The Insurance Contract

You have decided that you need life insurance. You have a mortgage that you want to be sure is covered if you should pass away before it is paid off. You don’t want the outstanding debt to become your spouse’s responsibility. You go online and get quotes from multiple companies. You look at the different rates and coverage options that the companies provide. You are pretty sure which product you will go with. But do you really know all the details of buying an insurance policy?

So what is an insurance policy? Simply put it is a contract. It is a contract that a policy holder pays for called a premium. What takes place is an agreement that for the price paid an insurance company will assume the possibility of an unknown loss. This could not take place without a contract, the policy. The risk is transferred from the individual to the insurance company. Risk is the chance or uncertainty of loss.

The insurance policy is a legal contract. As long as there is insurable interest, when a loss occurs the policy owner has their financial loss restored. There is no profit to be gained. One is merely made whole again.

A lot of the time people will put much time and energy upfront thinking about whether or not they need life insurance or any insurance, for that matter. Do I have a need to actually spend the money monthly or annually on a policy? Someone might ask this. Then they may spend ample time on the phone or the computer with an insurance agent. Or they may use one of the very useful and free resources on the internet and get free quotes and do a comparison of premiums. After doing all of this there is getting the policy issued. This may entail underwriting, which in most cases, necessitates a medical exam. Then finally getting the policy issued. After all of these steps are complete and all of that time and energy has been exerted, the policy is mailed to your home. At this point so many people never really read their contract. They just put it in a file drawer and never take it out again.

But what are the things that went into making this contract? Well for an insurance policy it has to have four components. All contracts commonly have a competent party, a legal objective, an offer & acceptance and valuable consideration. Did you know that policy that is sitting in a drawer somewhere collecting dust had these items that make it up? What are these things, though? Well, a legal objective is where the contract insures there is pure risk and insurable interest involved. Offer and acceptance is when one party, the applicant, “offers” to fill out an application and paying a premium, and the acceptance is when the insurance company accepts the risk by issuing the policy. Finally another feature is the term valuable consideration. That is when items of value are exchanged. For example, the insurance applicant provides information on the insurance application and pays a premium and in return the insurance company promises to pay for losses that occur under the policy.

These are the parts that went into making your insurance policy that may be snug in a drawer somewhere in your house. Now you know what components went into making that contract.

Saving Money on Your Power Bill

Electricity – it’s a necessity. But are we taking it for granted? We waste so much electricity without even knowing, which in turn wastes hard-earned cash. So what can you do to change your electricity-wasting ways and save cash, fast?

Well first you need to think about something called ‘Vampire Power’. This is power that is used to keep your electrical appliances on ‘standby’. Appliances on stand-by add over $100 to your electricity bill and produce around 85kgs of CO2 per year. So as you can see, this Vampire power just sucks the money right out of your wallet.

There are two categories of appliances that use Vampire power around your house:

1.The first is devices with a standby function.
Whenever you can use a remote turn something on – it’s using standby power. This function can use up to 40% of an electrical device's total power consumption – and just think – how long do you keep your TV/DVD player/Playstation/Wii/Stereo on standby for every day?

2.The second is transformers.
These appliances transform electricity from AC to DC. The problem when it comes to energy consumption is that most of them are pretty cheaply made and continue to use electricity - even when the appliance they're providing power for is turned off.

For example – if a cell phone is completely charged, the transformer/charger is still using electricity. If it’s warm when the device is off, it's using vampire power.

So here are a few tips to keep your power bill down:

1. Turn off appliances at the wall switch

2. When purchasing a new electrical appliance, look for the energy star label to gauge its energy consumption rate.

3. Keep your dryer clean – it increases the efficiency of the machine which means it uses less power to do a better job. And it decreases the fire risk as well!

4. Do loads of washing in the dryer consecutively so you can make us of the heat that is already built up.

5. Use an extractor fan to keep your kitchen cool. It’ll keep your house cooler, and the savings in the cost of cooling your house will by far outweigh the cost running the fan.

6. Close doors to rooms that you are not using when heating or cooling your house.

7. Turn off your computer – this appliance is a real power-waster, so turn it off when you’re not using it.

8. Use power-saver bulbs such as compact fluorescent bulbs. These use 75% less energy than standard light bulbs.

9. Every now and then – vacuum or dust the metal compressor coils on the back of your fridge. Like your dryer – it will increase the efficiency of the appliance and it will therefore run using less power.

10. Use gas heaters instead of electric heaters – these heaters use significantly less power.

These are just some of the ways in which you can save yourself from stress when the power bill arrives, not to mention a significant amount of payday cash. And what’s even better, is you’ll also be doing your bit for the environment by reducing your annual carbon emissions.

It might be worth checking out recommended online providers for fast cash loans if you do find yourself in a payday pickle. It’s a better source of credit than a personal loan where your debt may be dragged out for months, sometimes even years. It’s best to look for a credit source that suits your needs, expecially when you just need a small amount of money for a short period of time.

With some online cash loan companies in Australia, you can get from $100 - $600 within 60 minutes of approval. Some credit providers even offer instant cash 24 hours a day, seven days a week (yep, even on public holidays!) just like a credit card but without the hassle of ongoing fees.