In these difficult economic times, everyone is playing the game of looking for savings on the must-haves. When the job may be lost because of cuts in state or federal budgets – for example, if the defense cuts follow on from the failure of the Supercommittee to agree a deficit reduction package, thousands of jobs will be lost – no one wants big regular commitments. That means discounts is the name of the game when it comes to shopping for insurance. Putting the question of the deductible to one side, the most common saving comes from bundling an auto with a homeowners policy. Insurers usually offer not less than 10% in premium rates which, in these difficult times, can be a good deal. Of course, before you sign up, you complete the shopping around, getting quotes for the policies separately and bundled together from several different companies. Never assume you cannot do better separately if you change insurers.

So far, all this is completely straightforward. In a free market, you can make savings and the insurer gets more business. This should be a win/win situation. Except, in some states like North Carolina, the free market is being twisted by some insurers. The strategy adopted by some of the larger companies like Allstate is aggressive, writing to existing homeowners policyholders to refuse renewal unless they switch their vehicle insurance to a bundle. In some states like New York, this forced bundling is illegal, breaching provisions on anti-rebating and anti-discrimination. In states where this is legal, the insurers justify this mandate on the basis of their business economics.

There’s a reason why most sites like this talk about discounts as the best way of saving money. It happens to be true but, to take advantage of the discounts safely, you need to think carefully. Let’s start with the most commonly mentioned. All you have to do to make big savings is to increase your deductible. Indeed, the theory is often proved correct that an increase from $500 to $1000 can save you up to 25% of the annual premium. But there are two issues to think about.

Many insurance companies are already increasing the deductible whether you asked for it or not. The reason for this is the rise in the number of claims from bad weather. No matter what your view on global warming or climate change, the last two years have seen record-breaking claims for damage caused by snow, flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes. This year is ending on another unusual note with unexpected snowfall disrupting the northeast in late October, early November. The amount of snow and disruption to more than 2 million homes has broken new records for October for West Virginia through to Maine. All these additional claims mean premium rates will be going up again next year, and the deductibles are being adjusted on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. Don’t be caught out. Before you raise the deductible yourself, find out what your insurer has done. Second, if you do increase the deductible, can you afford to self-insure all the small accidental losses around the home? If not, resist rises in the deductible.

The world frequently disappoints us. We all hope people will prove honest and good neighbors. Yet we more often find ourselves on the receiving end of dishonesty and selfishness. When this is just one-to-one, we can attempt to arrange our affairs to minimize future losses or opportunities for conflict. But when the dishonesty is on an industrial scale, it ends up costing us all extra dollars, and there’s little or nothing we can do about it. Over the last two or three years, it’s been impossible to pick up a newspaper without seeing a story about rising auto insurance premiums, often caused by the rapidly increasing levels of fraud. That, as they say, is the tip of the iceberg. The wave of gangs crashing their cars and claiming medical expenses is only worth a few billion a year. Unfortunately, a few billion is peanuts. When it comes to Medicaid and Medicare, the FBI estimates the amount fraudulently claimed to be between $60 and 200 billion a year.

It seems that the traditional discrimination between male and female drivers will end very soon thanks to the European Court of Justice, which has approved the ban on price discrimination and set a three year period for the insurance companies to comply. This is certainly good news for male drivers, especially the younger ones, who are traditionally charged with higher premiums, and also means that female drivers will be subjected to higher premiums as a logical move by the insurance providers to split even the costs in order to comply with the new rules.

The debate over car insurance price discrimination has been a long and heated one. Traditionally male drivers were charged with higher premiums because they were more often involved in accidents if compared to female drivers. And knowing that the insurance providers deal only with risk factors when calculating their rates as a result female drivers were always getting better rates then men. There are a lot of explanations of why female drivers are less risky then men behind the wheel. Male drivers tend to be more aggressive on the road, driving faster and taking more risks. And this of course leads to more accidents and insurance claims filed by men. So, in fact the math behind such discrepancy in rates for different genders can be understood.

It’s a sad fact of life but machines work for less than human beings. In the good old days, every machine needed a human to watch over it and make sure it did not mess up. Now all you do is plug in these new generations of clever computerised things and they can work for days and weeks without ever having to step outside to enjoy a cigarette. It’s enough to make Karl Marx turn over in his grave as the workers of the world have slowly been losing the power to sell their labour. But inside every silver lining is a pig’s ear, or something. If a business can operate with fewer human beings, it’s making big savings that can be passed on to us, the customers. If you’re still able to find work and can afford to insure your car, this is a good thing. If you’re one of the replaced humans and now find yourself on the scrap heap of life, this is bitter medicine.

Automation brings reduced premium rates at two different levels depending on where the savings in labour are made. If the insurer has to employ a call centre full of people (hopefully not offshore to maintain what employment opportunities remain for local people), this is a moderately expensive operation. But if all the selling of policies is effectively automated, all the savings in labour costs can be passed on to you as discounts. For example, the Co-operative offers an 11% discount for buying online. When you add this to other features like a no-claims bonus rising to 70%, it makes them one of the cheapest companies in the insurance business.

In a way, this subject sounds a little ghoulish. Insuring the lives of your own children gives you a benefit if they die. This would be ironic because, while they are children, all you do is pay out money to look after them. Should they die, you are saved all these costs. To get additional cash. . . Except, a few children do make a real financial contribution to the family as actors, entertainers and writers. When their earnings may be millions during their childhood, it genuinely is worth insuring them. Indeed, this may be done alongside the television, movie or other employers. Remember some like Justin Bieber are earning small fortunes as singers and musicians, often appearing on Nickelodeon and Radio Disney which feature teen singers and very successfully promote the music to the teen market. For arguments sake, imagine the crisis if Daniel Radcliffe had fallen off the griffin into the loch and drowned while filming Harry Potter. His parents would have needed the insurance money to pay for the state funeral.