5 Worst Insurance Bets

I have selected my five worst insurance bets.

What are yours?

1.  Credit Life

You are already in the hole, you owe money, and they tell you, hey, you want your spouse and kids saddled with this debt?

Oh no, me?  I am a nice guy, I don’t want to do that.

Most likely, check with an attorney licensed in your state, they are not liable for that debt anyway.

Second, that is why you have life insurance in the first place.

Insurance where the premium stays the same, while the payoff goes down = bad idea.

2.  Mortgage insurance.

See above.

You keep paying the same premium, while you are paying off the mortgage, so what they are liable for, paying off your mortgage, goes down, they keep getting the same amount of your money.

3.  Collision insurance for that clunker

Speaking from experience on this one.

I thought I had dropped comprehensive on my 2003 minivan.  Last year, it was stolen.  From my driveway.  Between ten and midnight on a Friday.

Did I mention I live across the street from the police station?

By a 12 year old.

Well, he drove two blocks and left in a panic.

Turns out I still had theft, they valued the whole vehicle at $3500 and it cost half that just to fix the door lock and ignition.

But I canceled when I got it back, because I did Doug’s toaster analysis.  The hundreds of dollars per year I was paying, for a vehicle declining in value, already over 160,000 miles, made no sense.

Lots of times we finance a car, have to get full coverage, and forget about it after it is paid off.

We have to be aware of where our money is going.

4.  Rental car insurance.

This may already be covered by your carrier.

5. Almost any appliance/computer purchase.

Extended warranty, or insurance.  Remember, there is a warranty for some period of time with most things, and what is going to wreck your appliance anyway?

A fire, or other disaster already covered in your homeowner’s policy?

I am sure readers can add to this list.

image credit: used car guy

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