The data accessed from the most recent breach includes social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, driver’s license numbers, credit card numbers, and other information. This is more than enough to steal the victims’ identities and plague them with false financial issues for years to come. Here’s an outline of steps to take to determine if you’re impacted by this breach and how to plug the hole.
Last week we looked at how you, the buyer and homeowner, impact your home insurance rate. The second broad category impacting your home insurance premium is your home itself. There are several factors and none of them include your home’s purchase price, what you could sell it for, nor what the local appraisal district sets the value at. Let’s look at what does count.
Most people don’t realize there are many factors which impact their home insurance rate; some are related to the home and some are not. In fact, you may have as much to do with what your home insurance rate is as your home does. There are three broad areas which impact your home insurance rate including you, your home, and the insurance policy itself. This week, we’ll examine four ways how you, the homeowner, impact the rate and examine the other two areas over the next two weeks.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Corpus Christi nearly two weeks ago then moved eastward along the Texas coast where it stalled over Houston for several days before moving on to Louisiana and off to the northeast. A one-thousand-year flood resulted from the trillions of gallons of water that fell along the Texas coast, enough to depress the earth’s crust by 2 centimeters. The estimate on the number of cars destroyed by Harvey ranges between 500,000 and 1,000,000. Let’s examine what kind of car insurance covers your car from flood damage.
Last week I wrote about the two types of hurricane related claims, wind and storm surge, which is related to flooding (see https://wiseinsurancegroup.com/two-types-insurance-claims-hurricane-harvey/). A conversation I had with a client reminded me of a third type of home insurance claim, wind driven rain, which can cause significant damage to the interior of your home.
The sun peeked out Wednesday afternoon for a few minutes over west Houston reminding everyone briefly that it still is there. This was followed by heavy rains stretching from Houston to almost New Orleans as Tropical Storm Harvey moved back onshore and headed in a northeasterly direction. The end of the rain may be in sight but it will take weeks or months before all the floodwaters in Houston and elsewhere recede and dry ground reappears.
Homeowners whose homes have been flooded, will be anxious to review the damage as quickly as possible. Here are some guidelines from FEMA I believe is important to share.
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