Was it a scratch or a pick?: Part II

Hope everyone had a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

Last week with a little help from a Jerry Seinfeld clip we briefly eluded to the difference in a scratch and a pick, but then got down to serious business and talked about the difference between the terms Burglary, Robbery and Theft. We then spent a little time looking at the three most common entry points Burglars use to gain entry into a home or business. I also included a few links for some good ideas on how to secure those three entry points (entry doors, garage doors and windows).

This week we will touch on a few ways we might be able to discourage a burglar from ever getting to those entry points. Next week we will look at ways we can discourage a burglar by making it difficult on him if he gains entry into your home. But first, let's categorize the different types of burglars. The majority will fall into one of three categories:

• Professional
• Semi-Professional
• Amateur (opportunist)

For the vast majority of us, the Professional is of little concern. First, he likes better stuff than we have, and second, there's not really much we can do to stop him. On the other hand, the Semi-Professional and the Amateur should cause us to stop and take a good hard look around our homes and businesses for things we can do to keep them from being successful, things that invite and or assist these two types of thieves, and then look for ways to discourage them from even attempting to break into our home or business.

The Semi-Professional is most likely going to spend a week or more casing your neighborhood, learning whose at home, and whose not at home, and which homes are the easiest target. The Amateur on the other hand is typically a neighborhood teen who is looking for a thrill as much as a score, and a lot easier to discourage.

Most home burglars will park close to their target break-in home, walk to the target home, many times with some sort of uniform on, and a clip board, ring your door bell, and if someone answers, they will either pretend they are taking a survey, or that they have the wrong address (if this happens to you, be very observant of where they go, and if possible, get the vehicle color, make and model, and if you can the tag number, ideally you will have the opportunity to snap a photo with your phone from inside your home). Then take extra precautions yourself, and warn your neighbors.

If there is no answer when they ring the door bell, they will typically move to the back of the home, and try one of the three entry points we discussed last week. So what can we do to make them want to move on to an easier target? Most burglar proofing instructions start with the basics: put timers on lights, keep shrubs trimmed back from windows, install deadbolt locks, use a code lock instead of hiding a key, etc. Unfortunately, those things have been presented to us so many times, we almost ignore them altogether. But there are lots of not so well known yet highly effective strategies we can employ to reduce our chances of being the victim of a home burglary, so lets take a look at a few of them:

Dog (real or imaginary). Most burglars hate noisy dogs (big, medium or small, size doesn't really matter). If you've already got a dog, your in business. But do you have a beware of dog sign? If not, get one. Even if you don't have a dog, get a beware of dog sign and post it in a prominent place. Consider putting a dog bowl and chain close to your back door, that will add a lot of credibility to the ruse. The dog ruse might be the better tactic when it comes to some breeds of dogs (you might put your homeowners insurance at risk if you get one of the breeds deemed vicious, but we will touch on that in another blog post).

Security camera. Not a fake camera, a real camera. Amateurs may be fooled, but a Pro or Semi-Pro will not. 

Security System. Make sure you have a security system sign on your lawn and decals on your windows. Even if you don't have an alarm system, you should make it look like you do. Get some peel and stick window sensors, a lawn sign, and some window decals and install them.

Don't roll out the red carpet. Last week I mentioned that 32% of burglars entered through an unlocked door or window, lets keep those doors and windows locked. And almost as bad, 12% of burglars had a key, so lets be more diligent in our key hiding skills, and be careful who we trust with a key. One not so obvious draw might be when you buy a big-ticket electronics item (big screen TV, new surround sound system, new PC, laptop, etc.), you should hide or destroy the "evidence" (don't leave the box(s) out by the curb). Be stealth when carrying your new flat screen TV inside, pull into your garage before unloading. 

Motion-sensor controlled lighting. While it is true that most home burglaries are committed during the day when homeowners are most likely to be at work, burglars are also constantly on the lookout for homes that appear vacant at night. Given the choice, burglars prefer to operate under the cover of darkness. The higher the motion-sensor controlled lights are installed, the better (the burglar may try to unscrew the bulb if the light is accessible). 

Secure your ladders and tools. If you store your ladder outside, chain and padlock them so they can't be used for a second story entry. If you store your ladders and/or tools (hammers, pry bars, large screwdrivers, etc.) in a shed, make sure your shed is secured. You don't want to assist a burglar in breaking into your home do you?

Holidays. Be extra careful about home security during holidays. Burglars know when church services are commonly held and also when homes are most likely to be vacant because of holiday parties and dinners, and are fully aware that your home is full of Christmas goodies. If you do a lot a online shopping, it might be worth investing in a large lock box for your front porch, instruct your parcel delivery drivers to leave any packages in the lock box, and lock it with your combination lock.

I hope you find these home security suggestions helpful, and would love to see any additional home security ideas added in the comments section below.

