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Even if you read your policy very careful, you might still be surprised these 10 things are not covered.

#1: Currency

Some people think keeping money under their mattress is safer than keeping it in a bank. At least money in banks are insured! If you have cash lying around, under the mattress, or even in a safe or lock box, it will probably not be reimbursed under the terms of your homeowners or renters insurance.

#2: Water Damage from Backups and Floods

Unless you have flood insurance, nowadays insurance companies won’t cover water damage caused by flooding or storms.

What most policies do cover burst pipes and damage from accidents or non-flood disasters.
Don’t expect sewage backups or other pipe backups to be covered standard though. What you need is “sewer backup coverage”.

#3: Trampolines

Depending on your state, you might not get coverage for your trampoline. Obviously, no trampoline repairs, but the bigger concern is your liability from injuries incurred during trampoline use. Over 100 thousand injuries happen each year due to trampolines.

In some places and with some companies, you might be disqualified from getting any property liability coverage at all if you put in a trampoline. And don’t think about not telling your insurer, because they can void your whole contract if they learn about it.

You should also be concerned about the damage to your home or others that a trampoline can cause if it is blown away in a storm. At the very least, bolt it down. Read the rest of this entry »

You always hope for the best whatever you do. Let’s face it, setting off expecting the worst often becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. So when you learn to drive, you first hope you will never have an accident. Then you hope you will only have a small accident. The idea of a total loss is not something you want to think about. Yet it’s surprising how often you find the insurer wants to total your vehicle; and then there are the times when your pride and joy disappears off the face of the Earth. That’s a really sad moment. So what are the rules when the unthinkable happens? In this, don’t forget the minimum liability policy is no help. For repair of your own vehicle, you need a collision policy. To recover value should your vehicle be stolen, you need a comprehensive policy.

Let’s start with an accident in which your vehicle is damaged. Your first instinct is to repair. The insurer gets estimates. If it’s going to cost more than the market value of your vehicle, the insurer will offer you a check. Now comes the really sad part. The check is for less than you expect. This is not the price you paid. This is not the price you think the vehicle would command if you advertised it for sale. This is the price the insurer thinks you will have to pay to buy a similar replacement. So you may have showered love on this vehicle. Its paint may gleam in the morning sun and it has been perfectly maintained. You look at the check and see it will only buy an unloved wreck. But there’s worse to come. Suppose your vehicle was bought using an auto loan and the amount of the check will only pay off a part of the money outstanding on the loan. To cover this gap, there’s a separate insurance policy you can buy. That way, there will always be enough to pay off whatever is owing to the bank or finance company. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s never really anything new in the world of marketing. The same ideas that sold three bottles of wine for the price of two in ancient Rome still work today. We all like to think we’re getting good value for money. The most usual approach is to offer volume for a discount. The more you buy, the less you pay. In the insurance world, we see bundles on offer. Pay less if you buy both an auto and home insurance policy. There will be further discounts if you insure multiple vehicles or several different “homes”, e.g. when your teens go off to college and need cover for their possessions. This is simple commercial sense. Unless your family is particularly unlucky, you are paying an increasingly large amount of premium income to the insurer which turns into more profit when you make no large claim. That earns a discount to reward you for your loyalty.

Well, here comes a new experiment from the motor industry. General Motors is flexing its muscles now it’s recovering from the Chapter 11 reorganization. During the last ten years, its reputation has taken a beating and sales of its brands has been declining year-on-year. The last financial year, 2010, was the first time it showed a profit since 2004. It has also shown a slight increase in sales volumes – the first increase after ten years of losing market share. To boost sales this year, it’s offering one year’s free insurance if you buy one of the eligible models. Before you all get too excited, this only applies to the good folk who live in Oregon and Washington, and the offer expires come September. But we can assume more of these offers will be made if sales in the models shows significant increase. So why is this potentially a good thing for you? Read the rest of this entry »

One of the things we’re all supposed to do is read the policy before we part with our money. That way, we see the limits of what we’re buying. So, for example, if you live in a flood plain and there’s an exclusion for water damage to your vehicle, you can make the right decision. In most of the cases, it’s going to be clear where the problems are. With this understanding, you either accept and work round the problem, or you look for an alternate policy. More generally, you might run into ambiguous terms. If you do find one, here’s a note of reassurance. Courts tend to favor you as the consumer. So, if there are several ways of reading a policy, the judge will pick the one most favorable to you.

