Good morning, 61° and cloudy.
Hobby Lobby, the store that plays old Protestant Hymns in the store, already has decorated Christmas Trees, with the latest decorator themes of ornaments, crowding out the Fall and Thanksgiving items are already crowded out. Can Valentines and shamrocks be far behind?
Sirius/XM doesn't work in tunnels. I dropped mine, last year, because they keep raising the price. I have four boxes of CDs collecting dust and taking up space,
We kept OnStar active in the wife's Caddie, because the wife liked the security blanket. Eventually, they were charging for services that our receiver was incapable of using, so I persuaded her that OnStar was like flushing money down the toilet. Once the introductory period is over, you can drop it. Personally, I prefer FORD's Sync which uses Bluetooth, and costs nothing monthly.
Use of internal automotive data by law enforcement is becoming more common. The Insurance Companies are lobbying for this big time. They are always looking for ways to get out of paying claims and raising your rated. In addition to Progressive, Liberty Mutual is marketing the use of a device to "reduce your rates".
Speaking of insurance, It's annual renewal time, and both my Auto and Homeowners rates have climbed about 25%, in two years, without a "good" reason. In fact, in the past year, my Auto has gone up 12%, and HO 16%, while Inflation is up 1.7% and home values 4%. No claims, at fault incidents, and no fund raising "violations". I spent most of yesterday, searching for alternatives. The ones that advertise the "biggest savings" quoted rates considerably higher than what I'm paying. But...there is no inflation, which is worrying some Economists...My Agent claims they were awarded a rate increase in NJ...They're claiming they were losing money. I suppose state regulators don't read their annual shareholder reports that show how profitable they are.
In any event, it appears that I will be staying with my current carrier. Insurance companies are masters at manipulating data, and manufacturing statistics to work the system.
