a life insurance policy. Life insurance agents might offer you plans, with a guarantee that the policy would run premium-free for a specific period. Some agents play it smart and offer you great discounts for signing you up for a new policy, while replacing an old policy. The trick is that the old coverage gets terminated and new coverage does not get initiated due to the cumbersome procedural bottlenecks. Thus, exposing you to risk without cover.
Read More..
Selling Coverage that you don’t need!
The insurance companies thrive on the fact that most people don’t understand their life insurance needs. With standard products, they try to sell you coverage that you might not need, but, which are lucrative for them. The insurance agents expedite the process so that you skip the fine print and sign up for a coverage that is ill-suited to your needs. The trick is to play on your fear factor and sell you heavy insurance, even if you don’t have dependents.
Coaxing you to pay ‘Cash’
We strongly suggest, do not pay your premium through cash to an agent. Further, do ensure that you get a receipt for the payment. There are numerous fraudulent entities posing as genuine insurance agencies that extract hard cash from you in lieu of insurance premium. They ask you to sign at blank spaces in a form, assuring you that it is just a formality. Once you have fallen for their trick, you are left without an insurance coverage. The worst part is that most victims only come to know of this scam, when they have met with some mishap and there is not insurance to cover them.
Luring you with benefits!
Insurance agencies and agents have a way of promising you unbelievable benefits out a life insurance policy. Life insurance agents might offer you plans, with a guarantee that the policy would run premium-free for a specific period. Some agents play it smart and offer you great discounts for signing you up for a new policy, while replacing an old policy. The trick is that the old coverage gets terminated and new coverage does not get initiated due to the cumbersome procedural bottlenecks. Thus, exposing you to risk without cover.
Read More..
File Under :
Debt
Behavioral economist Meir Statman, recently said “getting out of debt is the financial equivalent of trying to quit smoking." Just like any bad habit, good intentions alone will not be enough. To ensure success, we need to break our underlying patterns of behavior. How is it we live in the richest most powerful country in the world, but the average American is more than $11,000 in debt. Our European friends who live by a mainly debit card system have an average savings of $13,000. On a recent visit to Germany, I was shocked to find that less than 35% of all the shops and restaurants accepted credit cards. What would we need to do to reverse this trend and get into a (plus) situation.
Plastic Surgery
If we are serious about paying off our balances. We don't have to literally cut up our credit cards, just stop using them routinely. We should go green for our everyday spending. Try carrying around a set amount of cash to use each week. We make better purchasing decisions when we actually have to hand over the green stuff plus there's a preset spending limit. When we run out of money, we stop spending it's that simple. When the only way to purchase is plastic, buying online for instance, then use your debit card. Your debit card can also be used as an emergency substitute for cash should you run out.
Leave Those Cards At Home
The best way to ensure that you enforce the cooling off period on new credit purchases is by taking the cards out of your wallet. You should store them in a place that's not easily accessible and safe. Do not let others know where you have hidden them.
Close The Accounts No Longer Needed
Having unused credit available from lenders with whom you've had a long relationship will help boost your credit score. Having too many will harm your credit score. As a rule, 3 credit cards is what works best and try to never spend more than 50% of the available credit on any of the cards. This will keep your score at it's highest. You should also consider closing all your store cards, if you need to make a purchase then use your credit card and pay it off at the end of the month.
Lowering Your Interest Rates
Start by reducing what you pay in interest. We can start by calling our current credit card companies and explaining that we intend to transfer our balance to another issuer unless our interest rate is lowered. Almost all credit card companies run promotional programs with low or 0% interest. They will be willing to put you on one of those rather than risk losing your business. All you need to do is ASK.
Tackling Those Credit Card Balances
Finally we need to develop a strategy for paying off our existing credit card balances.
Gather all your credit card statements together and make a simple table listing the entire amount you owe, and the minimum payment and interest rate for each card. This will help us determine the order in which we should pay off our cards. We need to focus on the highest interest rate cards first and pay off as much as you can each month while making only the minimum payments on our other cards. When the first card is paid off, use the same strategy on the next-highest interest rate card and so on until you're debt-free.
Late Payments
Are the number one cardinal sin of debt management. You get hit with hefty late fees and very high penalty rates that can go to 30%, plus of course your credit score will take a big hit.
We all have a responsibility to improve our financial literacy and develop the required skills and practices for effective financial management. There is a real need to get away from the “Someday things will get better in my life” or the “Someday I will be able to earn enough money to stop worrying about the bills. There is a lot more to life than that, but it has to be said and understood that the only person that can change your life is YOU. There is NO substitute for Action! With Action, you will overcome your fears and hesitations and accomplish everything you set out to do and more.
Have an opinion or a question you would like me to answer, then write me! http://www.CarlHampton.com
Read More..
Plastic Surgery
If we are serious about paying off our balances. We don't have to literally cut up our credit cards, just stop using them routinely. We should go green for our everyday spending. Try carrying around a set amount of cash to use each week. We make better purchasing decisions when we actually have to hand over the green stuff plus there's a preset spending limit. When we run out of money, we stop spending it's that simple. When the only way to purchase is plastic, buying online for instance, then use your debit card. Your debit card can also be used as an emergency substitute for cash should you run out.
Leave Those Cards At Home
The best way to ensure that you enforce the cooling off period on new credit purchases is by taking the cards out of your wallet. You should store them in a place that's not easily accessible and safe. Do not let others know where you have hidden them.
