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The charge is something like $49. Maybe I don’t have a good understanding of what makes for a good health insurance plan...any pointers?
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Jan 23, 2018 20:02
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It sounds like your working with a recruiting company similar to the one, or maybe even the exact one, my wife works for in which case you're getting the same health plan the in-house employees get. HDHP seems to be the norm for most mega-corps I'm familiar with including the insurance company I work for. That said there's probably no reason you can't shop around the market place and see if there's something that suits your needs better.
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Jan 23, 2018 20:42
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Isn’t HDHP ideal unless you have a chronic condition? If you’re paying the premiums out of pocket at least. If my employer is paying everything then of course I want top of the line everything.
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Jan 23, 2018 21:09
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I assume the premiums would be taken from my paycheck or paid myself. Is that plan HDHP?
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Jan 24, 2018 15:29
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I'm starting a new job and they offer life insurance. The rate for my age and non-smoker is $0.04/$1000 per month. If I sign up within 10 days of hire I do not need a medical exam. I know nothing about insurance but that seems like a decent price. I can go up to 8x my salary, for $500k/$20/mo In married, but at the moment have no mortgage or kids, but that will probably change in the next few years. I feel like this is a pretty low cost and would be a good idea, but I know nothing about life insurance. Is this a good cost?
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Feb 9, 2018 15:42
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The Slack Lagoon posted:I'm starting a new job and they offer life insurance. The rate for my age and non-smoker is $0.04/$1000 per month. Get a real quote on term life, look at the portability, and how much it increases with age. Unless you are a smoker it's almost certainly a bad deal in 15-20 years. I ran a spreadsheet and it tipped over even sooner for me, and I got top rating. Somehow.
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Feb 9, 2018 16:06
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I’m looking at a renter’s policy and the lady at my agent’s office did there’s a minimum of $125 per year premium in CO. Is that a thing? I never heard of that. I was going to request a lower than $60k property coverage since there’s no way we have that much stuff (yes, I’m going to add stuff up, get a ballpark, and go up from there a few thousand), but she said that $125 is the lowest premium anyway.
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Feb 9, 2018 17:37
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H110Hawk posted:Get a real quote on term life, look at the portability, and how much it increases with age. Unless you are a smoker it's almost certainly a bad deal in 15-20 years. I ran a spreadsheet and it tipped over even sooner for me, and I got top rating. Somehow. I got a quote for a 20 year 250k policy and it came out at $38/mo, vs paying 10/mo for 250k through my employer. Seems like the employer plan is a good price compared.
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Feb 9, 2018 21:11
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The Slack Lagoon posted:I got a quote for a 20 year 250k policy and it came out at $38/mo, vs paying 10/mo for 250k through my employer. If you look more closely at those plans they often escalate in price with age, and you lose it if you quit, or have to "port" it to a standalone plan if that is an option. Given you are extremely likely to change employers in the next 20 years you could wind up needing a policy when you are older (and more $ to insure.) I'm not in the industry, this is just research from when I did this same math. It was super cheap when I was 35, and >double the price when I was 55. A standalone term life policy has no concerns over your future employers whims barring your inability to make the premium every year. (Pay annually if you do a standalone plan, it's often much cheaper than quarterly/monthly.)
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Feb 9, 2018 21:44
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22 Eargesplitten posted:I’m looking at a renter’s policy and the lady at my agent’s office did there’s a minimum of $125 per year premium in CO. Is that a thing? I never heard of that. I was going to request a lower than $60k property coverage since there’s no way we have that much stuff (yes, I’m going to add stuff up, get a ballpark, and go up from there a few thousand), but she said that $125 is the lowest premium anyway. A lot of companies have minimum premiums; you should shop around and see if another company will be lower.
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Feb 10, 2018 17:31
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Thanks, I’ll shop around. I get a discount (I think like $60/year) on my auto insurance that way, so it might still be the best deal unless I switched insurances. And since I had an accident in December I won’t switch until my rate jumps up in July.
