Filling up the car with gas is so routine that you barely give it a thought -- until the day you drive away with the gas-pump nozzle stuck in the tank.

Think you could never do something so stupid?

So did the other folks who found themselves driving down the road with a gas hose trailing behind them.

"I'd say this would happen at least once a month," Kirk McCauley recalls from his 31 years of owning a gas station in Beltsville, Md. "I've run people down four miles away. They had no idea the nozzle was in there."

With 41 million fill-ups a day nationwide, according to figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), it's not all that surprising that something goes awry occasionally. No one keeps a tally on hose breakaways, but the mistake is common enough that every gas station owner has a story or two about it, and the industry builds gas pumps with the mishap in mind.

Why cellphones and gas pumps don't mix

You know those signs telling you not to use a cellphone while fueling?

Warnings that using a cellphone near a gas pump could spark a fire or explosion are based on an urban myth. The Petroleum Equipment Institute says it hasn't been able to document a single incident when a cell phone sparked a fire at a gas station.

"In fact, many researchers have tried to ignite fuel vapors with a cell phone and failed," the institute says on its website.

Instead, the signs are there because station owners want you to pay attention, says Jeff Lenard, spokesperson for the National Association of Convenience Stores in Alexandria, Va. "Invariably when consumers drive off with the gas nozzle it's because they were on the phone."

McCauley, now director of member relations and government affairs for the Service Station Dealers of America and Allied Trades in Bowie, Md., agrees.

"The phone rings, and they get in the car and go," he says.

They've planned for this

Fortunately, driving off with the gas nozzle doesn't pose a big danger. The gas pump has a break-away device that detaches the hose automatically if it is pulled with enough force.

"It's like a lizard's tail," Lenard says.

No gas escapes from the pump when this happens. McCauley says gas hoses have had breakaway devices for as long as he's been in the industry.

"I've never seen anyone pull over a pump," he says. And even if someone did knock over a gas pump, today's equipment features automatic shutoff valves.

Still, driving away with the gas hose causes damage. Unlike a lizard that can grow another tail, after all, the gas pump doesn't regenerate a hose. The good news is that a gas pump hose isn't especially costly to replace or repair, unlike many other things you could hit. (See "You hit it, you bought it.")

The cost of doing something dumb

Car insurance -- specifically your property damage liability insurance -- would cover the cost of repairs.

Rick Ward, spokesperson for MetLife Auto & Home, says claims of this type are infrequent these days.

"We probably see less than a dozen a year."

They used to be more common before self-service became the norm at gas stations, he says. Customers would pay for the gas and drive off, not realizing the attendant hadn't taken the nozzle out of the tank.

If the nozzle and hose are intact and only the breakaway device is damaged, then the repair might run less than $100 , McCauley says. But if the nozzle is damaged, the repair could cost hundreds more. Different types of nozzles are used in different parts of the country, and they vary in price. They range from under $200 to more than $400, McCauley estimates.

Ward says the average car insurance claim for this type of damage is $250. But the cost could go higher if a station charges for "loss of use" for the pump while it's undergoing repair. That's a more difficult claim to prove today, though, because many gas stations have multiple service islands, Ward says.

Whether such a claim affects your car insurance rates depends on your insurer and your driving record. Damaging a gas pump does count as an "at-fault" incident, Ward says. But your rates may not go up if it's a small claim and you haven't caused any other mishaps.

If the incident damages your own car, you would have to pay for the damage outright or file a claim against your own comprehensive or collision coverage -- assuming the cost of repair exceeds your deductible.

The gas station owner has seen it before

So what should you do if you drive away with the gas nozzle?

McCauley says some customers never come back. "I think some people are scared of getting in trouble," he says.

Among those who returned to his station, detached nozzle and hose in hand, some contacted their insurance companies to settle the bills, and others just paid for the repairs out of pocket, anxious to put the matter behind them.

"They were embarrassed more than anything," McCauley says.

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Utilities are a hidden cost: You know you’ll need to plan for them, but when you’re looking for an apartment, they’re not at the top of your mind.

So, before you sign that lease, make sure you can pay all your rental expenses, not just rent.

It won’t be much fun to sit in a cold apartment, hunting for a neighbor’s unsecured Internet connection, because you forgot to budget for utilities.

Here are some rough rules of thumb for estimating how much you should expect to pay for various utilities:

Electricity

During winter months, or if you don’t use air conditioning, expect to pay $30-$50 a month for electricity. A lot of your bill will simply depend on how much you’re home, how much you watch television (tube TVs are big electricity drains), how efficient your refrigerator is and how careful you are about turning off lights.

Air Conditioning

On average, expect to pay about $250-$300 per year for air conditioning. That said, air conditioning isn’t an evenly-distributed expense: Most people only use it about three to five months a year. And, in some places, like Minnesota or Maine, you may only use it a few times a summer, which makes it a much smaller expense.

If you live in a place with average weather, you’ll be running your A/C May-September and spending about $50-$80 a month extra on your electric bill. However, if you live in a really hot place, like Phoenix or Dallas, you’re going to be paying a lot more per month, for more months — $80-$90 a month (plus regular electricity costs), for eight months a year. So keep that in mind. Your silver lining is that you don’t have to worry much about heating costs.

Heat

If you are in a multi-unit building with radiators, there will almost certainly be no extra charge for heat. The landlord will pay the building’s heating bill in total and build that cost into the rent. However, if you and some friends team up and rent a house, you’ll be on the hook for keeping an oil burner going for heat and hot water, which could cost more than $300 a month. If you have gas or forced-air heating expect to pay at least $100 a month in the deep winter, though the cost can vary. One good way to find out what to expect is simply to ask the landlord or a previous tenant.

Cooking Gas

In some buildings, if you have a gas range, you’ll have to pay for the natural gas that you use during cooking. (And in some buildings, the natural gas will also provide your heat.) With cooking, the cost is minimal — $15 a month at most, usually quite a lot less. It really all depends how much you cook at home.

Internet

Monthly, expect to pay about $45. Keep in mind that you can split the cost with as many other people as are using your connection, so if you have two roommates, that’s only $15 a person per month. The other thing to consider is bundling your Internet with your cable. You can often get a deal that way, if you decide you want cable.

Cable

This is an optional expense. With the new high-definition televisions, and their digital antennae, it’s easy to get great reception on network TV, and then you can use online streaming services for the rest of your needs. This will cost you about $20 a month, if you subscribe to two services.

