Tag Archives: planning

Is Hot Water a Matter of Life and Death? If Not, Why Are You Insuring Your Water Tank?

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I find ads for water heater rentals fascinating. In particular, I believe some ads for water heater tank “insurance” or “maintenance plans” are some of the best fiction currently published today. My grandfather, though a 6th generation Canadian, lived many years without electricity and without hot running water. He didn’t die. He didn’t even suffer much. When did running hot water become a matter of life and death?

Scare Tactics to Try to Sell Water Heater Maintenance and Insurance Plans

Some companies offering these plans like to throw around some very large numbers. I believe the intention is to scare readers into purchasing their insurance or maintenance plans.

Here are some numbers from the Direct Energy Water Heater Rental Page:
Typical Water Heater Repairs
Parts and Labour Costs:

  • Ventor Motor $672.25
  • Gas Valve $697.00

 

Sounds impressive, right? Imagine if BOTH the motor and the valve went?!

Did you know a brand new full-price 40-gallon 12-year natural gas tank only costs $688?

Also from the Direct Energy Website, I found the cost for two plans that cover (some) repairs and maintenance to water heaters. The plans are primarily geared towards repairs and maintenance of furnace and air conditioner units. They cost $27.45-$38.45 a MONTH.

Home Emergency Insurance Solutions has a plan for only hot water heaters which includes up to $1000 to replace a unit if it cannot be fixed. This plan costs $6.99 a month.

Do You Flush Your Water Heater Tank Regularly?

If you read the service manual for your water heater it will probably say you need to flush the tank on a regular (listed) schedule. This helps to prevent the buildup of deposits of minerals from your water and rust from your tank at the bottom of the tank.

When Do Water Heater Insurance Policies Really Fail?

If you don’t follow the maintenance schedule for your water heater tank, many “insurance” policies will not cover needed repairs.

In fact, if you rent your water tank, you may also have to pay for repairs if you are not following the manual. On the Direct Energy website, the fine print says:
“Some limitations apply in the following circumstances: …if… water heater requires flushing, de-liming or other repairs from hard water conditions, or iv) where venting or piping requires cleaning, repair or replacement. “

Don’t be too sure that your policy will pay for repairs. One of our friends was told because there was calcium buildup in the tank they would have to pay themselves for replacing their rental unit, even though it was 12 years old.

How Critical is Hot Water to Your Daily Existence?

Before paying cold hard cash for hot water insurance, I’d stop and ask myself “How would I manage with no hot running water?”

Yes, we like to take showers and baths, wash our hands in warm water, wash dishes in hot water, and wash some clothes in warm.

Are any of those requirements critical though?

To wash ourselves, we can heat water and add it to cold. Pioneers did it. Pre-1800’s everyone did it. Is it a nuisance and somewhat dangerous? Yes. Is it impossible? No.

Many times in the winter we heated water in a kettle at our cottage and added it to cold water in the sink before washing the dishes. It’s a bit time consuming but it works.
Clothes can be washed at the Laundromat or a friend or relative’s house for a few days until repairs or a replacement can be completed.

Save Your Money: Don’t Insure Your Water Heater

I’d conclude that spending money to insure your water heater is unnecessary. The insurer might refuse to pay if they could claim you overlooked some type of required maintenance. If the repair is high cost, you could just get a new tank and have several to many years of reliable future service.

If you’re really worried, why not put the same $6.99 to $38.45 (taxes not included!) in a bank account ready to use for the eventual replacement of your tank? That $94.78 –   $521.38 per year would add up quickly.

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Do you insure your water heater? Have you ever had to make a claim? Please share your experiences with a comment.

How to Download Your Transaction History for an ING Direct Bank Account to a Spreadsheet

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Many people keep track of their finances using a program like Quicken. Others, like me, who are incredibly cheap, er, frugal use a spreadsheet. Either way, it’s a bit easier and often more accurate to download the info directly from your bank than to type it in line by line. Here’s how you can download what’s been happening in your Tangerine, formerly called ING Direct, bank account.

