Many families spend a lot of time preparing for the college year by shopping for dorm room, furniture and setting up monthly budget but many people don’t think about health or home owner insurance for college kids.

A leading insurance group says now it’s the time to start talking how your insurance will cover a child who is away in college.

A family health insurance policy generally covers college age students who enrolled full-time and some policy limit coverage for kids who are geographically far from home.

So, call your corporate HR department to make sure your student is cover when they are on campus.

Homeowner policy generally covers a student for things in their dorm room but if your student lives off campus most insurance policies do not extend to their apartments.

If that is the case, they are likely to have renter insurance to be protected in thief or liability.

That is one of every nine children and for those who are already insured, what gets covered are not always straightforward.

This is a story of a family coping with a rare and almost unimaginable dilemma.

Three-year-old Hannah Demain may look healthy but she has a disease that preventing her from eating almost every kind of food.

For basic nutrition, Hannah’s Doctor had put her on a special formula called Ellecare but the families health insurance is refusing to cover it because the health insurance company says Ellecare is a “food supplement”.
That leaves the parents with a $1200 per month bill.

Dr. Glenn Furuta who specializes and treats children with Hannah’s disease says Ellencare is medical necessity. The use of specialized formula with that treatment with anyone with an allergic intestinal disease is the primary treatment and not a supplement.

Parents and doctors said too many insurance companies are often reluctant to cover desperately needed formulas like Ellecare.

People are looking around for insurance policy right now and the insurance companies know this. They know consumers are thinking that they are paying money into these policies and if we’re lucky we don’t see anything in return because nothing bad had happened.

So you can go out there or go online to places like www.insurer.com, www.netquote.com are some of the websites that can really help you shop around. One thing to be cautioned about is that the bottom line and the cheapest policy aren’t always the best.

You want to get your insurance policy with the insurer who will be around to pay out if something bad happened. You want an insurer to be there if something happened.

Basic steps to save money on your insurance costs

1. Improve your credit score – a lot of people don’t think about this but the insurance companies check your credit score.
2. Auto insurance, increase deductible – increase your deductible from $500-$1000 and it could really save you money.
3. Bundle policies – being a loyal customer to a single insurer to give you the best deals.
4. Auto insurance, cancel collision/comprehensive coverage on old cars – think about how old your automobile is and asked yourself if you really need collision and comprehensive coverage insurance to protect your automobile. Is it worth paying all that money?
5. Auto insurance, ask for discounts – if you’re a student with good grades, that could give you a discount. If you’re someone with a professional degree that could keep you a discount. These are some the things anyone can look into the save some money on your auto insurance coverage.
6. Home and auto insurance – get an alarm system for your home or car.
7. Home insurance – rethink some of your policy, for example if you used to have expensive jewelries but you know longer have it anymore. Think about cutting those kinds of policies and a lot of times when you have these jewelries policy, you end up paying more to insure them than the cost of the jewelries itself.
8. Life insurance – think about why you need life insurance policy. Do you have dependents? Do you have a spouse or somebody you need to leave or protect if something happened to you?

   A lot of times people can get term life insurance policy, this lasts about 5 to 15 years or whatever you agree to. This can be a lot cheaper for people who buy a whole or permanent life insurance policy.

9. Life insurance – eliminate unhealthy and harmful behaviors. Stop smoking can cut down on your life insurance cost.
10. Health insurance – eliminate out-of-network option. A couple things people can do is to see your doctor that you want to go to are in the managed care network and that may save you some money from the network part of your policy.
11. Health insurance – cut back on some of the clauses that you do not need. For example, you are not going to leave for maternity leave or going to the dentist. You may be able to cut back on those clauses of your insurance and save some money.
12. Health insurance – if you are in the professional organization, if you are in the union you can shop around for less expensive health insurance.
13. Wedding insurance – if you are looking to save money do not get wedding insurance. The wedding insurance is to protect you from weather disasters or for some reason your dressmaker takes off with your check. Have a backup plan in case something happened because you don’t want to reinvite everybody to your wedding.