Was it a scratch, or a pick?

I'm going to shift gears this week, moving away from auto to home. So we have three terms that to most of us seem interchangeable, but to Insurance Companies, not so much (do you recall the scene in one of the Seinfeld sitcoms when Jerry wanted to make certain that the difference in a scratch and a pick were very clear?). Well I'm going to take a few minutes to distinguish between these three terms, then we will talk a little more about one of them.

Credit: Flickr

• Burglary
• Robbery
• Theft

So first up is Burglary, from the insurance companies perspective, burglary is the theft of property from a premises (business or home) when it is closed or unoccupied, and requires visible evidence of forced entry OR exit (some criminals hide inside a business, and break out), actual entry is not required (if the hamburglar breaks your window, reaches in and takes your hamburger, that is classified as a burglary, or maybe it's classified as a hamburglary).

Credit: Flickr

Second is Robbery, which from the insurance companies perspective is stealing of property that is in the possession of an individual, and involves face-to-face confrontation between the robber and the victim. Robbery requires a threat or fear (robbers typically don't ask nicely for your stuff).

And last but not least, Theft. From the insurance companies perspective, theft is the unlawful taking of property from another without the owner's consent. The broad definition of theft includes burglary and robbery, but also includes the taking of property by stealth.

Now let's focus for a minute on Burglary, there are three entry points that are the most commonly used by burglars:

• Exterior Doors
• Windows
• Garage Doors

Knowing what the most common entry points are makes securing your home or business a little easier. On a national level, where the entry was successful (being that most thieves are not the brightest bulbs in the box, not all burglars are successful), 38% of break-ins were by forcing or breaking a lock, but even more surprising is that 32% were through an UNLOCKED door, and a pretty disturbing number is that 12% of the burglars had a key (apparently that hidden key is not that hard to find).

The statistics I was reading while researching this subject did not distinguish between exterior entry doors and garage doors, but they indirectly indicated that the term entry door included garage doors. There are quite a few videos on YouTube that show how a thief can open a garage door equipped with an automatic garage door opener in 6 seconds, and the video I linked to actually shows a pretty simple and very inexpensive solution. 

If we lock our doors and windows (even the upstairs windows), do a better job of hiding that extra key, or not have one hidden at all, and tamper-proof our garage door(s), then we greatly improve our odds of stopping a burglary before it ever happens. If you are interested in some ideas on how to secure these three entry points better, read this article. It provides good solutions for all three entry points, and most of the solutions are not terribly expensive. This entry door solution is tough, yet affordable and a straight forward do-it-yourself installation.

In conclusion, with enough time comes apathy, and when it comes to our homes, autos, and the possessions in those homes and autos, we need to be on guard against apathy. Just because our home or auto has never been the target of a burglary does not mean it never will be. Take a few minutes today to inspect your doors, windows and garage door. Take a little time at dinner tonight to speak with your family about keeping doors and windows secured, and never, never take for granted that your home is safe from burglary. If you have never experienced a burglary, you don't understand how violated you feel, but trust me when I say that there are a lot more emotions involved after a burglary than just loss and anger.

Keep an eye out for part 2 of this article next week.

Do you know your DUTIES in the event of an accident?

If you were in an auto accident tomorrow, would you know what to do? Did your insurance agent provide you with a list of duties that you are responsible for?

Most insurance policies actually list your duties in the event of an accident, but have you read that portion of your policy? If you are like me, you don't carry your insurance policy around in your pocket, or in your vehicle, and unless someone told you to, you probably have not committed your duties in the event of an accident to memory.

So right now, while it is fresh on your mind, lets do something (no, not later, lets do it now). Lets go to our vehicle and get our proof of insurance card out of the glove compartment. Was it there? If not, it would be advisable to find it and make sure it gets into your glove compartment tomorrow morning. If it was there, take a look at the expiration date, is it current? If not, then you need to take care of that first thing tomorrow morning.

Now, flip your proof of insurance card over, and on the back you should find an 'In case of accident or theft' section. These are your duties, and they are all good things to know, right? You should see something similar to the following:

• Notify the police, sheriff, or local authorities
• Get the names and contact information of ALL persons involved as well as any witnesses
• Immediately report every accident, theft, or loss to your Insurance Company or its duly authorized agent (do not delay in reporting an accident even if you do not have all the information needed to file a claim, complete information can be obtained as a later time)

Along with this information, there are a few methods of contacting your Insurance Company (i.e., phone number, website, app). Typically, your policy might have a more comprehensive duties section like this:

• Prompt Notification
• Cooperate with insurer
• Immediately record claim specifics
• Send insurer copies of any/all legal papers
• DO NOT make payments, assume any obligations, or incur any expenses (except for first aid)

I wanted to make sure you saw that last one since it is not typically on proof of insurance cards, and if that is your duty, you need to be aware of it.

