Should You Buy Rental Car Insurance

Sometimes it can feel as though your entire working life adds up to just one single life-defining event each year—Vacation. And that vacation, while important for reminding you that there is a reason you work so hard all year round, must be planned so that it offers you the most bang for the buck that you can afford.

When you budget your vacation and the cost of your rental car, it is easy to forget to factor in the cost of rental car insurance. But unless you want to come home from your vacation with a car repair bill that rivals the cost of a first-class vacation overseas, then you should probably consider buying rental car insurance or finding out whether you already have sufficient protection through other means.

Does your auto insurance policy cover it?

The first thing you can do is contact your insurance agent to find out what coverage you have for rental cars through your existing auto insurance policy. You want to make sure that you have something to protect yourself in the event of an accident, theft, and vandalism. This coverage should not just include protection for damage to the car, but also property damage and bodily injury as well.

Does your credit card offer any insurance?

Next, you can check with your credit card company. Many credit cards offer special protections for their clients when they use the credit card to pay for their rental car fees. Call the credit card company that you plan to use while you are on vacation and see if they have this protection. When you do, make sure you also ask about any special protocol you must observe in order to have the insurance coverage.

Cover All Drivers

Finally, you need to make sure that any other person you plan to have drive the rental car has the same coverages, because your personal insurance and credit card protection might not extend to another individual driver who is not named on your credit card or auto insurance policy.

By coordinating the benefits offered by both your credit card and your auto insurance policy, you may be able to avoid the expense of rental car insurance. But if there are any gaps in the coverages you get between the credit card and auto policy, make sure you try to fill it with the insurance offered by the rental car company so that you can spend your vacation relaxing and enjoying your time rather than worrying about potential damages and expenses.

Be sure to learn more about your own Maryland auto insurance from Jones & Associates Insurance Agency today!

What Can Affect Your Homeowners Insurance Premium?

Your individualized quote for homeowners insurance is not found on any kind of static chart that matches your age, home value and deductible information to a set price. Homeowners insurance quotes are specifically developed for each applicant and are based on the very personal details of your lifestyle and living space. Here’s a taste of what some of the factors involved in your premium pricing include:

The age of your home: Older homes are less fortified against natural disasters than newer homes, and are also more expensive to repair. Newer homes are built to new safety standards and with more durable materials. What does this mean to you? That if you have an older home, you can expect a more expensive homeowners insurance quote.

The construction of your home: Wood frame houses are susceptible to fire in a way that concrete block and brick homes are not. Concrete homes can also stand up to harsher environmental elements. That makes wood frame houses more expensive to insure.
Learn more about your Clinton MD Home Insurance from Jones & Associates Insurance Agency today.

High-Tech Auto Safety Features

We look away from the road for a few seconds to grab our coffee cup or glance at a billboard, we leave a little late for work and drive too fast, we drift off after a long haul on a monotonous road, or we freeze-up and fail to react to an erratic driver or an obstacle on the road. The sad fact is that these common errors are responsible for most of the accidents on the road, and they are all the responsibility of the driver.

But what if our cars could protect us from ourselves? That's just what some new high-tech safety features like these are aiming to do.

Read the rest of this story from Jones & Associates Insurance and check on your own Clinton MD Auto Insurance today!

Officials: Be Careful In Hiring For Home Repairs

by WBALTV | wbaltv.com | October 1, 2010


State officials are urging homeowners to be careful when choosing a contractor to repair damage from Thursday's severe weather.

Alexander M. Sanchez, secretary of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, said residents can be taken advantage of if they're not careful.

"Too often, unlicensed contractors arrive after harsh conditions, such as this week's storm and flood, with offers to help when their true intent is to take advantage of people in distress," he said. "Often the first available or the cheapest contractor is not the best choice."

Homeowners who use licensed home improvement contractors are protected by the Maryland Home Improvement Commission's Guaranty Fund. This fund is administered to compensate homeowners who suffer economic damages at the hands of a licensed home improvement contractor.
 
No coverage is provided to the homeowner if the contractor is unlicensed.

"Homeowners should remember the law requires contractors to hold a current license in order to perform home improvement, electrical, plumbing or heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration work,” said Stanley J. Botts, DLLR's commissioner of Occupational and Professional Licensing.

