Most people have the good sense to make sure that they are financially protected with home insurance cover in place. The right home insurance plan provides us with peace of mind as well as financial protection in the event of a range of unexpected events that can affect our homes or our possessions within the home.

However, some people make the mistake of taking out a home insurance plan that is suited to their needs and then simply renewing it year after year without actually working out whether their needs are still the same as they were when they first took the plan out. A lot can change over the course of a few years and you may find that your insurance requirements have altered, but if you are still taking out the same cover year in year out your insurance will not reflect your changing needs.

Some people may find that due to changes in their lives and their homes they require a higher level of financial protection or a more comprehensive home insurance policy than they originally took out. For example, when you first took out home insurance you may have been living alone with little by way of valuable possessions in the home. However, since taking out the plan you may have moved a partner in who has valuable jewellery or electrical gadgets in the home, which may not be covered by your plan.

Likewise, you may find that your insurance needs have actually reduced since you first took out the home insurance plan, which means that you may be paying more than you need to. Using the same analogy as above, you may have originally taken out the cover when you were living with a partner who had expensive possessions in the home. However, since taking out the cover you may have split with your partner and many of these costly possessions may have gone, which means that you may not require such a high level of contents cover.

There are other changes and factors that can affect the need to change your level of insurance cover. For example, most of us receive gifts for birthdays and Christmas and you may have been lucky enough to receive something that is quite valuable, which is now in your home but was not there when you took out your cover. You would therefore need to make sure that your home insurance cover is still adequate as otherwise you could be in for a shock in the event that something happens to treasured possessions that are not covered under your current plan.

The good news is that if you find that your insurance needs have changed that you need to alter or switch your home insurance plan you can do this quickly and easily by either contacting your insurance provider to advise them of any changes in circumstances or by looking online for a more suitable policy and provider to reflect your changing requirements. By making sure that you regularly assess your home insurance needs and requirements you can make sure that you have continual peace of mind rather than paying out for a plan that is no longer suited to your needs.

In the wake of damage caused by hurricane/tropical storm Irene, many are left wondering how they will pay their deductible and what their claims will be like. For those lucky enough to escape the storm, many are rightly concerned with the possibility that the next one might strike their home. What will happen? If you have hurricane coverage, your insurer will take care of you, but you might have to pay a special deductible.

Hurricane Deductibles Versus Normal Deductibles

In places where hurricanes hit regularly, such as Florida, Georgia, and pretty much the entire Atlantic coastline, Gulf coastline, and New England, insurance companies do not charge a normal deductible. Instead, they charge a hurricane deductible.

The difference is that, rather than the flat amount you pay with a standard deductible, you pay a percentage of the market value of your home. So, if your home is worth $300 thousand and your hurricane deductible is 2 percent, you pay $6 thousand. This is almost always more than a standard deductible, such as $750.

Companies do this to save themselves thousands of dollars per home in claims, since they often have to pay to fix thousands of homes per hurricane.

Unless you live right on the coastline, in which case your deductible may be very high, hurricane deductibles rarely stray from the one to five percent range.

All states and districts subject to hurricane deductibles are:
The South and Southwest
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia
The North and Northeast
Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island
Other
Hawaii, Washington, D.C.

Will Victims of Irene Have to Pay Hurricane Deductibles?

Hurricane Irene is tricky case, since it was not a hurricane the whole time. Before it hit New York and New Jersey, as well as Vermont and other more northern areas, Irene was downgraded from hurricane to tropical storm. While you might think this would be a straightforward case of nobody having to pay hurricane deductibles, the reality is different.

In New York and New Jersey, state regulators have declared that homeowners should not have to pay hurricane deductibles. So far, several insurers have come out and said that is the case and that they will not be charging more than the standard deductibles. However, other states have been less clear.

In Connecticut, for instance, hurricane deductibles are regulated a bit differently. Firstly, they are only allowed on coastline properties. If you live across the street from the shore, you shouldn’t have to pay a percentage – just the flat rate. Everyone with hurricane deductibles probably will have to pay them. Ah, you protest, “but it wasn’t a hurricane!” True, but hurricane deductibles in Connecticut can be triggered by even just a hurricane warning. Ultimately, because of the grey area, it will be up to homeowners insurance providers which deductibles to charge.

