Posts Tagged ‘personal finance’

Classic Car Insurance Tips

Posted on January 4th, 2010 by by Graham McKenzie

A classic car is a worthwhile investment. You need to protect that investment by making sure the car is properly insured. The coverage you need will depend on how you use the car.

There are three types of car insurance. Actual cash value is the most common type of car insurance. It pays out the depreciated book value of the car. Stated value allows the car’s owner to state a value for the vehicle that is greater than the actual cash value. Agree value guarantees the car’s owners will get all of their money back in the event that the car is a total loss.

All car insurance companies offer these kinds of policies. There is also a fourth kind of coverage, a classic car policy, which may be less expensive and less restrictive. To qualify for this lower-cost coverage, the insurance company many require that you have reached the age of 25, or even 30. It may limit the number of miles you drive the car to just 2,500 a year, sending out an underwriter once a year to check your odometer. Qualified agents can give you all the specifics about this kind of coverage.

No matter whether you opt for a standard policy or classic car coverage, be sure that your policy allows flexible use of your car. You want to be sure that you can use the car for an unexpected trip or exhibition without having to buy a rider or a new policy altogether. If you keep your vehicle in storage part of the year, be sure to tell you agent. Some policies offer lower premiums if you drive the car only certain months of the year.

When it’s time to choose a car insurance provider, do your research. Make sure you find a car insurance provider with the knowledge and experience in insuring classic cars. You want to make sure your car insurance provider knows how to properly protect your classic car investment without taking advantage of you. Research both standard insurance providers and classic car insurance providers. Shop around and get more than one insurance quote. Compare quotes and see which provider offers you the best deal. Just make sure the policy offered meets your needs. You don’t want to accept an insurance provider’s offer because the price can’t be beat, only to discover later that the insurance coverage is not what you need for your classic car and driving situation.

Regardless of what type of car insurance policy interests you, make sure you work with a qualified insurance provider. They can look at your exact situation and recommend the insurance product that will best suit your specific needs and protect your classic car investment the way it should be protected.

What is Pay as You Drive Insurance?

Posted on December 31st, 2009 by by Tom Martens

Pay As You Drive insurance rates are based on the number of miles you drive. Simply put, the less you drive, the less you pay for auto insurance. Pay As You Drive ties the vehicle owner?s insurance premiums to how much the driver uses the vehicle. The premiums can be specifically tailored to meet a driver?s needs.

Pay As You Drive insurance premiums can be in determined in several ways: within a specific range of miles, by number of miles actually driven in a given time period, or by the number of hours driven in a given time period. Premiums for Pay As You Drive insurance can also be based on just the mileage without a fixed time period.

Since driving distance or driving time sets your insurance rates, your driving has to be monitored. You can get periodic certified odometer readings, or your automobile may be fitted with GPS monitors that upload the vehicle’s computer data.

Mileage monitoring raises some concerns for those considering Pay As You Drive insurance. There are concerns that the devices used to monitor mileage will be used to track when or where a person drives, violating the driver?s privacy. However, that is not something a driver interested in Pay As You Drive insurance should worry about because the monitoring devices focus just on the number of miles driven and nothing else. Privacy concerns are not an issue with Pay As You Drive insurance.

There are several benefits to switching to Pay As You Drive insurance. First of all, your insurance premiums are based on your driving and not other factors like gender, age and where you live. Pay As You Drive insurance also offers an incentive to cut back on the amount of driving you do. Less driving means you will save money not only on your car insurance, but also on gas and auto maintenance and repair, not to mention saving wear and tear on your vehicle. Pay As You Drive insurance is also good for the environment, because less driving means a reduction in auto emissions. There is also less congestion and traffic on the highways and roads.

In addition, low mileage drivers will no longer subsidize high mileage drivers under the Pay As You Drive insurance system. Under a traditional insurance system, drivers pay the same amount for insurance premiums if they drive a few hundred miles a year or if they drive several thousand. Pay As You Drive is a more fair and equitable way of determining insurance premiums. You really do pay for what you use under this system.

According to a report from the Brookings Institution, two-thirds of U.S. households would save an average of $270 a year on auto insurance under a Pay As You Drive insurance system.

Do you want to learn more about the Pay As You Drive innovation? To see if it is available in your location, contact your local insurance agent. He or she can customize a Pay As You Drive plan to meet all your auto insurance needs.

How to Repair Your Credit Score and Save Money

Posted on October 24th, 2009 by by Jon Baker

Don’t Fall For a Credit Repair Scam

You see the advertisements in newspapers, on TV, and on the Internet. You hear them on the radio. You get ads in the mail, and maybe even cold calls offering credit repair services. They always make the same claims:

“Do You have credit problems? No problem!”

“We can easily remove all your bankruptcies, tax liens, judgments and bad loans from your credit file for ever!”

We can legally erase bad credit – 100% guaranteed.

We create a completely new credit file for you – 100 % legal.

It is not too good to believe these claims: they are very often signs of a scam. Some professionals even state they have never seen a legitimate credit repair company trying to make those claims. The fact is there is often not a quick fix for credit and creditworthiness. You can actually improve your credit report legitimately, but it takes some time, a conscious effort, and also sticking to a personal debt repayment plan.

Warning signals that should alert you on a Credit Repair Scam

Often, organizations target uninformed people who have bad credit histories with promises to clean up their credit report so they can get a car loan, a home mortgage, insurance, or even a job once they pay them a fee for the service. In reality, these organizations cant deliver an improved credit report for you using the tactics they promote. No one can, if they stick to the law, remove accurate, but damaging information from your credit report. So after you hand them over fees, often several hundred dollars or more, you are left with the same, or worse credit report and someone else has your money.

If you encounter credit repair offers, here is how you can tell whether the firm that does it is crap:

The service organization does not tell you all your rights and what you can do for yourself to repair your credit for free.

The firm wants that you refrain from contacting or calling any of the three major national credit reporting agencies directly yourself.

The firm suggests that you try to invent a new or false credit identity – and then get a new credit report – by applying for an Employer Identification Number to use instead of your Social Security number.

The organization wants you to pay for credit repair services before they provide you any services. Under what is called the the Credit Repair Organizations Act, companies that are offering to repair credit, cannot require you to hand over the money, until they have completely delivered the services they have advertised.