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February 08, 2012

Amazon to open real-world store this year: report

Amazon doesn’t need any PR bumps, but let’s give it one anyway, shall we?

A_com_logo_RGBMy favourite Amazon story goes like this: one weeknight in 2010, I caught a late-night showing of The Social Network. Certainly, it was the year’s best movie, and so inspired was I that I came home and said, Hey, I oughtta read the book that was made from.

So sometime after midnight, well into the a.m., I placed an order for Ben Mezrich’s “The Accidental Billionaires.” Before the end of the next work day, it was at my door.

I’m not a paid Amazon advocate, just a fan of its convenience. So why, then, would a service as punctual as the web retailer actually open its own bricks-and-mortar store?

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Posted at 12:36 PM in Consumer news, Current affairs, Shopping | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 05, 2012

Are blended families becoming the new normal?

The makeup of today's Canadian household has morphed into a web of relationships, changing the way families handle their money, particularly if such blended arrangements come equipped with kids.

AdPulling together a family with your new spouse, your spouse's children, and your own can lead to certain issues on the financial front, warns Jean-Rémy Deschênes, a wealth manager with the Desjardin Group.

The issues with blended families are never simple but are easier to handle when everyone is still alive and the documents can be amended.

And while children of any blended family can struggle with stepparents, the feuds between children and their parents’ spouses can be more intense when money is at stake.

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Posted at 10:21 AM in Divorce, Family finances, Insurance, Taxes | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

August 16, 2011

Tax proposal would charge drivers a fee for the miles they drive

If the Dutch government has its way, the cost of driving may be going up for those who spend most of their time behind the wheel.

Meter-2-popup1 A select group of cars in the Netherlands have been outfitted with meters designed to charge drivers a monthly fee for the kilometres they drive.

Aside from obvious costs like gas, the meter also factors in the cost to society in the form of pollution, traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and wear and tear on roads, reports the New York Times.

Using the car's GPS and a wireless connection, the system tabulates a charge for each car trip by using a  formula that also takes account of a car’s fuel efficency, the time of day and the route (driving on less-traveled roads is cheaper). 

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Posted at 08:40 AM in Cars, Economic news, Insurance, Taxes | | Comments (20) | TrackBack (0)

July 28, 2011

Do you really need to buy rental car insurance?

Does anybody actually buy rental car insurance? I know I usually don’t.

Car Every time you rent a car, you can expect to be asked to accept or reject the vendor’s offer of car insurance, known as loss damage or collision damage waiver. But do you really need to pay that extra $15 a day?

Well, maybe.

It’s no secret that most higher-end credit cards like Amex Gold and Platinum take care of the basics like damage collision, theft, liability, fees but those ‘basic’ cards may not – unless you’ve signed up at the source, generally for a $25 to $40 annual fee.

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Posted at 01:54 AM in Buying tips, Credit cards, Insurance, Travel | | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

March 09, 2011

Does buying a former grow-op make any sense?

“My parents are purchasing a house and they got it for a great deal. The only thing is, it used to be an ex-grow op house,” writes a concerned poster called KAOS.  

Grow Should he be worried? Oh, I think so.

Even if its provenance has been disclosed, quickie repairs made to cover up damage that occurred in the marijuana-growing process could still easily leave the home unsafe. And, in many cases, you may not even know what happened.

“Maybe the growers moved on before they were busted, so there’s no police record of the address. Maybe they were grow-ops before the law required the seller to disclose,” advises Mike Holmes, Canada’s second most trusted man — trailing only David Suzuki in a 2010 survey by Reader’s Digest — and a guru on fixing places that others have ruined.

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Posted at 01:45 AM in Consumer news, Insurance, Real estate | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 07, 2011

Will unisex pricing soon hit the annuity market?

Last week in this space we talked about the European Court of Justice ruling that insurance companies must stop charging different rates for women and men by the end of next year.

RetireCanada allows insurers to take gender into account when pricing life-insurance products, though the rules for auto insurance vary across the country.

But, it’s not just insurance rates that might be affected. In fact, the unintended consequences of this judgement are already starting to emerge as older EU consumers try to determine what these changes might mean for them.