Vermonters can at least take some solace from the fact that they do not have deductibles on their hurricane coverage.

If you haven’t gotten hurricane coverage on your home insurance yet, there is no better time than now. Climatologists predict that hurricanes will be getter worse, more frequent, and be going farther inland. Prepare your home insurance now.

The vast majority of the world accepts that climate change is happening, though some conservatives in America doubt whether it is man-made or not. Here’s another question: what does global warming mean for your homeowners insurance?

The natural forces tied to climate are significant risks to homes and big factors in determining insurance premiums. Changes in those risks mean changes to premiums and policies.

How Climate Is Changing

Scientists at American universities, in the UK, in South America, and even the United Nations agree that climate change is already happening. Glaciers are melting and this is evidence, but there’s more. Record floods and droughts in Sri Lanka, Brazil, and China, as well as deadly heat waves in the United States and across Europe, are all consistent with the projections from climatologists.

It’s not just that the planet is getting hotter – it’s that it is getting hotter in some places, cooler in others, and currents and weather patterns are changing. Desert could become rainforest, prairies swamps, and tundra could be eradicated altogether.

What Insurers See

Insurance companies look at climate change and they see chaos. The statistics they have used for a long long time are quickly becoming irrelevant. They won’t be quite certain how to determine how at risk a given home is to disaster.

Floods

As flooding has gotten worse already, many home insurance companies have responded by making flood insurance non-standard for insurance policies. It has been largely separated from water damage coverage.

Many people who need flood coverage do not have it because they do not live in an area traditionally susceptible to floods. With climate change, however, tradition is out the window. We are seeing higher levels of precipitation in many areas of the United States. There has already been record flooding in Pennsylvania and in Texas.

Check with a climate authority to be sure you are safe. If you aren’t, get flood coverage on your home insurance.

Wildfires

Some places have seen record lows in precipitation, which has caused drought. While drought is a threat to all animal life, it gets worse when it leads to wildfires, as we have seen in Texas and California recently. If your climate becomes more arid, it could easily mean an increase in premiums.

Hurricanes

Climate scientists have predicted that hurricanes will become more common and worse. It is as yet unproven that the recent hurricanes are caused by climate change, but it is definitely true that they were made worse by some of the effects of climate change.

Tropical storms do not normally go so far inland as Irene did. The reason Irene made it so far and did so much damage was her ability to pick up so much moisture along the way. A hurricane or tropical storm gets moisture from the surface water of the oceans and gulf. In this case, surface temperatures were abnormally high due to global warming, which meant that a larger amount of moisture could be taken in, fueling Irene on her path of destruction.

People in the inland United States may have to get hurricane coverage on home insurance soon. People in coastal states susceptible to hurricanes may also see higher hurricane deductibles and hurricane coverage premiums.

The year 2011 has been one for record natural disasters. The Texas wildfires currently raging are already causing never-before-seen damage in the state to forests, animal habitats, and human homes. This damage continues hurting even after the fires are done. The only thing protecting homeowners in the 25 thousand scorched acres is insurance.
Big disasters can be huge tests of the viability of an insurance company. Make sure your insurer is up to the test.

Damage from Wildfires

Wildfires have always been a problem in the Southwest and always will be, if climate change doesn’t turn it into a tropical zone. The problem will likely only get worse as more of the precious few water resources are tapped out in Texas and other border states.
Wildfires can start from almost anything, whether it be spontaneous combustion from the sun or a cigarette tossed into the woods. The key is parched woodland from lack of rain, intense sunlight, and heat. Once a fire gets going, it’s very hard to stop. Part of the reason is the incredible amount of fuel available – so many trees – and another part is the inability to predict which way it goes. Fires spread by wind to anywhere where a flame or even an ember can blow.
In this Texas wildfire, 500 homes are already been destroyed in the conflagration, with no end in sight. The 25 thousand acres of land affected could double or triple before this is over, the fire department says.

