Finance On Wheels

Can Excessive Credit Card Debt Affect My Ability to Get Good Rates on a Life Insurance Policy

December 16, 2009 – 5:10 am

If you are searching for life insurance, you are no doubt looking to find the best rates possible. This requires understanding the factors that are used to determine life insurance rates. One of your worries may be if excessive credit card debt can affect your ability to get good rates on a life insurance policy.

Excessive Credit Card Debt Can Increase Life Insurance Rates in Some Cases

It is possible for excessive credit card debt to affect your ability to get the good rates on a life insurance policy. If your credit card debt is to the point of holding down your credit score, then you will have more trouble getting the best rates on life insurance than someone with good credit.

The good news is that life insurance companies use your credit history to help determine rates to a lesser degree than auto insurance companies and homeowners insurance companies. However, many of them do use it. It will depend upon the state in which you live and the life insurance provider that you select as to if and how heavily they will consider your credit card debt.

Overcoming Excessive Credit Card Debt to Get Good Rates on Life Insurance

There are many ways in which to save money on life insurance. While you may be hampered by too much credit card debt, you may be able to counteract this negative. The goal is to put more positives on your side than negatives. Here are few positives you can put on your side to balance the scale in your favor.

• Avoid dangerous hobbies
• Buy your policy early, when healthy
• Consider term life insurance
• Consume only moderate amounts of alcohol
• Don’t smoke
• Drive safely
• Eat a balanced diet
• Exercise regularly
• Get regular medical check-ups
• Keep your blood pressure in check
• Keep your cholesterol in check

This is quite a list of positives that will far and away counteract the negative of too much credit card debt. In fact, this is only a partial list of the steps you can take to save money on your life insurance premiums, regardless of your past or present credit situation. However, it is still a good idea to get your credit card debt and other expenses to a more manageable situation.

Shop Around for the Best Life Insurance In Spite of Excessive Credit Card Debt

Whether you have lots of credit card debt or not, it is important to shop around for life insurance to make sure you are getting the best rate. If you take the small amount of time necessary to shop around, then you will probably save more on your premiums than what the credit card debt is costing you.

Shopping around these days for life insurance, means using the internet to get life insurance quotes. These quotes are incredibly easy to get, take only a few minutes of your time and are free. Simply fill out a form with you some pertinent information and you should instantly have multiple quotes at your fingertips to compare and choose from. You may be amazed at the life insurance rates you find.

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The Myth of “No Blame Bonus” and other No Claims Bonus Tips

November 24, 2009 – 6:46 am

You’re sat at the traffic lights and someone hits the back of your car. You might not think that such an unfortunate event that’s clearly not your fault should affect your no claims bonus (NCB). But you might be wrong.

An insurance company will treat any claim for money against your policy as a claim that affects your no claims bonus until they’ve got back all their money. In other words, if there’s a claim, no matter whose fault, and your insurer suffers a loss, that’s a claim and your NCB will most likely be affected. Always make sure when you are getting a new taxi insurance quote from a new provider that the amount of NCB you state is the same that your current insurer thinks you’ve got - the two providers will talk to each other to validate information!

Finally - remember that ANY incident should be reported as a claim to your insurance company as quickly as possible (and certainly within any limits set down in the policy documents). Don’t be fooled by the person who runs into you and says “Don’t worry about reporting it, I’ll pay for the damage directly”, if they don’t, you’re stuck.. reporting the incident at a later date might mean the insurer says you’ve prejudiced the claim and therefore invalidated it. There’s often small print as to the reporting periods required by an insurer.

Ask what the rules are if you make a claim too - there are different levels of “step back” on different policies. It’s a small point, but worth considering if you’ve got two quotes from different insurers that seem to offer similar stuff - if you have a claim on one it might “reset” your NCB to zero, but on the other it might just “step back” two years (e.g. go from 4 years to 2 years).

And, if you’ve got no NCB, you might not be totally out of luck…

If you’re taking out a new policy, some insurers offer what’s called an “introductory bonus” as a way of getting you onto their books - basically a discount for drivers who can’t benefit from an initial no claims discount. There are rules as to who gets this, but it’s worth asking about as you might find there’s 20% discount up for grabs.