Men coming up to retirement, for instance, may consider moving their after-work plans up a bit to get a better annuity deal before the lower unisex rates are introduced.

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Posted at 05:43 AM in Insurance, Money management, Pensions, Retirement | | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

March 03, 2011

Does your auto insurer discriminate by gender?

In almost every walk of life, there’s a bad apple that spoils the bunch.

489145_alarm_positron_2 Like, with postal workers. Remember when those USPS employees shot up their offices a few times in the ‘80s? From there on out, “going postal” became known as losing all reason and lashing out in violence. For a time, every honest, hard-working mailman on earth became known as a psychopath because a few colleagues went crazy.

Car insurance? Same damn problem. The handful of the world’s meathead guy drivers that get pissed-up and crash into walls has ruined it for everyone else. Insurance companies see under-25 males as about as stable as Charlie Sheen at a Libyan protest (hey, topical!) behind the wheel.

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Posted at 11:17 AM in Consumer news, Current affairs, Insurance | | Comments (23) | TrackBack (0)

February 08, 2011

Are insurance premiums on the rise?

Here’s something you probably haven’t noticed: life insurance rates, after years of falling, are now reversing course and starting to go up.

Ins Two of Canada’s largest life insurance companies recently announced they were hiking rates on one type of guaranteed insurance by as much as 22%, says John Nicola, head of Vancouver-based Nicola Wealth Management.

Most affected are Term-100 and Level Cost of Insurance plans within Universal Life policies, he says. Rates for renewable term insurance aren’t rising and unlikely to do so, he adds.

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Posted at 05:42 AM in Buying tips, Estate planning, Insurance, Money management | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 20, 2011

Pay-as-you-drive car insurance coming to Canada?

If you drive infrequently, you could save a bundle car on insurance by paying as you go, rather than a flat amount for coverage every six months. According to a report by the Brookings Institution study, the average driver would save $270 per car with such a mileage-based insurance policy.

Driving The theory is that insurance companies can offer lower rates to people who seldom drive and are deemed less risky. The problem, of course, is that few drivers have the option of buying pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) coverage.

But this type of insurance appears to be gaining traction south of the border as some states consider ways to reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions.

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Posted at 09:19 AM in Cars, Insurance, Saving tips | | Comments (19) | TrackBack (0)

April 30, 2010

Fewer jobs and higher insurance costs for smokers

Although the number of smokers in Canada continues to decline, smoking remains the most important cause of preventable illness, disability and premature death.

That’s why a growing number of companies are introducing smoking cessation programs and forcing employees who use tobacco to fess up and return corporate wellness bonuses -- as well as pay higher health premiums in the first place. A few employers, including some in Canada, have even stopped hiring smokers altogether.

It’s also why, on average, smokers pay as much as 40% more for life insurance. Happily, I'm not one of them but those who look to their cigarettes for comfort and companionship really think they're under attack.

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Posted at 12:11 AM in Consumer news, Insurance, Workplace | | Comments (49) | TrackBack (0)

February 15, 2010

What are the actual odds of you becoming disabled?

Of all the types of insurance available, the one people seem to talk about the the least is disability coverage.

Yet relatively few people seem to have private, long-term coverage to replace their salary when they get hurt or become sick for an extended period. And many who do have some coverage through their work aren’t sure if they really have enough.

Which is a bit scary, particularly when you hear claims that disability is the number one cause of home foreclosures and bankruptcies in the United States.
 
But trying to calculate the odds of an injury or illness that would keep you out of work for that long is pretty tough to do, says New York Times columnist Ron Lieber, who accuses the insurance industry of trying to scare people half to death.

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Posted at 12:03 AM in Consumer news, Food and drink, Insurance | | Comments (13) | TrackBack (0)

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AUTHORS
Gordon PowersGordon Powers

A long-time fund company executive, Gordon Powers now heads up the Affinity Group, a financial services consulting firm. Gordon was a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail for many years, has taught retirement planning...

Jason BucklandJason Buckland

The modern-day MC Hammer of money, Jason can often be seen spending cash that isn’t his with the efficiency of a Wilt Chamberlain first date. After cutting his teeth as a reporter for the Toronto Sun, he joined the MSN Money team with...

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