If you want cable, look for a deal. They come along frequently and can save you some money. But be careful; companies often have add-ons like free premium channels for three months, which will then be charged to your account if you don’t cancel when the preliminary deal expires. So make sure to keep an eye on your account, so you know what you’re being charged for. While it’s nice to have cable, and you can usually find introductory deals that include cable and Internet for about $90 a month, it’s still a lot of money compared to using a streaming service or two for about $20 a month.

Renter’s Insurance

Finally, always get renter’s insurance. You never know what may happen, and it’s very affordable, at only about $150 a year. If your apartment is burglarized, you’ll be very thankful you have it.

Total Bill

If you skip the cable, your total utilities cost comes to roughly $200 a month. Keep in mind, though, that this is for the rental as a whole — if you have roommates, divide by the number of people living in the unit. Of course, if you have a very large apartment (say for four people or more) or you are renting a house, the heat, electricity and A/C will be higher, so add 20-30 percent to the estimate, and then divide.

As a rough rule of thumb, expect to spend on utilities an amount equal to about 20 percent of your monthly rent if you live alone, or about 10 percent of your monthly rent if you live with roommates.

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Recently I encountered a gynecologist who didn't take any insurance, a dentist who didn't accept dental insurance and a dermatologist who no longer accepted my plan.

Just what the heck is going on when it comes to doctors not accepting health insurance?

“Most patients have no idea this is going on. All they know is that last year they had bronchitis and saw this doctor and this year that doctor isn’t in their network anymore,” says Katherine Woodfield, a New Jersey-based insurance broker and author of “Don’t Buy That Health Insurance: Becoming an Educated Health Insurance Consumer.” 

Why doctors decide to go insurance-free

To understand the insurance-free paradigm, you need to understand how health insurance pays the doctor. 

Each year, doctors negotiate the price of treatment with health insurers. For example, a doctor tells the insurer that when a patient visits his office, he charges $135 for an office visit. The insurer says, “We can pay you $95.” The doctor might counter offer and ask for $120. The insurer agrees to $100. 

That negotiation takes place with each insurance company for every service your doctor performs. Ultimately, the insurance companies are the ones in control. They set the rates they will pay the doctor.

When a doctor doesn’t agree to those rates he can stop accepting that insurance or go insurance-free if he feels he is not getting fair reimbursement. It doesn't help that some insurers aren't timely in sending their payments to physicians and other health care providers. 

“We used to submit a claim and two or three weeks later we got reimbursed. Then it became five weeks and six weeks, and then they said they never got that claim even though it was sent electronically,” says Craig Koniver, an insurance-free primary care physician in Charleston, S.C., and author of “Connected: The New Rules of Medicine." 

“Then we got notification they needed office notes to support the visit," says Koniver, "It was little things that built up until we were spending a whole lot of time chasing down insurance reimbursements, which took away time from the patient.”

What’s more, doctors’ offices must purchase expensive software to bill insurers and hire a coding specialist to handle claims. If services are coded incorrectly, the insurer refuses to pay.

The rise of cash-only medical practices

Have this happen enough and it's easy to understand why a doctor stops accepting insurance. Nearly 7 percent of 13,575 doctors surveyed by The Physicians Foundation said they will switch to a cash-only practice over the next three years, according to the report A Survey of America's Physicians: Practice Patterns and Perspectives.

In what's often called "concierge medicine," some practices charge an annual "membership fee" for services. For instance, for $2,500 a year patients receive the king's ransom in care, often including 45- to 60-minute appointment times, on-demand phone and email access and more. Others charge a typical flat office visit fee and provide the form for patients to file their own insurance claim. 

“The caveat is that it certainly isn’t for everyone,” says Koniver.  “If someone has a severe diagnosis or takes multiple medications or needs lots of office visits, they may do better with a traditional insurance-based system.” Likewise, people on a fixed income or those with very low incomes may have trouble budgeting the health expense. (See: "Pros and cons of catastrophic health insurance.")

Concierge practices were once thought to be just for the wealthy, but now that's not always the case, says Rob Dobrenski, a New York City-based psychologist and author of “Crazy: Notes on and Off the Couch.” “I do a sliding scale to make it palatable for people who can’t afford it,” he says. 

An insurance-free practice can be an efficient strategy for some medical providers, but is it good for patients? 

In California, the Ventura County Star reported that local doctors opting out of insurance "spend more time with patients -- and make more money." Some practices also report that they can charge patients less because they cut overhead costs. 

On the other hand, it can mean patients are stuck trying to find doctors that will accept their health plans or must figure out how to handle payments for services from those who don't.

Options for when your doctor rejects your health insurance 

Should you want to keep seeing a favorite doctor or a highly recommended specialist who no longer accepts insurance, you can always pay for the services yourself, if you can afford to do so. Then, submit your insurance forms for reimbursement. 

Just be aware that if you do this and your plan doesn't cover out-of-network care, the insurer will typically apply the reimbursement to your deductible or catastrophic cap rather than give you the cash outright. If your plan does cover expenses for services outside its network, you may be reimbursed but usually for just a portion of the entire amount.

Another way to budget for visits to a cash-only practice is to take advantage of flexible spending accounts. If you estimate your costs in advance and stash some money in an FSA, you can pay your doctor bill with tax-free money from this resource. (See: "10 ways to cut bills and get affordable health insurance.")

One more tip: if you are filing claims yourself – and even if you're not – check your paperwork to be sure you're not being "balance billed." This occurs when a provider, say a doctor, hospital or clinic, bills you for the portion the insurance company has written off when negotiating rates with the health service provider. (See: "How to appeal a health insurance claim denial – and win!")

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MetLife, Walmart and an iconic beagle with droopy ears have forged a partnership to sell life insurance to bargain-hunting shoppers.

The New York-based insurer now offers a prepaid life insurance policy in about 200 Walmart stores in Georgia and South Carolina. Packaging and promotional materials for the one-year policies, which start at $69 for $10,000 in death benefits for people ages 18 to 44, feature the puckish image of Snoopy, the "Peanuts" canine created by Charles Schulz. (See: "Is funeral insurance for you?")

The big-box chain store, headquartered in Bentonville, Ark., and recognized as the world's biggest retailer, follows in the steps of Costco, which began offering health insurance in nine states last April. Costco hooked up with Aetna in its insurance deal. (See: "Ready to put health insurance on your Costco shopping list?")

Walmart's clout attracted the insurer

Shane Winn, a MetLife spokesperson, said the joint venture with Walmart will provide the largest U.S. life insurer in the U.S. with access to the retailer's broad consumer base.

