Every day after school as I pull into the driveway my two daughters, (6 &4) begin to banter about who gets the "opportunity" to run out of the car and get the mail! As soon as I stop the car, they both rush to unbuckle, push their way out of the back seat and race down the driveway to the mailbox. On the occasional day that they make it to the mailbox and retrieve the mail without yelling or screaming at each other, I am thrilled to watch as the 6 year old hands a few pieces over to the 4 year old and they trot back towards the house with a smile as if they had just won the mega millions lottery! But, then as we enter the house, I have to come back to reality and realize they are 6 and 4 and I better get the mail from them quickly or it will soon be shoved in a midst of Monet-esque (at least to my wife and I) paintings, crumpled into the play kitchen oven, or my all time favorite; ripped to shreds to be confetti for the favorite doll of the days birthday party! (As you can probably tell, I have learned some of this the hard way after allowing them to rip up some of the junk mail in the past!)
So, why is it so important I get it back from them and look through it everyday? Most likely, although I hope every time, there will not be a check in there from a long lost relatives estate or anything of that sort, but it is still important to look through everything. Even though most of us will receive 16 pieces of junk mail per week compared to 1.5 personal letters, its those 1.5 personal letters, or wherever you classify the bills that still come by mail, that can have a huge impact on your life! We all know that by not paying those bills we soon will get collections notices and other reminders to pay this and if we continue to not get or read that piece of mail we will be sent to a collection agency where our credit will end up being affected as well. Most of the time these pieces of mail that continually get sent are for items that we have already purchased or received a service. This is not the case with insurance! With insurance, the signing of the application along with the down payment is the beginning of a contract. This contract requires you as the insured to pay your bill and for the insurance company to provide the insurance that it promised. Now, what happens if that bill your child just ran off with to start the next campfire was your insurance bill? Or the next week when the cancellation notice comes and you set the mail on the counter to look at it later? Eventually, depending on the specific insurance company you have, your insurance will be cancelled, and you will be owing your insurance company, driving uninsured illegally, and also, if you let your insurance be cancelled for more than 30 days, increasing your cost of insurance. I don't have to list the number of problems that could be caused with the lack of insurance while driving as I am sure you can imagine!
What then, can you do to eliminate this risk from happening and maintain your insurance for the best rate possible? My first advice, if you, like me, love to see the joy seeing a piece of mail brings your kids, make sure you grab it from them as soon as it works out and then READ it. Even if it looks like junk mail, take a minute to read those mail pieces because I would guess that you waste more than 20 minutes a week reading junk emails, you may as well take that amount of time to read your physical mail as well! If somehow, you just cant possibly find another 20 minutes in your week to ensure your mail is read, call your agent, set your account up on EFT so that it is automatically withdrawn from your account or possibly your credit card each month and you don't have to worry about it. Not only will this save you money in the long run, it may save you from service fees each month as well, sometimes as much as $7/month!
Please, right after you read this, make sure your mail for the week is read, who knows, maybe you do have that distant relative who passed away and your portion of the estate is enclosed, or perhaps you just missed a recent bill and can make it right before it begins to cost you more money!
Until next week, remember, your policy always comes with an agent at Advantage 1 Insurance!
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