Shopping for car insurance quotes has become infinitely easier over the past few years. These days, it only takes a moment to fill out one online application and instantly receive competing quotes from multiple companies. It sure beats the days of shopping with the Yellow Pages and a telephone! But before you fire up your favorite browser and start shopping for car insurance, there are ten tips you want to keep in mind. Some are easy, some a bit harder, but all are designed to help you get the lowest possible car insurance rates.
1. Pull a copy of your credit report. Did you know that some insurance companies use your credit rating as one of the ways of determining your insurance premium? They apparently believe that responsible bill payers also make for responsible drivers. So pay those bills on time, or take a few months to clean up your credit before shopping for car insurance quotes.
2. Park your car in a garage. Cars kept in a garage are less likely to be stolen or vandalized. Makes sense, doesn't it? The insurance companies think so.
3. Start taking the bus to work. By parking your car in a garage, and then leaving it there, you may be able to reduce your miles driven to less than 7,500 annually. You may then qualify for a low-mileage discount on your insurance. So think green, save green.
4. Trade in the red sports car for a blue sedan. Did you know that the Highway Loss Data Institute keeps statistics on the makes and models of cars that are involved in accidents? Your insurance company will most likely apply this data to the make and model of your vehicle. It your car is determined to be more likely to be in an accident, more likely to be vandalized or more expensive to repair than the average vehicle, you can expect to pay a higher insurance premium.
5. Load up on safety features. Once you have that blue sedan, make sure you have installed every possible safety feature. As the number of safety features goes up, your insurance rate goes down. So install those anti-lock brakes, airbags and automatic seatbelts. You will increase the safety of yourself and your passengers while shrinking your insurance bill.
6. Don't be shy. This is the time to ask about any and all discounts for which you might qualify. Do you participate in a car pool to work? Make it known on your application. Do you have more than one vehicle to insure? A boat? A motorcycle? Be sure to ask for a multiple vehicle discount. Own a house? The insurance companies will love to give you a quote for homeowner's insurance along with your car insurance quote -- at a discount, of course.
7. Raise your deductible. Yes, you have heard it before, but the higher your deductible, the lower your insurance premiums. If you have not yet bitten the bullet and done it, now is the time to jack that deductible to nosebleed heights. Even if you have to make an insurance claim and pay it, the higher deductible is still likely to save you money over the course of several years.
8. Don't let your policy expire. Once your policy has lapsed, you will lose your discount for continuous coverage. If you are planning to quit your current insurer, make sure you maintain coverage while you are shopping around.
9. Pay your entire bill upfront. While it can take a bite out of your bank account to pay a full year of premiums upfront, it will save you money to do so. When you make monthly insurance payments, you are effectively asking your insurance company to finance your premiums, and you can expect to pay finance fees each and every month.
10. Move. Yes, it is a drastic suggestion, but one that can have a dramatic effect on your car insurance rates. Living in the city increases the odds of accidents, vandalism and theft of your vehicle. The insurance companies know this and charge accordingly. So this might just be the time to de-stress your life and move to the country, increasing your quality of living while decreasing your cost of living. After you have applied as many of these tips as possible, you will be ready to start shopping for car insurance quotes. You can do yourself one last favor by ditching the telephone and doing your shopping online.
About The Author:
Barb Dearing is a writer who specializes in topics that help consumers save money. She recommends the following website for consumers who are ready to start shopping for free car insurance quotes.
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Monday, 6 July 2009
Car Insurance Quotes - 10 Tips To Get Your Best Rate
Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before You Purchase Health Insurance
How do you go about choosing the right health insurance plan? There are a number of things you want to take into account before buying.
How many times do you visit a doctor every year?
What is your current health status?
Do you want catastrophic protection only?
Do you want doctor office visit co-pays offered before your deductible?
Would you like prescription drug co-pays?
How much of a monthly premium can you afford?
Are you someone that visits the doctor frequently? If yes, then you will benefit from having the office visit co-pay before having to satisfy your deductible. Without co-pays the visit could potentially cost anywhere from $85 to $150 for a sickness checkup. With a co-pay plan you will pay anywhere from $10 to $50 per visit. Keep in mind the office visit co-pay will add to your monthly premium. That's why we ask how many times you go to the doc per year. If you go only once, then you should consider the catastrophic coverage. What's the point in paying for benefits that you aren't going to use?