According to Consumer Reports Magazine, found that only 14% of the people surveyed shop around and found cheaper auto insurance.

One reason for that is, if you have been with the same insurance company for a long time. You may be given discounts for what they call long jeopardy. However it is still worth shopping around. There are many other methods to get cheap auto insurance policy.

The first thing people should do is to do annual check on your insurance. When you get your auto insurance bills, usually a few weeks before you have to pay them. Take that time to look around to see if you can get a better deal. There are a number of ways to do; one is to look at your state department website. In most states they have a list of the insurance companies that do business in your state and often they have comparison rates as well as premium information. This could give you an idea of which insurance provider is cheaper than the other.

You can also call the independent insurance agent who represents more than one company so they can help you shop around. There are many websites you can go to compare auto insurance quotes from different companies. So is pretty easy and fast to shop around, however you will not always save but it is something you should do.

Top rated auto insurance company

Pick the top rated auto insurance that offer reasonable price and will take care of your claim if you ever got into accident. You want to make sure that if you ever get any problem the auto insurance will be there for you and settle everything quickly.

Factors auto insurance companies will consider when someone is applying

Auto insurance providers will look at just about anything, they will look at your family, if you are single or married, do you have kids, do you have teenage kids. They may also look at what you do for a living and they may look at your credit score in most cases.

Auto insurance providers have formula that they do to see how risky you are. They may decide that you’re a bigger risk and charge you more for it at, sometime they may not insure you at all because you’re too risky.

How can your driving record affect your score

This is one that auto insurance provider can refuse to insure you if your driving score is bad enough. Most state assigned points to traffic violations of various kinds. Anything from parking tickets to serious things like drinking and driving. Car insurance companies will look at your driving points and driving record and they will feed that into their own formula to see how risky you are.

Not all car insurance companies will rate your premium based on that, many will and against some may decide that you’re not a risk they want to deal at all.

How your credit score affect your auto insurance premium

Some people may say this is entirely unfair just because someone had a financial problem, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad driver. You may be a great driver but got into some kind of financial difficulty.

However, the auto insurance company may argue that is one more thing that gives them a better picture of who you are and how responsible you are.

If you are a good driver with a good clean driving record but has a bad credit. One of thing you should keep doing is keep being a good driver and there are ways to increase your credit score.

Get your free credit report each year at www.annualreport.com, look at those and see if there are any errors on them. If there are any errors make sure you correct it. Also check your credit balances, one thing that made your credit looks good if you have a good available credit but you’re not using it all. So make sure you don’t max out your credit and have plenty of available credit left. That makes you look like a more responsible person.

In general do whatever you can to raise that credit score and eventually that will affect your auto insurance rates.

Setting your deductible

Deductible is the part of insurance that you pay out of your pocket before the insurance kick in. For example, if you’re in a car accident and it would cost you $2000 to get it fixed and you have a $200 deductible. You have to pay the $200 first and then the insurance pick up the rest.

If you can raise that deductible from $200-$400 or even to $1000, you can paid much less for your insurance premium and you could save up to 30% to 40% in some cases on your premium.

So make sure you don’t raise the deductible to an unreasonable price because if you get into an accident you will have to pay that out of your pocket first before your insurance cover the rest.

Here is five simple steps to lower your auto insurance bill

1. Pay all your bills on time in order to keep your credit score up.
2. Raise your deductible. If you raise your deductible from $200-$500, you can see your premium can drop as much as 15% to 30%. If you raise your deductible from $200-$1000, you can see your premium drop as much as 40%.

   The key on how much deductible is right for you is how much cash you have for that emergency fund in case something goes wrong.

   If you raise your deductible to $1000 that means you will have to pay $1000 to the auto insurance company before your insurance kicks in and the math is that 40% deduction will give you enough cash coming in to save up for that $1000.

   Psychologically it feels better if you got into accident and you would only have to pay $200. It’s not math issue because mathematically if you add each month how much you would save in the premium. It would exceed the typical deductible amount of $1000 and that’s the whole point of raising deductible.

   The flipside is that you don’t spend that money you’re saving on the lower premium which is sometime what happened and that is when people get into problems and can’t pay for the deductible.

