At the most, I would rent a car once or twice a year when I find myself traveling to remote cities for friends’ weddings, for example. Luckilly, this has not yet happened to me.
According to the New York Times, it’s common for rental car companies to charge mutiple customers for the same dings or dents on cars. There are a few examples where the company in question — in this case Enterprise — has charged customers’ credit cards $500 before the car has been inspected.
How many motorists are billed for existing damage to the cars they rent? Of the scores of complaints I have received about damage disputes, I counted about a dozen recent cases that seemed to fit the bill. All of them involved Enterprise.
Enterprise defended their actions in the article, saying the customers were misbilled due to their returning the rented vehicles on a Saturday. Now, generally I’m quite trusting and I give others the benefit of the doubt, but if that’s the best excuse they can come up with, it’s a sorry state of affairs.
The best advice is to thoroughly inspect the vehicle before you sign the rental agreement. Walk around the car and mark down any blemish that the company might try to blame on you. I generally don’t take the extra insurance offered by the rental company as between my own insurance and AAA, everything’s covered. Most of all, don’t get into any accidents.
Speaking of accidents, now it’s confession time: One time, I rented a small truck (like U-Haul or Ryder) for moving my worldly possessions from one town to another. As I drove around the gas station between filling up and returning the vehicle, I think I took out part of the roof of the building that extended past the side. The truck was fine.
Has anyone else had any interesting experiences with rental cars or the companies?
Marketwatch reports that “Two out of three adults would rather have their employer pick a set of health plans than be given an employer-funded account so they can go out and buy it for themselves on the individual market.”
My company provides several options for health coverage, but the selection is getting more complicated next year. In 2006, the company will offer one point-of-service plan (provided by CIGNA, one national HMO plan (provided by Aetna, a consumer-directed health program with a health fund, a high-deductible health program with a health savings account, local HMOs, and an out-of-area medical program.
This year and in past years, the company has offered a “flex credit” to cover most of the health insurance expenses deducted from the paycheck, but this will no longer be offered in 2006. The cost of the programs have been lowered to compensate for the lack of reimbursement, but the 2006 plans still end up being more expensive.
I’m probably going to stick wih the national HMO plan ($552 per year). It’s not as cheap as the high-deductibe program ($132 per year) and only slightly more expensive than the consumer directed health program ($444 per year). Open enrollment begins later this month.
CNN Money has an extensive feature on how general consensus is wrong again. The articles look at the biggest money fears, how they may be unreasonable, and what should worry the public instead. Here are the first three from the series. The remaining three appear in a follow-up post here at Consuermsim Commentary.
While Americans are afraid of dying young and leaving their families without their income for support, they should be more concerned about becoming disabled and unable to work due to an injury or illness. While 50 percent of workers have life insurance, only 28 percent have extended disability insurance.
Suggestions: Get adequate disability insurance, covering at least 60 percent of your salary, “own occupation” coverage which pays if you can’t do you current job regardless of whether you can do another, and keep premiums low.
The stock market crashing is a big fear, while researchers believe there is more of a chance of mediocre returns throughout the next several decades. “Unless whole new demographic groups, like Asia’s burgeoning middle class, suddenly start putting a lot of money into U.S. stocks, the once-in-a-lifetime rise in what people are willing to pay for equities looks like it has about run its course.”
Suggestions: Diversify holdings throughout types of investments, dollar cost averaging, buy cheap funds like index funds, and invest more.
High gas prices, high stock prices, and some other factors have caused many to believe that the U.S. economy will crash. CNN Money believes we’re more likely to see some stagnation. “But today the U.S. could be facing a long, sometimes painful return to average. Even optimistic economists figure the boomers’ retirement will slow the pace of economic growth a bit.”
Suggestions: Outsource investments by looking outside the U.S. for investment opportunities, buy treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) to hedge against inflation, and invest 5% of your portfolio in gold through an ETF. On the other hand, gold just hit a 17-year high. That sounds a little like it’s not time to invest.
More of our biggest fears are debunked in Part Two.
Some of my favorite commercials on television right now are GEICO spots. You know the ones. Salesman/actor: “Buying car insurance from GEICO is so simple, even a caveman could do it.” Caveman: “That is so offensive.”
Seth Stevenson from Slate Magazine feels the same way and cites another good one, the “Tiny House reality series” commercial. Although GEICO did not come out on top during my latest seach for auto insurance, their quirky commercials and reputation for low prices did send me to their website first.
Since those who need car insurance span a wide variety of demographics, advertisements need to appeal to a vast audience. Quirky and clever commercials catch my attention, but then again, so do commercials like GoDaddy’s Superbowl commercial (my title for it: “The Congressional Hearing”) from earlier this year. Incidentally, all my domain names are registered through GoDaddy.
How Much Personal Liability Insurance Do You Need? The Motley Fool recommends covering yourself for how much you might have to lose if sued at the end of the term of insurance rather than how much you might lose if sued now.
Are you an extreme saver? (For some reason, I’m reminded of the extreme kayaking from Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.) Michael Potter lives on an income of $15,000. He hardly ever drives, cuts his own hair. and still finds a way to support kids and his hobbies, which include ceramics and motorcycles. Even on his low income, he can afford a $7,000 entertainment system, thre Corvettes, and a $16,000 Harley.
Google [GOOG] is still above $300 per share. Will it split? Meanwhile, oil has dipped below $60 while we should expect gas at $3 per gallon.
Yo. I think your website would be da bomb if you had the gecko do the Robot.
Last month, the nine points on my New Jersey Driver’s License fell into obsolescence. It has now been three years since the points were “awarded” to me for various stupid indiscretions. This is good news for my wallet.
My auto insurance yearly premium is $3,536. I’ve decided that my newfound point-freedom and a $500 payment due this month give me a perfect opportunity to shop around for new insurance.
So I did. I first called AAA, who brokered my current insurance. Currently, I’m on the state-mandated high risk plan so I had no options. AAA offered me new insurance through Libery Mutual for $1,568 (with options similar to my current coverage). That’s a decent amount of savings, but maybe I could do better.
I shopped around a little more and I’ve settled with Geico. They were able to offer me the same coverage for $810. The choice is clear. Now, there is one last obstacle: I must wait while they verify my information through “independent sources” before they decide whether my application is approved.
Update: I’ve received the response from Geico. Read the comments for the rest of the story.
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