Lastly, you might be able to get a “transfer bonus” where the insurer will give you some NCB allowance because you’ve got NCB on a different type of motor policy. A typical example of this would be someone who has had a business car for years and purchases a private car.

No claims discount has a huge effect on the price of your insurance policy, so make sure you understand as much as you can about it, protect it where possible and save all your documents! It’ll be worth it in the long run!

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Why do people use investments to grow assets?

September 29, 2009 – 10:50 am

Wall street has been one of the best moments for anybody, particularly people who trade or invest on Wall street. It is a place where people throughout all walks of life come together for a particular reason, to make money. We are talking about people from investment bankers, financial institute fund managers, individual investors, and small cap investors like you and me.

Twenty years back, trading and investing tools are only use by these finance related institutions. Now things have changes, because many finance related companies, like banks and investment firms, extend the chance to the public to invest in their “products”. We are already familiar with things like mutual funds, bonds, saving plans, insurance plans, and recently ETF funds, a fund where you trade serveral stocks together, lowering your risk.

To give yourself a better future planning and retirement savings, people use these tools to improve their “assets”. Cash is something that is ever changing in value, and it is always going down. That is why I termed it assets, as assets grows in value. If you hate to manage your own money, and okay to entrust this task to someone else, then you should consider these investment tools.

In the long run, by converting your cash into assets and letting it grow by experienced funds and portfolio managers, your assets can increase at a pace without worrying. Truly, that market meltdown in 2008 and the fall of Lehman brothers were scary, but think about the longer term and diversifying your cash. That should give your investment portfolio a less riskier approach. Head down to your local banks or look at the newspaper for the big names in finance or investment firms, and study what they have to offer your cash and you!

Article By
Dennis Quek

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Misbelieves and good advices about debt consolidation

June 19, 2009 – 7:38 am

Nowadays millions of article and comments suggests all the debtors to apply for debt consolidation companies and debt counselors. Hundreds of e-mails offer their service but at first you appeal to such an advisor be very careful at these: debt consolidators promise that they do everything. This is a fairy tale. They do this for 10% from the payment. Your credit is 400 $monthly from which they get 40 $. This isn’t so much money, but if you can do on your own why should you pay for this, you can reduce your payments and negotiate for your lower interest rates by yourself. There are some examples when these counselors have worsened payments plights and even card credit records.

A debt consolidation loan isnt easy to get, mostly because if you need such a debt solution means that you have already had a credit card debt.
A consolidator may promise to you an easy loan with lower interest rates but with final higher payments. The danger being in worst risk than before has always existed. Although theyf promise lower rates, these rates last just a few months, it is very important to close the accounts.
The best advice is to carry your credit card in your pocket otherwise you use all of the money. But there are also good advices on the Internet. Specialists have enumerated them: if you have a home and some equity in it, get out a home equity loan. The advantage is the low interest rate and a tax deductible to pay. These are usually 15-year term, cost of an appraisal and insurance.
Another debt solution is to refinance your property for greater than your tribute and to use extra cash to pay off the debt. This leads to a lower interest rate and you can extrude your outstanding for 15 years in plus.
Refinance your car, the risk is that you can run out of car before you pay off debt. Although it is a secured loan probably it doesn’t worth it. You can get a personal loan, credit unions may offer better rates than banks, and those can’t be lower than 11%. It could be less than that you pay for your credit card company. Give voice to your opinion and try to negotiate with your credit card company. You can do even through the phone. You can also apply for debt help to ask how to get out of debt from National Foundation for Credit Counseling. They offer debt management for free being a non-profit, community organization.

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Debt To Income Ratio

March 28, 2009 – 10:33 am

Probably most of the homebuyers ask many questions, but the first which catch our find 1st is that how much home can I afford? By calculating a debt to income ratio will give us a better idea on how much of our profits will be obtainable for monthly mortgage payments such as insurance, interest, including principal, taxes, and collectively concerned to as “PITI.” or Principal, Interest, Taxes & Insurance.

Many experts accord that PITI, the entire amount we pay toward our mortgage, which shouldn’t go beyond twenty eight percent of our gross earnings. The total amount that er pay in debt associated expenditures car loan payments, including your mortgage, credit card bills, etc.

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