Getting Personal
Marketplace Money host Tess Vigeland and economics editor Chris Farrell answer listeners' personal finance questions about rental car insurance, credit checks for your child and paying down debt while unemployed.
Getting Personal (Marketplace)
Links
- Audio: Part 2: Getting Personal
Each week on Marketplace Money, host Tess Vigeland looks at the week's major national and international stories that will impact the average listener's wallet. - Getting Personal blog
Submit your personal finance question.
Comments
Comment | Refresh
From Kalamazoo, MI, 07/03/2009
I listened to your answer on the rental car insurance question last week. While you advice was good, I would like to add a couple of thoughts.
First, most virually all homeowners and renters policies exlcude any coverage on vehicles. There would be no proctection from that policy if you rent a vehicle.
Second,the Auto policy would pay for physical damage if you have that coverage on your vehicle. In other words, if you have comprehensive coverage (other that collision) and collision coverage on your personal car, most companies will cover those losses on the rental car. If you have liability coverage only on your car (say because it is a junker), you would not have that coverage on a rental.
That being said, there has been an important change in rental car contracts in the last few years. The new contracts read that in the event of physical damage to the vehicle, the rental car company has the option to repair the vehicle or sell the vehicle at salvage auction and recover the reduction in value of the vehicle you damgaged from you. They may do this at their sole dicretion. Your personal auto coverage will not cover you for the reduction in value of the rental if the rental car company decides not to repair it or total the vehicle. This could leave you liable to the rental car company for tens of thousands of dollars.
Insurance companies are now starting to offer a rider that will pick up coverage for "loss of value for a rental vehicle". It is usually offered as an additional-cost rider to your personal auto policy. If you travel and rent vehicles often, it may be worthwhile to add the coverage to your auto policy.
In addition, if your only vehicle is a company issued vehicle, you need to check with the company to see if the commercial auto policy has coverage for you to drive other vehicles besides the company car. Many companies do not carry this coverage. If they don't have drive other car coverage and you don't have a personal auto of your own with libaility and physical damage coverage, you would not be covered and need the insurance at the rental counter.
From northampton, MA, 07/01/2009
Chris:
I am interested in getting some investment advice from someone who 1. has a solid investing background which has been documented by someone other than the person, themselves
2.has a MBA and at least a master's level economics background
3. is "seasoned".
What kind of professional do you recommend that I seek out? How do I go about doing so?
I'd like this person to give me advice on e.g.
a. pros and cons of investing in Intel now;
evidence they would look for in deciding when to invest and how much of my $ to invest at a particular time
b. 6 month to 1 year municipal bonds that are safe to invest in where I can earn at least 3%
c. how much I should put in a mutual fund and which one to chose
I have $15,000. I am a moderate plus risk investor and want as much of the $ as possible in dividends that I can use in 15 years time when I retire. ( I also have a 401K that I have been putting money into for 15 years).
I enjoy your show and welcome any suggestions you might have to make.
IF POSSIBLE, I'D PREFER AN ONLINE REPLY. IF "ON AIR" IS THE ONLY CHOICE PLEASE DO NOT USE MY NAME.
Thanks.
Regards
Andrea Cole
From Merrimac, MA, 06/30/2009
I'm trying to lower the interest rates on our credit cards and wondering if the credit card bill of rights legislation will have any effect on current cc interest rates.
From Key Largo, FL, 06/26/2009
I have eliminated all of my credit card debt recently. What do I do with these accounts now? Should I simply close them out?
Post a Comment: Please be civil, brief and relevant.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments are moderated. Marketplace reserves the right to edit any comments on this site and to read them on the air if they are extra-interesting. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting.
You must be 13 or over to submit information to American Public Media. The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party. For more information see Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.