Insurance: Rental car

Most of us don't give much thought to insurance aspect of car rental until
we're offered coverage at the rental car counter. It can be a costly
mistake if there's an accident and the driver doesn't have adequate
coverage. At the same time, drivers shouldn't have to pay for insurance
that duplicates coverage on their personal auto policies or is available via
some credit cards.

The two most important types of coverage for drivers are a collision
damage waiver, sometimes called a loss damage waiver, and liability
insurance. The collision damage waiver relieves the driver of financial
responsibility if the rental car is damaged or stolen, while the liability
insurance covers costs if the driver is in an accident and is sued.
Accepting the collision damage waiver and liability coverage from a car
rental agency can add between $16 and $33 to the daily cost of the car,
according to the Insurance Information Institute.

You should check your personal insurance policies to see if you already
have coverage. In the vast majority of cases, whatever coverage you
have on your own personal auto policy is going to extend to your rental
car. But the big caveat is that the car is being rented for pleasure, not
business. So drivers who have comprehensive and collision coverage as
well as liability coverage in their personal policies can decline coverage
offered by rental car agencies. If you're not sure, call your (insurance)
agent and ask what coverage you have on a rental car.

This isn't an option for families who don't own a car or who have dropped
the comprehensive and collision coverage on an old car. In these cases,
an alternative is to use a credit card such as Visa, MasterCard or
American Express, that provides insurance protection as a benefit. The
insurance benefits can vary depending on the credit card issuer and
whether the card is basic or premium, so it is better to check the card
issuers' Web sites or call the card companies to confirm coverage.

Consumers who take advantage of these credit card-related collision
damage waivers may want to supplement it with the liability insurance
offered by the rental agencies. Rental car companies also offer other
insurance options to customers, some of which may duplicate personal
coverage. These can include personal injury insurance, which provides a
one-time payment if the driver or a passenger are maimed or killed, and
personal property insurance, which covers the theft of goods from a car.
However, most people don't need to buy either. If you have a health
insurance policy, the odds are you're covered for personal injury.
The theft of personal property often is covered in a homeowner's or
renter's insurance policy and likely isn't necessary.

Resources: Elder Care

You may be old or young, but you may need help regarding care issues of
yourself or your elderly relatives. You may approach the folowing
organizations for various kinds of help and information:

Support:
Children of Aging Parents 800-227-7294
The Family Caregiver Alliance 800-445-8106
National Shared Housing Resource Center

Government Programs:
The Elderly Locator 800-677-1116
The National Council on The Aging

Legal Help:
The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys 520-881-4005

Financial Advice:
The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors 800-366-2732
The Financial Planning Association 800-282-7526

Estate Planning:
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys 800-846-1555

Hybrid Cars: 2006

Here are some latest updates on Hybrid Cars:
[Read our past postings on Hybrid Cars, Toyota Prius, Lexus 400h]

-- The hybrid market has ramped up from 5 to 10 models in 2005. It is
expected that by 2006, onsumers should have about 15 total models to
select from. This number may increase to 40 in 2007.
--Toyota, already in lead with its Prius, will introduce hybrid version of
its best-selling, flagship Camry sedan in 2006.
-- The Honda Accord hybrid, with its peppy 255 horsepower engine will
join the Civic hybrid, making Honda a solid-runner up to Toyota.
-- Nissan, Japan's 3rd-biggest manufacturer is not yet a hybrid player
but it is all set to offer a hybrid Altima sedan next year. It will be based
on Toyota's hybrid technology.
-- Lexus is preparing to launch the first high-end hybrid sedan, the GS
450h, in the spring of 2006.

Population Growth

Here are a few interesting facts from a report released by the Census Bureau:

-- Greeley, Colorado is the fastest-growing metro area in the United States
from April 1, 2000 through July 31, 2003. The city north of Denver
increased its population by 16.8%. The 2nd and 3rd rank-holders among
metropolises are St. George, Utah, with 15.2% growth, and Las Vegas
-Paradise, Nevada, at 14.6%.

-- The New York metro area continued to be the most populous in
America. In 2003, its population reached 18.6 million people. Los Angeles
was 2nd at 12.8 million, followed by Chicago with 9.3 million.

-- Among small towns, which the Census Bureau calls "micropolitan"
areas, Florida's Palm Coast, between Jacksonville and Daytona, stood out,
growing by nearly 25% during the period. Other fast growing micropolises
included Heber, Utah (15.1%), and East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania (11.4%).

-- Overall ... the western region leads the U.S. in population growth. Here
is the ranking of regions: West (5.5%) , South (5.1%), Midwest (2.0%),
Northeast (1.5%).

Stored Value Cards

Stored value cards are one of the most dynamic
and fastest growing products in the financial
industry. Anyone who makes purchases with a
merchant gift card, places phone calls with a
prepaid telephone card, or buys goods or
services with a prepaid debit card is using a
stored value card. Stored value cards use
magnetic stripe technology to store
information about funds that have been prepaid to the card.

