Finance Tips

Do you remember the Blues Brothers? They were unstoppable. They were “on a mission from God”. Seems like almost everyone standing behind the counter in the rental agency is a Blues Brother when you come into collect the vehicle. They always want to sell you something, usually additional insurance. The most common special offer is loss damage waiver (LDW). It sounds such a good idea to have complete cover against any loss caused to the vehicle while under your control. The magic word is “waiver”. You are excluded from liability even if you drive the vehicle off the end of a pier and it sinks without trace (hopefully without you still inside it). The only problem is this good idea can seriously damage your bank balance when the final bill comes in. That hourly or daily rate just got heavy. So when should you add LDW? The answer is deceptively simple. If you do not own another vehicle and have no insurance cover in place, it may be a good buy. But most insurance policies on your own vehicle cover you while driving a rental. So it all comes down to the extent of that cover on your own vehicle.

To get the maximum discount in these hard economic times, most people have been pushing up the deductibles. In many cases, the potential losses can be managed to keep to the low end. It’s your vehicle. You can talk to the repair shop and get all the work you want done at the best price. But when it’s a rental vehicle, everything is out of your hands. The rental company has no interest in protecting your bank balance. It pays top dollar to get the vehicle repaired and sends you the bill. No searching around to find the cheapest replacement parts and lowest price body shops. Everything is top of the range and then comes the kicker. It’s called the “loss of use” charge. You are expected to cover their estimated loss of profit while the vehicle is off the road. And guess what. If you are paying their loss of profit, they have no incentive to rush the repairs. They can take their own sweet time and, in most cases, you pay – most private policies do not cover loss of use charges. Some credit card companies offer limited cover, but read the small print before relying on it. Limited cover means very little actual money will ever be paid out.

If you are only renting for a few days, it’s probably worth paying for LDW. It may not be cheap car insurance, but it protects you. But if the end bill is going to be too high, trust to luck and your own insurance policy. Hopefully, your own cheap car insurance policy will give you enough of a buffer against claims Remembering, of course, that only the best private policies cover you against the dreaded loss of use charges. If nothing else, all this bad news should give you the incentive to drive like your wheels are passing over egg shells. Drive as safely and carefully as possible. If you are going to break some eggs, make sure the damage is minor and the losses are small.

All of us subscribe to monthly or weekly magazines. Often the newspapers are not enough to quench our thirst for knowledge, gossip and fun. We need the magazines which are more comprehensive and detailed than a newspaper. Moreover, they are more enjoyable to read on a lonely afternoon. If you are in a specialized field as a student or a professional and you simply want to keep track of the changing fashion scenario and beauty tips then the best option is to subscribe to some of the best magazines that are available in all most every city in Australia and elsewhere.

Online subscription is a great way of reducing your monthly magazine bills. Most online shops normally give you discounts and special offers. Infact most reputable sellers would charge you considerably less than the market price if you are a regular buyer. You can also go to the websites of the respective magazines and journals, and apply for the subscriptions as well.

They also give you a good discount if you are purchasing for six months or a year in advance. Some of the online sellers also have additional features like gift cards, seasonal discounts, referrals schemes and renewal reminders.

The delivery time for a magazine depend upon the distance of your location from the printing center. However, most online sellers or even the main company make sure that you get the subscriptions as quickly as possible. The magazine world has a lead time of 4 to eight weeks for weeklies and 8 to 12 weeks for monthly magazines and quarterlies. If you do not get the first issue of your order in time, then you should directly go to the website of the concerned magazine and check for your order status. You can also lodge a complaint about the delay.

The holidays are a great time for magazines. This is especially true during the late holiday phase. Some good online shops and magazine companies will even send you a holiday discount card or special offer coupon to purchase special issues or regular issues at amazingly discounted rates.

Beside the domestic use of magazines, many companies and media agencies require various magazines on lifestyle and fitness, photography, environment, housekeeping, fashion, technical or business topics. Most of these magazines will have special offers for corporate clients. For example, they normally have ‘jumbo offers’, whereby you can get five magazines of different issues if you pay for any three of them. At times, some of the magazines are given to you for free as complementary gifts or for the purpose of cross promotions.

Some organizations also go for placing ads in relevant magazines and periodicals. They normally do this throughout the year through advertising agencies. These agencies can get special offers whereby they can get issues of different magazines every month, as complementary or comparison copies.