Confused about renters insurance? Here’s a renters insurance guide that will help you understand it.

Renters Insurance Guide

Many people think their landlords insurance will cover them if their possessions are stolen or damaged. Not so. Your landlord’s insurance only covers the building you live in, not your possessions. If you want to protect your possessions you need to get renters insurance.

Renters insurance is one of the least expensive types of insurance, yet it provides invaluable protection for you and your possessions. Renters insurance covers three basic categories:

Personal Property

Personal property coverage pays to replace your possessions if they’re stolen, or damaged by vandalism, fire, smoke, lightning, explosions, windstorms, burst water pipes, or electrical malfunctions.

There are two types of personal property coverages available:

Actual cash value coverage - which pays to replace your personal property minus a deduction for deprecation.

Replacement cost coverage - which pays to replace your personal property with no depreciation deduction.

Standard policies only provide limited coverage for expensive items like jewelry, furs, silver, and collections, so you may need to purchase additional coverage for these items. Standard policies also do not cover damage caused by floods or earthquakes, so if you want coverage for these disasters you’ll need to purchase additional insurance.

Additional Living Expenses

This coverage pays for your living expenses - hotel, motel, and restaurant bills - if your home becomes uninhabitable due to the causes mentioned above. Most insurers will reimburse you for the difference between your additional living expenses and your usual living expenses.

Personal Liability

Personal liability coverage pays for another person’s medical expenses if you, a family member, or your pet injures that person. It also covers damages to that person’s property. Some policies do not cover pets such as as pit bulls or rottweilers.

Standard policies usually come with $100,000 to $300,000 worth of liability coverage, but you can purchase more if you have a lot of assets you want to protect from a lawsuit.

Cheap Renters Insurance

Because renters insurance can vary by hundreds of dollars from one company to the next, the best way to get cheap renters insurance is to visit an insurance comparison website to get quotes from multiple companies.

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Filed under: Insurance Advices & Tips

Here’s 7 easy ways to get the best possible auto insurance deal.

* Multiple Quotes

Get multiple quotes - use the internet and call a few brokers. It’s easy to gather some good comparison quotes.

Remember to get different types of quotes e.g one from a direct-sell insurance company; another from an offline broker who keeps a database of quotes; and a couple from the internet.

Cheapest might not mean best. Will they pay out if you make a claim ? How financially secure ? How reputable ? Check around with family and friends, and look for online reviews.

* Different type of car

Insurance costs vary depending on car type. Obviously, that $100k sports model costs more to insure than your average runabout. If you’re planning to buy a new car, check insurance costs before you buy. I once set my heart on a beautiful, high performance, highly tuned Pontiac.

Luckily I checked the auto insurance before I bought it, because I couldn’t get insurance. Every broker, every insurance company flat turned me down because I lived in a high car-crime area. So I had to forget the car of my dreams until I moved up-town.

* Age and Value of Car

Maybe you’re buying a used car ? Maybe your car saw better days a few years ago, and now values much lower ? So why pay for high-priced auto insurance ? In particular, do you still need fully comprehensive coverage ?

A good rule of thumb multiplies insurance premium by 10, and compares that figure with your car value. So if you’re quoted $1000 premium and your car is worth less than $10,000 you may want to think if comprehensive represents good value. If you drop collision and/or comprehensive coverage, you should get big savings.

* Higher deductibles (excess charges)

Most auto insurance companies use deductibles to keep policy cost down. Deductibles, or excess charges, show what you pay before your auto insurance policy kicks in. Try requesting quotes with different levels of deductibles, and see how your quotes vary.

Most internet quote forms contain a box where you can specify preferred level of deductibles. Ask your broker his recommended level. For example, going from $250 to $500 deductible can slash your insurance costs by 20% or more. Go to $1000 and you save a lot of money. But you must pay the deductible if you need to make a claim !

* Multiple Insurances

I guess this might come under the ‘Get Multiple Quotes’ heading, but it’s still worth mentioning separately. You usually get an insurance break if you buy multiple policies with the same insurer.

This might mean multiple vehicles, or homeowner and auto insurance. Either way it’s worth asking about multi-policy discounts.

* Low Mileage

More and more people work at home. No more commuting. Fewer business trips. Low mileage on your car. Maybe you do travel to work, but car pool ?

Either way, look for low mileage discounts.

* Good Driving Record

A good driving record always reduces your auto insurance costs. Keep a clean drivers license. Don’t speed, don’t drive dangerously, and you’ll save money (apart from other benefits !)

* Bonus Tip

Okay, I said ‘7 Ways…’, but here’s some extra tips. Fit anti-theft devices to your car. Go on an advanced driver training course. Use daytime running lights. If you’re a college student away from home, consider adding to parents policy.

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Filed under: Auto Insurance

Life insurance is basically an income-protection measure. If the insured person is the sole bread earner of the family and he passes away all on a sudden, the family will not be left in the lurch, at least financially. As per the terms of the insurance policy, beneficiary will receive the proceeds to offset the lost income that is caused due to the demise of the insured person.

A person of any age can go for life insurance, though some of the agencies may not be ready to cover the group that is very old. A person who is above sixty can take out an insurance policy, but it may not be a good idea. You are around 60 years old means that your income stream is largely over and hopefully you have accumulated the assets you need anyway by now. So, an insurance policy will not have great rewards to give you.

However, if you have nothing left with you in terms of monetary savings, you better go for a life insurance policy, no matter what your age is. Insurance not only covers you when you lose your income; rather it comes handy in so many other ways. Insurance is exigent for those who are married and earn a living through work. This is applicable for spouses that use their income to support their lifestyle.

In case you are married and the spouse is not working, then the bread earner should go for Life Insurance. Of course, if you are independently wealthy then you may not need one. Otherwise an insurance policy may go a long way to save a family from any kind of financial woes and worries that is resulted by the death of the bread earner. Whatever type of insurance policy you take out, make it sure that you do some research before you finally pack up a deal.

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Filed under: Life Insurance