Today I bit the bullet and got Embrace. My mom has spot for her animals but only accident and illness. I chose embrace because it was a little better financially and would cover wellness exams. I wanted to see everyone’s opinions on different insurances. I get the impression that many don’t like embrace which is a little worrying to be honest, but I’m going to wait and see how I like them after I get my dogs anual done. She’s older and I just wanted her to be covered by something before I bring her in. Seeing that most if not all of the insurances will not cover anything preexisting. I did ask about a preexisting condition in my dog (torn ACLs) and if it would be covered since that hasn’t been an issue for years. The lady I talked to said that since it has been an issue in over 12 months it would be fine, which I found pretty surprising tbh. She explained it like - if your dog had a belly ache 3 years ago and it came back that’s something they’d cover. But if it was a chronic thing before you started insurance then no.

I went to LensCrafters for an eye exam and new glasses and gave them my insurance information, signed the usual intake documents and paid for the retinal imaging. They told me I was all set and didn’t owe anything else. I have Davis Vision which is covered under LensCrafters but apparently my exam is not covered as I received a call from them asking me to provide a second insurance and that the coat is $179 if not. No one told me before, during, or after my exam that my insurance wasn’t in network and I didn’t think anything of it bc Davis Vision is almost always within network. Even during my visit, one employee had me wait so they could “double check my insurance information”. That would have been a perfect opportunity for them to tell me it’s not in network and discuss the subsequent payment. What do I do here? Can I dispute this?

My dad's car was hit by a city trash truck in upstate New York. He was stopped at an intersection and it hit him as it completed a turn onto the road he was on. He was not injured, thank god. My dad was driving an old (2006) SUV that was still in great shape with low miles that he adored. The front bumper and fender on the driver's side is smashed but it is still technically drivable. His insurance (State Farm) is offering him $4100 to surrender the car, or just over $3,000 if he wants to keep it as owner retained salvage. My dad is very upset because he loves this SUV and feels like he should be made whole since this accident wasn't his fault at all. I think the amount they're offering is generous given the age of the car and I've explained this to him. He wants to keep it and fix it himself (restoring cars is his hobby). But it looks like NY will still assign this a salvage title and he thinks this is unfair. Does he have any other options here? He did not get a rental car as State Farm suggested but has been driving his brother's car instead. He has taken time off his part-time job to deal with this situation, so I suggested he add up the time off work plus any mileage and gas bought for his brother's car and tell State Farm about this too. He's just really upset and I'd like to help him with tips on anything else he can do. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I’m bringing home a puppy in two weeks. This breed (golden retriever) is prone to cancer and foreign body ingestion. We also live in an area with a lot of Lyme disease and I heard the vaccine doesn’t always work, so I want insurance that covers things the dog is vaccinated against (because we can do our best but Lyme could still get us). Anyone have any recommendations? I’m overwhelmed with all the options. I don’t care about paying the vet directly. We don’t mind a higher deductible- we really just truly want catastrophic coverage like cancer or surgery. Dental problems (not cleaning but actual problems) would be good too but it’s not 100 percent necessary. No matter what option I start to go with when I look it up there seems to be problems. I’m leaning to Embrace because they would cover Lyme. Trupanion seems like the rates go too high over time. Healthy Paws won’t do Lyme. Lemonade seems like people don’t trust it.

Cardiologist ordered a CT for my heart. Pre-authorization approved by insurance but for cost estimate at BCBS website I will still roughly pay about 2K while they will cover about $1600. I have BCBS PPO with $3200 deductible. Would the hospital billing department be able to give me my actual cost before I go through with the procedure. I just don’t want any more surprises after getting hit with a $3K hospital bill for my son’s ambulance and ER TRIP.