One of the more common terms where this applies is the work exclusion clause. Let’s take the obvious extremes. If you run your own business and need to drive a vehicle, you should buy a commercial policy. If you work in an office and only use your vehicle to drive to and from work, a personal policy works fine. But there’s a big grey area in the middle where your employer might ask you to drive your own vehicle. The general rule would be that, if this only happens once in a blue moon, the personal policy will be sufficient. But if this is a regular part of your job, a commercial policy will be needed. In the best cases, your employer will provide a vehicle and insure it for you. But life’s not always so convenient. In a recent case decided in Minnesota, a man was working as an independent contractor, picking up work wherever he could. At the time of the accident, he was paid to deliver library books and used his own car. There was a work exclusion term in his policy. Read the rest of this entry »

As we move into fall, there’s still time for one more quick break. It’s good to get away for a long weekend before winter comes – except for those of you in the south, of course, where it manages to be summer all year round. So the first rule is not to tell all your friends on Facebook or any of the other social network sites. No posting of photographs showing you enjoying a margarita by the beach. Similarly, stop tweeting your instant reactions to the hotel or the food in the restaurant. It’s bad enough you telling the world you have the type of lifestyle that makes it worth a burglar’s time breaking into your home. But also telling the burglar you’re not home. . . Indeed, any real-time messaging to the world describing what you do, where you shop, what food you enjoy, and so on gives thieves a shopping list of what to steal.

Did you know most burglaries take place during the holiday periods when there are fewer people around in your neighborhood and the thieves know your home is unoccupied. Remarkably, many do not actually have to break anything to enter. It seems we’re very forgetful when it comes to locking doors and securing windows. Some thieves don’t actually bother entering the home but force open the garage or shed, taking bicycles and anything else easily moved and saleable. So, if you’re going away, what precautions should you take? The first step is to create the impression your home is still occupied. You can buy timers for lights and electrical equipment. Leaving the curtains or blinds slightly open, you can program the television to come on. Ask neighbors to spend time inside your home in the evenings. Then cancel deliveries of the newspaper or anything else that will signal your absence. Read the rest of this entry »

The majority of politicians have a split personality. One minute, the deficit is the end of the world as we know it. The next, there’s no reason to panic. Except, when you look round the neighborhood and see the number of homes going through foreclosure, all those people you know who are unemployed and businesses closing down, you realize the country has not yet recovered from the recession. With every dollar counting to put food on the table and keep a roof over your head, the challenge is to keep all the essentials in place within breaking the budget. In this, remember you always get what you pay for, so buying something cheap is often not giving you good value for your money. It’s always better to find goods or services of reasonable quality at a price you can afford.

So, from the earliest years, we’re taught to shop around. Family and friends laugh at us if we accept the first price offered in the first shop we walk into. Everyone knows you have to go into at least three shops to get an idea of how much goods of this type actually cost. Only then can we see what represents good value for money. Would you start walking round car lots and showrooms without having an idea of the current prices? Would you simply agree to pay the asking price? Almost everyone is prepared to ask for a discount. Haggling may not be everyone’s strength but, in these tough economic times, we should all make the effort. It’s the same with insurance to go with the vehicle. Read the rest of this entry »

When is a doctor not a doctor? When is a clinic not a clinic? All questions of this type sound a little nonsensical. You can check whether someone has a degree and the credentials to be a doctor. Similarly, you always rely on a doctor in a clinic to diagnose and treat your medical condition. Right? Well, not necessarily. Here’s a slightly different question for you. Suppose a nurse works in a hospital for years and has vast experience in dealing with certain types of medical problem. You have that problem and are lying in a bed when this nurse gets in an argument with an intern – that’s a new medical graduate going through supervised training. The nurse effectively tells the doctor-to-be he has made a mistake. Whose judgement do you trust?

In other countries, experienced nurses are trusted to make limited diagnoses and prescribe some drugs. This allows urgent treatment to be given. If a consultant has to be summoned to confirm the treatment, this delay could be dangerous to health. In America, doctors are careful to protect their status and reputation. There are also medical malpractice implications if nurses are allowed to assume responsibility for critical parts of the treatment regime. It’s therefore interesting to observe the spread of medical clinics in drugstores and other retail environments. As an example, the Minute Clinic chain has more than 600 outlets in 24 states. These clinics are staffed by family nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Why should they have become so popular? Read the rest of this entry »