Being healthy and staying in good health is critical to getting approved at the best rate. Most insurance carriers look for individuals and families that are healthy. With a carrier like Aetna you may get approved at three different rates, A, B or C rating. The A rate is the best rate available for that particular plan. The B rate is your original (best) rate plus 25 percent and the C rate is your original (best) rate plus 50% of the premium. Carriers have the right to raise your monthly premium based on your health conditions, or they can possibly decline you. That's why it's beneficial to be in good health when applying to all health insurance companies. It's not impossible to get health insurance if you are taking over two medications however it can get a little pricey. For clients that are declined there is always the state sponsored MRMIP coverage for states such as California (check within your state to get the full details of what state plans are available. The Major Risk Medical Insurance Program (MRMIP) is a funded by tobacco taxes, sometimes there may a shortage of fund resulting in the individual being put on a waiting list. Generally this waiting list is a maximum of 3 months.
If you know that you only want catastrophic health protection then you should take a look at the health plans without office visit co-pays. The catastrophic plans usually give you the benefit of getting a physical once per year at a co-pay or for almost free of charge. However, that's the only co-pay benefit you receive before satisfying your deductible. After you determine that you want catastrophic protection you need to think about your maximum out of pocket. The out-of-pocket maximum is the maximum amount of money you will have to pay in a calendar year. Let's say your out-of-pocket max is $3000 for a calendar year. If you go to the emergency room and are then admitted to the hospital for three days, chances are your claims will be very high (potentially $50,000, $60,000 or even $100,000.) If you need a surgery or some other type of emergency service your claims could reach $400,000. With an insurance plan that has a maximum out of pocket of $3000, you will only pay $3000 for those high claims that could leave you bankrupt. Make sure to pay attention to your out of pocket maximum. That is the main reason for insurance in the first place.
Like office visit co-pays, you can choose to elect co-pays for your prescription drugs. On the average you will have a $10 co pay for generic and a $35 co-pay for brand drugs (there is usually a brand deductible applied ranging from $250 -$750). Some plans will come with generic prescriptions only and/or have a maximum cap put on the Rx benefits. This is common with the new lower priced premium plans. Unfortunately the insurance carriers can't offer the full prescription drug benefit plans at a cheap monthly premium like they used to. People take a lot more prescriptions now and they cost a lot of money for the carriers annually. Make sure a pay close attention to what type of prescription drug coverage you are getting on the cheap premium plans. If you take two to three prescriptions and really need good drug coverage then you will pay a little more in premium but save a lot in the long run.
Lastly after you have answered the other five questions, you need to decide how much you can afford monthly. The higher the benefits on your plan the more it's going to cost. It's the same with car insurance, full coverage or liability only. There are low deductibles, high deductibles and zero deductible health plans. As a general rule of thumb, the lower your deductible the higher your monthly premium will be. To narrow down a plan that works for your lifestyle it is always a good idea to speak to a local insurance agent. An agent will quickly get a sense of your insurance needs and then browse each insurance carrier to find a plan that will work for you based on benefits, needs, out of pocket maximum and monthly premium. If you go directly to the insurance carrier your options will be limited to only that carrier.
About The Author:
This article was brought to you by the premier health insurance provider J.C. Lewis Insurance Services of California.
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Avoiding Fraud
Last year the Association of British Insurers announced that in one sector of the market alone its members had uncovered nearly 260m worth of fraudulent insurance claims. The industry is so concerned with fraud that many insurance companies have established their own anti-fraud units and they are expecting their customers to be ever more precise.
This can lead to a lot of stress on the part of the customer, the thought of having to make a claim is, however, far worse than the actual process and if you have done everything that you should have done, it can be very easy indeed.
Claiming on a home insurance policy can be difficult because a contents insurance policy in particular may have thousands of different items listed upon it. How can you possibly be as accurate as they expect you to be?
One of the easiest things to do is to make yourself a home inventory. This is a list of all the items in your home along with as much detail as you can possibly manage. Whilst it might not be all that quick or easy, in the long term it can save you a lot of money, time, effort, and stress.
