"Mom and Dad, some day you're gonna tell me to never talk to strangers. So how come you just called a stranger and bought insurance? What gives with that?" And it was a lizard! You make me laugh out loud." But the Gecko is cute!Yep. He's cute. And I have to admit, the British accent (it's not Australian) makes him even more adorable. He used to be voiced by Kelsey Grammer, but now he's a Brit. A BRITISH LIZARD selling American insurance. That should be a warning sign. OK, I'm reaching for reasons to not trust the cute little lizard. Let's get serious for a minute.Friends don't let friends buy insurance from strangers online. Or from a stranger at the other end of a toll free number. Friends refer friends to their trusted local insurance agent. Why? Because your local agent goes above and beyond the anonymous person at the other end of a toll free number. Here are a couple of the extra jobs your local agent takes on for you: 1. Red tape removal expert.Your local insurance agent digs cutting through red tape for you. That red tape can sometimes be the dreaded FORM LETTERS that spit out of a home office faster than you can yell STOP! One call to your agent, and the anonymous treatment by your insurance company stops dead in its tracks. To your local insurance agent, you are a person, not a number. They hate red tape as much as you do. It makes their day to get the scissors out and cut through the tape. See if a call to Martin the Gecko, who lives in the mythical Kingdom of GEICO, gets you anywhere. Nope. The Gecko has "people" to make sure you remember your place. You are a number. A phone call to "Customer Service" will prove this. "What's your policy number" will be one of the first questions. No policy number- no help. Don't call "Customer Service." Call your local agent. Ditch the red tape! 2. Advocate and Ally.You need an Advocate. Let's face it; we've all had a fight at least once with with someone in a corporate home office. And if that fight was ever with someone in the corporate office of an insurance company, you felt especially vulnerable. We need a super hero to come to our rescue. Enter your local agent. Even the very best insurance companies make a bad hire sometimes. Or a good employee can have a bad day. It can be an annoying underwriter who lives in a room with no windows, a billing supervisor who just doesn't "get it," or a claims adjuster who woke up on the wrong side of the bed the same day your car is totaled. One call to your agent, and suddenly you have an advocate. Someone to put that corporate employee in their place. Someone to fight for you. Ask the lizard if he will fight for you. He won't. He's bought and paid for by the ad agency that created him. He's a fiction. You need an Ally. When you want advice about how much insurance you really need (and not just the cheapest price)... enter your local agent. When you are confused about policy changes or rate increases, and you need someone who cares about you as friend and neighbor to just make it simple... enter your local agent. When bad things happen to good people, like a house fire or a car accident, they need an Ally. Someone to come alongside with compassion. Someone who knows them and their family and maybe even cries with them over their disaster. Enter your local agent. Let me apply for a job to work for you.I don't have a cute British accent. And I'm not nearly as funny as Flo on the TV commercials. But I'd love the chance to work for you. If you are already my client, you are someone I value, and I hope I can continue to earn your business by treating you the same way I'd like to be treated.
If you just found me (maybe because of a mutual friend), I'd love to get the chance to meet you. Do you have an insurance story? Most folks have one. I would be honored if you'd let me listen. Maybe, just maybe, I can get you a better insurance policy. And better service. Jeff St. Clair, (951) 284-0400 photo credit -isn't that a cute baby!
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Don't get robbed.Keeping your money out of the hands of pickpockets and thieves just seems like so much more fun than calling home to get emergency money wired to you by your friends or family. You want to have a good time, and you also don't want to memorize 15 ways to keep your money safe while on vacation. I get it. So here are three simple ways to protect your money while traveling to another state or country. 1. Divide and Conquer.Split your money and credit cards into at least two places on your person. You could even go so far as to have a "dummy wallet" in the obvious places, like your front pocket or your purse. A dummy wallet can have some of those fake credit cards that you get in the mail (start saving them). The fake should also have a small amount of cash and maybe even a picture or two. Maybe even a real credit card (not your debit card, but that's for another blog post). Make it look real. Good pickpockets know how to get that wallet out of your front pocket or tightly held purse. They got mad skills. So divide your cash and cards between two places. The secret place can be, well, secret (inside shows, socks or underwear). Yeah. Not a topic for polite discussion. But use your imagination, and if wallet number one has been stolen, you'll still have a backup source of money and credit cards to get back to the hotel or police station. 2. Keep important stuff in a safe.Most hotels have a safe that you can use to store valuables. Use it, even if it costs extra. You should keep your passport, proof of identity and at least one backup credit card in this safe, as well as some cash. And that reminds me (free extra tip)... take copies or photographs of all of your documents and credit cards and give these copies to someone you trust back home. It's amazing how many people have all of their important documents and credit cards stolen, and none of that information is on record anywhere. When a theft occurs, you need to be able to "call a friend." 3. Keep your eyes open and look alert.Don't be the "weakest link."
