Finance Tips

When you look around your neighborhoods, it’s hard to find any good news. Friends and neighbors may have lost their jobs or be on short-time. There are foreclosed properties on every street. Shops and businesses have been closing down with increasing frequency. These are the signs of a real recession where unemployment and poverty stalk the land. The cause of all this pain is not hard to find. We have all been living beyond our means. When the banks and credit card companies offered us more money to borrow, we just took it. Why bother to save when the value of our homes only goes up? Let’s plan for our retirement by borrowing cheap money and buying stocks and other more risky investments. No-one ever loses if they follow the advice of the credit rating agencies. Well, we know better now. What goes up can also come down. What is given a triple A rating can be junk tomorrow.

In the midst of all this chaos, the credit card operators have been cutting back on the borrowing limits. This has forced pain on us for two reasons. Firstly, finding the money to pay down our debts more quickly means redesigning the family budget. Sacrifices have to be made. Secondly, the way the credit score is calculated depends in part on the extent to which we use the credit cards we have. If the limits are reduced, we look like bad risks because the amount borrowed is closer to the limit. We have less money available to borrow and cut down on card usage so we can repay faster. Put the two together and the score falls. This is a direct criticism of the methods used to calculate the scores. It produces a fundamentally unfair result during a recession.

This would not be a problem if the credit score was only used by banks and credit card operators. But it’s also used by companies to help decide whether to employ you, by landlords deciding whether to rent to you and by insurance companies deciding whether you are a responsible person. National figures show more than half all insurance companies use credit scores as a key factor in deciding your premium rate. This is extraordinary. There is only one possible effect of being in debt when it comes to the way in which you drive. If you cannot afford to repair your vehicle, you drive defensively to reduce the risk of an accident.

Some states like California and Massachusetts have banned the use of credit score for this purpose, but they are a minority. They cite discrimination as a reason for the ban. The majority of the population without access to banking services and credit cards fall into minority racial groups. When they do not have a credit score, they are forced to pay a higher premium simply because of who they are, not how they drive. So, when you are looking for affordable cover, get the maximum possible number of car insurance quotes to find the best policies. If you live in a state which refuses the regulation of the car insurance market, contact your local government representatives and tell them how much pain you are suffering because of this unfair use of credit scores.

The widely-discussed reform of healthcare industry in the US owes much of the stir around it to the simple fact that having your health insured in our country isn’t affordable for millions of people of different demographic groups. In other words, it’s just too expensive to be within the family budget of most US citizens. But how much does it cost to get your health insured these days, anyway?

This strongly depends on several factors that may vary your cost significantly. Things like your health condition, age, workplace, location, income and other live factors play a very important role in shaping your final rates. Not to mention the provider you’re getting your coverage from. The form in which you get your health insured also plays a crucial role, because getting your insurance in a group from your employer usually costs less than if getting it on your own.

But what comprises the final insurance costs?

Many people get confused by the fact that there are more elements to insurance costs than just the rates you seen when quoting your price. Here are the most important of them:

Premiums

Premiums are periodic fees (usually, monthly) that have to be paid to the insurance company for receiving any medical services under your plan. If you have an individual plan then you are paying your premiums on your own. If you are covered under a group plan at work, your employer pays the premiums, usually requiring you to pay a small part of this amount. Premiums depend on your health condition, your age and your income status. Premiums also vary significantly between insurance companies, so you’d better spend some time on comparing health insurance quotes before you sign your plan.

Out-of-Pocket expenses

Out-of-pocket expenses are all the additional costs of health insurance plans that are extended beyond premiums. These usually include deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance. With some plans these expenses can be limited to a maximum amount, while other plans have no limitations at all, so be on the lookout for that.

Deductible is the amount of money you have to pay on an annual basis before your actual coverage kicks in. You will most commonly encounter them in PPO plans for the services received outside the network. And as with other types of insurance products, you will have to pay lower premiums if your deductible is higher.

Coinsurance is the part of the medical cost you have to meet after paying the annual deductible. It is usually 20-30% of what you pay for the services when going to the doctor.

Co-payments represent a fixed fee for certain services within your plan. In many HMO and PPO insurance plans co-payments are set for things like doctor’s visit or prescription medications.

And what are the average costs?

• Across the US, the premium is $2,985 for individual health insurance and $6,328 for a family plan.
• The annual premium differs significantly between states. If a family in New York had to pay $13,296 as an annual premium, the very same plan in Iowa was worth $5609.
• The amount of deductible paid has a strong effect on the annual premium. A family plan that had no deductible had a premium of $12686, while a $10,000 deductible shed this amount more than in half, with $5380 to be paid.

It should be a big surprise to anyone that young drivers have higher insurance rates than older car owners. There is a set of reasons behind such a state of affairs and parents unwilling to pay high premium rates for their teenage drivers shouldn’t think about dropping the coverage altogether. Instead, there are effective ways your teen driver can opt for lower insurance rates and save you some buck from the family budget. Here are some tips on how to do that:

1. Learn the offers at the market.

Shop around and see what local insurance companies have to offer. There are providers that specialize in high risk drivers (and teens also make part of this group), however there is also a small number of companies that work exclusively with teenage car owners and offer preferential rates. If you are able to find such a company in your area that would be the best option for you. Otherwise, compare the rates with different companies and choose the one that is more liberal towards young car owners.

2. Be a good student.

Good students can usually opt for special discounts with the majority of car insurance providers. This is because the statistics have proven that good students are safer and less risky drivers and thus can have lower rates. However, you should ask the insurance company what are the requirements and will be ready to provide proof with your current

3. Encourage the teen to pay a part of the premium.

Nothing encourages better saving and hard work when financial interest, so when you make the teen pay a part of the insurance premium you will instantly see how he or she tries to minimize these costs. This can be a good push for better grades and research on other insurance options. But be realistic about it, if your teen can’t manage to pay the premium in whole don’t put the burden and make him pay only the part he can.

4. Raise the deductibles.

Deductibles are the amount of money you have to pay upfront from your wallet before receiving the insurance benefits. And they are reverse-related to the insurance premiums, meaning that the higher is your deductible the lower premiums you will pay each year. So if your policy carries the smallest deductible, it’s better to raise it to the amount you can really pay out of pocket if something happens. This will cut your premiums for about 10-20%

5. Buy a vehicle that will give you low car insurance quotes.

It shouldn’t be a revelation to most of you that the car you drive strongly influences the rates you pay for insurance. And finding an insurance-friendly auto for your teen will really help cut the costs. Try searching car insurance quotes online to see what autos offer you the best saving opportunities and cost less to insure.

6. See if you can include the teen into your policy.

Some auto insurance companies allow parents to include teens into their insurance policies and sometimes it will help you in saving on insurance rates compared to having a separate policy for the young driver. Ask your insurance agent about your possibilities and if has any financial sense and provides some money saving options then write your teen in.