insurance Archives - Personal Finance (MB)

Understanding Your Insurance Is Your Responsibility

May 7, 2019June 18, 2014 by Money Beagle

Insurance is complicated. I doubt many people in this world would claim otherwise. But, regardless of how complex it is to understand or figure out, the fact is that you are responsible to understand it.

After all, let’s envision the following conversation between a customer and an insurance agent.

Customer: I see that you denied my claim.
Insurance company: That’s correct, we did. You weren’t eligible for coverage on that procedure.
Customer: But I didn’t understand the coverage.
Insurance company: Oh, well then in that case, we’ll go ahead and approve it.

If it’s hard to picture that, it’s probably with good reason. It never, ever happens!

Why Cell Phone Insurance Is A Must Have In Our House

May 8, 2019October 30, 2013 by Money Beagle

There’s a lot of back and forth on whether purchasing insurance for electronic items is a worthwhile deal. We have several things with insurance in our house, specifically our flat screen TVs, an exercise bike, and a dehumidifier. All of these were purchased after careful consideration. The exercise bike was a replacement of a treadmill that had gone bad and was covered under warranty, so it worked.

One thing we never even question is our cell phones. Since I switched to a work provided phone, I receive cell phone protection automatically, as I was directed to sign up for it when choosing my plan and such.

But, the ‘must have’ rule applies for my wife. Why? Well, to put it kindly, things don’t usually end well with her and her phones!

She has the best of intentions, but every insurance we’ve place on her phones has been used at least once. In the few years we’ve been on a shared plan, she’s had three different phones, and all have been replaced.

Insurance Can Be Complicated, But Only If You Let It Be

July 23, 2019November 18, 2011 by Money Beagle

Insurance is one of those things that you don’t want but that you have to have.

Whether it be car insurance, life insurance, or property insurance, it’s important to make sure that you’re properly covered. Part of this means to make sure that you’re getting the best coverage at the lowest rates.

One of the things I’ve heard about insurance is that you should shop all of your insurance around once per year. I’ve seen other bloggers go so far as to schedule a personal day off of work to spend exclusively on their insurance. Just taking 30 minutes to get an auto owners insurance quote could save $.1000’s

So, it’s a pretty big deal!

I don’t go that far to review our insurance, but staying on top of costs and coverage are activities I definitely go through. Here’s a few things that I do:

Does Your Insurance Agent Make A Difference?

June 3, 2019August 15, 2011 by Money Beagle

I never really gave much thought to who my insurance agent was. I have been with Allstate since 1996 when my parents booted me off their plan following my college graduation. At the time, they were the cheapest I could find with a company name I trusted.

They’ve provided good service and when I’ve comparison shopped my policies a couple times since, I’ve never found a deal convincing enough to leave.

When I first signed up, I was assigned an agent that was most likely closest to where I lived. At some point when I was living in my condo in the late 1990’s or early 2000’s, I got a letter stating that the agent I was with had retired and I was being assigned to a new agent that was the closest to where I lived.

Whatever, right?

Having Health Insurance Is Hazardous To My Health!

June 3, 2019August 1, 2011 by Money Beagle

As many of you know, we had a beautiful baby girl a month and a half ago. As with any change, a new baby has meant that everything has changed. While there are challenges, they’re all worth it for those beautiful moments that only a newborn can give you, a soft sigh, a little breath, or a touch of wonderfully soft skin.

One area that hasn’t been amazing has been the health insurance. As with anything major, the cost of having a baby is pretty high. There are insurance claims upon insurance claims. The ironic part is that keeping on top of all the insurance claims have been a source of more stress than actually having a newborn!

Consider this:

Adding our baby was pretty simple. HR walked me through the steps I would need to go through to add the baby to our insurance plan. The plan wasn’t changing, since we were already on family coverage anyways, it was just adding her to the plan.

The Decision

June 24, 2019December 22, 2010 by Money Beagle

OK, so my decision isn’t as captivating and probably won’t cause as much drama as Lebron’s did earlier in the year, but I thought I’d share it anyways!

A few weeks ago I noted that our health care options came out and that none of them looked all that appealing, with our costs going up in a big way.

There were three options available to us for next year:

High Deductible Plan / HSA Compatible
Annual Premium: $2,400
Deductible (out of pocket before coverage kicks in): $3,750
Then They Cover: 80%
We Still Pay: 20%
Max Out of Pocket: $10,000

Exclusive Provider Option
Annual Premium: $6,000
Deductible: $0
Then They Cover: 90%
We Still Pay: 10%
Max Out Of Pocket: $1,500 per person max $3,750 total