April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,142 lives were lost from distracted driving accidents. This increased 10% from 2018.
What is considered distracted driving? Any time you cannot have 100% full attention to driving your vehicle is considered distracted driving. Behaviors can range from talking on the phone, texting, talking to a passenger in your vehicle, eating, brushing your hair, adjusting settings in your vehicle or playing with your vehicle’s GPS while driving your vehicle. Unfortunately, distracted driving is more common than it should be.
Take this month to practice safe driving by eliminating any of the previously mentioned behaviors while driving. This will not only make you a safer driver, but keeps other vehicles on the road safer too.
Cell Phone Use
Cell phone use can be one of the most dangerous behaviors while driving a vehicle. Sending a text message while driving can take your eyes off the road for several seconds. Talking on the phone also creates enough distraction while driving. Here are some things to consider practicing this month –
- Keep your phone in the back seat when driving to avoid looking at it, texting or talking. You could also consider other areas of your car like your trunk or glove box. If the glove box is tempting, place farther away from you like the back seat or trunk.
- There are options to put a do not disturb setting on your phone while driving. This can help eliminate the distraction.
- Make phone calls or texts before or after driving your vehicle.
- If you are riding with a passenger, let the passenger be in charge of your phone for calls or texts.
Be Aware of Other Distracted Driving Behaviors
Do you find yourself eating in the car often? Grooming? Frequently fiddling with your entertainment system? Reaching in the back seat dealing with children? If you are guilty of these behaviors, how can you work to eliminate them?
Be a Good Role Model
Especially if you are a parent to children, you should demonstrate how to be a safe driver. Children see what you do and can easily follow in your footsteps. Cell phone use can be one of the most dangerous behaviors so practice never using your cell phone while driving. If you do not have kids, keep others you love accountable. Not only demonstrate safe driving practices while you are behind the wheel, but call out any of their behaviors you feel are unsafe while in the passenger seat.
While our agents cannot teach out how to practice safe driving, we can shop to find you the best rate for your auto insurance. Call our office for a free auto insurance quote. We’ll shop our carriers and provide you with several quotes to choose from. We’ll explain your coverage options too.
Jewelry is often one of the most valuable belongings in your home and, for this reason, it’s something you may want to consider insuring. Most pieces of jewelry can be fragile, easily lost, and they are among the first items stolen during burglaries. But most people still fail to insure expensive pieces of jewelry with high sentimental values.
Below is some general information to help you understand how much jewelry insurance can cost and the different ways that you can purchase insurance for some of your most precious belongings.
Homeowner Insurance
One common way to insure jewelry is on a homeowner’s insurance policy. Usually adding your jewelry to your home insurance will cost you extra. Homeowners insurance rates will vary based on the amount of coverage you choose for your home, the location, age, and condition of your home, and other factors like your marital status and even your credit score.
Most home policies don’t automatically cover your jewelry. You’ll need to ask for an endorsement to your policy to cover your jewelry. And, as jewelry is a high-value item and is often stolen or lost, you’ll see a separate amount of coverage for it on your policy.
The cost of jewelry insurance can vary but typically it’s between 1% – 5% of the total value of your jewelry collection.
The different home insurance coverage options
When it comes to comparing home insurance, there are many different options to choose from. Some of the most common options that you will want to consider when taking out a policy include:
- HO-3 Insurance – This is the most popular type of insurance and, if you have a mortgage, you are often required to have at a minimum this level of coverage.
This type of policy will cover any damage to your home, apart from any exclusions in the policy, which might be events such as floods or earthquakes.
As for the coverage for your belongings, this policy is commonly referred to as a Named Peril policy. On an HO-3 policy, your belongings will only be covered for events listed in your policy. Also, you typically will only be reimbursed for the actual cash value of your belongings rather than the true replacement cost.
- HO-5 Insurance – If you are looking for more holistic coverage, then this type of policy provides more extensive coverage than an HO-3 policy.
HO-5 insurance provides the same amount of protection for your home as an HO-3 policy. But for your belongings, HO-5 is commonly referred to as an Open Peril policy. This means that rather than only covering your belongings for perils that are named in the policy, your belongings will be covered for everything unless a peril is specifically excluded in the policy.
An HO-5 policy will also reimburse you for replacing your belongings if lost or stolen rather than only providing the actual cash value of your property.
The best way to get more information on jewelry insurance is to ask a licensed agent in our office. We can assist you with assessing your insurance needs and provide you with some quotes from several of the top insurance companies.
Get A Quote For Your Jewelry Insurance Today
Our licensed staff is ready to help you get multiple jewelry insurance quotes. Because we’re an independent insurance agent we can shop from multiple insurance companies to help you find the right coverage at the right price.