"With 84 percent of Americans having shopped there in the past year, Walmart provides the type of reach and scale that MetLife seeks, so we can bring this product to the widest possible audience," said Winn.

Winn described the partnership as "a pilot program" with no immediate plans to offer policies beyond South Carolina and Georgia. But if sales are good in those states, he noted, it would make good business sense for MetLife to consider marketing to other regions.

The policies vary according to age and how much coverage you want. People aged 60 to 65 pay $429 a year for $25,000 worth of coverage, while those 18 to 44 can get a one-year, $10,000 policy for $69.

So how does the process work? Walmart shoppers buy cards equal to the policy's cost. From there, they'd call MetLife, which would ask questions about their health and, if approved, activate the policy. Those who don't qualify can get a refund at Walmart, Winn says. (See: "Life insurance basics.")

New life insurance trend: cutting out the middle-man

MetLife has made it clear since its earnings report in May that it wants to cut expenses by $600 million by 2016. One of the ways to do this is to focus more on direct sales -- like selling insurance on the web or at Walmart. Direct sales of life insurance could climb to 13 percent of the nationwide life insurance market in 2016, up from the 8 percent in 2010, according to a company presentation following the report.

But Winn stressed that the Walmart partnership is not about cost cutting; it's more about finding an untapped revenue stream in a new market.

Sarah Spencer, a Walmart spokesperson, told Bloomberg news that this is the first time the retailer has sold insurance. She added that Walmart is trying to expand its financial services offerings and that it's too early to judge customers' response to MetLife's products.

See Also: 21 thinks you should get for free >

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Converting Medicare into a voucher program modeled on the plan Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have proposed would increase premiums for the majority of seniors, even ones who choose to remain in traditional Medicare, according to a comprehensive nonpartisan study (PDF) released Monday.

The Kaiser Family Foundation delved into the likely impact of transforming Medicare into a “premium support” system. Under that approach, the federal government would provide seniors a subsidy to shop for insurance plans from a menu of competing private plans and traditional Medicare. That subsidy would be capped at the value of the second least costly premium in the marketplace.

Using 2010 data as a model, Kaiser’s study found that among seniors who chose to remain in traditional Medicare, more than half would have paid higher premiums. Just under half would have paid the same. That would’ve yielded an average premium hike of $720 annually for seniors who chose to remain in traditional Medicare.

Among seniors with private Medicare Advantage plans, 88 percent would have paid higher premiums unless they switched to a cheaper plan with less generous benefits. On average, seniors already in private plans would have paid $1,044 more annually, according to the study.

Taken together, 59 percent of Medicare beneficiaries would have ended up paying higher premiums than they do in the current system if they remained in their current plan.

The caveats: the report makes clear that it’s not a perfect analysis of the Romney-Ryan plan. That’s in part because the Romney-Ryan would take effect in 2023, whereas Kaiser’s report studies the impact of such a plan taking effect in 2010. It’s also because Romney and Ryan haven’t provided enough details to conduct a truly thoroughgoing analysis.

The Romney campaign quickly moved to dismiss the significance of the study.

“As the authors stress, this is not a study of the Romney-Ryan plan,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul told TPM. “Our plan would always provide future beneficiaries guaranteed coverage options with no increase in out-of-pocket costs from today’s Medicare.”

The study nevertheless concludes that, taking a broadly similar approach, the majority of seniors would have paid higher premiums in 2010 than they did under Medicare in its existing form.

Kaiser used Medicare Advantage bids for the year 2010 as proxies for private plan bids under a premium support system.

The study found that if one in four seniors responded to the programmatic changes by switching into cheaper plans the share that face higher premiums would fall from 59 percent to 35 percent.

Costs would vary considerably across regions, as would the share of seniors subjected to higher premiums — populous states would be most affected, with seniors in Florida taking the greatest hit, the Kaiser study found.

Two final key caveats: First, the Kaiser study does not project the longer-term implications for traditional Medicare. Many analysts warn that over time, sicker and older patients would choose traditional Medicare over private plans as private insurers tailored their plans to younger, healthier beneficiaries. Without strict rules and adequate risk adjustment, this would put traditional Medicare premiums on a “death spiral” and the public plan would collapse.

Second, the Kaiser study looks at a single year, and does not model the impact of a Medicare spending cap. That’s not necessarily the case under the Ryan plan, which limits premium growth at GDP plus 0.5 percent a year. In other words, if the second-cheapest bid in any region exceeds that in a given year, the voucher would be limited to GDP + 0.5, likely leaving seniors to pay the difference on their own.

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Cash is king these days.

But don't worry if you're cashless. Turning unwanted stuff into cash is easier than you think. Sources are right at your fingertips, literally. It just takes some hunting.

Take gift cards, which may be lingering in your wallet. They're a ready source of cash, says Bruce Bower, chief executive of Plastic Jungle Inc., a website that buys and sells gift cards. Gift cards totaling $30 million sit unused, according to Deloitte, a consulting and advisory firm. And that amount grows by $8 billion a year.

"Consumers forget about them," Bower says.

But don't stop there. Big banks like KeyBank and Chase Bank, based in Cleveland, are offering cash incentives. Whole life policies and taxable investments can be converted into, well, cash. Even old stuff in drawers and closets can be a gold mine.

Here's the lowdown on how to convert old stuff into cash.

Gift Cards

Gift cards are easily turned into cash, with lots of sites springing up to help you. Websites such as Plastic Jungle, GiftCardRescue and Cardpool will buy your gift card from you and then resell it.

Plastic Jungle purchases around 400 different cards. Cards from Walmart are the most coveted, followed by those from Home Depot, Macy's, iTunes and Target. That's because these cards sell for the most money. One plus: Cards issued by big stores usually don't have expiration dates.

The payment process is done electronically. Sellers simply enter the gift card data, such as the merchant and the balance, on a site, and an offer is made. Payments are made via PayPal, paper check or credits on the website Amazon.com.

Don't expect to get full value for your card. Sellers may only reap 90 percent of the gift card's worth.

Collectibles

Ready cash from collectibles may be hiding in your closet or basement.

Toys from the 1970s and 1980s, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers action figures, are hot stuff. Pre-1972 Barbie dolls also are highly desirable. Another hot niche is high-end designer clothes such those made by Gucci, says Harry Rinker, an antiques and collectibles expert in Kentwood, Mich.

EBay can be a valuable source of auction information. "You can see what a collectible is worth," Rinker says. "And you can see if it's a viable market."

