Finance Tips

There’s a strange contradiction about insurance. It’s an annoying burden every month when the time to pay the premium comes around but, if the worst should happen, it’s a wonderful thing to have had that insurance policy in place. With the family budgets really tight as the recession shows little sign of going away, the monthly bank statement shows the insurance instalments disappearing. You look at your own health. That’s great. You have never had a day of serious illness in your life. It’s the same for your partner. You cannot avoid feeling a little resentful. All those dollars, every month. And then there’s an accident or one of you does unexpectedly fall ill. It’s then you discover whether that plan you have been paying into is actually worth the money.

The market for health plans is divided in a slightly complicated way. It’s really to ensure the insurance companies make a profit as the cost of treatment keeps on rising way faster than inflation. So it reflects a balancing act between allowing the patients some say, and denying them any real control, over access to treatment. The plan most popular with the insurance industry is Managed Care. This requires you to get the insurer’s permission before you attempt to access treatment. The first contact doctor must be from an approved list, and he or she must refer you on for further diagnostic tests or treatment. Failure to get this referral usually means the insurer will refuse to pay. The second option is a Fee For Service Plan where you pay a lump sum at the beginning of each year, followed by monthly instalments. This covers you for the medical services listed in your policy. Basic plans only cover consults with your doctor and a simple set of tests. More expensive plans have a better range of coverage but there are usually co-payments.

Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) are networks of healthcare professions. If you stay within the network, your medical needs are covered although, in most plans, co-payments will be required. The next step up is a Point of Service Plan (POS). This is a variation on the HMO and allows a networked doctor to refer you to an outside expert. Finally, there are Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) which offer more choice than an HMO or POS both in the doctors you can access and the treatments you can have, e.g. usually include preventative medicine.

Because the service offered by this site is free, you can get as many health insurance quotes as you like for each of the main types of plan. This gives you more information on which to make your decision. But it’s fair to say the decision is not an easy one unless you read the detail of each plan with some care. With all the health insurance quotes available, you are often forced to balance coverage against cost, i.e. you buy the amount of coverage you can afford. This makes the choices something of a gamble. Do you pick emergency care in the event of an accident or focus on a list of the most common diseases or disorders? Do you include long-term care against the possibility you might be more permanently disabled by whatever happens? There is no right or wrong answer to these questions. In the end, it all comes down to what you can afford and what helps you to sleep best at night.

Recently, President Obama made a big speech. He was worried about education standards. He wanted to divert more resources into improving basic reading skills and giving people a better understanding of the world around them. It was interesting to see how many voices were raised in complaint. They did not agree it should be a high priority for people to know more about the world. These are the voices of big businesses like insurance that rely on you not understanding how policies work. There is more profit to be made if people do not read and understand what they are buying. How bad is this problem? The answer comes in a recent survey carried out by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). It seems only 45% of you have any real sense of confidence when you buy insurance policies, more than 60% failed to define simple concepts from health and auto policies, and 86% did not understand the terms being used in the healthcare reform debate. When insurance is so important to financial survival in the US, it is disheartening that people are not making decisions based on the best information.

Here is a quick test:

• if some property is stolen from your vehicle, can you claim its value on your auto policy?
• is your credit history taken into consideration when you buy a policy?
• when you buy a liability policy which insures 100/300/100. what does the last figure mean?

When you want insurance, you could make a policy decision only to buy through an agent. Being able to talk to a person gives you access to their knowledge and experience. It can give you more confidence. Except most agents will charge you a fee or there will be commission deducted out of your premium instalments, so this advice can come expensive. Is it worth it when you can do a little study and learn what you need to know. As a starting point, look at http://www.InsureUonline.org/. Getting more savvy means saving money and getting a better deal by buying a policy online. So long as you shop around, getting as many auto insurance quotes as possible, you should always be able to find a good deal. But, if you are still uncertain, do not be afraid to pick up the telephone before writing out a check or authorizing a credit card payment. Now you make a choice. Your state has a Department of Insurance and all of them run help lines to answer your questions. Alternatively, call the auto insurance company directly. Make sure you understand your policy before you find out the hard way when making a claim. In other words, you should always protect yourself and avoid future losses by asking before you buy.

The answers to the questions are: property stolen from your vehicle is covered by your homeowners policy not the auto insurance policy; your credit score is a key factor for setting your premium rate in the majority of states; and the final $100,000 is the maximum amount payable for damage to property.

Article by Chris Westley

The HTC Desire was awarded “phone of the year (2010)” by T3 magazine. Despite being available for well over a year, it continues to sell well. HTC has released several new instalments to the Desire series. These include the HTC Desire HD and the Desire S. This article will focus on the Desire HD and Desire S, looking at the differences between the two, and also how they improve upon the winning formula of the original HTC Desire.

HTC Desire HDThe HTC Desire HD is something of an Android powerhouse. Boasting a 4.3 inch hi res touchscreen, 1 GHz processor and an 8 megapixel camera, it is the perfect multimedia phone. It features the latest version of the HTC Sense user interface, and of course allows users to download thousands of apps from the Android Market. Alongside this, Dolby Mobile and SRS sound enhancement provides top sound quality. Aside from multimedia, the HTC Desire HD makes a great web browsing phone, not only due to its large screen, but also the impressive built in web browser. This supports flash, so embedded games and videos can be enjoyed without fuss. Also, internet connection speeds are superb, with 3G coverage allowing download speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps, and of course Wi-Fi when users have access to a wireless network.

HTC Desire SThe HTC Desire S was released alongside the Wildfire S and the Incredible S. It offers something of an upgrade over the original Desire, with an update to its Android OS, this time offering version 2.3 (aka Gingerbread) and a slight upgrade to is processor. As with the original, the Desire S has a 5 megapixel camera, however the Desire S allows HD footage to be captured in 720p. The original Desire only offers video capture in WVGA quality. The screen is 3.7 inches, and utilises S-LCD capacitive touchscreen technology rather than its predecessor’s AMOLED screen. HTC has made a clever move by offering upgraded versions of the popular Desire. The HD and S versions offer the same winning formula as the original. The Desire S is likely to prove ideal for those who have owned the original version and may be looking to upgrade their handset but are happy to stick with the layout and dimensions they are used to with the Desire. The Desire S simply offers updated software and a few tweaks to the hardware for improved performance.

The Desire HD on the other hand, seems like a completely different handset to the original. A bigger screen, faster web browsing, a more powerful camera and the latest Android software make it a must have for smartphone enthusiasts or simply those who like to take advantage of the most up to date technology available. Because each handset is so different, it would be unfair to say that one is better than the other as they are clearly aimed at different markets. On paper at least, the Desire HD offers the best specifications, but there are sure to be users out there who would prefer the Desire S. Either way, one thing is for sure; HTC is a company that likes to give its customers plenty of choice and options. This way, they can choose a handset which is exactly right for them.