Just got a letter from Erie Insurance a few weeks ago that my broker was dropping Erie and I need to find new insurance. I have a damaged chimney that I was planning on having an adjuster out to investigate to see if it was covered or not. I noticed the damage months ago, but decided to get quotes from brick masons before calling my agent. It took a very long time to even get anyone who would show up to quote it for me. Was told that it was structural and the chimney needed to be demoed down to the roof line and rebuilt, adding some new lintel. Quote was $7,500. I called my insurance agent and left messages on a few occasions. There does seem to be water damage under the roof, but I think it’s on old repair from where I had the chimney flashing and sheeting replaced around the base of the chimney at the roof years ago. So a few weeks ago, I get a letter stating that my policy was not renewing. I just talked to my broker and mentioned the potential claim (probably stupid move on my part) and what to do. After some questions, it looks like if I start a claim with Erie, it will show up on reports the new company can see and will have an open claim without a disposition. I could just jump ship altogether and get a new policy and hope they don’t do an inspection and find the chimney damage. I obviously need to get this fixed, and I will, but the timing of all this is terrible. If I can’t get a new policy because there is existing damage, there will be a lapse in coverage which could also screw me. Anyone got any advice? I’m thinking of just rolling the dice with a new claim and hope for no inspection, get the chimney fixed out of pocket and move on with my life. My dad recently switched from Erie to Farmer’s and they didn’t require any inspection that I’m aware of.

We were rear ended by an uninsured driver. Had to file with our provider which is USAA. Today we got the repair estimate and the car is being deemed a total loss. All it needs is a new rear bumper and an exhaust. Repairs after our deductible are $700ish. Looks like the payment to us is $280. We're freaking out a bit. His car is older. It's a 2010 Foed Escape with 150k miles. We knew it wouldn't be worth much but $280? After searching around in our area, they are going for around $3k. Is there anyway for us to keep it and fix it ourselves? My husband is a mechanic and can get all this fixed for less than $700 easily is there anyway to do this without getting a salvaged title? If not, what are our options with insurance coverage moving forward? We cannot afford to buy another car right now.

My ex and I have been separated since mid-2017, but his Meritrust credit card is still showing up on my credit report. I've worked hard these past few years to knock out the debt I created for myself as a dumb 20-something year old, but I cannot get rid of this debt. I myself never even used this card when we were together. I don't even know why he asked me to cosign in the first place, but of course I said yes because he was my husband at the time. He won't speak to me about it, and I've tried reaching out to his family, but nothing has changed. I've tried contacting Meritrust, but the only option they give me is to settle the debt myself and close the account. If anyone has any advice on how to proceed with this, I'd really appreciate it.

My Simple IRA is with Edward Jones through my employer. My advisor, a glorified used car salesman, claims that it’s not fair to compare my returns with him to either the SPTMI or my own Roth IRA. His reasoning is that because it sees contributions twice a month, there’s always recent contributions that have not grown which makes the return seem lower. The account is only two years old and has about 10k in it. It shows about 12% growth for 2024 while the SPTMI and my ROTH IRA (30k, maxed early in the year, 80/20 VTSAX/ VTIAX) showed about 24%. Does his explanation hold any weight? My returns over the last rolling year are negative by <1% while my ROTH is up over 13% still just because of how strong last year was. Appreciate anyone’s input!

So I've been going to a psychiatrist practitioner for more than 2 years now. I've paid a $25 copay each visit. I've never had to pay a deductible, it's always been the same practitioner as well. Out of the blue in January I get sent a bill that is many many times the cost of my copay, with the bill stating that it's my deductible. I called my clinic and they tell me nothing's changed, that the insurance was sending back that it was out of network and that they'll resubmit. I called the insurance and they let me know that in the past they were filing claims as a family practitioner, but now they're filing as psychiatry/specialist which is subject to my deductible. They mentioned that I could file a dispute, but that everything did look accurate and they're not sure how or why it was charged as general practice before. When I called my clinic back they told me they'd been bought out and that the practice is a specialist clinic and told me basically they don't care how it was charged before. I am very frustrated. I went ahead and cancelled my next appointment and am looking for options to continue on my medicine. I'm hoping my old family doctor might be able to pick up the prescription. Not sure what else I can do. I would not have went in for my visit had I known it was going to cost me multiple months of rent. And all just so she can ask me 3 minutes of questions and write the same prescription I've gotten for the past year. Is there anything I can do to get out of paying this bill? I was not told before hand that anything was changing. I know it's more complex than this but I can't help but feel like I'm being scammed out of my money. Also does this not sound borderline fraudulent? How can a practice go from being general practice to specialist without undergoing major changes. If they are a specialist now, how were they not before?? Anyways, I just needed to vent this out I guess. Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated. God bless the American Healthcare system.