All you have to do to make an inventory is simply go around your house and take down absolutely everything that is not fitted to the building. You should list down your curtains, pictures frames, clothes, everything that you would want to claim for if they were damaged or lost. If possible you should include receipts of purchase with the inventory as this will give an idea of the actual price of the objects and further verification that you own them. With electrical appliances look to include brand names and model numbers and if you have some items of particular value you may want to get them checked by an independent specialist.
You can support your home inventory by taking pictures of some of the items, or have a video recording of you walking through your house. The point of a home inventory is simply to help prove that you own the items that you do own, and therefore make it easier if you have to claim for these items.
About the Author:
With Kwik Fit contents insurance , your home and your treasured possessions will be well-protected from the unexpected.
Life Insurance Quotes: an Easier Way to Plan Your Life
Life is very uncertain and will not last forever. Death always comes to collect its toll. These are among the millions of reasons why anyone would want to protect their life. Protecting human life is essential. Without security, man cannot function well in his everyday life. With life insurance, both you and your loved ones future can be secured. This helps you ease the strain if something unthinkable happens. Life insurance gives you peace of mind that as your time comes the ones left behind will not carry such burden on their shoulders after you are gone.
Life insurance is a legal bond between a policy owner and an insurer. The latter agrees to pay finances upon death or other unfortunate events experienced by the insured individual. In exchange for this condition, the policy owner pays fixed amounts or premium either quarterly, monthly, yearly or in joined sums. To lay off the issue of money, life insurance is very important because it serves as a protection for your family after you die. Your life insurance can depend on various purposes such as paying for burial services, paying debts, and replacing lost income.
Choosing a life insurance policy can be difficult for your part. For others, life insurance hunting means preparing for their deaths, which for that matter feels uncomfortable to them. Nevertheless, the issue of death and financial security for the ones left behind should be put in mind. This is the reason why selecting the best life insurance policy is vital. You can find certified life insurance companies anywhere. With the internet, you can just simply stay put and scan through a staggering list of insurance companies. Alternatively, you can opt to take an adventure and singlehandedly pick out the best cherries in town.
To save time and money from finding which life insurance policy suits you best, it is very much recommended that you get life insurance quotes from your prospect companies. What does life insurance quotes mean? These are simply listings of premiums or insurance rates from a certain company. Insurance quotes are the easiest and fastest ways to find and compare coverage rates. By going online or approaching brokers near you, getting quotes from different life insurance companies can be trouble-free. Life insurance quotes also serve one great purpose. It can help you negotiate for better policies and premiums.
Getting quotes from life insurance companies before you begin negotiating with them is essential. When you compare companies make sure that the ballpark figures of policies are the same. Coverage quotes should also be similar. After gathering a number of insurance quotes, you can now call their companies and inquire about candidate qualifications and of course for premiums. If you do not qualify in one company then you can try applying for other companies who support your qualification. You should include in your list of quotes some offered discounts. Once you have gathered all the life insurance quotes and have called the companies on your list, you are now ready to decide which life insurance policy to purchase.
About the Author:
James is author of this article on Life Insurance Quotes. Find more information about Cheap Auto Insurance.
Medicare supplement plans: rules to be followed
It is often seen that the Medicare policy that you are having does not cover for the total bill charged for your medical treatment. Now it sometimes becomes a big problem for some people to bear that extra cost. For that very reason here is the Medicare supplement, in other words known as the Medigap policies that helps you get relieved of that extra burden of medical cost. The fact is that in the original Medicare policies there always remain several gaps for which it doesn’t pay for all the health care services that you may need. Therefore if you are the one of the beneficiaries of the original Medicare plane, you may be in the need to buy Medicare supplement insurance. In other words it is also known as the Medigap insurance because of the reason that it bridges the gap between the policy coverage of the original Medicare plans and the total medical bill you need to pay. This is the type of health insurance policy that helps you pay for some of the costs in the original Medicare program and also for the part that it doesn’t cover.