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Feb 10, 2018 21:19
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My wife and I did something stupid and are wondering if there's any way to undo it. In short, we accidentally signed up for marketplace healthcare insurance and paid two months of premiums. How it happened: we signed up during the enrollment period because we weren't certain we would have another choice. After sending in documents for enrollment, my wife got a job with health insurance. Then we got a notice like "Pay your first premium or enrollment will not be complete." So we thought, OK great, we won't pay and we won't be enrolled. However, it turns out that we were covered by the same provider in 2017 (same provider, different plan) and had autopay enabled, which carried over. For some reason they charged January and February together so we just noticed on the last credit card statement. We did not use the coverage and we had other coverage since January 8. I just terminated our coverage but it takes 2 weeks to take effect. And we called the provider and they said we can request a refund after the termination goes through. So...what are the chances that we get a refund? Is there anything else we can do here? Another wrinkle is that there are some things that the other plan covers better, so if it's going to be active for the next 2 weeks, we could use it. But if we do that we're giving up on the refund.
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Feb 14, 2018 00:20
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I have a question that seems like it should be simple, but benefits people give me different answers. I am in Texas, if it matters. I am about to change jobs. Our (soon to be) new health insurance does not cover fertility treatment, but our current one does and we have enough left under our LTM to give it another go. I would be starting my new job at the beginning of April but the new employer's insurance wouldn't kick in until May 1st. My brilliant plan is to have my wife do one month of COBRA in April (which will possibly save us upwards of $5k on an IVF retrieval) while I stay away from sick people/dangerous hobbies, and only elect if something happens. Benefits person at the new employer said this would be fine. Benefits person at my current employer said I would have to elect COBRA for myself in order to elect it for her as well (at $1,500/mo, and after tax at that  ). My understanding of COBRA is that it has to be offered on an individual basis, and I found some IRS rulings that seem to back me up (although they also appear to defer to states, so who knows if that even matters). Who's right?
Discussion Quorum fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Mar 12, 2018 |
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Mar 12, 2018 19:47
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Discussion Quorum posted:I have a question that seems like it should be simple, but benefits people give me different answers. I am in Texas, if it matters. If you are the primary insured then you likely have to have coverage for anyone else to have coverage. That's why you likely can't opt to just cover your spouse while hired. Looks like you're only going to get 2k in savings.
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Mar 12, 2018 21:47
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Well the $1,500/mo is for two people, not per person. And AS IT TURNS OUT, the savings vs. being a cash payer is more like $10,000. Although the EBSA says this: quote:if both you and your spouse are entitled to elect continuation coverage, you each may decide separately whether to do so 
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Mar 14, 2018 04:17
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Quick life insurance question: I need to add another term life policy to do stuff like cover more kids and a more expensive house. I'm 41, overweight without being gross (6'3", 295, more lurch than straight up fatass, but tell the BMI table that) and am in the process of losing at least 50 lbs in the next year to keep some borderline health poo poo from becoming actual health poo poo. All things being equal, am I better off shopping for insurance being a year older and in better health, or does age outweigh (heh) health/weight on the actuarial tables?
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Mar 16, 2018 22:08
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stealie72 posted:Quick life insurance question: code:
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Mar 16, 2018 22:38
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To add a spouse to insurance with my employer requires "secondary evidence: proof of joint ownership or joint payment for residence or other real estate, automobile, or other asset; e.g. bank statement, financial account, or utility bill listing both employee and spouse at the same address." We don't have these, we aren't moving in together until August, what should we do? Edit- fixed demons Harold Fjord fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Mar 27, 2018 |
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Mar 27, 2018 19:52
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Nevvy Z posted:To add a spouse to insurance with my employer requires "secondary evidence: proof of joint ownership or joint payment for residence or other real estate, automobile, or other asset; e.g. bank statement, financial account, or utility bill listing both employee and spouse at the same address." Open a joint bank account. Don't bring up that you don't live together. Just pick an address and use it. Ask if your marriage license will suffice.
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Mar 28, 2018 03:30
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Should I be reshopping for home owners (and rental owners) insurance on a yearly or biyearly basis? Should I maintain loyalty to one brand? Same goes for car insurance, is it worth being a "new customer" all the time?
