What is the most popular prize car owners share among their top priorities? For sure, it’s cheap car insurance. There’s no wonder why people are so eager to get a cheap policy by imply looking at the average insurance rates. Even in the most affordable state of Maine the average rates are around the $900, which is certainly quite a hefty price tag. Not to mention those living in Louisiana with their $2,500 average yearly premiums, which is more than enough to buy a decent used car these days. Car insurance has certainly become ridiculously expensive and it’s quite unlikely that it will become considerably cheaper anytime soon. But most of us forget that in many cases the car owners are actually responsible for having expensive auto insurance, even if they took the time to shop around for the best policy. The matter is, the most crucial factor is the car itself.

Surprisingly, too many people complain about not having cheap car insurance while driving huge SUVs or classic sports cars. The truth is, the car you drive has a significant impact on the rates you will be charged with by the insurance company. There are many variables that insurance companies use to assess the risk associated with each particular car model. And for sure they have extensive rating charts that include all possible car models with a designated risk rating for each vehicle. The higher is the risk rating the higher is the premium even if you are a middle-aged man with clean driving record, good credit score, with a spouse, living in a safe neighborhood. In case you want to choose a car which needs cheap insurance you should learn how insurers assess cars in terms of insurance risks in order to pick the safest and the cheapest cars on the market.  Read more...

For many people cheap car insurance has become a major goal these days. It’s all quite understandable when the rates are constantly rising and it sometimes gets more expensive to insure a car rather than buy one. People are looking for ways to cut their costs and make car insurance adequate to their incomes. So they shop around for cheap car insurance, look for cars that are generally cheaper to insure, cut their coverage limits and do other things to reduce insurance rates. However, there’s one simple method that allows cutting rates without sacrificing anything, and it’s overlooked too often by many car owners. We are talking about discounts. Car insurance discounts are available with the majority of providers, even if you haven’t heard about it. Insurers simply don’t like advertising their discounts unless they want to attract more new clients. But there are always discounts you may opt for and get your premiums cut if you comply. Each company tends to have their own set of discounts so you’ll have to ask around and see if they offer anything interesting. But you will definitely find the following discounts with nearly every insurance company out there on the market:

No claims

The easiest way to get cheap car insurance with any company is to not file any claims for a lengthy period of time. Most companies usually require at least three years with no claims for the customer to be able to opt for this discount, but the requirements may differ from company to company. The bad news is that if you actually end up in an accident and file a claim you will lose this discount.

Loyal customer  Read more...

When any economy crashes, there’s a moment of panic as politicians look around desperately for someone to rescue them. If no one is immediately forthcoming, they do their best to come up a solution. As an example of what not to do, we have the classic case of Cyprus. Faced with a bank crash, they decided everyone who had savings in those banks should pay towards the rescue. The reasoning is not bad. If the banks fail, no customer is safe. Bankruptcy means the creditors take what there is. If the banks have been using the customers’ savings for other purposes, the depositors lose everything. It’s therefore in their interests to pay up to 10% of their savings towards the rescue rather than lose everything. Except that’s political suicide. In 2008 when the recession hit around the world, there was a moment of panic, then banks were rescued using public funds and, after a few months thought, the central banks around the world began an aggressive policy of monetary stimulus. Essentially this means the central banks print lots of money and give it to their local banks at almost zero percent interest. The US Federal Reserve has recently confirmed it will keep the interest rates low until unemployment falls. The European Central Bank has pledged to keep cheap money flowing into the banking system for as long as is necessary.

We should be clear. There’s nothing wrong with this strategy. But it creates serious problems for the life insurance market. When finding good returns on investments is easy, administrative costs can be cut to the bone. The pension income can be placed in more or less any investment and the return will appear. Now look at the markets. With the central banks offering money at near to zero percent, the returns on all investments made by companies and individuals have also fallen to one or two percent. Because most of the policies have a guaranteed minimum payout on death, this investment income is not enough to cover administrative costs and make a profit. The majority of cheap life insurance policies with guaranteed minimum benefits are therefore looking at losses unless they can find a way of improving investment returns.  Read more...