In recent years Traveler's checks have fallen out of favor with Americans
travelling abroad. We now tend to use more versatile credit and debit
cards. But if you still like the security benefits of traveler's checks (for
which the funds are unconnected to your bank or credit card accounts
and the issuer can replace them in 24 hours) and you do not mind
paying a little extra, you may consider carrying stored value cards.

You can use stored value cards at ATMs to get local currency. American
Express offers a stored value card named TravelFunds (888-412-6945)
which can be used in stores just like an ordinary Amex card. The sign-up
fee is $15 and it can be reloaded by phone for $5.

Visa's TravelMoney cards (available through Travelex at 877-394-2247)
cost about the same, work at more ATMs and are available at a discount
to AAA members. Unlike the Amex version, however, it can not be used
in stores as a charge card.

The cards may change rules and fees often. So, when you purchase, read
their brochures with attention and ask them about your concerns
and pros and cons of all types of transactions.

Fake Credit Application

It's always a good idea (before your identity is theft and you find yourself
in trouble without committing any sin) to block any illegal application to
credit cards by someone out there using your name. You can instruct the
credit bureaus to make it mandatory for credit cards to verify any such
application by calling you at your residential number.

You can do this by going online to websites of all 3 bureaus or just by
calling them (through automatic service).
REMEMBER: To instruct the bureaus again if you move from your old
place and get a new telephone number. Otherwise, your own legitimate
applications will be unnecessarily delayed...

Here are contact information for three Credit Bureaus:

Equifax Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc
P.O. Box 740241 Atlanta, GA 30374
To order report: 1-800-685-1111 To report fraud: 1-800-525-6285

Experian National Consumer Assistance Center
PO Box 2002 Allen, TX 75013
To order report: 1-888-397-3742 To report fraud: 1-888-397-3742

Transunion Consumer Disclosure Center
P.O. Box 1000 Chester, PA 19022
To order report: 1-800-888-4213 To report fraud: 1-800-916-8800

Airlines: Frequent-Flier Miles

In post-911 era airlines have been squeezed
hard by high labor and jet fuel costs. In addition
to that, each has lots of long-term debt hanging
over its head, including underfunded pension
plans. And on Oct. 17, changes in bankruptcy law
will make it harder for companies to cancel their
debts. To take advantage of the old laws, Delta
and Northwest have already filed for bankrupcy.

Probably their passsangers will not get much affected by such moves. Both
airlines promised to honor all tickets already issued. But the airlines are
free to change schedules and cut routes and there could be some service
disruptions too.

Probably nothing will affect their frquent-flier miles. In cases of past
bankruptcies, the airlines have done their best to honor frequent-flier
plans. But, there is no certainty about bonus and promotion programs.
Due to the need to cut costs, that is something that will no doubt be
examined and probably modified to some extent.

In this era while airline perks keep disappearing, and fares keep rising,
there's however some good news for frequent fliers: American Airlines
and United Airlines are slashing the miles needed to book free shorter
domestic flights, from 25,000 to 15,000 only. The moves are due to
pressure from low-cost carriers like Frontier Airlines and American West
that award free trips after 15,000 miles . But book soon: The United deal
expires on Dec. 31; American will run the reduced-mileage rate through
Feb. 28.

Computer: Save Energy

Saving energy is a good habit. Even if you have lot
of money and you think electricity bill is just a paltry
amount, it is ethical to reduce your consumption of
natural resources as much as possible for a better
future of our planet earth. Some of the measures are
well-known to you - like switching off lights when
those are not needed, using hot water sparingly,
keeping thermostats set to achieve 68° to 70°
Fahrenheit in the winter and 74° to 78° Fahrenheit for air-conditioned
spaces in the summer.

Here we also give some tips for your computer: contrary to a popular
belief, maintaining screen savers do not save energy, but giving your
computer a nap does. Enable power-management features so that your
computer monitor and hard drive will go into a low power (blank screen)
or “sleep mode” when not actively in use. Keep all computer equipment off
unless in use—especially at night and on weekends. Turn off your monitor
when you go to lunch or to a meeting. Turn off monitors on servers.
Enable power-management features on computer printers and/or turn
them off when not actively printing.

When purchasing computers and peripherals, buy low-wattage equipment
certified by the Energy Star program, and be sure to enable power
-management features when setting up equipment.

Rising Health Care Cost

According to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, premiums for employer
-provided health insurance in the U.S. rose 9.2% in 2005. This is after 4
successive years of double-digit increases but this slower rate is certainly
not a good news. Even this slower rate of increase still has health
insurance premiums rising more than twice as fast as overall inflation
(3.5%), and more than three times faster than workers' wages (2.7%).