Close The Accounts No Longer Needed
Having unused credit available from lenders with whom you've had a long relationship will help boost your credit score. Having too many will harm your credit score. As a rule, 3 credit cards is what works best and try to never spend more than 50% of the available credit on any of the cards. This will keep your score at it's highest. You should also consider closing all your store cards, if you need to make a purchase then use your credit card and pay it off at the end of the month.
Lowering Your Interest Rates
Start by reducing what you pay in interest. We can start by calling our current credit card companies and explaining that we intend to transfer our balance to another issuer unless our interest rate is lowered. Almost all credit card companies run promotional programs with low or 0% interest. They will be willing to put you on one of those rather than risk losing your business. All you need to do is ASK.
Tackling Those Credit Card Balances
Finally we need to develop a strategy for paying off our existing credit card balances.
Gather all your credit card statements together and make a simple table listing the entire amount you owe, and the minimum payment and interest rate for each card. This will help us determine the order in which we should pay off our cards. We need to focus on the highest interest rate cards first and pay off as much as you can each month while making only the minimum payments on our other cards. When the first card is paid off, use the same strategy on the next-highest interest rate card and so on until you're debt-free.
Late Payments
Are the number one cardinal sin of debt management. You get hit with hefty late fees and very high penalty rates that can go to 30%, plus of course your credit score will take a big hit.
We all have a responsibility to improve our financial literacy and develop the required skills and practices for effective financial management. There is a real need to get away from the “Someday things will get better in my life” or the “Someday I will be able to earn enough money to stop worrying about the bills. There is a lot more to life than that, but it has to be said and understood that the only person that can change your life is YOU. There is NO substitute for Action! With Action, you will overcome your fears and hesitations and accomplish everything you set out to do and more.
Have an opinion or a question you would like me to answer, then write me! http://www.CarlHampton.com
Read More..
File Under :
Debt
The World is in debt. Almost all people and organizations are carrying debt to survive, including the Governments of all of our Nations. This is just a fact of life and this is the way that we were raised. You must acquire debt to survive; there is no other way.
This is entirely not true. In fact if we chose to save for the things that we really want, we would be able to afford a lot more than we already have.
Just think about it for a minute. Without debt, we would only have to pay our “bills”. Rent or Mortgage (Debt, but necessary), Utilities and Insurance. Imagine all of the money that you would have at the end of the month. No credit card payments, no car payment, no personal loans. Now you can afford some of the luxuries that you used to pay for month after month on credit and it won’t cost you three times the cost of the purchase as with credit.
Okay, this sounds great in theory, but it is a little late. Boy, if only you had told me this when I was 18 (like I would really have listened). I am in debt up to eyeballs and there is no way out. This is the way that it is supposed to be. This is the only way that it can be.
Rubbish!
This is the exact reason that everyone stays in debt and why the credit card companies are making fortunes. You can get yourself out of debt and take back control of your life. Of course it will take desire, will power, and perseverance. Most importantly you have to take the first step.
The key to getting out of debt is really quite simple; organization.
You cannot help yourself get out of any situation without first realizing what exactly you are into. This indeed is the first step.
Most people go on day-to-day paying their bills as if it is just a part of life. They get the bill, pay the minimum or a little over and wait for the next one. This is a vicious cycle and it has no end. As long as you keep doing this, is as long as you will stay in debt and stay at the mercy of your creditors.
You first need to gather all of your most recent statements. Write down or input (I use Excel for this) all of your creditors. At this point I would even put in your mortgage holder to give you the whole picture. Find out your current balance for each and input that. Now input your minimum payment for each one. At this point I would not even worry about interest rates.
You now have the whole picture. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. Now you know what you are up against and you can make a plan. Just remember, try not to take on additional debt.
You are now ready to take control of you financial life. Say goodbye to debt, say hello to life!
Read More..
This is entirely not true. In fact if we chose to save for the things that we really want, we would be able to afford a lot more than we already have.
Just think about it for a minute. Without debt, we would only have to pay our “bills”. Rent or Mortgage (Debt, but necessary), Utilities and Insurance. Imagine all of the money that you would have at the end of the month. No credit card payments, no car payment, no personal loans. Now you can afford some of the luxuries that you used to pay for month after month on credit and it won’t cost you three times the cost of the purchase as with credit.
Okay, this sounds great in theory, but it is a little late. Boy, if only you had told me this when I was 18 (like I would really have listened). I am in debt up to eyeballs and there is no way out. This is the way that it is supposed to be. This is the only way that it can be.
Rubbish!
This is the exact reason that everyone stays in debt and why the credit card companies are making fortunes. You can get yourself out of debt and take back control of your life. Of course it will take desire, will power, and perseverance. Most importantly you have to take the first step.
The key to getting out of debt is really quite simple; organization.
You cannot help yourself get out of any situation without first realizing what exactly you are into. This indeed is the first step.
Most people go on day-to-day paying their bills as if it is just a part of life. They get the bill, pay the minimum or a little over and wait for the next one. This is a vicious cycle and it has no end. As long as you keep doing this, is as long as you will stay in debt and stay at the mercy of your creditors.
You first need to gather all of your most recent statements. Write down or input (I use Excel for this) all of your creditors. At this point I would even put in your mortgage holder to give you the whole picture. Find out your current balance for each and input that. Now input your minimum payment for each one. At this point I would not even worry about interest rates.
You now have the whole picture. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. Now you know what you are up against and you can make a plan. Just remember, try not to take on additional debt.
You are now ready to take control of you financial life. Say goodbye to debt, say hello to life!
Read More..
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