SO DO YOU SEE IT? Do you see a little wrinkle in this information so far? Most of us have been told to keep our proof of insurance card in our glove compartment, so we do, and for good reason. Car insurance follows the car, not the driver, so if you lend your car to someone, they need to have access to the registration, and proof of insurance, so the glove compartment needs to have a current proof of insurance card in it.

BUT, what if your car is stolen? Your proof of insurance card is in the car that just disappeared. Now what? My recommendation would be to keep a second proof of insurance card in your purse or wallet in case of theft. For this reason, I will be providing all my clients two proof of insurance cards for each vehicle, one for each vehicles glove box, and one for my clients purse or wallet. 

So this is my third blog, and I hope that they are helpful. If you had not noticed, all three have dealt with auto insurance, so I just wanted to let you know that I do a lot more than just auto insurance, but these were some subjects that I felt compelled to share with you. In the future, I will be dealing with Homeowners Insurance and all types of Commercial Insurance,   

If you find this information useful, feel free to comment, or ask questions. If your interested in trading in your insurance agent for one that will diligently listen with the intent to hear what you are saying rather than with the intent to respond, than please visit my agent page on the Reynolds Insurance Agency website (link below) and either use the form to tell me when your insurance renews, or just give me a call, I would love to discuss your insurance needs with you.

http://www.thereynoldsagency.com/ins-smyrna-tn/bob/

Should You Purchase Rental Car Insurance, Part 2

So I'm wondering how many folks knew the answer to last weeks question (feel free to comment below either way). In all fairness, the answer may vary from situation to situation. There are a lot of things to consider, and the rules differ from insurance carrier to insurance carrier.

BUT, here are a few things to consider. First, what about the variation in value between the 2004 Honda Accord and the 2014 Ford Taurus. If you choose not to take the rental car insurance, and your insurance company and or credit card company  provides coverage for rented vehicles, or you purchased an endorsement to cover rented vehicles, then you most likely are covered  (there are very few absolutes in insurance since anyone can sue anyone, and judges are not God), even though the value of the rental car you just wrapped around that telephone pole is substantially higher than your little Honda Accord.

BUT, BUT, what if a critical part for that 2014 Ford Taurus is not available and delays the repair for 8 weeks. Your insurance company is picking up the tab for the repairs, but what about the lost income to the rental car company for not having the car available to rent while it is waiting on the part? Yep, you probably already guessed it, unless some judge forces your insurance company to pay for the lost income, they are more than likely going to bow out of that little piece of the puzzle, leaving someone (we won't mention any names) on the hook for the daily car rental rate for the entire time the car is unavailable.

Moral of this story, get the rental car insurance even if your credit card company and/or insurance company offers some coverage, especially if you are renting a vehicle while traveling in another country. 

So here's the deal, you should have known the answer to the question based on the carrier and coverage you have, and if you didn't, your agent is a blankety blank, and should be kicked to the curb, then replaced with an agent that will make sure your assets are covered appropriately. If it's time to kick your agent to the curb, please click on the link below, which will take you to my Agent page of the Reynolds Insurance Agency website, there you will see an option that looks like this:

Provide Agent With Renewal Dates

Clicking on the radio button in front of that option will take you through a short interview process that will allow you to provide me with a little contact information, and your renewal date(s). Doing so will not obligate you to anything, just provide me with enough information to contact you a few months before your renewal date to see if I can provide you with not only insurance, but an appropriate level of knowledge about your coverage to provide peace of mind and spirit.

http://www.thereynoldsagency.com/ins-smyrna-tn/bob/

Should You Purchase Rental Car Insurance?

Do you know the answer to this question right off the top of your head? Did your insurance agent discuss this with you?

For some, this is an easy question to answer, for others, not so much. One of my objectives as an Insurance Agent (Insuranceologist) is to make certain my clients know the answer to questions like this. If the objective of insurance is to insure your assets, then you should know if your assets are insured.

To make things even more complicated, what if your agent did tell you that you are covered if you rent a car. Did he tell you how that would work if you own a 2004 Honda Accord, but you are renting a 2014 Ford Taurus (these two automobiles have very different replacement cost and repair values)?

If you did not know the answer to the question 'Should you purchase rental car insurance', then it might be time to look for an Insurance Agent Upgrade. If that is something that interests you, please click on the link below, which will take you to my Agent page of the Reynolds Insurance Agency website, there you will see an option that looks like this:

Provide Agent With Renewal Dates

Clicking on the radio button in front of that option will take you through a short interview process that will allow you to provide me with a little contact information, and your renewal date. Doing so will not obligate you to anything, just provide me with enough information to reach you a few months before your renewal date to see if I can provide you with not only insurance, but the information you need to prevent 'Rental Car Insurance Question Anxiety'

http://www.thereynoldsagency.com/ins-smyrna-tn/bob/