Since 2000, premiums for coverage for a family have increased by 73%,
compared with inflation growth of 14% and wage growth of 15%. In dollar
terms, average annual premiums for employer-sponsored coverage rose
to $4,024 for single coverage and $10,880 for family coverage, according
to the report. The family coverage of about $11000 is about equal to the
full-time earnings of a minimum-wage worker.

That is why more companies that offer health benefits are offering high-
deductible plans (defined as $1,000 deductible for single coverage,
$2,000 for family coverage): In 2005, 20% of firms offered such plans,
up from 10% last year and 5% the year before. About 56% of workers
with coverage are in a health plan that requires that a deductible be met.
In PPOs (preferred provider organizations), the average deductible for
in-network services is $323 for single coverage and $679 for family
coverage. Enrollment in PPOs grew over the last year while HMO (health
maintenance organization) enrollment declined. PPOS enrolled 61% of
employees with health coverage, up from 55% in 2004 and remain the
most common type of plan. This year, one-third of firms with 200 or
more workers are offering retiree coverage, about the same as last year
but down from 66% in 1988.

Web phone Hang-Ups

Webphone from
Elanza Technologies
















Internet phone service is one of the hottest tecnologies of the year. But be
careful: Because Wed-based phone plans are are largely unregulated,
some may have security or privacy gaps.

Most services offer some form of 911 service, but if you take your Web
phone on a trip or fail to register your address with your provider, dialing
911 could put you in touch with the police in the wrong city--or not at all.

Many Internet phone services won't work with home security systems.
The reason? Most systems rely on traditional telephone lines to notify
the alarm company of intruders.

Many traditional phone users--12% of customers at Verizon, for example
--sign up for caller ID-blocking, keeping all outgoing calls anonymous. But
most Web-phone companies don't offer this feature yet

A spokesperson for Vonage, a leading Web-phone provider, says the
company is working to provide more of these features. For the time being,
it seems to be advantageous to go for web-based services like AT&T's
CallVantage that has more experience with old-fashioned phones.

Beware of Phising

Have you recently got
any mail from, say,
PayPal asking you to
claim an amount like
$88.89? If you click to
claim you'll be asked
to put your bank
account number where
they want to transfer
the money. This new
kind of scam using
names of well-known
and well-respected
companies is breaking
out over the mailboxes
throughout the internet
world and it has got a name: Phising.

Phishing is a type of online fraud where the perpetrators attempt to
acquire personal, financial, and/or other account information (such as
user IDs, passwords, credit card numbers, PINs, etc.) from unsuspecting
victims. This type of fraud is typically initiated by sending an unsolicited
but official-looking email claiming to be from a reputable company, such
as a bank, a credit card firm, or an online establishment. The fraudulent
email usually contains an urgent message that tries to lure the recipient
into providing sensitive information.

To avoid being victimized by phishing scams, here are some useful tips:
-- Do not respond to emails asking for any personal or financial information.
-- Legitimate companies will never ask you to verify or provide any
confidential information in an unsolicited email. They may ask you do that
in their secured websites.
-- Be cautious when clicking on links within a suspicious email.
-- Most phishing emails contain a link that leads to an official-looking web
page which requires the recipient to log in or enter some personal
information. Though the web page may contain official logos and look
exactly the same as the legitimate company's web site, any information
submitted via these spoofed web page(s) will be sent to the perpetrators
of the scam.
-- If you have any doubt regarding the authenticity of a web site you have
been directed to in an email, you open a new browser and type the known
URL of the company in the browser yourself, or call the company directly
via telephone.
-- If you take the cursor over the link without clicking, you can read the
address (of the link) at the bottom of your browser or you may right click
and select 'properties' and read the address in a new box. Check if that
address is authentic one or a bunch of sneaky redirects.

Gasoline Price Gouging

In our posting on Tuesday we cautioned our readers
about the charity scam quite prevalent in the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. However, probably
everytime you are filling up the tank of your car, you
are becoming a victim of gas gouging. Agencies have
reported that there was no reason in the sharp rise in
gasoline price by about 50 cents or more per gallon in
several places around USA. This happened even in
places where Katrina did not affect any parameter in
the local supply chain.

President Bush said, "I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people
breaking the law during an emergency such as this whether it be looting,
or price gouging at the gasoline pump, or taking advantage of charitable
giving or insurance fraud and I've made that clear to our Attorney
General. The citizens ought to be working together."

With key Gulf Coast refineries and pipelines out of service, the Energy
Department tried to keep fuel production steady by tapping an emergency
government stockpile of oil and to temporarily ease pollution standards on
gasoline and diesel fuel. But the president raised the possibility that the
hurricane will lead to even higher gasoline prices and shortages in some
areas. Besides agreeing to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve, Bush said the administration has waved some Environmental
Protection Agency regulations on blended fuel, which will mean there will
be more fuel available, not only domestically, but also from imports. After
all these weeks we may finally enjoy some relief -- even if that might be a
short one.