Copying your Tangerine Bank Account Transaction History Onto Your Computer

To Login to your Tangerine account/s

  1. Go to: http://www.tangerine.ca/en/
  2. Click on I’m a Client, Let Me In!.
  3. Enter your Client Number, banking Card Number or Username in the Log me in box.
    Click on the Go button.
  4. If necessary, in the Your Secret Question: box, type the Answer: to the question.
    Click on the Next button.
  5. If the Your Picture and the Your Phrase fields are correct, if applicable, in the Your PIN box, type your personal identification number.
    Click on the Go button.

To  Download Your Transaction History

  1. Click on the View My Accounts link.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of that screen.
    Click on the Download Transactions button.
  3. From the drop-down list select the account for which you wish to download the history.
  4. In the Download Information section, select either
    • Get all from last download (which presumably translated from the Dutch-English means “Get all the data since the last download”; or
    • Get all for the following date range:
      If you choose a period, from the drop-down lists select the start date and end date day, month and year.
  5. In the Available Download Formats section, from the drop-down list select
    • QFX Quicken
    • Microsoft Money; or
    • Excel/Other software, CSV

    Yes, just like PC Financial they support downloading to Microsoft Money even though Microsoft no longer supports Money itself.
    CSV means comma separated values. In other words, they will put a comma between each entire number. So the two numbers one hundred thousand and the number ten would be sent as: 100000,10

  6. Click the Next button
  7. Review the information on the screen called Here is the information you selected for Download
    If it looks correct, click on the Download button.
  8. In the SomeName.CSV window, select either
    • Open with; or
    1. If you select Open, you must also select a program from the drop-down list.
    • Save File
    1. Click on the OK button.
    2. If applicable, select where you want to save the file.
    3. Click on the Save button.
  9. When you are finished using Tangerine click on the Log Me Out button.
    For increased security, close your browser session.

In my case the saved file was called Chequing.CSV.

CSV means comma separated text. If you open the file in a spreadsheet it will put one line of data on one line of the spreadsheet. It will put the data after each comma into a new column.

You will likely find some columns are full of ######s when you open your file in a spreadsheet. This is because the information is too large to fit the width of the column. To correct this, hover the mouse over the small vertical line between the Letter Names at the top of the column. Click and holding the mouse key down, drag the line to widen the column.

What is Reported for my Tangerine Transaction History

Cool! The info is different than that reported by PC Financial.

The columns reported are

  • The Date
  • The type of transaction
  • Name; a description of what happened. For example Bill Payment AMEX
  • Memo; another description of what happened
  • Amount; the dollars that moved in or out of the account

The types of Transactions are

The types of Memos showing up for my account include

  • Transferred
    This is used when I transfer money between accounts.
  • BILLPO
    This just means I paid a bill, not that I am P.O.d about it, though it does make me smile to think that might be what they meant. I wonder who programmed that?
  • Cheque Order Fee
    This was 0 because I only ordered the free first cheques. I use PC Financial to get as many free cheques as I need.
  • There may be other codes that were not applicable to me.

How Accurate is the Transaction History Information?

I found the way PC Financial reported my credit card transactions resulted in the numbers being in the wrong column.

The Tangerine information, however, is all lining up properly.

How Risky Is It to Download and Store This Information on my PC?

The file does not include any of my credit card numbers, or the account numbers for businesses I paid bills for online. For example, it does not list my Cable TV account number.

The file did not include any information about my bank account number or my bank balance.

This information, therefore, is not very risky to store on my home computer. However, I would suggest storing it instead on a DVD or USB stick and that storing that somewhere safe. No sense in making it too easy for financial crooks, er, criminals.

Related Reading

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Do you download your bank info from Tangerine to a money management program or a spreadsheet? Have you ever had any hiccups? Please share your experiences with a comment.

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