3. Ask your auto insurance provider if you are eligible for any discounts. We hear this all the time on TV ads but how much does it really save you money?

   Surprisingly you can save 10% to 15% is not abnormal. If you are a good driver with no speeding tickets, you’re married, and if you have multiple policy at the same carrier. Often times you can see 10% to 15% discounts.

   These are some the things they would not offer to you and you would have to ask for it.

4. Don’t text or talk and drive. If you have an accident due to distracted driving, you will have a hard time renewing your auto insurance policy.

   What is more interesting now is that it cost more to insure teenage girls then teenage boys because texting while driving has exceeded testosterone and driving fast.

   This tells you a lot about how serious texting while driving really is.

5. Shop around. Auto insurance premium can vary significantly from one carrier to another.

   A lot of times people say it is such a pain in the neck to do this but ironically is not that difficult. There are two great websites www.insurance.com and www.insweb.com are great websites to do this. You can go there to the websites or you can call a couple of insurance carriers and for 15 minutes you can literally save yourself $1000 or more on your auto insurance depending on your adjustments.

Honestly, the amount of insurance varies depending on your age, your sex, location, and the distance of driving per day, and so on. So you’re cost of insurance will depend on that but the reasonable amount to spend on auto insurance is around $1000 per year per car.

When we say around it means it vary dramatically in different cities. If you live in certain cities, rates could be higher than other cities because of different traffic conditions.

So about $1000 per year per car, for expensive car it could be around $1200-$1300 per year and for older less expensive car it could be under $700-$800 per year.

Many home owners feel safe because they have home insurance but can this be a false sense of security if you don’t really know your policy?

Currently 64% of US homes are under value of the amount of home owner insurance they need and the average homeowner only has about 81% coverage. Meaning if their home was destroyed, they would only get coverage about 81% of the cost of rebuilding it.

How much home insurance should the average person should have?

It depends on many factors: the average home owner insurance policy includes several layers of coverage. One of that is reliability coverage which means if somebody gets injured in your property. The cost for medical bills will be covered from your home owner insurance policy. So you don’t have to pay out-of-pocket for that, also if there is any structural problems to the home or any of the belongings inside your home were destroyed. That will be covered as well.

However there are other factors to consider as well. If you’re close to a flood zone, if you’re close to a area that is prone for earthquakes, if you have a basement that is prone to flooding. These are all factors in most cases are not covered by a traditional home insurance policy.

What is reliability for home owner insurance?

If somebody comes to your home and gets injured, for example they slipped or fall down and injured him or herself. You are responsible for the medical costs for that person but by having home owner insurance policy that will cover that person’s medical costs.

Also if you have a pet or you have a dog and the dog attack someone. Or if you have a pool in your home and somebody got injured in the pool that home insurance policy will help pay for the medical expenses. As opposed to you having to pay for it out of your own pocket.

If you’re in a higher tax bracket and in a higher income, if the umbrella liability program a better way to go, if so why?

You definitely want to have your basic home insurance policy but if you are in the higher income bracket you would want to supplement with umbrella policy. That’s because when people have more money and other knows that you have more money and they get targeted.

For example, somebody come to your home and slipped. They know that you made a lot of money, that you got big expensive home, chances are you’re more prone to hit with a lawsuit than to a person who has a middle income lifestyle. Also higher income homeowners have more luxurious lifestyle and it is more likely to see they have a pool in their home. It is more likely to see more grounds for risk of somebody getting hurt.

What about living in a place like California in earthquake fault zone?

You have to do your homework before buying a place like that. California currently is the most popular state for earthquakes and many home owners are surprised to hear that.

Home owner insurance policy did not cover damage by earthquakes and this could be really devastating for homeowners who lose the house in earthquake. The homeowners are essentially responsible for all the out-of-pocket costs to pay for rebuilding it.

However, what you can do is speak to your lender to see if you are near an earthquake fault zone or even on one and then you can go ahead and purchase your earthquake insurance.

