I remember a few years ago when credit card companies would send out $5 checks to customers. The catch with the $5 check was that it enrolled you in some sort of service, usually identity theft or employment related, that was free for a month. After a month, there was a monthly fee that was either flat, in the case of the identity theft service, or a percentage of your balance, in the case of the employment related service.

Last week, I received two letters from two banks reminding me of their complimentary offer of Accidental Death & Dismemberment AD&D insurance. It’s clear in both cases they’re marketing promotions trying to get you to buy AD&D insurance from their partners. However, the two offers are very different in how they approach the customer.

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With the downturn and massive loss of jobs (unemployment stands at 9.7%), a lot of people are finding work as independent contractors. Some are finding contract work at fewer than full time. Others are simply seeing employers are now preferring to go with contractors to reduce expenses. Independent contractors don’t require benefits like health insurance, 401(k), vacation, or sick time.

One such person is reader Amanda, who recently emailed me to ask me about self-employed health insurance. I have done research on it in the past but with the current state of the economy, I think I should take a renewed look at self employed health insurance. So without further delay, how to find affordable self employed health insurance and then a brief discussion on why self employed health insurance is different.

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Do you keep a home inventory? When was the last time you update it? If the answer was “no” or “last year,” it’s time you thought about keeping or updating your home inventory. Without it, you could be spending lots of valuable time trying to remember, and prove, the things in your home if you ever are the victim of a burglary, Mother Nature, or bad luck.

The purpose of a home inventory is to document the personal property in your apartment or home so that, in the event of a loss, you can expedite the recovery process with your insurance company. It also can give you an idea of how much insurance to purchase, where too much can be as bad as too little insurance.

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When you buy a car, the biggest number you see is the price. The sticker price, the invoice price, and the price you paid to get that car onto your driveway or into your garage. Savvier buyers also look at the total cost of ownership, which includes the price but also adds in the cost of driving, maintaining, and insuring the car.

The easiest way to determine the total cost of ownership on a car is to turn to online calculators, like this True Cost to Own calculator from Edmunds.

If you’re curious just from an insurance perspective, Forbes has published a list of the least and most expensive cars to insure according to data provided by Insure.com. They quoted rates for a 40-year-old male who commutes 12 miles to work with your fairly standard insurance limits. $300k/$100k injury limits, $50k property damage, and $500 deductibles on collision and comprehensive.

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My wife wrote an article last week about how you can save money going local for balloons and flowers, but here’s another reason you might want to go local – superior service.

In working for my how to buy term life insurance post yesterday, I emailed my insurance agent, Deborah from State Farm, to get some updated quotes on term life insurance. I’ve had the need to email her on several occasions and each time her responses were usually back in minutes. She knew me as Jim Wang, a recent new customer, and not as customer #XXXXXXX in a database somewhere.

It really underscored one thing I had missed when I was with Geico and Traveler’s, personalized service with a real person.

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I’m 28 and I don’t have any life insurance. For many people, they don’t begin thinking about life insurance until they start a family and I’ll be no different. While we don’t plan on starting a family in another year or so, it’s important to learn things before you need it (before emotion and time pressure begin affecting judgment) and today I spent some time looking at life insurance.

I’m not an insurance professional and everything I wrote in this article is simply my opinion. I understand that I may have made some mistakes or misunderstood some things, so take what I write with a grain of salt. Insurance can sometimes be a confusing topic and I, like many of you, am learning it as I go along. If you do see anything inaccurate, please let me know so I can fix it!

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I hate insurance.

Actually, I take that back, I don’t hate insurance. I hate paying for insurance.

Every time I get an email from GEICO or a mailing from Traveler’s, I think about how I pay them every six months and, in the nearly ten years of driving and four years of living in this house, I’ve never filed a claim. At least with medical and dental, I get some regular checkups and routine cleanings (I hate getting a teeth cleaning but I love getting stuff for “free”). Don’t get me wrong, I’d still get insurance even if I wasn’t required to by law, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy paying for it!

So, once a year or so, I have an insurance review day. I get a little antsy and start asking for quotes from other insurance companies to see if I’m getting the best price. (Well, I’ve been more in the “or so” category, I haven’t done this in two years)

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I’ve been doing some research to improve upon my “How to Get Independent Health Insurance” post, because 3.6 million people have lost their jobs in the last year-plus. I requested health insurance quotes through eHealthInsurance, which mainstream media absolutely loves (Kiplinger just named them one of 2008’s Best Sites for Health Insurance), and saw that plans from the same company varied greatly based on deductible, plan type, co-pays, etc. I think the concept of deductibles and co-pays are well understood, but what are these plan types?