When selling an item, eBay is often a great choice, Rinker says. Specialized markets, which exist for certain collectibles, are another possibility.

Secondary markets are still another option. For instance, Hummel figurines, Lladro porcelain and Swarovski crystal have secondary markets on resale sites like eBay -- but they aren't strong.

"The secondary market is a tough sell," Rinker says. "If you're making more than 20 cents on the dollar, you're doing well."

Bank Incentives

Big banks are offering juicier incentives than ever.

In 2010, cash rewards for new checking account customers averaged $138, a 16 percent increase over 2009, according to Mintel Comperemedia, market research firm based in Chicago. Some banks offer as much as $75 for opening a checking account.

"You can get anywhere from $50 to $200 from these promotions," says Ken Tumin, a blogger who writes about deposit accounts. "Most incentives are for checking accounts."

Some savings account incentives are equally rich, or more so if you are willing to deposit a lot of money. Check bank websites for other cash incentives.

Still, many incentive accounts aren't free. "Watch out for monthly fees," Tumin says. And don't be a bonus chaser. "You have to pick bonuses carefully, based on return and reviews of gotchas."

Whole Life Insurance

For cash crunches, whole life insurance policies can be converted to their cash values.

You can either surrender your policy to the insurance company for cash. Or, you can use the policy as collateral for a loan from your insurance company, says Glenn Daily, a fee-only insurance consultant in New York.

"It's a good place to borrow from," he says, adding that the interest rates are reasonable.

Don't forget to check out any taxable gains before you surrender the policy.

Cash Out Taxable Investments

Need cash fast? Consider selling assets with the lowest cost of capital.

"If you have equities with losses, sell them and take loss offsets on your taxes," says Michael Dubis, a Certified Financial Planner in Madison, Wis.

The key to selling taxable investments is watching out for capital gains exposure. If you've owned your equities for a long time, you may be hit with high taxes on your capital gains. You could take at least a 20 percent to 30 percent shaving, depending on your tax bracket, Dubis says.

Some investments shouldn't be used. It's best to avoid cashing out your IRA or your other retirement assets. They give you protection from creditors, since they can't be touched in bankruptcy court if your finances deteriorate. Additionally, taking a loan against stocks isn't a wise investment move.

"That's a desperation call," Dubis says. "It's a high-interest way to get a loan."

DON'T MISS: This Couple Navigated Argentina's Tricky Real Estate Market To Buy The Vineyard Of Their Dreams >

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As Hurricane Sandy barrels toward the East Coast, it's raising eyebrows among meteorologists who say it actually has the potential to morph into a "perfect storm."

In the event that Hurricane Sandy does make landfall, homeowners who could be impacted by the storm should make sure their properties are prepared for severe weather conditions by following these tips (which we also offered in advance ofHurricane Isaac).

Bracing for a Hurricane

• Clean out out all your rain gutters and exterior drains to avoid water backups. Water in gutters may not just spill over onto the ground -- it could back up and seep into a home's walls.

• Install a battery backup system for your water pump to guard against flooding and interior damage. Having a backup generator also ensures that necessary equipment can continue to function in the event of a blackout caused by a storm like Hurricane Sandy, said Dale Tomlinson of ACE Private Risk Services.

• Reinforce your windows with shutters, add heavy-duty hinges and deadbolts to doors, and make sure that roof sheathing can withstand strong winds. The risk of structural damage to the home's roof and doors increases substantially if wind bursts into your home.

• Trim trees whose branches could fall and cause damage, and clear potential projectiles from your yard. "Move any outdoor furniture that could become debris that would either float or cause damage," Tomlinson said.

Be Properly Insured

In order to protect your home's value, you should make sure that you have homeowners insurance, flood insurance, and, in some cases, wind insurance.

Homeowners insurance usually covers wind damage and other hurricane-related losses. However, in some coastal areas especially prone to hurricanes, wind coverage may not be covered by your policy, and you may have to purchase wind insurance separately from a different carrier.

Flood insurance, which covers water damage, is available through the government's National Flood Insurance Program. The government insurance, which has a $2,000 deductible for high-risk areas, may cover up to $250,000 in property damage and $100,000 in damage to personal belongings, depending on the plan you choose. To receive coverage for damage beyond those two amounts, you can sign up for a supplementary policy with a private insurance company.

To make sure that you get the most coverage out of your policy, you should be sure to take inventory of your belongings and property before the storm hits your area.

Use Know Your Stuff, a free insurance software provided by the Insurance Information Institute, to learn how to efficiently take inventory and document your belongings. Using the program could help you speed the claims process and maximize your settlement if some of your possessions are damaged.

Filing a Claim

If your home sustains damage and you have insurance to cover it, you should contact your service provider to file a claim. To file a claim, you must provide evidence of the damage to your home and possessions by taking photographs of the property damage and making a list of damaged items with their date of purchase, value and, ideally, receipts.

When you and your insurer agree on the amount of damages, you should receive payment.

Now see how to avoid getting ripped off on home repairs after the storm > 

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Now that the worst of Hurricane Sandy has blown over much of the East Coast, now is a crucial time for homeowners who woke up this morning to property damage.

Since insurers take claims on a first-come, first-served basis, you'll want to snag a spot in line as soon as possible. 

Here's what you should know:

-There's more to filing a claim than making a phone call and getting a check in the mail. Before anything else, call your insurer and ask them specifically what you'll need to file a claim. They will almost certainly ask for proof of damage. That means leaving the tree trunk that's embedded itself into your parked car where it is until you take photos.

-When you've taken photos of every piece of property damage possible, carefully jot down a list of damaged items as well, including their dollar value. If you have proof of purchase for damaged items, that's even better. If some of your belongings were blown or swept away by flooding and wind, try your best to come up with either proof of purchase or an old photo that would back up your claim.

-Once you've done your camera work, you're free to come up with temporary repairs (covering up broken windows and throwing tarpaulin over leaky roofs, for example), but stop there. Don't have any permanent repairs done until your insurance company has sent out an agent for an inspection. He or she will want to know what you've done to repair any damage, so hang on to any receipts.

-Don't expect your insurer to tell you every step you'll need to file a successful claim. Ask if there are any particular forms, documents or other information you'll need, and keep track of all your phone conversations with insurance representatives.

-Don't be afraid to negotiate, says the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, especially if the first offer does not meet your expectations. "If there is a disagreement about the claim, ask the company for the specific language in the policy in question and determine why you and the company interpret your policy differently. If you believe you are being treated unfairly, contact your state insurance department."