Wildfire Coverage

Homeowners living near wooded areas don’t really have much protection against wildfires. Sure, they can put flame retardant in their homes and clear brush away, but if there is a raging inferno like this one, cheap homeowners insurance is the best you can do.
While most homeowners policies have some coverage for fire damage, it might not be enough to really protect against the threat that a full-blown wildfire poses. In the United States as a whole, there is a 10% chance that any given home will be damaged by a fire at some point over 30 years, so it is important that homes in all states have some protection. The following states, however, should get more fire coverage:
Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas

Texas home insurance Provider Up to the Task?

A reassuring sign of the people of Texas is that the insurance providers are out in force. Many of the companies have sent agents to the affected areas in vans or even temporary housing to help homeowners with claims. State Farm in Central Texas has already filed 210 claims.
Not all providers will be ready, however, as some might not be able to afford the claims. Make sure your insurance provider is up to the financial task by checking their financial health with Standard&Poor’s or another ratings agency.

Be Prepared

If you haven’t already, get good fire damage coverage on your homeowners insurance. Even if you are in Texas, it might not be too late.
You should also have your paperwork ready for disaster to strike. In case the fire should arrive near you, be ready to leave with all the necessary items, including a copy of your policy and proof of the most expensive items in your home.

Having a teen driver in your house is certainly a cause for being agitated. First of all, when your teen takes on the responsibility to drive a car it’s a serious step towards independence, and that alone is a time of trial for most parents. Besides, driving a vehicle is a potentially dangerous activity and when there’s a lack of experience in the domain the risk of ending up in an accident is rather high. So the responsibility is definitely quite high when there’s a teen driver in the house. That’s exactly why insurance companies charge younger drivers with the highest rates possible.

If you have ever tried to insure a driver who is younger than 25 then you definitely know that their rates are among some of the highest between all age groups. This is explained by the overall number of insurance claims filed by this group of drivers. Lack of experience and general risk taking behavior is what teens are infamous for and that’s exactly what insurance companies are not fond of. When there’s a high risk the price for insuring something will be higher and that’s the case with teen drivers. Still, this doesn’t necessarily mean that teens should always have problems with having affordable auto insurance.

There are several effective methods for teen drivers to obtain affordable insurance coverage with their cars. And if you manage to apply a couple of them at the same time there will definitely a good cut in premiums for the younger driver. Here are some of the things you can use to cut your teen’s rates.

Keep the young driver under your policy. Quite often parents share the same policy for their vehicles but choose to buy a separate policy for their teen. It’s a common mistake that leads to additional expenses. By including the teen driver to your policy you will get a slight increase in premiums but the overall amount will be lower if compare to the sum of separate policies.

Buy a cheap and used car first. All parents like to be generous with their children and when there’s a possibility to buy an expensive car they do it without considering the consequences. And the most apparent consequence of buying an expensive new vehicle to a teen driver is ending up with a very costly auto insurance policy. Instead, buy a cheaper vehicle for the start and accumulation of experience that will cost less to insure. And when the driver becomes more mature – get the better vehicle.

Encourage good grades. Being a good student gives a teen the possibility to opt for a good student discount, which is available with most insurance providers. It requires the student to provide a copy of their grade report periodically with an average of B and higher. If you manage to encourage your kid to do so you’ll kill two birds with one stone: promote better education and save money on auto insurance. Sounds really interesting and promising, doesn’t it?

Even if you read your policy very careful, you might still be surprised these 10 things are not covered.

#1: Currency

Some people think keeping money under their mattress is safer than keeping it in a bank. At least money in banks are insured! If you have cash lying around, under the mattress, or even in a safe or lock box, it will probably not be reimbursed under the terms of your homeowners or renters insurance.

#2: Water Damage from Backups and Floods

Unless you have flood insurance, nowadays insurance companies won’t cover water damage caused by flooding or storms.

What most policies do cover burst pipes and damage from accidents or non-flood disasters.
Don’t expect sewage backups or other pipe backups to be covered standard though. What you need is “sewer backup coverage”.