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I wrote about the total cost of owning a dog a few weeks ago and a couple of you chimed in about including pet health insurance. Even one of my friends, Nick, IM’d me to say that I should really consider getting pet insurance (he recently got a dog and had some medical issues to contend with) because it’s worth the peace of mind. I’ve never had a pet outside of some fish so I didn’t even think about getting insurance but it makes some sense.

For those, like me, who aren’t familiar with pet insurance, it’s just like your medical insurance. You pay monthly premiums and the pet insurance covers certain medical procedures and checkups. The more comprehensive the insurance, the more it covers and the more it costs. The big difference between the two is that with regular medical insurance today, the doctor usually interfaces directly with the insurance company. With pet insurance, you typically pay out of pocket and then request a reimbursement from the insurance company. I prefer the first way because then the doctor is often compelled to accept the price negotiated between the company and the doctor, which is often lower than the standard fee. By paying out of pocket first, you have to do the negotiating. (this may just have been the case with the insurance plans I saw)

Nick sent me a link to Veterinary Pet Insurance, the company he has his dog’s insurance with, and in reviewing the documents it seems pretty straightforward. VPI covers 90% of the scheduled allowance after a $50 per-incident deductible. If the procedure costs $1000, their benefit schedule covers $900 for that procedure, then they will pay out $765 ($900 – $50 x 90%) for the incident. Much like your standard medical insurance, they have a benefit schedule. Unlike your standard medical insurance, they don’t negotiate with the practitioner, you have to negotiate with them. I don’t know how flexible vets are about pricing but as I mentioned earlier, it’s easier if its the insurance company doing the negotiating (especially if you’re feeling the pressure because you know your pet needs the procedure!).

I entered in a quote for a two and a half year old Scottish Terrier and the comprehensive plan, with a $14k annual benefit allowance, cost $20.92 a month ($251/yr). The standard plan, with a $9k benefit allowance, was $11.33 a month ($136/yr). How does $251 a year stack up against the typical procedures a two and a half year old dog will face? I don’t know. I imagine though that, given it’s insurance, $251 is probably a bit above average (that’s how insurance companies work!).

Will we get pet insurance? Not sure yet, I think we will have to decide once we’ve adopted a dog and have a better idea of the types of medical expenses the breed will likely face in their lifetime. Another option would be to cover them when they are young and then once again when they are older. This opens up the potential for uncovered issues in the middle but depending on the price, it might be worth it. I don’t want to make an emotional decision but I also don’t want to be taken to the cleaners either way.

Anyone have experience with any other pet insurance companies or with pet insurance in general?

(Photo: cloneofsnake)

With only three days left in the year, a lot of people are scrambling to spend down their Flexible Spending Accounts before the balance expires worthless. It’s a crazy system but those are the rules. Fortunately, if you can’t squeeze in any end-of-the-year dentist appointments or medical checkups, you can always spend them on eligible over-the-counter supplies you will likely need next year. I’ve put together a list of things I usually stock up on if I find myself with a few extra bucks.

In the past I’ve always bought a lot of my OTC products on Drugstore.com because they helpfully label which items are FSA-eligible, which takes a bit of the guesswork out, and because I won’t have to pay sales tax on my purchases. Amazon.com is a good place too but they don’t label FSA eligible products.

Last Minute FSA Ideas

• Contact lens solution
• First aid kits – When I’ve stocked up on everything else, I just buy some first aid kits to put in the car, my wife’s car, our kitchen, our upstairs closet…
• Band-aids, blister band-aids
• Motion/sea/car sickness pills
• Pain relief – Advil, Tylenol, Bayer, etc… you can’t have too much.
• Electric heating pads
• Thermometers
• Allergy medicine – Loratadine is always good to have, it’s the antihistamine in Claritin, at a fraction of the price.
• Healing lotions – They often smell like medicine but they’re good for you.
• Acid reflux drugs – I don’t use them often but when I need them, it’s awesome to have them handy.
• Smoking cessation products
• Braces, supports, ACE bandages
• Ice packs – for those sprained ankles
• Blood pressure monitor – instead of using the trusty arm wrap pump (I made up that name) and stethoscope, go 21st century!
• Defibrillator – This is for when you’ve grossly under-estimated your spending, by like a thousand dolllars or more, you can consider getting one of these. It’s for cases like where you planned on Lasik but then couldn’t get the procedure. These things usually last only a couple years too (pads last for around 2, battery for four, and you need to frequently test them), but they are lifesavers if you have a heart attack..

Good luck!