Another way to figure out is to do your homework to see if you really need this or not. Go to the US Geological Survey. Go to the website and it will show you the map of areas in the US that are prone to earthquakes.

How much would it cost for a home in Seattle built on earthquake fault zone which cause around $250,000. How much would it cost to have earthquake home insurance each year?

Their home insurance premium in Seattle will cost about $350-$500 per year, that’s the middle range.

If you take that same value home in Buffalo New York you’re only going to pay about $100. Now take that same home into California and the home insurance costs will start at least at $500 per year. It could also easily go up to $1000 dollars or more.

If you live in a flood zone, your insurance option seems to be limited as well, what do you do there?

If you live in a flood zone there is only one real option available to you and that is to get a flood insurance policy which is offer only by FEMA. Thats the Federal Emergency Management Agency. To find out if you live in a flood zone asked your lender or contact FEMA.

If you find out that your home has at least 1% chance of flooding per year, that’s pretty low but that give you a sense of how devastate even for a small flood.

How much does a flood policy cost year?

The average float policy cost about $600 per year. That may sound like a lot but if you think about potential damages that could damage your home, $600 really go a long way when talking about thousands of dollars of damages.

If your home have a basement do you absolutely need a flood policy?

If the home has a basement or crawl space, you will need something separate from flood insurance. You actually need sewer backup coverage, home owner insurance and flood insurance will not cover this. What sewer backup coverage does is when there is a lot of rain and the sewer backup in your home and the basement flood. That’s when the sewer backup coverage comes in and essentially helps you restore your basement or restore anything that was destroyed in your basement.

The sewer backup coverage is the cheapest option to add-on your home owner insurance policy. It cost about $40 per year and $40 per year can go a long way when we’re talking about restoring a damaged basement.

What about insuring expensive jewelries and other expensive items in your home?

This is something home owners might be surprised about the basic home owner insurance policy. Home owner insurance policy only covers about $1000-$2000 of jewelry or furniture’s, fur, silverware.

What you may want to do is purchase a floater and that gives you the basic coverage for those additional items if they were stolen or destroyed in a fire or a hurricane.

Step one, check your credit reports for any errors because auto insurance companies use your credit to determine your rate. Request a copy of your credit report by locking on to annualcreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228, you’re entitled to have one free copy per year.

Step two, find out the minimum car insurance that is required by law under your State Department of Insurance website. Only New Hampshire and Wisconsin don’t require car insurance but says they do require people to pay for their accidents, most people carry insurance anyway.

Step three, consider buying more liability insurance than the state requirements. Some consumer groups recommend a minimum of $100,000 of injuries per person, $300,000 per accident, and $100,000 in property damage reliability. Most American car insurance does not cover you if you drive outside of the US, some policy are valid in Canada and Mexico but check if your coverage meet those requirements.

Step four, collision coverage pays for the repair or replacement of your vehicle. If your car is more than five years old or less than $4000, it may not be worth getting collision coverage.

Step five, comprehensive coverage covers if someone steal your vehicle or your vehicle was damaged by a storm, fire, hail or vandalism but if your car is more than 12 years old, unless it is of valuable vintage car. The cost may outweigh the benefits.

Step six, considered other add-ons such as medical, emergency roadside assistance and glass breakage.

Consider buying uninsured/under-insured motorist protection, even if your state does not require this. This provision protects you from someone with no insurance causes a collision with you.

Step seven, shop around. Get a general quote from an auto insurance company website by inserting basic information such as your zip code. Some auto insurance companies websites offer different quotes from different companies, so you can compare different auto insurance rates in one website.

Just be aware that these colds online are only the bare bone policies with no add-on.

Step eight, once you choose the auto insurance company. Ask if you’re eligible for any discounts. Having airbags, anti-lock brakes, anti-theft devices in your vehicle can reduce your auto insurance rates. So does a clean driving record, carpooling, a car with low mileage, credit score, and good grades if you’re a student.

Drivers between the ages of 50 to 65 may also qualify for discounts.

Step nine, use the highest deductible you can afford in order to pay the lowest premium possible.

Step ten, once you have decided on a policy. Paid the entire premium upfront to save on the monthly service fees.