Tip: Find out which gas station in your town has the best fuel prices by
searching the handy state-by-state list at GasBuddy.com .

Home Wi-Fi Network

From one comfort we move to further comfort. A mere convenience of an
access to internet satisfy us no more. More and more households are now
setting up wireless networks in their homes for the convenience of remote
access to the Internet.

Most importantly, in recent times prices have fallen rapidly for wireless
access points and wireless routers. Nowadays all laptops come with built-in
wi-fi capability. The main advantage, however, is that many users can
access internet from anywhere in the house without disturbing others, if
the household has many computers. If they have laptops, family members
can move to any room they want and still use internet without bothering
themselves about length of ethernet cables.

But here is the caution: It's very important to make sure that no stranger
in the vicinity of your home can get access to your wireless network. It is
particularly important for those living in apartments or condominiums
where their proximity with others may bring unwanted guests to their
network.

The "Wired Equivalence Protocol" (WEP) security feature provided on
early wireless devices has already been compromised. Newer wireless
devices are certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, a non-profit industry standards
group, and they use security protocols called WPA or WPA2.

For an easier and faster setup, many people may just "plug and play"
without bothering to use the security features on their wireless networks.
Such networks are heaven for computer hackers who can easily connect
directly to your network and capture your bank or credit card account
names, numbers and passwords, or penetrate the computers connected to
your network.

So, as soon as you purchase your wi-fi equipments and set it up, always
have the security features on your network enabled and configured
properly. Change the admin password, and block or change your network
name (SSID). Use MAC address filtering if your network equipment
supports it. And Do not forget to install and enable firewalls.

Beware of Charity Scam

Not long after the Tsunami devastated south Asia the Better Business
Bureau (BBB) began receiving numerous complaints of charity scams
carried out in several ways. Although the BBB hasn't received any
complaints of charity scams connected with the relief efforts for the
victims of Hurricane Katrina, they say it will happen. That's why they're
warning Americans about donating to just anyone.

Charities like the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross have done
a great job of providing help to victims of past disasters and it is expected
that will happen again. But if you would like to support another charity,
check on them first.

The best places to check on these charities and how effectively they
spend their collection money are these two useful websites:

CharityNavigator.org which ranks some 35 hundred charities with zero
to four stars depending on how well they spend donations.

Give.org is a useful website from the Better Business Bureau and offers
guidance to donors on making informed giving decisions through their
charity evaluations, various "tips" publications, and publishes the quarterly
Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Guide .

Preparedness Tips

Hurricane Katrina is just telling us that there
should not ever be a place for complacency about
safety. This is a time we all should check and
make a resolution to check regularly in future
how prepared we are for such time of disaster.
Here are a few tips for disaster preparedness:

Pick a day that's easy to remember, such as the
first of the month, to test your home's smoke
detectors and flashlights and radiobatteries.

Keep your emergency food and water supply fresh
by consuming and replacing items before their expiration date.

Store your emergengy prepardness plan and disaster supplies kit in
the same place.

Include books and games in your emergency supplies kit. You'll want
something to do and keep your mind away from unnecessary anxieties.

Always have at least a half-tank of gas in your car, so you'll be prepared
to evacuate.

Involve Children in emergency prepardness. they'll react better during
a real-life emergency if they've practised beforehand

Hold a fire drill at night, to practise finding your way out of the dark.

Conduct a "household hazard hunt." look for furnature that needs
securing, flammable products that require safe storage, and other items
that could fall or cause a fire. Then fix problem areas.

5 colors Everyday

It’s important to get a colorful variety of fruits and vegetables into your
diet every day! Eating 5 or more servings of colorful fruits and vegetables
a day is part of an important plan for healthier living. That’s because
deeply hued fruits and vegetables provide the wide range of vitamins,
minerals, and phytochemicals your body needs to maintain good health
and energy levels, protect against the effects of aging, and reduce the risk
of cancer and heart disease.

It’s all about color – blue/purple, green, white, yellow/orange, and red. So
when you're grocery shopping, planning your meals or dining out, think color.

The Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) is a non-profit 501 (c) (3)
consumer education foundation whose mission is to be the catalyst for
creating a healthier America through increased consumption of a variety of
fruits and vegetables. PBH is chair of the National 5 A Day Partnership,
consisting of government agencies, non-profit organizations, and industry
working in collaboration to expand 5 A Day efforts to increase
consumption of fruits and vegetables for improved public health. The
5 A Day for Better Health program is the nation’s largest public-private
nutrition education initiative with 5 A Day coordinators in each state,
territory, and the military.

In this connection let us mention that the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) also provides a useful website MyPyramid.gov where
you will be able to know the amount of each foodgroup you need daily.