Banking, Internet, Cable, Insurance... (Dallas, McKinney: hair salon, car insurance, condo)

[HeadingtoTexas]

Where do you bank in Dallas? Who has the most locations, other than BOA, which I loathe?

What's the best internet, cable tv, phone package? We currently have Comcast. Is that offered in North Dallas?

Is there phone service that offers unlimited flat-fee long distance calling?

Who offers the best rates on auto and home owner's insurance?

With all the rain, would you buy flood insurance, just in case?

Where do you shop for groceries?

How much is a haircut in a top rated salon? Mine are $65 here in DC.

How much is a manicure/pedicure?

What's the average cost for daycare? A nanny?

[tchrmom]

Cable provider: Time Warner. They give you the unlimited phone service (it's digital). AT&T also offers unlimited phone service. I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones I know of.

Grocery stores: You have your pick--SuperTarget, SuperWalmart, Kroger, Tom Thumb, a few Albertsons, Sam's Club, Costco

Insurance: I use USAA for all insurance needs, so i don't have a very good idea about this.

Hair Salon: I found a WONDERFUL hairdresser who does a fantastic job for $35 for a basic cut. Private room, incredible salon, etc.

Mani/Pedi: between $20 and $30 for basic pedicure. The same for "fake" nails...about $15 for natural manicure.

Daycare: I pay about $1000 each for my daughters at a very reputable preschool. It could be lower, and I suppose it could also go higher...but the one I chose is very well thought-of, and I have been very happy so far. This will be your biggest expense, probably (aside from a mortgage/taxes).

[lh_newbie]

Cable: Time Warner bought Comcast in TX. You also have AT&T and Verizon FIOS service available in some areas.

Grocery stores/insurance/hair/mani/pedi: Uh... yeah, I eat food and have insurance that my wife gets. She also gets her hair cut and makes appointments for me. She sure has pretty nails, too. You mean those things aren't natural? Oh, I buy beer and BBQ sauce at Tom Thumb, Super Target and Krogers Signature (closest to us). There's a lot of Whole Foods and Central Markets around also, but we basically use those when we want a really good cut of meat or quality fish. I swear when you go into Central Market, calling a shrimp a shrimp is an oxymoron!

TCHRMOM - question - you say $1000 each - is that a monthly cost? The wife and I are discussing a kid-o (ONE... just incase the wife is reading this... hehe).

[HeadingtoTexas]

"Hair Salon: I found a WONDERFUL hairdresser who does a fantastic job for $35 for a basic cut. Private room, incredible salon, etc."

That's reasonable. Where's the salon? Does the price include a blow-out, too?

[momof2dfw]

Where do you bank in Dallas? Who has the most locations, other than BOA, which I loathe?
There are still several small independent banks around and even it is known that some officers will band together after mergers and start up a new bank. As for a good local bank w/ MANY locations in the DFW area there is Inwood National Bank. I also loathe BOA, yuck.

What's the best internet, cable tv, phone package? We currently have Comcast. Is that offered in North Dallas?
Comcast here is now Time-Warner. We ditched them and now are on Verizon FIOS for phone, cable and internet.

Is there phone service that offers unlimited flat-fee long distance calling?
Since most of my family is local we don't do too many long distance calls at all. Basically our only long distance phone call is to my sister in McKinney because her cheap@*# husband won't get a metro number. Most of the time I use my cell for that call.

Who offers the best rates on auto and home owner's insurance?
We had State Farm for years as did all of our parents. We recently switched everything to Farmers and saved a TON!

With all the rain, would you buy flood insurance, just in case?
You will have to get flood insurance if your in a flood zone which is highly unlikely that you will buy a house in one. Just make sure your coverage is adequate and go over EVERYTHING w/ your agent as to what is covered and replacement costs.

Where do you shop for groceries?
SuperTarget for most everything. For the times I am not going past there and need one or two things it may be Tom Thumb.

How much is a haircut in a top rated salon? Mine are $65 here in DC.
Top rated? That can run you WAY up there around $200-300 if you want cut or color from what are supposed to be THE BEST in Dallas. I pay about $60 for haircut and $125 for color. Ooops, I don't do THAT as I'm an all natural blonde.

