MAIN Your Money Insurance

Don't Waste Your Money on Insurance You Don't Need

Everyone gets them.  Occasional phone calls from the credit card or mortgage company offering inexpensive insurance that will pay off your balance in the event that you die.  

The sales person will try to make it sound like the deal of the century. Just 39 cents, or less, per $1,000 you owe each month and you can wipe the slate clean for your family. Don't fall for the bait.

"The key reason for life insurance is to protect your family from financial disaster if something were to happen to you unexpectedly. A lot of the life insurance being sold today is duplicative of the protection you would get from a term life insurance policy," says Byron Udell, founder and CEO of AccuQuote, www.accuquote.com, a Web-based based company that offers free online insurance quotes.

Here are some types of insurance Udell says you should think twice about:

• Credit life insurance - If you have a term life policy, your beneficiary can use those proceeds to pay creditors.   You don't need a specific type of insurance to make sure those creditors are paid off if you die.

• Mortgage Life Insurance - It might seem like a good idea to get mortgage life insurance to pay off your house if you die, but a term life insurance policy will do the same thing.  And, term life insurance policies are generally less expensive than those you'd see offered by mortgage companies. With a term life insurance policy, your beneficiary will get cash when you die and he/she can then decide whether paying off the house is the right financial move at that time.

• Child Life Insurance - You should also be weary of those trying to sell you a life insurance policy for your children.  Life insurance is necessary for income replacement.   So, unless you're depending on your child for his/her income, life insurance for a child is usually not necessary.

• Air travel life insurance - If someone depends on you financially, then you need life insurance to cover you no matter how you die.  Term life insurance will protect you if you die in an airplane crash or naturally.

Prices for term life policies have come down a lot in recent years.  Whether you're ready to start shopping around for a new policy, or want to look into getting one for the first time, log on to www.accuquote.com, fill out the online forms, and get back quotes from several leading insurance companies in a matter of seconds.  

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