Insurance

If you're a frequent flyer, you likely have a travel rewards credit card in your pocket - and for good reason! Today's crop of travel cards go far beyond racking up points to swap for flight discounts; lenders are appealing to the jet set with VIP features such as airport lounge access, concierge services - and, in some cases, even short haul flights. Many also boast comprehensive insurance coverage, from medical to lost baggage. These wonder cards may claim to have your back in case of a catastrophe... but can they really take the place of travel insurance?

Here's a breakdown of insurance options commonly provided by travel credit cards, and what you should ask when it comes to your coverage:

Yep, this is a thing.

However, if you're currently laughing, you may want to rethink your position.

Just ask Richard Engel, the NBC News correspondent was held for five days with his crew by unknown assailants while reporting on the Syrian Civil War before being released, or Warren Rodwell, a former Australian soldier who was kidnapped over a year ago in the Philippines by the notorious Islamic separatist group Abu Sayyaf and remains there, as of this writing, despite a proof of life video shot December 15, 2012.

I'm sure their employers or families could have used kidnap and ransom insurance to try and expedite the release process because the policy is designed to cover the ransom and and any related expenses associated with getting the kidnapped person back.

Such insurance could come quite in handy when you are known to frequently travel on business or on vacation to kidnapping hotspots, and it's not just the usual suspects like Cambodia, Afghanistan or Somalia, but vacation spots like Mexico, and with more of us having family all around the world, we are all more susceptible to kidnapping abroad.

Kidnapping insurance particularly makes sense when you know that estimates on the prevalence of kidnapping range from 12,000 to 30,000 a year worldwide. However, figures revealed that hostages are released or saved in 94% of cases, with ransoms paid in almost two-thirds of them, which means, those with kidnap insurance have a much better chance of being released because the insurance is guaranteed to be able to cover the ransom.

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So, you're in Florida on your winter vacation and you fall off your jet ski and break your leg. The hospital slaps you with a $35,000 bill, but it's OK. You have insurance, right? Um, please say you have travel health insurance.

Sure, it's not often that you break a leg, so you think the chances of it happening during your holiday are low. But, then again, how often do you play around on a jet ski? And think about more common traveller health complaints, such as food poisoning or that trip to the hospital to relieve your child of that scary asthma attack.

Royal Bank of Canada says about one in 10 Canadians will travel outside Canada this spring break, according to a poll of more than 1,000 Canadians.

The first days of a new year always bring with them a need to clean the slate and pledge new resolutions with the best of intentions behind them, but while the focus of these are usually on health and wellness, many forget that a healthy financial life is just as important in many ways.

Not only can such a thing free you to pursue your many life goals and dreams, but free you emotionally from the added stress of crushing debt.

This is why these days you see just as many money motivated resolutions right alongside the recommendations that deal with diet and exercise.

Yet with so many out there to follow, it can be hard to determine what is the best and most universally applicable financial advice. So here are ten diamonds in the rough we think everyone should take notice of.

1. Resolve Your Debts -- This is the one resolution that must be tackled before everything else, but it's also the one that takes the most discipline. The quickest path to living debt-free is to cut your spending and put the extra money in your budget towards paying off your debt a little at a time. The key is sticking with it, but you don't have to do it alone. A credit counselor can go over your strategy and support your effort, while a debt reduction service can settle debts over $10,000 to a smaller, more manageable amount for a fee.

By RateHub.ca

Home insurance is a must for any homeowner. Not only do lenders require it, it only makes sense to protect what is likely the biggest investment you will ever make. And while nobody enjoys paying for insurance, here are some easy ways to save on your insurance premiums.

By Douglas McIntyre, Daily Finance

Almost all of us have some assets worth insuring -- our homes, our cars, our health. But the insurance business goes far beyond the basics.

If your possessions are worth a bit more, you might have separate policies for your jewelry or art. Businesses take out insurance to protect their executives against lawsuits. And when they consider certain employees to be vital to their bottom lines, they may even take out life insurance policies on them.

Celebrities are no different. They take out insurance to protect their most important assets -- themselves.

To find out what the 9 craziest celebrity insurance policies are, click on the link (or the lovely picture of Keith Richards) below. Story continues below the gallery:

SLIDESHOW: The 9 Craziest Celebrity Insurance Policies

By Douglas McIntyre

It's often said that active hobbies promote healthy living. Some people, however, take their fun to the extreme, engaging in pastimes that put their health -- and even their lives -- at risk. Insurance companies refer to such activities as "hazardous vocations," and charge higher premiums to those who engage in them. Sometimes, they even deny such people coverage altogether.

24/7 Wall St. compiled data from government agencies and the organizations associated with these "extreme" activities to determine which had the highest rates of accident and death. We also looked at several insurance estimates to determine how much premiums would increase for those who listed these activities among their regular hobbies. (We excluded risky activities that are generally performed by professionals, rather than as hobbies, such as rodeo riding or racing sports.)

In terms of strict numbers of fatalities, these hazardous vocations are less likely to get you killed or seriously injured than riding in a car or on a bicycle. Nevertheless, insurers consider them high risk factors.

SLIDESHOW: HOBBIES YOUR INSURER HATES

When you took out insurance on your home or the contents of your apartment, did you actually do a full inventory to find out what it would cost to replace everything you own?

If you did, you're one in a million: most of us estimated the value of our worldly goods and named a few dozen items we considered valuable, such as jewellery, musical instruments, electronics, Aunt Velma's silver or other heirlooms, and our Wii. We wouldn't dare forget our Wii. Then we vowed to do a full inventory soon, when we have more time.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy and an earthquake off the coast of B.C.'s Queen Charlotte Islands, more and more Canadians are probably pulling out their home insurance and discovering, to their surprise, that they don't have the coverage they thought they did, especially not for natural disasters.

A new study by J.D. Power & Associates reveals that more than two-thirds of Canadians are uninsured against environmental disasters, such as floods and earthquakes. Only 35% of the population add a flood insurance rider to their home insurance policy and only 22% add earthquake coverage. The percentage of earthquake coverage is highest across the country in B.C., but the percentage is still only 56%, even though a 7.7 magnitude quake recently hit.

So if you find yourself among the two-thirds of Canadians currently without any natural disaster protection, what do you need to know to get yourself up to speed?

If the 8 million people without power and the estimated $50 billion worth of damage weren't enough, especially when topped by a blistering nor'easter, now a new danger has begun to rear its ugly head -- all manner of opportunistic fraudsters, hucksters, con artists and matchstick men.

In fact, the problem was so pervasive following Hurricane Katrina that the American Government created a federal task force called The Disaster Fraud Task Force that has so far prosecuted 1,439 people for disaster-related fraud perpetrated in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Now, Hurricane Sandy is no exception.

As the ocean waves recede, a new wave of ambulance chasing vultures has descended to pick at the resolve of the already vulnerable victims. Watch your back as we take you through the most common scams perpetrated after a storm like Sandy and how to avoid them.