#3: Trampolines

Depending on your state, you might not get coverage for your trampoline. Obviously, no trampoline repairs, but the bigger concern is your liability from injuries incurred during trampoline use. Over 100 thousand injuries happen each year due to trampolines.

In some places and with some companies, you might be disqualified from getting any property liability coverage at all if you put in a trampoline. And don’t think about not telling your insurer, because they can void your whole contract if they learn about it.

You should also be concerned about the damage to your home or others that a trampoline can cause if it is blown away in a storm. At the very least, bolt it down.

#4: Much Ado about Pools

While screened pool enclosures are great for making sure you can use your pool whenever, free from bugs and other things that might drift in, they are also super expensive, vulnerable, and usually uninsured. This is especially true in coastal states in the South, where enclosures and tropical storms are both common. Enclosures are extremely vulnerable to hurricanes and high winds, when objects flying through the air can crash into them and cause thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars in damage. Don’t even bother with the claim, because they are not going to pay it.

Don’t have a fence or “cage” around your pool? Make sure you check your state law, because many states require them. Many insurers do as well, if you want them to cover liability. If a person should drown in your pool, as thousands of children do each year, you could be charged with criminal neglect; most home insurance providers will not help you without a fence.

Water slides and diving boards are really joys for children, but absolute nightmares for home insurance providers. That’s why many home insurance companies will not provide liability coverage for pools with either, and some won’t even offer you a policy at all if you have a slide or board.

#5: Pit Bulls and Other “Aggressive Breeds”

In no way is it scientifically proven that certain breeds of dog are more dangerous than others, but that won’t stop insurance companies from denying you liability coverage. Because of statistics, certain breeds might not be offered coverage.

Dogs categorized as high-risk breeds include:

Pit bulls
Akitas
Chow chows
German shepherds
Wolf hybrids
Doberman pinschers
Presas

Unfortunately we live in an economy where more Americans than ever before are struggling with bad credit. Sadly this is affecting many areas of their lives, as credit history and scores are used frequently when evaluating someone for a job, insurance, or even an apartment. Today the insurance industry has been using credit scores more frequently than they have in the past because the cost of accidents on the road are costing insurance companies billions of dollars a year. So they want to know that you can pay for your insurance so they can meet their obligations as well. Unfortunately for many Americans their credit score is not an accurate reflection on how responsible they are, but this isn’t how some insurance companies will view it. If you are having a tough time getting car insurance due to your credit history, here we will talk about how to overcome that.

Today car insurance is mandatory, and hope is not lost even if you have bad credit. It is inconceivable to think that every driver on the road has an immaculate credit report, so knowing this should give you comfort if you are looking for car insurance. Many insurance companies are getting more flexible about credit history reflecting on their customer’s premiums. Although it will take you a little bit of work, you can still get car insurance even if you have bad credit.

Finding out why bad credit affects your insurance record will be important before you begin looking for quotes. Insurance companies use claims studies to evaluate prospective customers, and they have simply found that over time, people with bad credit have a higher rate of insurance claims. So, while it may not be your credit score specifically that is keeping you from insurance, but the claims history on other poor credit customers that is affecting your scores. This means then that even if you do have bad credit, if you have no claims on your record, you are already seen as a good customer to your insurance company.

Statistically speaking people with higher credit scores cost insurance companies less overall, and this is why cheap car insurance is tougher to get for those with bad credit. The good news is that credit records can change with time, and you can start cleaning up your credit report for future rate decreases. In the meantime, you will need to shop around to see what insurance companies are willing to work with you. You may be eligible for a bad credit policy to start off with, or you may find an insurance company that does not use credit scores as an evaluation tool.

The only way to find out which insurance companies will be the most flexible for your situation will be to shop around. It’s important to realize that having bad credit does not mean you can’t or won’t get car insurance. It simply means you need a little more work shopping around to see who can offer you the best car insurance quotes. Even people with good credit need to shop around for low car insurance quotes, and you are no different. Doing your homework and getting a number of car insurance quotes from different companies will always be the best way to lower your premiums, no matter what your credit situation actually looks like.