Winter driving brings a whole new element of risk to the road. Driver’s concentration and a car’s integrity are continuously put to the test in frigid weather. Making the decision to change your tires at the right time will keep you safe and will help you to avoid accidents in winter weather. If you live in a seasonal state, then most agree that it’s best to have two sets of tires for your vehicle: a set of all-season tires and a set of winter tires.
What are winter tires?
Winter tires are engineered to perform best on icy roads in sub-zero temperatures. The tread compound is specifically designed to allow for better traction when stopping. This tread gives the tires a better grip on icy roads.
In fact, on average, winter tires can reduce stopping distance by up to 25% on slippery roads – that can mean the difference between stopping well before the car in front of you and a rear-end collision.
What about all-season tires?
Some people, however, argue that all-season tires are just as capable and safe as winter tires considering their name and from experience. But all-season tires have two considerable compositional downfalls when it comes to driving in icy, snowy, or slippery conditions.
In order to be more durable, all-season tires are designed using a harder and longer-wearing rubber compound than is used in winter tires. This specialized rubber stiffens as temperatures drop, which results in a loss of tire flexibility. The less flexible a tire is, the worse its grip on the road. Moreover, when compared to winter tires, they simply have less surface contact with the ground which results in decreased traction.
How do different sets of tires affect auto insurance policy rates?
Very few insurance companies offer a discount for winter tire use. So switching from all-season tires to winter tires won’t have a direct impact on your auto insurance premiums. However, winter tires have a better chance of keeping you from an accident in cold weather conditions. Avoiding accidents will help to keep your auto insurance rates low.
While winter tires won’t prevent all auto accidents, they certainly lower your driving risk and tend to perform better in snowy conditions than all-season tires. As a result, you can expect a safer winter driving experience which will ultimately result in lower insurance premiums for you in the long run.
If you have questions about auto insurance rates, please call one of our authorized insurance agents. We can assist you with assessing your insurance needs and provide you with some quotes from several of the top insurance companies.
Get A Quote For Your Auto Insurance Today
Our licensed staff is ready to help you get multiple auto insurance quotes. Because we’re an independent insurance agent we can shop from multiple insurance companies to help you find the right coverage at the right price.
It’s the New Year and like many people this time of year, resolutions are being made. If you are looking to be tidier or organized in 2021, we have some tips for you!
Create your checklist
First off, what areas of your home need to be more organized? Do you finally want tackle your junk drawers? Organize your bathroom or closet? Or finally donate or dump items in your garage? Create your to-do checklist of the areas you want to tackle.
Start with one thing at a time
After reviewing your checklist, evaluate what you want to tackle first. If you have 10 or more areas you want to organize in your home, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Therefore, it is best to begin with one project at a time. Perhaps starting with your quickest or easiest project might be the best start. Getting the quickest project done can give you momentum and motivation to tackle the next area on your list. If your list is long, break up your tasks over the course of several days or weeks.
Time Blocks
Time blocks can work great for keeping you on task. Dedicating a specific time to clean or organize can be very beneficial. When your time is up, you’ll feel productive and motivated for the next time block you set aside to clean or organize. EX: I am organizing from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Starting with a time block allows you to get started on the project vs. feeling overwhelmed as if the project will take all day to complete and then continuing to put it off.
Give everything a home
While many areas of your home may already have a home such as your dishes cabinet, silverware and Tupperware, other drawers in your home may collect all sorts of items together in one area. Assess areas of your house that could be more organized and determine a home for each item. Even if your junk drawer stores many miscellaneous items, you can organize your drawer with bins.
10 minute power clean
It’s amazing what can happen when you set your mind to cleaning or organizing for 10 minutes. First off, how much can you get done in 10 minutes? You may find yourself moving fast just to see what you can accomplish in such a short time frame. On another positive note, when the timer goes off, you may just continue cleaning if you have more time. A 10 minute power clean may be all you need to jumpstart your motivation to get things done around the house.
If you live with others, give everyone a job
When you live with multiple people, it is easy for your house to become a disaster quick. When it is time to clean, give everyone a job duty and set your time block. It might even be helpful to give household members weekly chores that they are always in charge of. EX: taking out the garbage/recycle or un-loading the dishes.
Practice putting things away immediately
How easy is it for dishes to pile into the sink? Or for clothes to become your new carpet? When you practice putting things away immediately, it not only saves you time when it comes to deep cleaning your home, but it allows you to feel more tidy in the moment.
While we can’t clean or organize your home for you, we can help you find affordable home, renters or condo insurance. Contact our agency for a free quote or even a re-quote if you are shopping for new insurance. We will provide quotes from many of our carriers and show you a side by side comparison of options to choose from.
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