I had a somewhat frustrating day dealing with insurance policies and realized that we’ve been overpaying for a very long time … unless I’m missing something?
It started with a simple phone call to verify that a 15 year term life insurance policy was indeed expired. A call to the Select Quote people confirmed I was correct and that they merely sent a letter stating that they “may be able to rewrite the policy.” Eventually the polite no pressure conversation ended, but with the sale pitch that Select Quote now quotes auto and home policies too. I thought, well I have time and I haven’t really shopped the current company for a long time … like 40 years! Eventually, the apples to apples quote came back on both my car policy and homeowners showing a savings of over $1000 a year if I switched to Progressive. Hmm … “we must have missed something” I thought? No … the quote even increased my homeowners coverage by $100,000 and I didn’t even need to pay a full year in advance in order to avoid the service fee and additional charges my current company tacks on.
I asked the San Diego based rep to send me the information in an email and that I would talk it over with Brenda … although really I wanted to double check the numbers with our current policy. Maybe do a “discount double check” by giving my long time Liberty Mutual insurance agent a call — ended up working with one of his assistants. She politely thanked me for being a long time loyal customer and suggested that she could re-quote my auto policy … something I figured was done regularly? Obviously not … since after the re-quote my auto policy dropped a full $1000 annually. Huh??? How can that be? Same cars, same company, same coverage … but a change of 40% just by re-quoting. As Shakespeare would say, “something is rotten in the state of Denmark“ at least when it comes to working with insurance companies. I’m not sure I want to stay with Liberty Mutual anymore?
Lesson: Take the 30 minutes each year to hold your insurance company accountable.
Keeping track of the ever-changing and growing complexity of passwords got the best of me back in 2010 and I finally committed to Lastpass for “most” of my online log ins and passwords. I’ve been satisfied with the “free” version, but over time I’ve found value and a level of comfort (misplaced?) in cloud-based secure storage. I’ve been contemplating an upgrade to the Premium versionand need a little push to spend the buck a month (primarily for full access on mobile devices). Although I haven’t started using the “Secure Note” feature, I may give it a try too (snidely political jab in image below).
The service is still not perfect, but most problems are due to the steps companies take in creating multiple security layers and steps in order to keep their websites (and your information) secure. This 2-step or more validation process not only makes access difficult without password managers, but is a challenge for Lastpass users too … or even for those who attempt to secure and encrypt passwords by other methods.
Recently Lastpass upgraded to 3.0 and started a campaign encouraging their users to spread the word by offering one month of their premium service for each referral … and also one month free for the referred. So if you’ve been on the fence in giving an online password manager a try, see if you like LastPass … click here.
Frequent guest and St. Louis Federal Reserve President Jim Bullard discussed making “decisions by the numbers” on CNBC’s Squawkbox this morning. He offered an opinion that current low inflation and a sluggish economy is keeping the Fed’s “loose money policy” in place and that conditions are not signaling a need to taper. I’m probably not the only one wondering that when conditions change, will the Fed be able to tame the inflation lion or once it begins to roar?
St. Louis Fed Pres. Jim Bullard with CNBC discusses inflation and the taper (1:30 mp3)
Although video chatting isn’t for everybody, I do appreciate seeing a face and a smile when catching up with my son in North Dakota and daughter in Columbus. Skype was once my preferred method (when “Skype to phone” was free), but now between iPads, iPhones and iMacs it is easier to jump on Facetime. Katelyn connected last night with her iPad Mini in order to bring me up-to-date on her recent job interview (for next July) how Drew’s fellowship interview and selections are going. We also talked and looked, at a new bed they bought with their wedding money and discussed her work scheduling for around the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays (we are flying Taylor into Columbus rather than Cincinnati). While we were talking, my wife called her on the phone so I listened to their conversation since my questions are not Brenda’s question … and vice versa. All in all using the ever improving advancements does help keep a family close even when the time and distance apart prevents being together.
What phone or video conferencing services do you use for family, friends and work? What offers the best combination of quality and “usable” features?
Currently I connect using these online services in order of use:
There are 3rd party options which redirect long strings for URLs, but most users prefer grabbing the official personalized ones when they are available. Facebook offered user names a couple years ago and Google is slowly getting it together by including real names. You should probably claim your name now if you want a custom Google account URL rather than a long ugly string … at least grab something that is a bit easier to remember.