You always hope for the best whatever you do. Let’s face it, setting off expecting the worst often becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. So when you learn to drive, you first hope you will never have an accident. Then you hope you will only have a small accident. The idea of a total loss is not something you want to think about. Yet it’s surprising how often you find the insurer wants to total your vehicle; and then there are the times when your pride and joy disappears off the face of the Earth. That’s a really sad moment. So what are the rules when the unthinkable happens? In this, don’t forget the minimum liability policy is no help. For repair of your own vehicle, you need a collision policy. To recover value should your vehicle be stolen, you need a comprehensive policy.

Let’s start with an accident in which your vehicle is damaged. Your first instinct is to repair. The insurer gets estimates. If it’s going to cost more than the market value of your vehicle, the insurer will offer you a check. Now comes the really sad part. The check is for less than you expect. This is not the price you paid. This is not the price you think the vehicle would command if you advertised it for sale. This is the price the insurer thinks you will have to pay to buy a similar replacement. So you may have showered love on this vehicle. Its paint may gleam in the morning sun and it has been perfectly maintained. You look at the check and see it will only buy an unloved wreck. But there’s worse to come. Suppose your vehicle was bought using an auto loan and the amount of the check will only pay off a part of the money outstanding on the loan. To cover this gap, there’s a separate insurance policy you can buy. That way, there will always be enough to pay off whatever is owing to the bank or finance company.

Then come all the woes of a stolen vehicle and its contents. Let’s start with all the things on the back seat and in the trunk. You will find the auto policy excludes the value of anything that’s not a part of the vehicle. Your only hope of recovering the value of whatever is lost with the vehicle is your home insurance policy. You need to check the wording of the policy, but most will cover the value of items like your notebook or CDs that would normally be a permanent part of your home contents. It can be more difficult if you have just filled the trunk with food from your local store. Check the wording of any insurance that comes with the credit card you used to pay. Some cover the theft of new purchases. As to the value of the vehicle itself, you run into the same problem as with collision cover. That market value may be a lot less than you owe on the vehicle.

Insurance policies are all about the insurer collecting in the premiums from you and paying out as little as possible. So when you get your car insurance quotes, read the small print to find out what is covered. Remember, cheap car insurance is usually a false economy.

Insuring a vehicle is probably one of the least pleasant aspects of owning a car. And because it’s required by law you just can’t do anything about it. Most people choose going with the flow when it comes to car insurance and simply take the first policy they come across. Others, however, take the time to learn what can be done to lower the costs and still get sufficient coverage. If you are one of those inquisitive people there’s good news for you – this way you have a much higher chance of getting inexpensive car insurance. But before you will be able to shop around effectively you should first learn what actually affects car insurance rates and why they tend to differ between various customers.

First of all you have to understand that the insurance company sets individual rates for each customer based on a set of different factors. These factors help the company determine the actual risk of a particular person to file an insurance claim. And the combination of these variables is what determines the final auto insurance quotes you get when simply trying to learn how much the policy would cost you. Moreover, each company uses the same factors in different formulas when calculating the customer’s premiums so there’s usually a fluctuation in rates even if you’re trying to get the very same policy from two different providers.

So what does affect your insurance rates? The following factors have a certain influence on how much it will cost you to insure your vehicle: car make and model, engine volume, top speed, repair costs, theft rates, driving record, credit score, place of residence, marital status, education and some less important things. Now, as you see the list isn’t very small and there are a lot of things that can make your car insurance cheap or expensive. And as mentioned previously each company uses its own methods for calculating rates and this means that you can get a totally different result when the same data is being used by two different providers.

Knowing the factors influencing car insurance quotes is very important for effective comparison shopping. Quite often you may find that some factors may be favorable for affordable insurance while others tend to push up the costs. So the main aim would be finding a provider that relies more on the factors that are favorable in your case and less on those that are not as good as you would want them to be. And rest assured, with so many companies out there on the market you will always be able to find a provider that will suit your requirements from this perspective.

Be smart when looking for auto insurance quotes and consider all the factors that will influence your rates. This will help you set the expectations adequately and be more precise when choosing between different companies. It isn’t hard at all but in the end you may end up paying hundreds of dollars less for having your car insured compared to buying the first policy you come across.