Border Line Purge To Fitness

Dana Dwyer, 24, had just quit her first job after college as a manager at a Ralph Lauren store in Miami and hadn't started her second yet when, wham!

She was in a car wreck. Her front teeth were knocked out, and her palate was broken. In between jobs, she had no health insurance.

"I was in the hospital," she says. "It was horrible."

Worse, though, was the $16,000 bill. Dwyer was forced to use her savings and work out a deal with the hospital to pay $200 a month.

"I paid $2,000 upfront to have my teeth fixed," she says. "You have to have teeth."

You really need to have health insurance, too, even if you're young and in good health.

But many twentysome-things don't. They either work for a company that provides none, haven't worked long enough to qualify or feel they can't afford to pay for an individual policy.

Adults under age 35 are nearly twice as likely as those 45 and older to be uninsured, according to the Actuarial Research Corp.

Twenty-seven percent of twentysomethings have no health insurance, according to a poll by USA Today and the National Endowment for Financial Education. Of the 901 people polled, 9 percent said their parents were helping pay for their health insurance.

Dwyer says her parents would help, too, but "I've been out of school for a couple of years. I should stand on my own."

As she's finding, it isn't easy. Her medical debts hit hard because at the time she was already carrying about $12,000 in student loans and more than $15,000 in credit card debt. She graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, Pa., in 2005 with a degree in fashion merchandising.

Her credit card debt, Dwyer says, is killing her. She realizes now that she racked up far too much of it while in college.

"I didn't work a day in college; my dad was helping me," she says. "I was like 18, 19 years old and I'd say, "I like this shirt. I want it.' "

And she'd charge it.

"If I'd known when I was 19 that I was accumulating all this debt . . ." She says she's since cut up her three cards and isn't charging anymore.

Dwyer, who now works as a bartender in Miami six days a week, makes a good salary for someone her age: about $65,000.

But those years of buying whatever she wanted whenever she wanted have caught up with her.

Dwyer and her boyfriend share payments on a car, and she says that with student loan, credit card, medical and car payments, she can't keep up.

// posted by Ivan @ 1:49 AM 1 comments

Auto insurance rates in North Carolina are the fifth-lowest in the country, according to a report by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

The report compares the costs of personal automobile insurance in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, based on 2004 data.

North Carolina is one of only two states east of the Mississippi River to rank among the 10 with the lowest rates.

The four states with lower auto insurance rates than North Carolina's are North Dakota, Iowa, South Dakota and Idaho, respectively. Kansas, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Maine rounded out the top 10, in that order.

The NAIC estimates the average annual auto insurance premium for North Carolina drivers is $597.

North Carolina's neighboring states ranked as follows: Tennessee, No. 11; Virginia, No. 18; South Carolina, No. 27; and Georgia, No. 28.

// posted by Ivan @ 2:12 AM 0 comments

The Leeds Building Society has said that it is committed to providing fixed mortgage rates to its customers in a market of rising interest costs.

According to the lender, its current range of fixed-rate offers will be available until close of business on December 15th.

Karen Wint, head of marketing and PR for Leeds, pointed out that it is currently possible for borrowers to take out a fixed-rate mortgage for ten years at a rate of less than five per cent.

It has been predicted by many economists and market commentators that the Bank of England base rate will be increased again in early 2007.

Ms Wint claimed that fixed-rate mortgages "protect people against that risk and provide peace of mind".

"However, with market rates currently fluctuating, we have to re-evaluate our range and, therefore, I would suggest customers act quickly to secure a mortgage offer and benefit from the peace of mind provided by our current range," Ms Wint added.

// posted by Ivan @ 4:18 AM 0 comments