For more resources, check out The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Consumer Federation of America or FEMA.gov.

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Sandy was a super storm, and now you’re dealing with a super big mess. Maybe a tree clobbered the roof of your home. Or perhaps storm surge washed into your living room.

Once you’ve made sure you and your family are safe, what’s next? Here are 14 insider tips on dealing with home insurance claims stemming from Sandy. Unless otherwise noted, this advice is courtesy of the Insurance Information Institute and the Consumer Federation of America.

    •    Read through your policy to figure out what’s covered – and what’s not. If you’re unclear about your coverage, ask your insurance agent or company.

    •    Report your claim as soon as you can. Insurance companies generally handle them on a first-come, first-served basis. The Consumer Federation of America urges homeowners who are coping with Sandy-related losses “to be vigilant with their insurance companies to ensure that that they receive a full and fair settlement.”

“Try to remain calm, and don’t let the emotion of what just happened filter into the conversation. Keep everything professional and polite,” says Andrew Schrage, co-owner of personal finance website MoneyCrashers.com.

    •    Once your claim has been filed, write down your claim number. It’s easiest for your insurer’s claims departments to locate your claim information using that number.

    •    If holes have been torn in your roof or your windows have been shattered, be sure to cover them as quickly as possible so that wind and rain don’t cause further damage, says Cliston Brown, director of public affairs at the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.

New York City insurance agent Eustace Greaves Jr. says he’s had to inform several customers that protecting their property from additional damage is required under their policies. “For instance, a client called me to say his roof sustained damage during the hurricane,” Greaves says. “I told him to go to Home Depot or Lowe’s to purchase a tarp and some heavy cinder blocks to secure the tarp over the damaged part of the roof.”

    •    Keep receipts for anything you buy for emergency repairs so you can be reimbursed by your insurer. Payments for temporary fixes are part of your total claim settlement.
    •    Obtain a repair estimate from a trusted local contractor to guide you in your dealings with the insurance adjuster.

    •    Beware of contractors who ask for money upfront and contractors whose bids are too low to be true. They might cut corners and do lousy work. Don’t make permanent repairs until your insurer’s claims adjuster has surveyed the damage.

    •    If you need to move out of your damaged home, hang on to your receipts. Home insurance policies cover additional living expenses – such as temporary hotel stays – if your home sustains damage from an insured disaster and is uninhabitable. Keep in mind that you may be eligible for upfront cash for living expenses, such as hotel bills. The Consumer Federation of America says insurers are “usually very good” about forking over this money.

    •    When your insurer dispatches an adjuster to check out the damage to your home, ask whether he or she is an employee of the insurance company or is an independent adjuster hired by the insurer. If he or she is an independent adjuster, find out whether that person can make claim decisions and payments on behalf of your insurer.

    •    Once you file a claim, create a journal that keeps track of every contact you have with your insurer and insurance adjuster. For each exchange, jot down the date and time and a brief description of what transpired. For instance, if an adjuster says he or she will come to your house and does not show up, make note of it.

    •    If you don’t already have an inventory of your household belongings, make a list of each item that was damaged or destroyed. The list should include a description of each item, the estimated date of purchase and the estimated cost to replace or fix it. Gather any sales receipts you have for damaged possessions. Don’t throw away damaged belongings until the insurance adjuster has paid a visit, Brown says.

    •    Take pictures of the damage – both interior and exterior shots – before you start cleaning up. “You cannot take too many photographs at this point,” Schrage says.

    •    Complete and return all claims forms required by your insurer as quickly as possible to speed up the claim process, says Glenn Greenberg, a spokesman for insurance company Liberty Mutual.
    •    Keep in mind that standard home insurance policies do not cover damage caused by flooding, including storm surge triggered by a hurricane or tropical storm. To be covered for flooding, you need to buy flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program or one of a handful of private insurers.
Bill Coffman, a public insurance adjuster in Florida, offers this last bit of advice: “Unfortunately, there is no one or two steps that will keep the homeowner safe during the claims process. They really do have to watch out for themselves and take all the actions necessary to ensure they are adequately paid.”

See Also: What happened when this woman lost five homes ot hurricanes >

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There's a reason Sandy was downgraded from a hurricane to a "Superstorm" when it hit land, and it just might give homeowners a much-needed break on their insurance claims. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a warning to insurers Wednesday, telling them that homeowners will not have to pay hurricane deductibles on any Sandy-related claims because its winds never reached hurricane strength in the city.

The same goes for New Jersey, Maryland, and Connecticut, which were all hit by Sandy earlier this week. 

“Homeowners should not have to pay hurricane deductibles for damage caused by the storm and insurers should understand the Department of Financial Services will be monitoring how claims are handled,” Gov. Cuomo said.

According to Insurancejournal.com, most hurricane deductibles are about one to five percent of a home's insured value. That's as much as $15,000 on a home insured for $300,000.

Now's a crucial time for any homeowner looking to file claims on Sandy damage. With millions of people affected by the storm, insurers will no doubt be inundated with claims. And because all claims are addressed on a first-come, first-served basis, the sooner you file, the better. 

It's also prime time for scammers to take advantage of vulnerable consumers in a time of need. Make sure you know the warning signs of the most common contractor scams.

To help people along, New York's Dept. of Financial Services is sending out a mobile command center to assist homeowners with the claims filing process.

Here's the number for their hotline: 800-339-1759 (8 a.m. to 8 p.m., M-F; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sat - Sun). For New Yorkers looking to file an dispute against their insure, fill out the form online at www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/fileacomplaint.htm.

Now see amazing photos of the storms' wreckage in NYC >

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In the days leading up to and following Superstorm Sandy's rampage along the East Coast, consumer agencies scrambled to get one message out loud and clear: Beware of scams.

But even scams themselves turn out to be bogus, as evidenced by rumors of fraudsters posing as ConEd workers going door-to-door to weasel financial information out of Sandy survivors' hands. 

The Consumerist posted one such tale on its site today, with a reader named "Sedo" claiming his mother had been targeted shortly after Sandy passed: 

"He wanted to make sure she is getting all the savings she get. That sounded like a scam and I asked him whether he is from Con Ed. He actually said ‘Yes.’

I couldn’t believe him and I asked my mother if she handed him any information. Good thing she did not. Then I told him that my mother threw out all her bills and he said ‘It’s okay then.’"

