How to Rid Your Property of Rodents

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

The pitter-patter of little feet is usually something that makes most folks smile, unless the sound is the result of rodents running overhead as they scamper through your attic.  Living in the city means that rodents are everywhere.  The reason most people don't see rats and mice all that often is because they're nocturnal by nature.  That means when we go to bed they clock in for the night shift.  Cagey by nature, they know how to avoid our pets while pursuing the three things that make life worthwhile: food, shelter, and mates.  While wild creatures, they are not averse to setting up housekeeping in our homes or yards.  Once entrenched, these furry little rascals can be extremely hard to evict.  Worse still is the fact that any damage to your property caused by rodents is NOT covered by homeowner's insurance.  The best way to deal with a rodent infestation is to avoid one.  In today's blog I'll teach you ten ways to convince Mickey and Minnie to try someplace else other than your home to live in.

Is Your Insurance Ready to Face the Wrath of Mother Nature?

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Everywhere you look these days it seems you can't help but find stories of natural disasters.  Record flooding in Kentucky, tornadoes tearing up the heartland, and western wildfires of epic proportions are featured every day on the news.  So frequent are reports of mayhem brought about by Mother Nature that a lot of folks simply tune them out.  At least they do until they're staring down the barrel of a natural disaster of their own.  Then it's a matter of wondering whether they're prepared for the worst that Mother Nature can dish out.  Living in Florida means that all of the above mentioned calamities have occurred in the past and will occur again in the future.  The last thing you want to find out after a natural disaster has damaged or destroyed your home is that your insurance isn't going to help make you whole again.  Below are ten tips to help you make sure this never happens to you.

Do You Know the ABCs of Homeowner's Insurance?

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

If you own a home, be it a house, a condo, or a mobile home, odds are you purchased home insurance to protect your investment.  Being that your home is undoubtedly one of your biggest investments, wouldn't it be nice to know what is and isn't covered by homeowner's insurance?  Wouldn't it also be helpful if you could discover ways to bolster your protection so you don't wind up having any of your claims denied in the future?  Below you'll find my alphabetized list of the 20 most common causes of damage to a home, as well as whether it's a covered under a standard policy.

How to Protect Your Tech During a Hurricane

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

You wouldn't know that we're well into hurricane season by looking at the weather in the Atlantic.  This year's Atlantic hurricanes have been few and far between so far.  While that may make everyone who lives on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts breathe a sigh of relief, remember we're not out of the woods yet.  We still have a long way to go between now and November 30.  Since prime time for hurricane season starts in just a couple of weeks, I thought I'd take the time to give you a few tips on how to protect your tech.  Since we live in a wired world, most of us have lots of technology that is all too vulnerable to things like lightning strikes and power outages.  What can be especially problematic to both homeowners and business owners is if the power remains out for more than a day or so.  With that in mind, I've come up with ten ways you can bolster your connectivity and protect your expensive technology from the wrath of Mother Nature.

How to Lower the Price for Teen Auto Insurance

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy pxhere

If there's one thing that puts the fear of God into every parent, it's the day their son or daughter asks to borrow the keys to the car.  Especially in this day and age when the cost to insure a teenage driver can more than double your insurance premiums, I thought I'd take the time to teach you how to make those payments a bit more affordable.  Just as there are ways for any driver to reduce the cost of auto insurance, there are a number of things you and your child can do to keep costs down.  Below is my top-10 list.

10 Ways to Raise Your Credit Score

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy picpedia

If you've been reading my blogs for long, you'll recall that I've pointed out many times that credit scores are used to determine how much the public pays for insurance.  Like it or not, those with higher credit scores pay less for the same insurance products than do those with lower scores.  That's because all insurance is based on risk and consumers who have low credit scores are considered a higher risk than those with high credit scores.  While this might seem unfair to any consumer with a low score, instead of getting mad why not get even instead.  You see, there are a number of ways that every consumer can raise their credit score without breaking the bank.  To help point you in the right direction, I've come up with a list of ten ways to raise your credit score.

What Should You Do When Your Vehicle is Totaled?

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

A friend of mine was recently involved in a single-car accident where he ran his vehicle up on a curb at less than 20 MPH after discovering a wasp in the front seat.  Instead of pulling over to shoo the bug away, he tried to roll down the window to get the job done while the car was still in motion.  As a result, he hit a fence post causing both front airbags to fire and putting a sizable dent in the right front fender.  Still, he was able to drive the vehicle home after filing a police report and notifying his neighbor that he'd get their fence repaired.  So far, so good.  What came as a shock was when he filed a claim with his insurance company only to learn soon after that the car was being declared a total loss.  At the time, he drove a 6-year-old SUV with less than 50,000 miles on it.  He called to tell me this, as well as to wonder why the vehicle was being totaled when he knew the cost to repair it wouldn't be as much as it would cost to replace it.  That's when I explained to him the rules regarding how insurance companies determine when it's time to total a vehicle.