Lots of roadside help is just a phone call away

Our seven-year-old Toyota's original battery died suddenly in the supermarket parking lot this weekend. And I found out that much has changed since the last time I called AAA.

For one thing, the auto club sells batteries roadside now, and have been doing that for a couple years at least, according to the technician who answered our call. It's a moderately pricey service; we paid $115 to buy a battery that costs maybe $75 at AutoZone, have it installed and the old dead one taken away for recycling. But paying the extra money also allowed us to finish shopping at the next supermarket on our list and get home before the frozen food thawed.

I also realized we're potentially covered by at least three auto clubs. One is AAA, which was the most universally dependable services when we first signed up four decades ago. AARP offers a slightly reduced price similar service, which we haven't signed up for. Progressive Insurance also throws roadside assistance in with an auto policy we have. Many other insurers do that too; Allstate ramps up the service a notch with a special plan for Blackberry users. Even Subaru offered free help for the first year after we bought that car.

So, is it dumb to continue paying AAA for coverage that overlaps what these other providers offer anyway? That apparently depends on what is most likely to go wrong when we hit the highway, writes Vivian Blackwell at Edmunds.com.

Roadside assistance plans are essentially insurance policies designed to help policy holders deal with what are usually minor emergencies. Some are part of lusher larger services, like GM's OnStar, which costs about $200 a year after a first year free trial. Others are barer bones plans that may limit which vehicles are covered or where you take your car if you need repairs. Some aim for niche markets, such as the Better World Club, which has a roadside plan that covers bicycles too.

Finding the right plan is like finding the best insurance deal. You basically read the fine print and compare the choices.

To leave someone money, leave instructions too

Don't count on insurance companies to track down your loved ones to deliver a benefits check when you die. Insurers must pay claims as called for in the policy if beneficiaries ask, but no one forces the companies to hunt for beneficiaries if they don't know you are dead.

State treasurers across the U.S. offer one backstop of sorts. They all run unclaimed property programs in which, after enough time passes, they crack open dormant lock boxes and try to find lost owners or heirs for an estimated $33 billion of stuff accumulated there. The treasurers, including Missouri's Clint Zweifel, often use state fairs to highlight their programs if you want funnel cake with your share of the fortune.

Now Glenville, Ill., entrepreneurs Joe Palmer and Tej Shah offer another solution to the problem. They've set up a free online registration service, WeRemember.org to leave instructions for our loved ones about where to find insurance policies and other important documents needed for them to receive the benefits we intend for them. When we die - and WeRemember verifies that independently - the service calls our beneficiaries and delivers the information we left for them.

Theoretically, we're doing a lot of this already in heart-to-heart conversations with loved ones or instructions we leave with trusted advisers. In real life, that doesn't happen as often as it should. "As a nation, we spend more time planning our next car purchase than dealing with estate planning documents," Palmer said.

We need to do some homework too. Our loved ones are going to need a ton of information when we die and some of it - where to find military discharge papers, birth or marriage certificates, or precise family information to reconstruct anything missing - won't be easy to find without help.

Taking time now to sort out what's important and organize an easy way for someone else to find it. That will make it easier for loved ones later.

Paying more car insurance to drive fewer miles

My car insurance is going up $10 for the next six months.

It's not a bad deal. We're still only paying $370 to cover two claims-free, suburban-driven compacts. I don't know what to think of what we're getting for the money. We've been driving a lot less on our now tighter budget. Mrs. Ktnomics is using her 70 mpg Vespa more when the weather is nice.

The insurance company said, when it told us the new premium, that our bail bond coverage is higher, we get more money to replacement income if we need to take time off work to testify in court, and it will pay higher first-aid costs if someone is injured in our accident. I've never used any of those things in the 47 years I've been licensed.