It makes for a pretty juicy story line, especially with the FTC and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau both issuing continuous warnings about post-hurricane fraud. But as far as ConEd scams go, it's all one big hoax, says The Atlantic Wire's Rebecca Greenfield:

"The story of criminals disguised as Con Ed workers predates Sandy. Last June, "Neighbor Max" told the Ditmus Park Corner blog about fake Con Ed employees coming to his door. He didn't mention guns or theft, though. It's not unbelievable that people stealing things would dress up as Con Ed workers. Man-Hole thieves were described as looking like utility workers earlier this year. So it's possible these incidents put the idea out there." 

Unlike the story told to the Consumerist, most of the supposed ConEd scams involve some type of looting or robbery. Problem is, there have been no actual confirmed reports of either scenario. 

Still, it's better to be safe than sorry. There are almost always blatant warning signs for these types of fraud, and no matter how desperate storm survivors may be to piece their lives back together, do your due diligence before opening your checkbook.

Here are a few signs of fraud to watch out for, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 

• The contractor demands full payment up front or in cash only.
• The contractor has no physical address or refuses to show ID.
• You have to disclose personal financial information (perhaps to “speed up payment”) to start the repair or lending process.
• If you have to borrow to pay for the repairs, the contractor steers you toward a particular lender or tries to act as an intermediary between you and a lender.
• You are asked to sign something without enough time to review it.

See Also: 5 tips for filing a successful insurance claim after Sandy >

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Superstorm Sandy is expected to cost a staggering $50 billion, about 40 percent of which will fall on the shoulders of insurance companies.

But that doesn't mean every homeowner impacted by the storm will see a check. 

The problem, as pointed out by the Consumer Federation of America, is that there just isn't enough money in the pot to cover everyone:

Payments by private insurers for wind damage to homes and business properties from Hurricane Sandy will likely exceed $10 billion dollars. Flood claims paid by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) will be at least $8 billion dollars and will likely exceed $10 billion, exhausting the NFIP’s existing $4 billion in payment authority. To make up this shortage, FEMA is authorized to borrow up to $500,000 with an additional $1 billion available with Presidential approval.

“Even combined, these borrowings will be insufficient to pay all flood claims related to Hurricane Sandy,” said J. Robert Hunter, Director of Insurance for CFA.

The reality is that a lot of people will either see their claims flat out denied, or get checks for far less than they'd hoped for –– no matter how flawlessly they filed their claim.

If that's the case, your next step will be simple: Ask why. Either your insurer will be able to point out exactly which language in your policy backs up their conclusion, or you might wind up finding something they missed. This is crucial for one reason alone, says the CFA:

"Once the insurance company tells you the reasons for its action, it cannot produce new reasons for denying payment or making a low offer at a later time. You have locked them in—a major advantage for the consumer." 

All sorts of things can go wrong with claims. You might not realize you've agreed to pay a deductible, which could account for a missing chunk out of your claim (remember that in some states, insurers have been ordered to drop deductibles for hurricane coverage since Sandy was downgraded to a tropical storm). 

Your insurer also might have slipped in new or ambiguous policy limitations you weren't aware of, which could be cause to call in help from an attorney. 

Whatever the case, if you find reason to fight your reward, here are some simple steps from the CFA on what to do next:

• Complain to senior staff in the insurance company. Use the records you have kept since the claim process began. The more serious the insurance company sees that you are in documenting how you were treated, the more likely they will make a more reasonable offer.
 
• Complain to your state insurance department. All states will at least seek a response to your complaint from your company. A few states may actually intervene on your behalf with the insurance company in clear cases of bad claims handling. It is important to dispassionately present your side of the story, using the notes you have been taking.
 
• See a lawyer. Remember, the notes you took are vital. In addition to an award covering your claim, if your treatment was particularly bad, the courts in many states will allow additional compensation when the insurance company acted in “bad faith.”  

See Also: How Sandy wrecked parts of Staten Island > 

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Citi strategist Jeffrey Berenbaum and his team, in their latest weekly client report, look at the risks posed to commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) by the destruction of Hurricane Sandy.

Citi, like most other research shops that have weighed in on Sandy's impact on CMBS, says it's both (a) too early to tell the specific implications of the hurricane and (b) it's likely not going to have any market-wide effect.

However, one of the idiosyncratic risks that properties flooded by Sandy could face, according to Berenbaum, is mold damage – and a lack of mold insurance to cover it.

In the note, Berenbaum writes:

Some Unusual Risks — Beyond the basic issues of standard insurance policies, a long recovery in flooded areas could present some unique risks. In particular, mold damage could likely be the largest risk to properties that remain flooded for weeks.Historically mold was usually excluded under a general insurance policy, and most CMBS loans only required mold insurance if there have been environmental issues at the property in the past. Thus, we expect that most of the properties do not have mold coverage, and those properties that do have a mold policy are not likely to have coverage for the full building value.

MORE: We'll Begin To Understand The True Economic Impact Of Hurricane Sandy Next Week >

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As people begin to pick up the pieces after Hurricane Sandy, the big question on most people's minds is whether insurance will kick in or if they will be ignored.

When we spoke to residents of Little Ferry on Thursday after the storm, they were not optimistic about their insurance. When we returned on Sunday, some had gotten through to insurance but were still not sure what would and wouldn't be covered.

Residents eligible for FEMA aid have a more complicated claims process, and may even need to factor in some sort of tax relief options as well.

The people we spoke to seemed optimistic about car insurance covering vehicle damage, but they weren't so sure about their homeowners coverage. Nearly all of them said they resent the flood insurance they have to purchase if you have a mortgage in their town, because it only covers structural damage unless you want to pay signigicantly extra for protection of contents (only structural is mandatory, not contents).

If you are a Sandy victim and are making insurance claims or seeking federal assistance please contact us to share your story and experiences (good or bad): dgoodman@businessinsider.com,rjohnson@businessinsider.com.

Produced by Daniel Goodman

Don't Miss: Our full on the ground coverage of Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath >

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Americans' obsession with beating their biological clock is growing by leaps and bounds. 

Insured consumers today spend more on prescription drugs to keep their bodies wrinkle-free and sufficiently hairy than treating diseases that could actually pose dangers to their health,  according to a recent study by pharmaceutical management company Express Scripts.

Since 2006, the rate of spending on "aging conditions" like sexual dysfunction, wrinkles, and hair loss grew by 46 percent, with the average person shelling out $73 per year.  Only diabetes and high cholesterol treatments took up a larger portion of spending.

And that's just for commercially insured Americans. Medicare patients have spent 32 percent more on aging-related prescriptions since 2007, making it a faster growing treatment area than high cholesterol and high blood pressure combined. 