This Halloween evening is indeed dark and dreary as the wind is whistling and blowing rain nearly sideways. The garage door was left open (by me) and has puddled to the point Tootsie’s cushions (bed) is damp … which makes the entire garage smell like wet dog. But that’s not the point of this evening post.
Yaesu FT-2900
My friend Jeff (N4XKJ) loaned me his 2M/440 Kenwood radio because my only rig is the ICOM IC-715 HF radio I brought home from the boat. He no longer has an HF radio so if we’re going to talk, we need to be on VHF or UHF and thought it might be fun to try simplex or the local repeaters. I do have an inverted “V” dipole rigged up to work the ICOM, but my HF privileges are only a sliver on 10M band, besides it gives me a reason to set up an inexpensive borrowed second radio.
Unfortunately after setting up his old radio it wasn’t able to transmit due to either a problem with the microphone or something in the old radio. I took apart the microphone and check the connections, but couldn’t solve the problem. Since I had already purchase a Jetstream antenna (and mag mount for the car), I decided to buy an inexpensive 2M only radio in order to continue with my plan. Considering Yaesu is currently running rebates ($40 in my case) and that the price at R&L Electronics was very good, I opted for the FT-2900. R&L also credited me $30 for the splitter and so that brought the price on this 75 watt mobile radio to close to the least expensive models. So far so good as I’m not out too many dollars.
I’m firing it up tonight while keeping my ear and eyes out for brave trick or treaters. So far I was able to make a few “first” repeater contacts as a licensed HAM (KD8VSB), check in on “net” and even give simplex with Jeff a try … unfortunately since he is buried in an inside apartment without an external antenna, it wasn’t great. About the best we could do is say “yes we can connect” but we were far more successful using a local repeater. Maybe some more tweaking? Enough for now … time to read the manual and actually figure out how to use this radio.
Because I’m in the midst of studying the next level of amateur radio theory and hoping to gain access to more HF Ham radio frequencies (ARRL PDF chart), a recent WSJ article regarding Sprint’s gigahertz frequencies made complete sense to me.
The gist of the article is that Sprint has a “giant trove of high-frequency spectrum” and is planning to grow in order to handle more and faster data connections … but due to the 2.5gHz frequency’s in ability to penetrate or travel as far requires 13 to 15 cell sites compared to the 700mHz spectrum’s 1 tower.
Sprint’s new Japanese owner Softbank is already using the high gigahertz frequency spectrum after it’s acquisition of Willcom in 2010, although they already had 160,000 micro cell sites to install the new equipment. That same rollout will not be as easy here in the U.S. where Sprint is already struggling to keep up with AT&T and Verizon. Unless the expansion is mind-bogglingly aggressive, hanging onto customers and making money may prove to be difficult even with the deep pockets of Softbank.
Sprint, the country’s third-largest carrier, has lost customers for several years and is believed to have lost more during in the third quarter. Last quarter, Sprint lost 1.05 million subscribers and warned that more defections were on the way.
Sprint’s advantage is that it has access to more airwaves than its competitors. Data and voice calls travel over the airwaves, known as spectrum, like cars on a highway. The more spectrum, the more lanes and therefore more speed.
Sprint has been selling wireless hot spots since July that work on its advanced network, and users have reported speeds rivaling Wi-Fi, which in the U.S. operates in a nearby band.
So much for my air travel shopping tips as the holiday airfares have already risen. I’m seeing $700 to $900 for the flights I’ve been pricing and the ones leaving mid-day are gone. I think I’ve waited too long to confirm my son’s trip home because at one point a few weeks ago I had a $324.80 round trip matching pretty close to his days off. After procrastination, I saw those tickets go up $100, then $200 and now they are now gone (truth be told, he wants to stay a couple more days anyway).
In order to save a few bucks, I’m now shopping airports a couple hours a way in hopes to find flights that might work … since our family is coming and going from all points anyway. Unfortunately getting everything to line up is challenging as there are several different family components to coordinate along with work schedules. The point of my rambling is to suggest booking early if you know what days you want. There is no question that ticket prices keep going up as the Christmas holiday nears.