Turns out that a lot of us are paying more to drive less, though Insurance Information Institute statistics show the amounts vary widely. So far this year, State Farm, the nation's largest auto insurer, has increased rates in 25 states and trimmed them in 12 for an overall average increase of 1.2 percent. And the Missouri and Kansas hikes, 3.8 percent and 2.2 percent respectively, are mild compared to what some competitors are posting, said spokesperson Tamara O'Connor in Kansas City.

Insurance companies say claims experience drives the changes. Vehicle repair costs, medical bills, lawsuits and everything else that my now $370 helps cover are creeping higher. Others say the recession is a force too. Insurers reportedly worry they'll get burned by pent-up claims demand as the economy improves.

Some may worry they'll be scorched by consumers too. We're getting pickier about what we buy. New on-line competitors are grabbing market share from traditional agents. And one group of industry watchers, at Marketscout.com, suggests that some traditional agents' competitive elbows are getting sharper too.

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles offered some of the best advice for consumers 40 years ago. Who knew?

COBRAs bite two ways

April 18 is a big deadline for employers wrestling with their health care costs, business consultants say. It's also the beginning of a potential eye-popper for us downsized workers too.

Basically, it is 60 days after President Obama's signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the stimulus bill, and the deadline by which employers must offer subsidized COBRA health plans to any workers laid off since Sept. 1 who want the coverage.

Like those zero percent credit card offers we used to get before finance markets froze, the subsidized plan seems a sweet deal at first. COBRA is an acronym for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986, a then-groundbreaking law designed to help workers stay on their employers' health plan after losing a job.

Under the old rules that will change April 18, departing workers pay all the premiums for the coverage, which usually is two times or more higher than their former co-workers still on the job.

Under the new rules, employers pick up 65 of the premiums for nine months. That could get pricey; they must offer the plans to workers laid off Sept 1 or later, even if the workers turned down COBRA coverage at the time. Employers get a pocketful of tax credits to absorb at least some of that higher cost.

Workers get a break now, but pay radically higher costs when the subsidy runs out. The numbers from my last job are pretty typical. My wife and I pay about $230 a month for subsidized COBRA coverage now. It jumps to about $750 - the equivalent of two and half unemployment checks - when the subsidy ends.

We get good at math when we are between jobs. Only 9 percent of us who push pencils on this problem end up keeping COBRA coverage, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a New York foundation advocating more efficient health care. The rest of us either buy private insurance for our selves and families or we go on the crossed fingers and emergency room plan.

Driving naked is not an option

Dropping your car insurance to cut costs in a financial emergency can become the most expensive money you'll ever save.

You need a car to find work and get to it. And when money is tight, driving without insurance is just too risky, financial planner Doug Dunham told me in a financial planning story I recently wrote.

Driving naked - without any insurance - isn't a choice. The best thing that can happen is you get pulled over, can't produce proof of insurance and end buying the stuff anyway along with however many hundreds in penalties and court costs to get your license back after a suspension. The worst thing that can happen is you have an accident and get stuck with liability and property damage on top of that.

Theoretically, you can put up a bond to cover potential damages ahead of time, but if you've got that kind of cash, buying the insurance is cheaper.

So, what do you do? First, look for the least amount of insurance you can get by with - Edmunds.com offers a rundown of each state's requirements, but you may need higher coverage, especially if your finance company insists. You are driving their loan collateral after all.

Next, look for the cheapest source you can afford. Lately, online direct sellers such as Safe Auto in Ohio and 21st Century in California are pitching their low quotes for minimum state required coverage. Online sales have been growing faster than traditional agency or brokerage sales for a couple years now, industry watchers say.

But think that choice through before you make it too. Industry statistics show that on a dollar-for-premium-written-dollar basis, complaints about the generally smaller online providers can run three or more times higher than are filed against the good hands-good neighbors guys. Check out any company you are looking at.

Finally, talk with your current insurance agent about any breaks you can negotiate. Your carrier will want to keep you if you've been a good client and, regrettable as it may be, you are commuting less than before.