"The study didn't come right out and say that these drugs shouldn't be covered by insurers or Medicare, but it did raise some sticky questions that anyone thinking about ways to control health care costs should also consider," says Bankrate.com's Jennie L. Phipps.

"The study suggested that if people spend all their money on drugs to treat normal aging, they may not have enough left over for more critical health needs." 

Here are the treatments Americans spend the most on: 

Mental alertness
Sexual dysfunction
Menopause
Aging skin
Hair Loss
Hormone replacement therapy
Insomnia

What isn't included in the study is a look at the booming age-related cosmetics industry, which some analysts predict will balloon to $114 billion by 2015. These include over-the-counter treatments and procedures that aren't generally covered by insurers, like laser hair removal and plastic surgery.

See Also: 15 ways to better you body without breaking the bank >

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In an era of increasingly sophisticated financial transactions, many consumers are falling further and further behind in understanding how to use such products.

The result is tremendous friction between consumers and product providers. Product sales fall far short of their potential.

Consumer suspicion and distrust become the dominant features of the buyer-seller relationship.

And government, when it steps in to provide yet another layer of regulation, is often out of touch with consumer needs.

Long-Term Care Insurance

Roughly 8 percent of aging Americans have purchased long-term care insurance. It provides support for people with physical and mental disabilities that prevent them from doing basic activities—feeding and dressing themselves, using the bathroom, getting around, and the like.

About two-thirds of us will need the services covered by this product at some point in our lives. The costs of specialized care in a nursing home or assisted living facility can quickly wipe out the assets of even financially sound households. Health bills are far and away the leading cause of personal bankruptcies. Even with these cautionary tales and a growing arsenal of tax and other advantages, long-term care insurance continues to struggle to make its case.

Better 401(k) options

Retirement investment companies constantly reassure us that their defined-contribution accounts are successful, or would be if consumers set aside sufficient funds for retirement.

Of course, they fund these commercial messages and voluminous studies with the enormous fees they earn by "managing" retirement accounts, often with mediocre results. Is there any doubt we need new ideas to achieve better retirement outcomes?

Bringing annuities to the masses

I have been writing about annuities for 40 years and they remain alien to the very people they're supposed to help. Unless you have a boatload of money and a good financial adviser, the annuity industry has not developed a successful way to speak to you. The irony is that surveys of middle-income consumers find them clamoring for secure and predictable returns, even as annuity payment guarantees are being pummeled by today's low interest rates.

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War, scandal, wardrobe malfunctions and a car that can drive itself are the stories that will have the news desk banging on your front door.

Yet my door remained strangely silent after being given an insight (and virtual drive) in Mercedes-Benz's new S-class, which debuts next year.

That's because, while this flagship model could potentially have been the world's first autonomous driving car, Mercedes has decided not to give it that capability – the driver's hands have to remain on the wheel.

Not that this teutonic monster couldn't drive itself. "The car would do it [autonomous driving] today," said Jochen Haab, technical support manager. "We have had test cars doing that, but what happens if a child steps out into the street and the radar misses it?"

Many experts have predicted that limited driving autonomy will be introduced in luxury cars during the next decade. Mercedes had dropped a few hints that the new S-class would be in the vanguard of this development. It's new Distronic Plus steering assistance system gives it the potential. It has a lane-guidance capability, which locks on dotted white-lane markings, or the car in front on motorways at speeds up to 124mph with corners of less than 15 degrees.

With this steering assistance plus the new sensors and safety algorithms, the S-class can maintain its distance from the car in front, braking to a complete halt, restarting from stationary and even stopping for cross traffic. But the driver has to keep hold of the steering wheel and, if the system detects that he isn't imparting torque to the steering-wheel rim, then it will warn after 10 seconds and switch the system off after 15.

So what happened? We had been given to understand that a limited degree of autonomy had been planned, but only at low speeds on motorway jams, where traffic is travelling predictably in the same direction at similar speeds, with no pedestrians or junctions. "For sure there was a debate about it," admits Haab, "but what if you have an accident?"

He says that product liability issues and potentially expensive legal claims against Mercedes were big disincentives, but there were other considerations. "We would have to have full data recording on board," he said, "and would our customers be willing to accept such a system?"

In addition there were issues about the technology's ability to maintain autonomous driving in all circumstances. "Can the car detect whether it can drive autonomously for the next 20 seconds?" said Haab. "Probably not at the moment."

Distronic Plus relies on a new 360-degree sensor comprising six separate radar systems, a stereoscopic camera, 12 ultrasonic sensors and four additional cameras. The stereoscopic camera recognises the speed and trajectory of moving hazards up to 164 feet away and can detect cross-traffic cars and pedestrians. A two-stage infra-red detection system sees hazards in the dark and advanced computer algorithms can identify and differentiate humans from animals and will brake for both, but flash its headlamps in warning only at humans.

While the decision not to launch a full autonomous driving mode will be seen as a prudent decision in some quarters, it is still a lost opportunity. General Motors' Cadillac division has a self-driving system on test known as "Super Cruise" capable of fully automatic steering, braking and lane centring on highways under certain conditions. According to Nady Boules, GM's director of electrical and controls integration research, autonomous driving cars will be on sale within 10 years.

We were allowed to drive the new Distronic Plus system at Mercedes-Benz's driving simulator in Sindelfingen, Germany. This massive installation allows computer-generated 360-degree views from a real car installed in the hydraulically powered pod, which has a 40-foot base on which it is able to react realistically to acceleration, braking and cornering inputs. Unsurprisingly our car reacted perfectly in our short urban "drive", with sensors detecting cars crossing our path against the traffic lights and pedestrians stepping out into the road.

Engineers admit there are still issues with the system, however, including fog, which is almost impossible for the sensors to see through and computer algorithms that are still far from perfect.

But even if it doesn't drive on its own, at least the new S-class will have the world's most advanced headlamps. Mercedes claims it will be the first car without a single light bulb, although since Karl Benz's 1886 Benz Patent Motorwagen appeared 13 years before Thomas Edison first patented the electric light bulb, that's highly debatable. The S-class's light-emitting-diode-based lighting system is, nevertheless, a world first and allows the lamps and indicators to be dimmed at night or when stationary in traffic. It's more complicated than that, though...

Each three-motor headlamp unit is fitted with an active masking system for the high-beam function. Using the car's advanced sensors, the car recognises the headlights of oncoming traffic, or tail lamps of cars in front. It then actively vignettes the high-beam around those cars so their drivers are not dazzled by the S-class's lamps.