Consumers may contact DLLR's Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing at 410-230-6001 or click here to check the licensing status and complaint history of any contractor.

Be sure you're covered with your own Clinton MD Home Insurance policy through Jones & Associates.

Maryland offers homebuying incentives to BRAC workers

by Ryan Sharrow | September 29, 2010 | Baltimore Business Journal



Maryland’s housing department said Wednesday a new program will provide an additional $2,500 in home buying assistance to military workers relocating to the state.


The BRAC Match Program enables homebuyers to receive $2,500 in down payment and/or closing cost assistance if purchasing a home through the Maryland Mortgage Program, administered by the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development. The state-run mortgage aid program offers first-time homebuyers a variety of low-interest, fixed-rate loan options.

The BRAC Match Program is available to civilian and military employees of the federal defense agencies that are relocating to Maryland.

The Base Realignment and Closure plan is expected to bring thousands of workers to Maryland from New Jersey and Virginia over the next several years.

The program can be used with other state assistance programs currently available to homebuyers.

In July, the state announced plans to expand the Maryland Mortgage Program ahead of BRAC and provide $100 million in mortgage loans to homebuyers in 10 counties.

Check on your own Maryland Home Insurance with Jones & Associates Insurance Agency today!

Cash-Poor Governments Ditching Public Hospitals

By SUZANNE SATALINE
AUGUST 29, 2010

Peninsula Clarion

A patient and care giver at Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna, Alaska, where the government is considering a partnership with the for-profit LHP Hospital Group of Texas.

Faced with mounting debt and looming costs from the new federal health-care law, many local governments are leaving the hospital business, shedding public facilities that can be the caregiver of last resort.

A patient and care giver at Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna, Alaska, where the government is considering a partnership with the for-profit LHP Hospital Group of Texas.

Officials in Lauderdale County, Ala., this spring opted to transfer their 91-year-old Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital and other properties to a for-profit company after struggling to satisfy an angry bond insurer.

"We were next to knocking on bankruptcy's door,'' said Rhea Fulmer, a Lauderdale County commissioner who approved the deal with RegionalCare Hospital Partners, of Brentwood, Tenn, but with trepidation. She said the county had no guarantee the company would improve care in the decades to come. "Time will tell.''

Clinton County, Ohio, in May sold its hospital to the same company. Officials in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, are weighing a joint venture with a for-profit company, similar to one the same company made with Bannock County, Idaho. And Prince George's County, Md., is seeking a buyer for its medical complex.

Full Story
Get a free health insurance quote by calling Jones & Associates at 301-899-6117.

Maryland Becomes Second State to Offer Federally Funded Abortions under Obamacare

July 16, 2010
By Matt Cover, Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) - Maryland will join Pennsylvania as the second state to use federal tax dollars to pay for abortions under the new health care law signed by President Barack Obama in March, according to information released by Maryland’s State Health Insurance Plan.

Maryland will receive $85 million in federal funds for its federally mandated high-risk insurance pool, which will cover abortions. As CNSNews.com reported on July 14, Pennsylvania will receive $160 million in federal funds for its high-risk insurance pool, which will also cover abortions.

During the debate over the health-care bill, President Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress, saying: “Under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.”

The day the House voted to pass that bill, President Obama also signed an executive order purporting to prevent federal funding of abortions in the programs it created.


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No Maryland employees enroll same-sex spouses for health insurance

By: Hayley Peterson Examiner Staff - June 7, 2010

No Maryland state employees enrolled their same-sex spouses for health benefits during the state's first enrollment period for gay couples, according to Gov. Martin O'Malley's office.

The state's Office of Budget and Management opened the special enrollment period for same-sex couples following a February mandate from Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler that state agencies begin recognizing out-of-state gay marriages.

Although no one enrolled their same-sex partners for benefits, a handful of gay couples submitted their marriage certificates for the record.

"We have received a number of marriage certificates from employees already receiving domestic partner benefits, which means the only change would be that they would be in the system recognized as 'married,' " said O'Malley spokesman Shaun Adamec. The state has received fewer than 10 certificates, but more may have been submitted that have not been processed, he said.

Maryland already extends health benefits to same-sex couples who register as "domestic partners" -- meaning they share a bank account and home address, and agree to sign a contract saying they have been in a relationship for at least one year.

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Suitland Auto Insurance

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