Day: January 25, 2010

higher and higher – the latest from the Sun Herald’s Anita Lee on the increasing cost of insurance

How many count a good credit rating among their losses from Hurricane Katrina?  Logic suggests more than just a few.  Everything in thousands of homes had to be replaced; income, and in some cases,  jobs were lost; and, as SLABBED readers know, there are insurance claims that have yet to be paid and untold thousands underpaid.

In a weekend Sun Herald story, Bad credit can mean higher insurance premiums, Anita Lee reports the latest bite-you-in-the-behind news that makes  Katrina, the Hurricane that keeps on giving to those on the Coast who saw their credit score go south following the storm.

Coastal policyholders are well aware a hurricane is guaranteed to hike insurance rates, but fewer realize their credit reports also are factored into homeowner and automobile insurance premiums.

Consumers who have suffered financial setbacks because of the economy are seeing higher homeowner and auto insurance premiums…

Insurance companies contend consumers with bad credit tend to file more property insurance claims. Consumer advocates question the accuracy of studies that find a correlation between credit and risk.

Stories like this are a reminder that there are lies, damned lies, and statistics – and that many insurers are guilty on all three counts – but for the moment, let’s just focus on the statistics used to justify credit-based premium increases. Continue reading “higher and higher – the latest from the Sun Herald’s Anita Lee on the increasing cost of insurance”

Word has it the celebration in New Orleans is still on

Bill Barrow at the Times Picayune filed this early report on the post game celebration:

You might call this one a stranger-hugger — grabbing the person closest to you, then the next. No one paying attention to anyone’s words. No one ashamed of the tears.

Of course, there really were no strangers to begin with in a city that has known so much pain — the kind that extends well beyond the football field, into the sad realm of hurricane winds, rising waters, lost lives and wrecked property. The kind of immeasurable pain that almost makes a mockery of the bags that once covered the heads of New Orleans Saints fans in what is now a bygone era.

While experiencing the pain of loss is part and parcel to the human condition no place on this planet matches New Orleans when it comes to the art of celebration. Unlike other locales no houses burned down nor did out of control mobs of drunken celebrants smash windows and turn over cars. That simply is not the style of the City that care forgot as we continue:

“The suffering in this city. The bags over our heads. The rebuilding. This all makes it worthwhile,” said Bobby Grosz, sitting stunned atop his bar stool at Finn McCools Irish Pub in Mid-City. Continue reading “Word has it the celebration in New Orleans is still on”