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Apr 3, 2018 03:20
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lord1234 posted:Should I be reshopping for home owners (and rental owners) insurance on a yearly or biyearly basis? Should I maintain loyalty to one brand? The CW is that your rates start to go way up after 2 or 3 years (because people don't bother shopping around once they've hard coverage for that amount of time) so fire away.
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Apr 5, 2018 17:01
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:The CW is that your rates start to go way up after 2 or 3 years (because people don't bother shopping around once they've hard coverage for that amount of time) so fire away. Citation needed. Shop your renters and auto all you want. Moving homeowners can be a pita if you have a mortgage. Virtue fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Apr 11, 2018 |
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Apr 11, 2018 04:23
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Anybody ever deal with State Farm's "drive safe and save" app discount program? My agent doesn't seem to know poo poo about it and it sounds like a pain in the rear end for an amount of savings nobody seems to want to put a number to.
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Apr 11, 2018 06:06
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Javid posted:Anybody ever deal with State Farm's "drive safe and save" app discount program? My agent doesn't seem to know poo poo about it and it sounds like a pain in the rear end for an amount of savings nobody seems to want to put a number to. I use the manual reports because I don't drive much. I save hundreds of dollars / 6 months/line. It really is only a big benefit if you are below the various tiers of national average. There is a small handout for the verification but it's like $15.
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Apr 11, 2018 06:35
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Virtue posted:Citation needed. Shop your renters and auto all you want. Moving homeowners can be a pita if you have a mortgage. Somebody in insurance told me this in business school, it was (as best I remember) uncited.
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Apr 11, 2018 14:44
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Somebody in insurance told me this in business school, it was (as best I remember) uncited. It is also blatantly untrue. You might think that because of rates going up, but that's because carriers are always taking rate increases.
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Apr 11, 2018 15:02
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The only “truth” is sometimes companies offer discounts on the first policy for things like signing your documents online which drop off on your first renewal. Otherwise you should shop that poo poo, but consider the benefits you have. If you’ve been with a company for years and they’ve given you accident forgiveness, is it worth it to jump ship for a $20 rate reduction?
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Apr 11, 2018 15:18
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Here is my anecdote with State Farm in California. I've been with them since I was 16 on my parents account, and when I split off onto my own account at 18 they counted my 2 years with my parents towards the loyalty discount. I think they may have also been counting the homeowners policy since I lived in my parents basement then. That alone made them a clear winner cost wise. Currently the loyalty benefits decimate any quotes I've received to date to jump ship with the 7 lines I carry. Either the other carrier is non-responsive to questions, doesn't do all the lines, or is not even close price wise. So far the only one which has made me pause is Liberty Mutual, where the price is about the same but includes some minor policy upgrades to my homeowners insurance. You should have a talk with the agent about how their loyalty discounts work, it's possible that you're doing a lot of extra work jumping around to save a few dollars here and there but in the long run it will be much cheaper to stay the course. So far they've never screwed around with me on claims, including one hit and run (I was parked) $7,000? bumper/headlight repair on my Z4 which was done at the BMW brand body shop. (I hope to never need to replace my steering-aimed HID lights, that was like $2,500 plus bulbs.) My policy renewal went down that year. Drive Safe and Save discounts per policy period (6 months): Z4, 1600 miles, $255; Civic, 9000 miles, $122; PriusV, 6300 miles, $205. I do manual reporting which means 2 or 4 times a year I have to key in my odometer reading to their website. They correlate this with public and private records to make sure you aren't lying. The Civic is due to drop dramatically in miles because I switch jobs and no longer commute 60 miles/day 2.5 times a week. Is the minor inconvenience of snapping a picture of the odometer with my phone and keying it into their website quarterly worth $1,064 in post tax money? Yes. Would I use their app or a OBD-II spydongle? Never. I'll pay the $1,064. I might install the app to start a claim if I wasn't going to be near a computer in the next day or so to unload the pictures from my phone or needed help asap.