The medigap offerings or the Medicare supplement plans have been standardized by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 1992. Though medigap policies were also available prior to that. But the seniors possessing the plans prior to 1992 are still under non-standard plans. But these plans are no longer eligible for the new plans. It is to be mentioned that the Medigap or the Medicare supplement plans are sold by the private insurance companies and there are no government sponsorship behind them. And for that reason the insurance policies may vary from state to state. According to the law, the companies can offer only 12 Medicare supplement insurance plans. And these plans are named from A through L and each plan provides different sets of benefits. In 2006 it has been clearly stated that the Medigap Plans H, I, and J, cannot be sold to people with prescription to drug benefits, although there is a lax of this rule for people who already have those plans and they can keep them.
It is however advised that you should go through the policy statements carefully before deciding to choose one best fit for you. And for the concern of the policyholders it can be said that the all the plans with the same letter cover, no matter which insurance company sells it must cover the same benefits. As for example it can be said that all Plan E policies have the same benefit coverage irrespective of the insurance company selling it. However, it should be kept in mind that the amount of premium can vary with company.
The fact is that the insurance company must keep renewing the Medicare supplement plans once you buy a Medigap plan for yourself. And it is also true that they cannot change the policy covers or the benefits that it promises to provide or even can’t cancel it unless there is any failure on your part in paying the premium. However, the company can increase the insurance premium, but that too they can’t do without providing your prior notice of the increase in due time.
By: William Richards : The Best Medicare Plans, Medicare plans California and Best Medicare Supplemental Insurance
Monday, 29 June 2009
Mediclaim Insurance – A Basic Guide
A research on Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations shows that the boom in corporate profits and higher incomes for employees is one side of the coin. The other is surge in workplace stress and lifestyle diseases.
Heart disease, stroke and diabetes are few common diseases in India which reportedly wiped off $9bn (£4.4bn) off the Indian national income in 2005. The cost could reach more than £100bn over the next 10 years.
This has brought health insurance in limelight. It becomes a source of financial support to an individual who finds himself hospitalised.
Individuals aged 5 to 80 years can avail of mediclaim. Children between the age of 3 months and 5 years can also be covered provided one or both parents are covered concurrently.
However, if you prefer alternative systems of medicine such as homeopathy, chiropractic (treatment which focuses on manual therapy including spinal manipulation and other joint and soft tissue manipulation), naturopathic medicine (natural medicine), osteopathy (treatment emphasizing on a holistic approach and the skilled use of a range of manual and physical treatment interventions or traditional Chinese medicine), a mediclaim does not cover these expenses.
The mediclaim policy is available only for Allopathic, Ayurvedic and Unani systems of medicine.
A mediclaim or a health insurance policy provides for reimbursement of hospitalization. If for some reason, an individual is on bed at and needs an attendant or a nurse, the mediclaim policy will cover the expenses.
Expenses associated with treatments such as dialysis, chemotherapy, radiotherapy etc are also covered by the mediclaim policy. If an individual is taken to a hospital or a nursing home and the insured person-patient is discharged on the same day, the treatment will be considered to be taken under ‘Hospitalisation Benefit Scheme’.
However, there are some different benefits that can be claimed under the mediclaim insurance policy in the event of hospitalization.
Different heads of benefits under hospitalization that can be claimed under mediclaim:
• Room boarding expenses by the hospital nursing home
• Nursing expenses
• Surgeon, anaesthetist, medical practitioner, consultants, specialist’s fees
• Anaesthesia, blood, oxygen, operation charge, surgical appliances, medicines and drugs, diagnostic material and x-rays, dialysis and chemotherapy, radiotherapy, pacemaker, artificial limbs and cost of organs and similar expenses (all the above benefits are limited to the maximum sum insured)
The minimum period of hospitalisation should be for 24 hours. However, for certain treatments this limit is not applicable when package charges are levied for treatment by the hospital.
It is very important for you to check what all is covered by a mediclaim policy. Any disease or sickness existing before the mediclaim is taken will not be covered. Each mediclaim policy has a list of specific exclusions. Check the list. Most Insurance Companies do not offer mediclaim for obesity related illnesses, expenses arising from HIV or AIDS or the use of alcohol or drugs and expenses due to attempted suicide. Expenses associated with the treatment due to war, riots or a terrorist attack is not insured by policies.
About the Author : ApnaInsurance.com is India’s first online definitive guide to mediclaim insurance requirements. Learn & compare various insurance schemes and apply for insurance including compare health insurance, mediclaim, life insurance & car insurance schemes offered by different insurance companies in India.
