Cheap Insurance for Your Home, Automobile, Health, & Life: How to Save Thousands While Getting Good Coverage [Paperback]

Lee Rowley (Author), Carla Rowley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

By several measures, insurance for you, your family, your home, and your car continues to rise at the fastest rate in our history. In 2005 (the latest year data are available), total national health expenditures rose 7.9 percent - more than three times the rate of inflation. Nearly 50 million Americans are uninsured for healthcare. According to Insurance Information Institute projections, the average annual expenditure for auto insurance in 2006 was $851. Millions of drivers have no auto insurance. The average expenditure for homeowners insurance was $729, according to a February 2007 report by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Insurance takes a huge bite out of the average American's monthly budget, and as stated above, many Americans simply forgo insurance because they consider it out of reach. Shopping for insurance requires more effort than many people want to devote to it. They simply grab the first price they come across or accept routine rate increases when it is important to compare not only the price but also coverage and exclusions among carriers. In this easy to read and comprehensive new book you will learn hundreds of ways to secure and or reduce your health, automobile, life, and home insurance costs. If you do not have or cannot afford insurance, we will show you how to get it at a price you can afford. The Internet and technology have opened up a great new way to search for low cost insurance services; we will give you the Web sites, tell you what to look for and to look out for. There is a great deal you can do right now to cut insurance costs. For example, did you know that installing a theft tracking device in your car can save you up to 35% on your auto insurance and that your credit history can dramatically affect your auto insurance premium. Recent studies have shown that more than 90% of insurers use credit information to create an "insurance risk score," which they then use as a factor to determine your insurance rate. Add a simple home security system to monitor your home, and your insurance rates may be discounted up to 30%, depending upon where you live. Your insurance could end up costing you more if you choose to make monthly payments rather than pay the entire premium annually. Notify your agent if you retire, your children go to school, or you start working from home (when you're not traveling as much your rates will go down). Have you stopped smoking? Lost weight? Started exercising? All of these efforts can have a dramatic effect on your insurance rates. Insurance topics covered in this book are How Insurance Works, Insurance Company Rating, National and Local Firms, Auto, Health, and Disability Insurance, along with work sheets and forms to assist you in your search for the best coverage at the lowest price.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Company (FL) (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1601380062
• ISBN-13: 978-1601380067
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #826,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Insurance > Automobile
  • #43 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Insurance > Life

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An easy-to-understand guide on why we all need insurance ... and how to get it for a reasonable price, May 8, 2009

By 

Reader Rachel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cheap Insurance for Your Home, Automobile, Health, & Life: How to Save Thousands While Getting Good Coverage (Paperback)

Like too many twenty-somethings in our culture (and maybe even thirty-somethings and beyond), I've hardly given thought to insurance. Since I don't own a car or a house, am healthy and employed with basic health care, and not old enough to worry about term life, it didn't seem like any of it pertained to me. Boy, was I wrong.

After reading Carla and Lee Rowley's "Cheap Insurance for Your Home, Automobile, Health and Life," I learned how naïve I was. The authors offer a plethora of useful advice even someone like me needs to know, such as mitigating risk and why it's vital to be insured. This book is a great learning tool to prepare me for the next stage of my life, arming me with important information on home insurance options, automobile insurance requirements and policies, the types of health insurance available, and how to plan for managed care, among additional related and helpful topics. Best of all, the authors' advice on comparison shopping really hits the mark for our present economy.

After reading this book, I felt better informed and more able to make an educated choice on the various insurances I've learned I so badly need. This is a bible for anyone without previous experience in these areas and a resource for those who need a brush-up on specifics.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cheap Insurance for Your Home, Automobile, Health & Life, July 21, 2008

By 

Jennifer Hale - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cheap Insurance for Your Home, Automobile, Health, & Life: How to Save Thousands While Getting Good Coverage (Paperback)

Everyday people face serious risks such as automobile accidents, damage or complete destruction of their home, and even death from an illness or accident. Because of these risks, it is important to protect yourself from years of financial agony and devastation. Cheap Insurance For your Home, Automobile, Health & Life provides you with the insight to understand how insurance rates are calculated, the importance of homeowners and renters insurance, how to take advantage of premium reductions such as Multiple Line or Vehicle Safety, and when to make a switch to another insurance company to avoid cancellation fees. In this informative book you will discover how your driving record and credit score affect your automobile insurance, how to determine whether or not you are adequately covered, and how to obtain high risk insurance if you are considered uninsurable. Cheap Insurance For Your Home, Automobile, Health & Life details the types of health insurance available for individuals, families, self employed, government funded insurance, and extra insurance such as: accidental death or dismemberment or specific disease insurance. It also explores the difference between whole life insurance versus term life insurance, including information on policies that can build cash value such as universal life policies. Cheap Insurance for your Home, Automobile, Health and Life is very informative, offers you several ways to save on insurance premiums, and provides you with the confidence to ask the right questions to get the rates you deserve. I give this book a 4 out of 5 star rating.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wise Investment, June 16, 2009

By 

Dana Hinders (Clarksville, IA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cheap Insurance for Your Home, Automobile, Health, & Life: How to Save Thousands While Getting Good Coverage (Paperback)

As someone who generally has more optimism than cash, I really hate shopping for insurance. Paying good money to guard against the potential for some unforeseen disaster just irritates me, which is why I tend to be a bit lazy in comparison shopping for the best coverage. Luckily, "Cheap Insurance for Your Home, Automobile, Health, & Life" offers several tips which make this unpleasant task much easier.

According to the authors, the most important aspect of saving money on your insurance costs is to understand how policies are written and what factors are used to determine your rates. Obviously, there's not much you can do about your gender, previous medical history, or whether or not your house happens to be located near the local fire station. However, knowing that installing sprinklers in your home can lower your homeowner's insurance or that changing where you park your car at night can save you a few bucks on your auto insurance premiums is definitely useful information.

While tech savvy individuals probably think the Internet is the best resource for comparing insurance policies, "Cheap Insurance for Your Home, Automobile, Health, & Life" points out that you might get a better deal by enlisting the services of an independent agent or taking the time to contact multiple agencies on your own. As for the process of choosing an insurance agent, they offer a handy checklist of factors to consider, so you'll feel confident your needs will be taken care of in the event you need to make a claim on your policy.

Overall, "Cheap Insurance for Your Home, Automobile, Health, & Life" is a very user-friendly guide to a slightly dry topic. The book is nicely organized, so you can quickly flip to the section you need or skip over the parts that don't apply to your life. Follow the tips carefully and you'll probably manage to shave a couple hundred bucks off your annual premiums, so it's well worth the price.