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Apr 11, 2018 17:44
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Hmm, I'll see about that then. One of my vehicles has a broken odometer so that's out on that one vv
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Apr 11, 2018 17:47
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Shopping around to replace my clunker with a slightly newer clunker and kept getting quotes from multiple companies far higher than what im currently paying. The car in question was another ancient 2003 corolla. But then I realized...my annual mileage estimates are probably out of date. Some background info on my current payment/coverage. My GEICO auto insurance is $65 for my 2002 Corolla. Bodily Injury $100k/300k Property Damage $100k Uninsured Motorist $100k/$300k Uninsured Motorist Property Dmg: $3.5k Emergency Road Service (seems kinda silly but for $4/mo...) Anyway, I got this insurance when I used to live elsewhere and had a daily commute of like...2-3 miles. Now that im out of that college town and working, I put maybe 25 miles a day judging by google maps. When I quoted that 2003 corolla with a 25/mile a day estimate, the quote went up to about $100/month. Then I decided to quote another 2002 corolla (all things being equal right?), with 25 miles a day, and its essentially the same. My question here is, am I shooting myself in the foot by voluntarily updating my new daily/annual mileage? If I should update it, is it a good idea to cut down on the coverage to keep prices sane? Thanks goons.
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Apr 20, 2018 19:45
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My car got wrecked to poo poo by a drunk driver early yesterday morning and has been towed to the collision shop of my insurance's preference to be evaluated (and the guy at the shop said very off-the-record that he expects it to be totaled due to the frame being poo poo up). The driver's insurance company has admitted liability, and I am currently without a vehicle. As I do not have my rental reimbursement through my own coverage, how do I go about pinning down my rights to reimbursement from the driver's insurance and what are the magic words I need to say to their reps to make sure I get the proper rental reimbursement?
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Apr 24, 2018 20:27
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First, make sure the other company has no coverage issues. They need both coverage and liability in order to pay for the claim. Also have them do an appraisal on your car ASAP because they’ll likely only cover a rental up front if you process the total loss through them. Plus, if they offer more money than your company, that’s a no brainer. If you have to use your own coverage because the other company offers some lowball value or they’re taking too long, you’ll have to pay for the rental out of pocket and then submit that bill for reimbursement from the other carrier. If they have a coverage issue and don’t pay the claim, you can submit the rental bill to your insurance company to pay under Uninsured Motorist Property Damage, if you carry that coverage. Keep in mind most insurance companies will only cover the rental from the time of the accident until the vehicle is deemed a total loss and then maybe a handful of days after. A common scenario is 3 days after the total loss offer is made, regardless of if you accept.
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Apr 24, 2018 20:52
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big crush on Chad OMG posted:First, make sure the other company has no coverage issues. They need both coverage and liability in order to pay for the claim. Also have them do an appraisal on your car ASAP because they’ll likely only cover a rental up front if you process the total loss through them. Plus, if they offer more money than your company, that’s a no brainer. Cool, thanks.
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Apr 24, 2018 21:00
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My wife just signed a contract to be a hospitalist in a large hospital and she is wondering about how to get the best disability insurance for her/us. She mentioned that most doctors are dumb as poo poo at managing finances and that she'd like to avoid that and make smart decisions, but that she's a little overwhelmed with everything right now (disability insurance, malpractice insurance, student loan repayments and refinancing, asset protection in case of lawsuit, etc.). I told her to take it one step at a time and that I would help her, so here I am. Are there any good resources either in this thread or on the web that discuss how to make a good choice regarding disability insurance for doctors? Our understanding is that there are many different types of disability insurance coverage and the right coverage depends each doctor's personal circumstances so we'd like help making the right choice. We are a married couple in our early 30s with no kids, but planning on having one soon. Her student loans are around $275k, we don't own a home, have two car loans, and have no other debt minus our credit cards that we pay off every month. If you need any other info let me know.