Thieves and pickpockets are not much different than lions on the African plains. We've all seen the National Geographic shows where the lions wait patiently for hours, watching a herd of gazelle. And we all know what they're watching for- the most inattentive gazelle in the herd. Thieves are opportunists, and they have thousands of potential victims to choose from. They target the absent minded and inattentive so they can do their dastardly crime with the least amount of fuss. So look like you'll be the one who makes a fuss. Look like you are the person looking at everyone. It doesn't matter if you actually "see" a thief. Just the appearance that you aren't missing a thing may cause them pass over you and move on to the next person. As they used to say on the old TV show, Hill Street Blues... "let's be careful out there." photo credit Getting ready to barbecue, grill out, or cook out. Whatever you call it, we're all going to do it this weekend! So let's barbecue brilliantly and safely. Safety First - Think Fire & Food Fire SafetyYou have to fire up the grill before anything else happens. Now I know most of you are using propane. And that's fine. The rest of you die hard purists are cooking over charcoal or wood. These safety rules apply to all of you. I could add more, but let's do a Top 5:
Food SafetyHere are three simple food safety rules:
And here's the bonus tip: don't leave the leftovers out for more than two hours. Change that. It's California, and it's over 90 degrees most summer days. On a hot summer day, that window shrinks to ONE HOUR. Put the leftovers in the fridge before they go bad. I hope this helps keep your holiday barbecue safe. Grill On, Have Fun and Stay Safe. Happy Fourth of July! ~Jeff St. Clair photo credit Our kids are dying out there on the road. Teens crash three times as often as drivers over the age of 20. Car accidents are the leading cause of death for teenagers. Seven teenagers die behind the wheel of a car every single day. That's some sobering news. But we can do something about it. We can help save lives by talking with our teens about safe driving. There are dozens of safety tips we could talk about with them. The Centers for Disease Control lists eight "Danger Zones" on their excellent parent resource website. (I encourage you to visit it.) But I'm going to limit this article to just five simple rules: 1. Drive a safe car.The car you drive can save your life. I'll bet you didn't know that there is an organization that evaluates the safety of specific models of cars, vans, mini vans and SUVs each year. It's the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety). Not only do they compile an annual list of the safest vehicles to drive, but they also create a list each year of the safest used cars for teens to drive. Here's the 2014 list. You'll notice that there is a "Best Choices" category, but that can get expensive. After all, many of us can't afford to shell out $20,000 or more for our kid's first car. Fortunately, the IIHS also includes a list of "Good Choices," all for under $10,000. Just keep scrolling down the list until you find that category. Even if you and your teen can't afford any of the vehicles on those lists, there are three additional choices that everyone can make, regardless of budget: Finally, find out what that vehicle costs to insure. Insurance companies understand safety too. Often, the car insurance rates reflect safety. Safer cars usually mean lower insurance premiums. 2. Slow down.Speed kills. It's just that simple. In over 800 vehicle crashes involving teenage drivers, 21% of the accidents involved teens going too fast. That's according to a study in the academic journal Accident Analysis and Prevention. You can be the best driver in the world, but it's still harder to recover from an unexpected bump in the road or an unfamiliar curve when your car is going faster. It's no insult to your teenager's ability to drive. It's just simple physics. 3. Pay attention.Hang up and drive. We all know that texting while driving kills people. Plus it's illegal in most states. But texting is not the only thing that kills our kids. It's talking on their cell phone. Or laughing and talking with their friends- especially when their friends are in the backseat. Even seemingly safe activities may not be safe while driving. A burger and fries aren't safe at 65 miles per hour if they spill ketchup on their pants and look down to see how badly it stained. Anything that's going on inside the car that takes their eyes off the road could be lethal. Have the talk. Sit down tonight and discuss all the ways that eyes come off the road, and figure out how to keep that from happening. Maybe offer to do it together. A pact. No more texting, calling or eating Big Macs and driving- for either of you. It's a thought. 4. Scan the road.Scanning the road doesn't come naturally. Most new drivers don't look much farther ahead than just over the hood of their car. They fail to see what dangers are coming up farther down the road... the car that swerved in front of a delivery truck two hundred yards ahead, or the falling couch from an overloaded trailer. So let's teach our teens to lift their eyes and look ahead. We also need to teach our teens how to scan the road side to side. Dangers aren't always just in front of us. Train your new driver to scan intersections before entering them, and have their foot ready for the brake just in case . They may have the right of way... and still end up dead. Spend time talking about hypothetical situations. Go to websites that discuss safe driving such as this website. The more we keep the subject of scanning the road in their minds... the more likely it could save their life one day. 5. Buckle up.This one should go without saying. Buckling your seat belts is common sense, and it's the law. But that doesn't mean your teen buckles up when you aren't there to watch. A 2012 study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that of all teens (age 13-19) in the United States who died in traffic accidents, 55% were not wearing seat belts. Here are the big stats on teen drivers... if you haven't checked out any other links, this one is worth reading. Moms and Dads, don't assume your young adults are buckling up. Ask them. Then tell them that you want them to come home alive tonight. What's the next step?Share this post with a teenager you love.
Make them message you back that they looked at it. Schedule a time to talk about safe driving. Make a pact with them to follow these rules yourself. Changing habits is hard. Having a friend to help makes it easier. Your teen is moving from being "your little kid" to becoming "your adult friend." Help your friend stay alive. |
Coverage For Your ToysSt. Clair Insurance Agency Thanks for stopping by. ~Jeff St. Clair
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October 2015
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