Mar 9 / mUjA

HARP and HAMP modify and refinance mortgages

One of the quotes seeming to live forever is, “Never give a sucker an even break.” Coming from the movie of the same name, starring and written by W.C. Fields, it’s supposed to be a comic line but, first used as an ad-lib by Fields in 1923, it accurately represents the ruthless streak in US business. So, over the last eighteen months or so, banks and finance companies have been playing to packed houses, always trying to portray themselves as caring and sympathetic but, more often than not, coming over as the heartless mortgage-holders in potboiling melodramas who throw the heroine out on the streets when there’s six foot of snow on the ground. What is the evidence for this? Walk through any suburb or exurb and count the empty properties and their weather-beaten “For sale” signs as the foreclosures cut into the neighborhoods. Property values everywhere have been dropping like stones. We were all suckers, it seems, and no bank is ever going to give us an even break. read more…

Mar 8 / mUjA

Why are auto insurance premium rates rising so fast?

Welcome to 2010. Look around the states. Yes, they all have different perils for drivers to face. For some, it’s the weather with snow and ice making driving dangerous during winter. In others, it’s hurricanes and tornados. But leaving aside all the different types of peril, there’s one big problem for everyone with a vehicle on the road. All the major insurers are pressing for rate hikes. State Farm, Allstate and Geico have been leading the charge. And we are not just talking hikes of one or two percent. In Florida, for example, State Farm is raising rates by an average of 9.2%, while Allstate went for a shock-and-awe average of 16%. Even though the recession is slowly easing, the US is facing the highest levels of unemployment seen for decades. Rate increases like these hurt everyone struggling to make ends meet. Is this just gouging by the insurers? Like the Wall Street bankers, are they only interested in their bonuses? Should we think of insurance companies as the new carpetbaggers, using political influence to their own crooked ends? Just why are the insurers making such egregious demands for more money when most of us are down and out? read more…

Mar 7 / mUjA

Health insurance for children was changed for the better

Almost immediately President Obama took control of the White House, the combined majorities in both chambers were used to enact the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA). As has become the norm, the Republican party opposed the law. So, now that we have one year of experience, it’s interesting to revisit the Act to see whether this allegedly socialist measure has worked for good or the evil predicted by the GOP. The purpose was to help the millions of children whose parents had fallen on hard times and could no longer afford private family health plans. In effect, the recession was creating an underclass of children who were potentially uninsured. By making an immediate transfer of funds to individual states, local governments were able to expand their own medical coverage programs to admit more families in need. The current estimate is that about 2.5 million children were allowed into either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This was achieved by a simple change. read more…

Mar 6 / mUjA

Homeowners insurance facts

For most of us purchasing a home is the biggest investment to mike during the whole lifetime. And it’s reasonable that such an important investment needs reasonable coverage. That’s why you need homeowners insurance.

What’s included in homeowners insurance?

In case you finance your house purchase through a mortgage, your lender is most likely to require you buying basic homeowners insurance. The basic homeowners insurance includes coverage against the following risks:

  • Theft
  • Fire and lightning
  • Smoke
  • Frozen pipes
  • Ice and snow read more…
Mar 6 / mUjA

Health insurance companies hike premiums

This February, the Department of Health and Human Resources has issued a report identifying an alarming trend for insurance companies to seek premium rate increases. This is not limited to one or two states. This is not limited to one or two percentage increases in the rates. This is all the leading insurance companies asking for the right to significantly higher premiums: in Michigan hikes of 56%, in California hikes of 39%, and so on. If this only affected small numbers of policyholders, it might have passed unnoticed. But, with millions of policyholders affected across the country, these rate increase requests have attracted the full scrutiny of the federal government. Secretary Sibelius has been leading the attack, using the requests to push the reform agenda forward. read more…

Mar 5 / mUjA

Post-accident to-do list

The weather conditions should not affect anything. Of course, it is clear to everybody that in winter accidents are more frequent, but you also have to remember that avoiding an accident is much more valuable than knowing how to recover from it. But in case you did end up in an accident please know what to do. Let us try to explain everything you will require to understand while finding yourself a victim on the road. Here are a few very strong advices that will definitely help you to get through a difficult time of your life.

We would want you to read these points carefully and if you have an opportunity to print the information given below please do and make sure you keep it not to far away. read more…

Mar 5 / mUjA

Life insurance and the annuity option

Looking around the news, there is a story that the insurance regulators from five US states have just agreed a $2 million settlement with two Nationwide Life companies for failing to properly supervise the sale of annuities through one of their agents. This raises two questions. What exactly are annuities? and What can go wrong with them? An annuity is a variation on the traditional life insurance policy. As with any permanent policy, you pay a premium which is invested to build up a cash value. But, depending on the terms of the contract, you can receive payment of a lump sum or, more usually, a regular income from the insurance company before your death. For most people it’s the same as saving for retirement, except you buy a pension that pays out after you retire. To ensure the maximum control over annuities, they can only be bought through life insurance companies. In every US state, there is a Department or Office of Insurance to regulate local insurance companies. As you will understand from the news story, if an insurance company acts against the interests of its policyholders, the states can step in to fine the company and order the company to pay compensation to the policyholders affected. In the case of annuities, this is particularly important because the premiums are usually deductible from income before tax. The states therefore have a direct interest in ensuring annuities are not used for unlawful tax avoidance purposes.

Annuities are more complicated than the traditional life insurance contracts and it is always a good idea to have independent advice before buying. read more…

Mar 5 / mUjA

What sex is better behind the wheel?

Since God knows men were claiming they are much better drivers than women. This doesn’t mean this statement has to do anything with reality though. There was no debate around this subject but some men actually did take women’s side on the matter. They confess their wives and girlfriends are driving more carefully on the road.

So let us analyze the situation and try to point out the traffic violation circumstances and both sexes being involved. Who do you think is more likely to end up with a fine – men or women?

To clear everything up we addressed this question to the independent experts who happens to be an insurance company worker.

“Men in general have certain driving habits that could lead them to an accident on the road. Nowadays especially, when teens start driving from the early age of 16, young boys try to make a big impression while on the road. They are not careful enough. Young girls protect themselves more. Insurance companies have to be very thoughtful when quoting rates for young people of 16 to 25. They can create problems for everybody.” – the insurance company employee says. read more…