Did you know an estimated 14% of drivers in the US are on insured?

That is a new proposal in San Diego.

The idea is that the person at fault has to pay and to figure out the person at fault will be determined by the Auto Insurance Recovery as well as the auto insurance companies are the one who will determine the person at fault.

Uninsured drivers will get penalized because technically all drivers need auto insurance but there are some who don’t have. The uninsured motorists in California may have their vehicle impounded by any law agencies.

The auto insurance companies are against this claiming it is double taxation’s because home owners are already paying property taxes to cover these cleanup services.

The auto insurance industry is out with its ranking for the safest car on the roads in 2010. The list has been a lot shorter than the past years, but it is full of good news for Detroit auto makers.

Few vehicles got top mark this year from the auto Insurance Industry of Highway Safety but among the winners were American cars. Giving the year they had, any achievement is worth celebrating.

94 vehicles got the top prize for last year, now only 27 vehicles got the top ranking in 2010. This includes 19 cars, 8 SUVs. The large drop was due to tougher requirements for roof strength.

The new requirements by the Insurance Industry of Highway Safety for roof strength require the vehicle to support four times the vehicle weight in order to earn good ratings. The vehicles are also tested in front, rear and side crashes. For consideration of qualifying all vehicles must have electronic stability control to prevent skidding.

For the American auto industry, which were on the skid for more than a year there was good news in the Ford and its Volvo unit which got most awards for any company. Followed by Japanese auto maker company Subaru and the German Volkswagen, with five awards per piece.

Chrysler picked up 4 awards, and General Motors picked up 2 awards.

All vehicles have to meet all basic federal requirements in order to be sold. These are the vehicles that go far beyond that.
There are still major problems for Ford and the entire American auto industry. These auto safety awards and General Motors lower than expected losses might mean the automakers like the vehicles they produce are finally getting some stability control.

Insurance Industry of Highway Safety Awards for 2010

Large cars
Buick LaCrosse
Ford Taurus
Lincoln MKS
Volvo S80
Midsize cars
Audi A3
Chevrolet Malibu built after October 2009
Chrysler Sebring 4-door with optional electronic stability control
Dodge Avenger with optional electronic stability control
Mercedes C class
Subaru Legacy
Subaru Outback
Volkswagen Jetta sedan
Volkswagen Passat sedan
Volvo C30

Small cars
Honda Civic 4-door models (except Si) with optional electronic stability control
Kia Soul
Nissan Cube
Subaru Impreza except WRX
Volkswagen Golf 4-door

Midsize SUVs
Dodge Journey
Subaru Tribeca
Volvo XC60
Volvo XC90
Small SUVs
Honda Element
Jeep Patriot with optional side torso airbags
Subaru Forester
Volkswagen Tiguan

Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

It’s no accident cars are getting safer, increasingly new vehicles are being equipped with side airbags to protect the driver and passengers from head injuries. Electronic stability control help reduce skid and rollovers but insurance industry crash tests reveal that some cars are safer than others.

Rating just out, named 13 vehicles as top safety pick for 2007.

The Audi A6 wins for large car for side, rear and front impact crash. Saab 9-3, Subraru Legacy, and Audi A4, are all top for midsize vehicles. These vehicles have good crash test ratings in addition they have electronic stability control to help drivers from getting into crash.

For 2007 minivan top safety pick goes to Hundai Entourage and Kia Sedona. Along with seven sports utility vehicles.

The Mercedes M Class and the Volvo XC90 get the highest rating for large SUVs.

Among midsize competitors are Accra RDX, Honda Pilot, and Subaru B9 Tribeca are in top honors. The Honda CRV and the Subaru Forester are rated the safest vehicle for small SUVs class.

For carmakers, these top marks will likely translate to higher sales. Consumers are use to shop for horsepower, sound system and styling. Now they are looking into more on crash tests and safety ratings.

Automakers recognize that consumers are paying attention to the safety ratings to protect their family when they buy a new car. So, now we are seeing more new cars improving safety each year and that both consumer and automakers must make that a goal.