Mercedes claims that the system is so effective that on the open road, drivers should be able to stay on full beam virtually all the time.

This option is predicted to cost no more than a Bi-Xenon headlamp system and the total energy requirement of the LED headlamps in the new car is just 34 watts compared with 120 watts for halogen lamps and 84 watts with Xenon lighting, which saves 2.1g/km of CO2. The LED lighting also has a better colour balance, appearing white instead of the blue white of some Xenon systems.

SEE ALSO: 10 Cars We Can't Wait To See At The LA Auto Show

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During the off-hours on Sunday, when few people were willing to ruin whatever remained of their weekend and when even astute observers weren’t supposed to pay attention, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners approved new rules that would allow life insurance companies to lower their reserves for future claims.

Executives claimed that they could put that capital to “more productive uses,” such as blowing it on stock buybacks and acquisitions or plowing it into subprime-based derivatives or Greek sovereign debt, or whatever, to goose their paper returns—having already forgotten all about the financial crisis.

“The insurance industry weathered the financial crisis well precisely because of the careful reserving state regulators have historically required,” said Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services. “To ignore the lessons of the financial crisis and deregulate the industry, allowing them to keep less in reserves, is unwise.”

Others were less sanguine. Joseph Belth, Insurance Forum editor and professor emeritus of insurance at Indiana University, worried that “future generations of executives, regulators, and consumers will have to deal with the financial carnage.”

There are salient precedents. The Glass-Steagall Act, after decades of being reinterpreted and watered down—and finally gutted by Citibank’s foray into investment banking and insurance—was repealed in 1999. The business of finance boomed, banks ballooned, Wall Street printed paper profits, and bonuses skyrocketed. Less than a decade later, the financial crisis laid waste to the world economy.

Before it, there was the S&L crisis, brought on by a series of challenges that culminated in the deeply troubled industry’s deregulation in the early 1980s. With disastrous consequences.

The Insurance industry had lobbied for the change for almost a decade. The existing rules used formulas that were “far too conservative,” life insurers maintained, according to the Wall Street Journal. Instead, the industry would implement a “principles-based” system that would use computer models—algos and “fat fingers” come to mind—to figure out how large the reserves would have to be; or rather, just how small they could be. Because rationalizing “lower reserves in the aggregate”—as Lawsky’s deputy Robert Easton called it—had after all been the goal of the lobbying campaign.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones fretted about the “very complicated black-box models”—that their mathematics might be impenetrable for state regulators who then would not be capable of overseeing that “principles-based” system. Whether or not that was one of the underlying motivations for the industry remains to be seen.

Granted, it’s been tough for life insurers. Their investment returns have gotten hammered by the evil twins of a lumpy economy and the Fed’s Zero Interest Rate Policy. Initially classified as “exceptional,” ZIRP has now been in effect for four years, and its expiration date keeps getting kicked further into the future. It has brought down bond yields across the spectrum to where returns on all but junk are negligible, a process that has been draining the reserves of life insurers—just like it has been fleecing the Social Security trust fund and savers. So the thinking went, with lower reserve requirements, insurers could divert some capital to speculate in riskier assets that might offer a greater return. It would dope their paper profits and make Wall Street smile. For a while. We’ve seen this movie before.

But it’s not yet a done deal. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which is composed of state regulators, sets solvency standards that states may then adopt in regulating insurers. The idea is to come up with a common set of standards for all 50 states. However, states don’t have to follow the decision. And it’s unlikely that all of them will. Of the 56 members, 43 voted to approve this change. Regulators in California and New York voted against it. And in states where lawmakers refuse to adopt the new reserving requirements, life insurers would establish subsidiaries whose reserves would conform to the rules of that state.

While some life insurers might continue to be conservative under the new rules, others will venture out towards the thin end of the limb to chase paper profits from quarter to quarter. And they’re doing it just when the industry is staring at an unprecedented and brutal demographic reality: insured baby boomers aren’t going to live forever, and life-insurance payouts are going to jump to historic records.

The temptation is huge to tweak the math of the “black-box models”—as California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones called it—to bury that reality until the bitter end. It took Wall Street less than a decade to explode, counting from the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. Home many years will it take the life-insurance industry after the new rules go into effect? One thing we know already: when it explodes, no one will be held responsible. Because everyone followed the rules.

Every country in the Eurozone has its own collection of big fat lies that politicians and eurocrats have served up in order to make the euro and subsequent bailouts or austerity measures less unappetizing. Like in 1999: “Can Germany be held liable for the debts of other countries? A very clear No!” said the CDU, the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Read.... Ten Big Fat Lies To Keep The Euro Dream Alive.

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Today's ad of the day is a hilarious commercial from Liberty Mutual. 

The spot, created by Hill Holliday, shows people screwing up everyday tasks in the silliest ways possible. An air conditioner gets dropped onto a car and, in perhaps the funniest moment of the commercial, a man walks into a glass door while carrying plates of food. 

As the ad puts it, "it's amazing [humans] have made it this far."

Watch the commercial here, and be grateful you are having a better day than these people:

Related: AD OF THE DAY: Kobe Bryant And Leo Messi Compete For A Little Boy's Attention

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When an AllState ad paying tribute to its 1,000 employees who put customers first during Hurricane Sandy even when their own houses were ravaged played on Thanksgiving Day, Shelia and Dominic Traina didn't get that warm and fuzzy feeling that the insurance company was going for.

In fact, "I got disgusted," Mr. Traina told the New York Post.

That's because AllState used images of the Staten Island couple's house, obliterated by Sandy, when it is refusing to pay the Traina's full claim. AllState offered a $10,000 payout for the house the Trainas called home for 43 years.

Mr. Traina continued that “They’re claiming that water took the house down, not the wind. [But] we had a witness next door who told us the house fell down from the wind.”

“The commercial said how caring their agents are,” Mrs. Traina told SI Live, "but they are not caring at all."

In its attempt to curtail a PR crisis, AllState released a statement that, "All AllState commercials are produced in accordance with all applicable advertising laws," entirely ignoring the crux of the issue.

AllState isn't the only insurance company to get in trouble with public perception this year.

Progressive suffered significant fallout after comedian Matt Fisher took to his own Tumblr alleging that the insurance company defended his sister, a client's, killer in court, presumably to lessen the payout.

Watch AllState's ad below:

SEE ALSO: See The Aggregious Way 9 Brands Exploited Hurricane Sandy>

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