jewc08.com

It would be good if life was always fair. Well, it would be better if life was always generous to you, but that would be asking the impossible. The best you can hope for is that people and companies treat you honestly and fairly. As an example, you would imagine insurance companies would be more generous because of the mandate. You are given no choice by the state. This is big government ordering you to buy insurance if you want to drive. So the insurance company should respect your position and, when the inevitable accident happens, smooth the way for your claim. The state has forced you to give them money. The least they can do is give it back with good grace. Except, if course, most of us know the reverse happens. The majority of insurance companies are welcoming when you ask for a quote, but full of excuses when you make a claim. What should be a smooth and fair process often becomes stressful. The insurer thinks of its profit margin before your welfare. So here are a few tips to help you start the ball rolling in the right direction. It all starts with the accident itself. Collect ... [more..]

Although there can be differences between the way the actuaries calculate your risk profile, the attorneys tend to flock together when it comes to writing down a policy. There are differences but these tend to be in the detail. To make progress, all you need do is assume the wording of the policy will never be favorable to you. Attorneys always look out for the interests of their clients. So what should you be looking for in the standard policy? In a way, this will be decided by how much you are spending. If this is a "cheap" policy, the coverage will be very limited. If you have bought a comprehensive policy, there will still be limits on what you can claim, but more situations will be covered. Nevertheless, most policies include lightning strikes, wind damage, damage caused by falling trees and similar objects, and some water damage. The problem for insurers is the need to avoid any possible liability arising from "flooding" which has grown both because of changes in the weather pattern and because more of the land is now covered in concrete and no longer drains so efficiently. So insurers exclude all water damage unless the wind ... [more..]

That special gift is a truly personal thing. We all have our own tastes and preferences, this is what makes choosing presents such a challenge. Even if you think you know someone very well there is a danger of buying them exactly the wrong thing, unfortunately this happens a lot!   However, there are some things that everyone likes. People tend to like expensive gifts, whatever they are, and even more than this people love personalised gifts. It doesn’t matter how much you spend on a present, if it is unique and personalised then it is a truly special gift.   Thanks to the internet it has never been easier to source high quality personalised gifts. Lots of sites now offer affordable gifts that can be given a personalised edge. The simplest of these are personalised photo books, which you buy for less than ten pounds online.   Of course in theory everything can be personalised. If you have a gift that you think is lacking, then  you might consider giving it a personal touch. You can do this simply by adding someone’s name, but you can also add a family photograph to make it truly attractive and a little bit extra special.   Some sites offer all sorts ... [more..]

You may want to believe insurers are hot competitors and never talk to each other. Except you would be wrong. There's a steady flow of information into two central databases. The bigger and more important is called CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) with the smaller competitor called A-PLUS (the Automated Property Loss Underwriting System run by Insurance Services Office Inc) which collect a broad range of information about you and how you relate to insurance companies. This is not just details of the claims you make. A range of factors are combined to produce an insurance score. This parallels the work done to create a credit score, and both scores are used by insurers to create a risk profile for you and set insurance rates. So, for example, both organizations record when you ask for clarification of your cover even though this does not result in a claim. It even records whether you are late in paying any of the premium installments. There's also a positive effort made to collect public information about you, e.g. whether you are involved in litigation, have judgments against you, are subject to foreclosure orders, and so on. If any of this information is incorrect, ... [more..]