How much is a manicure/pedicure?
I pay about $52-55 before tip for a good spa pedicure and fills and cut downs on my nails.

What's the average cost for daycare? A nanny?
Day care for a child is going to be around $100-125 a week for full day.

[lh_newbie]

I believe my wife pays the same amount ($35 or somewhere there abouts). She goes to Stetson Studio on Greenville in Dallas - south of Mockingbird somewhere. She's been going to the same guy (Jeremy) for years now. He's started cutting my hair now, too. Super nice guy if you live in Dallas, give him a shout.

Oh, yeah, forgot banks. We bank at Wachovia because they put one around the corner from our house when we were getting married (you know, compromise... meaning we both ditched our banks - no one got their way... hehe)

[KantLockeMeIn]

According to the statistics on flood insurance:

Your home has a 26% chance of being damaged by a flood during the course of a 30-year mortgage, compared to a 9% chance of fire.

Roughly 25% of all claims paid by the NFIP are for policies in low- to moderate-risk communities.

[MaryS80]

I bank with Wells Fargo, they have quite a few locations around Dallas and Collin counties. They have mini branches in some Tom Thumb stores. I know a lot of people who use ViewPoint Bank, but the vast majority of their branches are in Collin County, with a few in Dallas and thats about it.

Verizon FIOS is the newest phone/cable/internet all in one. Verizon has been psuhing it very heavily in this area. I have phone and DSL through Verizon, long distance with MCI, and DirecTV. I haven't been too thrilled with the cost of the DSL, but DirecTV is a great deal.

For car insurance I have Allstate, their rates are really good. I'm paying $107/mo for full coverage on a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. Prior to that I was paying about $80/mo for liability only on my used car with Allstate. Don;t go with Progresive for auto, I got ripped by them for a while before I swithced. They had been charging me $140/mo for liabiltiy only on a used Cavalier.

I do my grocery shopping all over the place. For meat and produce i go to Tom Thumb, for the basics it Walmart or SuperTarget. For somethign special I use Central Market.

The average price at a good salon is going to run between $35-55 for a cut. We have tons of Regis Salons and Toni and Guy both of which are good. There are some very high end salons that can be quite expensive. I believe there is a Jose Eber salon that is supposed to open at NorthPark soon.

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by twojciac

According to the statistics on flood insurance:

Your home has a 26% chance of being damaged by a flood during the course of a 30-year mortgage, compared to a 9% chance of fire.

Roughly 25% of all claims paid by the NFIP are for policies in low- to moderate-risk communities.

No, my home does not have a 26% chance of being damaged by a flood.

Two technical points...

First, a probability figure depends on relative ignorance. If all you know is that a house is somewhere in Texas, then your probability number would have to take that into account. The more you know about the location, the more realistic your number is. If I know that the house in question is at the top of the Cedar Hills in southwestern Dallas county, the probability shrinks to zero. So... what is the level of ignorance that accompanies that 26% figure?

Secondly, "flood" in insurance jargon means anything between an overflowing river to a leaky pipe. In short, it is a synonym for water damage from whatever source. But... what definition of "flood" is your figure based upon.

If you're going to work with statistics, or cite them, you have to be more forthcoming about these things.

..................................

I'll take a guess at what that 26% figure really means, assuming it is in some way accurate.

It may be that 26% of the claims may have involved water damage of one kind or another. One may assume (probably unreasonably) that every home in DFW has an equal chance of being damaged by water. If you have no knowledge of local conditions, then you would have to accept that assumption. You may also assume, due to lack of knowledge to the contrary, that each insurance claim will be of equal damage.

But in practice, these assumptions are easily exploded by examining the house in question. A condo on the 20th floor of a highrise is less likely to be flooded by a hurricane, an ocean storm surge, or a swollen river than a house in a low lying area. An old house with bad plumbing is more likely to have water damage than a newish one.

So the figure of 26% may be meaningless in practice.

[HeadingtoTexas]

You guys are really quite helpful. Thanks for the outpouring of information.

What's the going rate to have your house cleaned bi-weekly? Let's says it's about 3000 square feet.