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.

Are Your Employees Robbing You Blind?

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

If you're a business owner, then you know that keeping a business profitable is an uphill battle.  If it isn't things like COVID and inflation that make it difficult to keep your ship of commerce off the rocks, then it's increases in the cost of supplies and taxes that cause you to lose sleep at night.  As bad as all of those things can be to your company's bottom line, there's one item that can prove far more devastating to profitability: employee theft.  Like it or not, all employees don't have an employer's best interest at heart.  Some of them can and will use your business to go into business for themselves, while others are interested in doing your business in.  If you don't have the proper safeguards and oversight in place, you may soon find that your employees are taking your business for a ride to a place you don't want to go.  Below are the top-10 ways employees can rip your business off and what you can do to keep them from rob you blind.

The ABCs of Submitting a Homeowners Insurance Claim

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

As we enter the time of year when thunderstorms are an almost daily occurrence in North Florida, I thought I'd take the time to walk you through the basics of submitting a homeowners insurance claim.  Whether a claim is the result of the weather is beside the point.  While lightning strikes and wind damage are common during the summer months, the same process holds true if your home is damaged by a fire or a burst pipe.  What's vitally important when your home is damaged is that you understand the ins and outs of the claim process.  Get it right and you'll be able to make your property as good as new.  Get it wrong and you could wind up  getting less than you deserve from your insurer or having your claim denied.

How to Find a Reputable Contractor

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

As much as most people fret over filing a homeowner's insurance claim, one thing that pains them even more is worrying about hiring a contractor to repair a damaged home.  Face it, working with a contractor can be a high stress situation at best and a roller coaster ride at worst that can wind up emptying your bank account without successfully completing the task at hand.  Get it right and your property will be as good as new.  Get it wrong and you could wind up paying far more than the insurance company's check will cover.  To keep you from losing sleep over dealing with contractors, I thought I'd take the time to give you some helpful hints designed to weed out the good from the bad.

10 Ways to Prepare for Hurricane Season

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

With the relatively docile weather pattern that north Florida has been experiencing lately, most folks probably don't realize that hurricane season is right around the corner.  That's right, the official start of hurricane season is June 1, which is exactly one week away.  NOAA is predicting 21 named storms with 10 hurricanes for the coming season.  While they can't say when or where they are likely to hit, you can bet your bottom dollar that Florida is high on the list of potential landfalls.  The last major storms that caused any damage to north Florida were Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Irma in 2016 & 2017.  So, odds are there's a hurricane in the not too distant future that could come our way.  With that being said, I thought it was high time that I covered ten ways to help prep your home so you can better weather the storm.

10 Travel Scams to Avoid

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

Now that COVID-19 has backed off a bit, this has many families longing to take a summer vacation this year.  While you and yours may be champing at the bit to stretch your legs and tour foreign lands, before you wind up being taken for a ride on your next trip there are some underhanded schemes that thieves who prey on tourists are apt to use.  Knowing these tactics will not only save you money, depending on where you visit, it could save you a lot of time by keeping you from trying to explain to the local gendarme the petty crime that befell you.  While the list below isn't all-encompassing, it will introduce you to the top 10 cons that are likely to be pulled on you wherever you happen to visit.

10 Car Dealer Tricks to Avoid

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

Buying a new or used car is expensive enough these days.  According to Money Magazine, the price of an average used car jumped to $29,969 in 2021.  That's about the same price people paid for a home back in 1972.  During the past 50 years, while prices for just about everything have soared, the one thing that has remained practically the same are the tactics used by underhanded car dealers.  If you're thinking about purchasing a vehicle, below are 10 tricks you need to avoid if you don't want to be taken for a ride.