The Dispatch September 2026
Reporting from the wilderness
Independent reporting and unflinching opinions on insurance, money, and consumer protection.
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Health Insurance
How to actually use open enrollment season
Most people pick their health insurance plan in under a minute and regret it for the next year. Here's a 30-minute method that surfaces the right plan for your specific situation.
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Insurance Strategy
When you should add an umbrella policy
Umbrella insurance is the cheapest insurance most people don't have. For about the cost of dinner once a month, it adds $1M+ of liability protection on top of your auto and home policies. Here's why most middle-class households should have it.
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Auto Insurance
Do you actually need gap insurance?
Dealers push gap insurance hard at signing. Lenders bury it in the loan. Your insurer offers it cheap. Here's how to decide if you need it — and where to actually buy it.
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Pricing
Should you raise your deductible?
Raising your deductible saves money on premium. But how much? And how do you know if the savings outweigh the risk? Here's the calculation in plain numbers.
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Life Insurance
How to figure out how much life insurance you actually need
Most people are underinsured because the standard '10x income' rule is a starting point, not an answer. Here's the actual math, in plain English.
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Preparation
How to do a home inventory in one afternoon
If your house burned down tomorrow, could you list everything you own? Most homeowners and renters can't — and that gap costs them at claim time. Here's a one-afternoon method that fixes it.
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Claims
What to do in the first 60 minutes after a car accident
How you handle the first hour after a car accident significantly affects your claim outcome. Here's a step-by-step playbook from people who've handled thousands of claims.
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Pricing
Your insurance score isn't your credit score (and other surprises)
If you've been working on your credit score and wondering why your insurance rate hasn't dropped, you're not imagining things. Insurance carriers use a different score than your FICO. Here's how it actually works.
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Shopping
Why you should re-shop your auto insurance every six months
Most people pick an insurance carrier once and renew on autopilot for a decade. That habit costs the average household thousands. Here's why the math works against you — and how a 30-minute shop can put it back in your pocket.
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Auto reality checks
Shopping as a young driver: how to actually save
Auto insurance for drivers under 25 is brutal. But the spread between carriers is also widest in this age band. Shop hard.
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How insurance works
Telematics insurance: the privacy / savings tradeoff
Telematics programs can save safe drivers 15-30%. They can also raise rates for everyone else. And they track everything you do behind the wheel.
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Money moves
The bundling trap: when 'discounts' aren't really discounts
Bundling is sold as a 25% discount. Sometimes it's a 25% discount on a 40% premium. The math matters.
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Auto reality checks
The real cost of a traffic ticket: it's not the ticket
A $250 ticket sounds painful. The insurance impact over five years is often 5-10x worse.
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When things go wrong
What not to tell your insurance adjuster after a claim
Insurance adjusters work for the insurance company, not for you. Knowing what to say (and not say) protects your claim.
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How insurance works
What your credit score actually does to your insurance premium
In 47 states, credit affects what you pay for auto and home insurance. Sometimes by 50% or more. Here's why — and what to do about it.
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Money moves
When you actually need an umbrella policy
$1M of additional liability coverage for $250-$400 a year. Most people don't have it. Most people should.
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Renewal moves
Why your renewal premium just jumped (and what to do)
Your premium went up 18% and you didn't file a claim. Here's why — and what you can do about it.
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From the Editor
Why we built QuoteYeti
Insurance comparison is one of the most-searched, least-trustworthy corners of the internet. We built QuoteYeti to fix that — and to be transparent about how we make money while doing it.
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Announcements
Welcome to QuoteYeti
We're expanding from auto insurance to all eight major insurance verticals. Here's why and what's coming.
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