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May 4, 2018 19:57
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Edit: Super updated with completely different info I didn’t see a separate thread about health insurance my questions are pretty noob, so hopefully someone can answer them. I just started as a federal employee last week and this is my first time choosing my own health insurance. I'm in my early 30s, no chronic illnesses, and other than an annual physical my main desires are a supplement for contacts/glasses and semiannual dental cleanings. There are two CDHP's with HRA's through the National Association of Letter Carriers and the American Postal Workers Union, as well as an HDHP with HSA through the Government Employees Health Association ranging from $54-64 per pay period (biweekly). The HRA's get $1200 and the HSA gets $750. These are attractive because the HRA/HSA would cover the cost of dental cleanings and contacts/glasses. The HSA provides fewer funds than the HRA's but I guess the main advantage is that I keep it if I leave the job or change my insurance. Notably, the HDHP/HSA includes dental cleaning/fillings and eye exam for a $5 copay, and coinsurance is only 5%. However, for $55/pp, GEHA offers a plan with a $350 annual deductible and $15/30 copays for primary/specialist. It also covers dental cleanings/fillings. I think this makes things a bit simpler, but I'd have to add a vision supplement for $4/pp. There’s also the Blue Cross Blue Shield Basic plan for $74/pp with no deductible, $30/$40 copays and dental cleanings. This seems to be the the "simplest" plan and is anecdotally the most popular among coworkers but the GEHA plan seems to be better all around. Is there anything I should consider that I haven't mentioned here? I'm leaning between the GEHA traditional plan (for simplicitly plus preventative dental) and the GEHA HDHP plan (for preventative dental/vision and the 5% coinsurance). Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 09:27 on May 8, 2018 |
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May 7, 2018 22:54
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I have GEHA's HDHP and I'm satisfied with it. The HSA is fine and the investment options with TD Ameritrade are also fine. No fees for anything (while you're a federal employee), which sounds unlike a lot of other HSA accounts, so that's nice. Plus there's a $750/year premium passthru, that goes straight into your HSA account, so half of your deductible per year is deposited into your account. You also get like $250 per year for FSAStore.com for some simple "making healthy choices" stuff, so you can buy all the sunscreen you need. (Maybe contact lenses, too, that's not clear to me because I don't use them.) Free dental screenings/cleanings 2x per year too, in or out-of-network (or, at least, I've never had to pay a balance for visiting my out-of-network dentist). So, basically everything you list is true and correct and I don't think you're missing anything... except... The co-insurance on prescription drugs is 25%. I looked into going on PrEP and it seemed that would cost me about $6,000 per year on the HDHP. So if you have any expensive prescription drugs (or are thinking of getting any), GEHA's HDHP is probably not a great plan. Czolgosz fucked around with this message at 03:35 on May 19, 2018 |
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May 19, 2018 03:31
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What factors go into pricing umbrella policies? A few years ago I was given what I thought to be a high quote here ($380/yr for 1 million). This seemed quite a bit higher then I'd expect, but I was in the middle of buying a house and didn't really investigate any further.
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May 23, 2018 02:41
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Josh Lyman posted:Edit: Super updated with completely different info I've run the numbers on the HDHPs a few times and they never seem worth it vs. the Blue Shield basic plan. They don't really cost significantly less. You pretty much have to stay perfectly healthy throughout the year to come out ahead. As far as the vision, you should probably look into buying glasses online. It will tend to work out cheaper. The dental insurance is definitely worth it.
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May 23, 2018 15:10
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Leviathan Song posted:I've run the numbers on the HDHPs a few times and they never seem worth it vs. the Blue Shield basic plan. They don't really cost significantly less. You pretty much have to stay perfectly healthy throughout the year to come out ahead. I think where HDHPs really shine is as another vehicle for tax-free retirement savings. You're right about the cost being about the same, but when you add in $6,700 in yearly payroll deductions that are invested in low-cost index funds and which skip tax going and AND coming out, they start to look much better as a complement to your 401k/IRA/etc options. (Especially if your employer does matching also)
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May 28, 2018 02:04
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Ok, so if my car gets hit-and-run by a drunk driver on Wednesday, and I call it in and get scheduled for an estimate on Tuesday, but on Sunday it gets caught in a flash flood, do I have to pay the collision deductible, or does it all just roll under the comprehensive? Also, does my car get tagged with both flood and accident tags on Carfax and drop to $0 resale value permanently?
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May 29, 2018 02:19
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