Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Should I Get Mortgage Life Insurance?

If you’re looking into purchasing a home and financing that purchase with a mortgage, the odds are that your bank or lender has mentioned mortgage life insurance to you. Mortgage life insurance is a type of life insurance that kicks in upon your death and pays off the rest of your mortgage. The idea behind mortgage life insurance is that when you die, you don’t want to burden your loved ones with the financial burden of mortgage payments. Although your lender may be pushing you to buy mortgage life insurance, you should be aware of the fact that mortgage life insurance is totally optional.

If you decide that mortgage life insurance is not for you, then make sure to inform your lender that you don’t want it. If the lender insists that they will not give you a mortgage without this insurance, then report them to the Federal Trade Commission because what they’re doing is illegal. Mortgage life insurance should not be confused with private mortgage insurance. Private mortgage insurance is a type of insurance that your lender will require you to purchase if your down payment is worth less than 20% of the total value of your home.

Many people feel that mortgage life insurance is a bad investment for several reasons. One reason is because although your premiums remain level over the years, the amount of money required to pay off your mortgage decreases. For example, if you’ve been faithfully paying off your mortgage for decades and only have $5,000 to go when you die, your mortgage life insurance policy will only pay $5,000. It doesn’t matter that you’ve paid the insurance company way more than $5,000 over the years – that’s all they’re obligated to pay out.

Another reason why mortgage life insurance is a bad idea is because it is designed to serve the best interests of the bank and not the insuree. If the breadwinner of the family dies and the income dries up, the odds are high that the family will default on the mortgage payments. A default on the mortgage payments would cause the bank to lose money, but not necessarily the family.

A third reason as to why you shouldn’t buy mortgage life insurance is because it’s very expensive. Sure, when you break it down, it’s only a few cents per day, but when you compare the costs to the actual expected payout, it’s simply not worth it. You would have to die within the first year of owning your home in order to get a worthwhile payout. If you’re looking for some kind of mortgage insurance, your best bet is to go with term life insurance. For most people, it’s more worthwhile for them to increase the amount of coverage under a life insurance policy than to go out and buy mortgage life insurance.



Friday, November 6, 2015

Should I Consider Buying Mortgage Life and Disability Insurance?

Mortgage life insurance goes hand in hand with disability insurance, as they both are used to make sure that you can keep your home should there be a crisis. Mortgage life insurance will allow your loved ones to be able to keep your house should you pass away, offering them a better future. Disability insurance, on the other hand allows you to continue to pay for your home if you should become disabled and unable to continue working, which would greatly diminish your household’s income.

Mortgage Life Insurance

This type of insurance is used to pay for your mortgage should you suddenly pass away. This will keep the burden off of your family and will eliminate the need for them to choose between paying the mortgage or letting go of the house. The amount you have to pay decreases as your total mortgage decreases, so your payments are relative to the amount of money the insurance company would have to pay if you died.

You also have a second option with this type of insurance. Instead, if you have a set time in which your mortgage will be paid off, let’s say twenty years, then you would have to pay a set amounts for those twenty years. Unfortunately, that amount would not decrease as your mortgage increased and you will end up paying more than your mortgage is worth by the end of it. This is why most people like to go with the first policy, even though it costs more than your mortgage as well, it doesn’t cost as much and it decreases over time.

Disability Insurance

Mortgage disability insurance is meant to help you pay your mortgage should you become temporarily injured or severely disabled. If you did not receive worker’s compensation for becoming injured, which usually occurs because of an injury that is not work related, then you will not have money to pay your mortgage. This could cause you to lose your home, which would be devastating. Instead, during your time off of work, your insurance kicks in and begins to pay your mortgage. This allows you to keep your home and prevents you from being unable to pay for it. Sadly, hundreds of people lose their home each year due to a disability that causes them to be unable to pay for their home. This insurance will help you prepare for the future so that you don’t become one of those statistics, which could happen with just one accident.

While these two types of insurance should be in a single policy, they are not. The need to buy either policy changes from person to person, but either policy could end up saving your home. These policies are meant to prepare you for the future, but can be difficult to pay for. In our rough economy, not everyone can afford to pay for one of these policies, but if something bad were to happen they definitely would not be able to pay for the crisis. It is a risk, an expensive one at that.

Monday, October 12, 2015

How To Save On Truck Insurance?

If you are looking for truck insurance, and want to save money, the first questions you must answer involve what type of truck insurance you need. There are several varieties, and each has its own rules for saving money on your premiums.


First, if you own a pickup truck designed for family use, the same rules apply when looking for insurance savings as those which apply to cars. In essence, pickup trucks are simply cars with bigger frames. Since they are driven for mostly the same purpose as passenger cars, most insurers simply insure them in the same way as they do cars.

You should shop around for the best rates, and be sure to take advantage of good driver discounts, good student discounts, driver’s education discounts, and multi-car and multi-policy discounts. You can also save by raising your deductibles or lowering your coverage levels, or both.

However, if you are looking for truck insurance for a vehicle designed to do commercial work, whether it is a panel truck, a flat-bed truck, or a semi-tractor-trailer truck, you will need a completely different policy than that which covers your personal pickup truck. There are a variety of policies which cover commercial trucks, and you will need to find the right policy for your particular needs.

Trucks are classed according to size, weight, and purpose. In general, the bigger the truck, the higher the insurance premiums, although this is not always the case. Trucks are also classified by their use, and trucks which are used to transport hazardous materials or to do dangerous jobs will require more insurance and typically higher premiums, even if they may be smaller than some other vehicles.

There are four types of coverage for commercial vehicles. Each of these has a specific purpose, and all four are usually required, depending upon the use to which the truck is put.

All trucks must carry liability insurance. Liability insurance is very similar to the insurance carried by cars in this regard; it protects the driver from liability in an accident. It will pay for damages to another person’s vehicle, medical expenses, and other property damage if you cause an accident.

Trucks can also carry “physical damage” insurance as a separate policy. Similar to a “comprehensive” policy on a car, this insurance pays to repair or replace the vehicle if it is damaged in a non-accident-related incident. Fire, flood, theft, and tornado are all covered by a physical damage policy, and many policies have riders such as glass breakage, which can save you a good bit of money if you have minor damage to your vehicle from a flying rock or other debris.

One type of insurance which is completely different from that carried on cars is a “cargo” policy. Because so many trucks carry large loads of goods, the goods as well as the truck must be insured. Cargo policies are typically priced by the type of cargo the truck generally carries. If the cargo is expensive to replace, the corresponding coverage will cost more.

A final type of insurance often carried by truck drivers is medical coverage. If the worker is injured as a result of operating the truck for work, workers’ compensation may pay; however, if the truck driver is off duty and owns the truck, medical coverage may be necessary to pay the bills.



These policies are sometimes integrated into the liability section of the policy, but can also be standalone policies.

If the truck is stored, there is a form of storage insurance called “bob-tail” insurance which is designed to protect the truck driver’s investment. Bob-tail insurance is specifically designed for trucks which are not currently being used for work purposes.

If you want to save on these types of truck insurance, your best bet is to visit an independent agent or a company which specializes in insuring trucks. Sometimes, your car insurance carrier is not the best place to save. Visit several companies and perform an internet search to find companies specializing in truck insurance.