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By Jerry Brown, Bankrate

When you rent a car, a customer service rep may try to sell you rental car insurance. Rental insurance may protect you from having to pay if the rental is stolen or damaged. But in some circumstances, you may not need to purchase additional coverage. For example, if you already have full coverage car insurance, your policy may extend to the rental.

Bankrate’s insurance editorial team covers scenarios where you may need rental insurance and explains how some common types of rental car insurance work.

When do you need rental car insurance?

Figuring out if you need rental car insurance can be confusing. The type of coverage you carry on your personal auto policy, your contract terms and the reason you are renting a vehicle can all determine whether you should purchase extra rental car coverage.

In most cases, the coverage you carry on your auto policy will extend to a rental car as long as you rent a private passenger vehicle. In some scenarios, however, your personal auto policy can leave gaps in coverage that will cost you if you are in an accident in your rental car. Most insurance professionals advise exploring your options with your agent before driving off in a rental vehicle. read more

Erin McCarthy | The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

Ashley Battista Ridolfi had been saving her spa gift card for the final weeks of her pregnancy.

Her husband gave it for her birthday in February, knowing she’d enjoy a premium massage — valued around $150 — at Toppers Spa, a place she’d patronized several times in the past five years.

Ridolfi, 37, of Eagleville, Pennsylvania, thought of the unused gift card immediately when she saw an article last week about the regional chain filing for bankruptcy and closing all its locations.

“I had not had the opportunity to use it yet, and I was planning on using it in the next six weeks or so,” she said Thursday.

Ridolfi, a sales and marketing director, said she hasn’t been able to find contact information for the company online. She took to a Facebook group of Toppers customers, a forum where other users wrote that they had hundreds to thousands of dollars in unused gift cards or account credits, and asked if anyone had heard what to do with unused gift cards. read more

By Anna Helhoski | NerdWallet

What does it take to lure people away from streaming and back into long-vacant movie theater seats? It turns out bubble-gum pink nostalgia, several dozen retail collaborations and omnipresent marketing will do the trick.

In the opening weekend of “Barbie,” the highly anticipated film directed by Greta Gerwig brought in $162 million. That’s the highest-grossing opening weekend ever for a film directed by a woman and the 20th highest-grossing film opening weekend of all time, according to Box Office Mojo by IMDB Pro, a site that tracks box office revenue.

In recent years, the theater-going experience seemed kaput. Dwindling attendance was largely due to a combination of pandemic closures and the proliferation of streaming services offering more film entertainment than you could consume in a lifetime. Box office declines led to closures: 2,165 screens in the U.S. closed from 2019 to 2022 — about 5.3% — according to a March report by the Cinema Foundation. read more

Jim Korkis, a longtime Disney author and historian, has died. He was 72.

He wrote more than 30 Disney-oriented books, including the “The Vault of Walt” series, “Secret Stories of Walt Disney World” and “Animation Anecdotes: This Hidden History of Classic American Animation.” He contributed to multiple websites and was an often-quoted source about the history of Walt Disney Co.

Korkis was also a former cast member at Disney World with roles at Magic Kingdom (Merlin in the “Sword in the Stone” ceremony, Prospector Pat in Frontierland), Epcot guest relations, Pleasure Island, Disney Institute and elsewhere.

Friends and colleagues described Korkis as cheerful, knowledgeable, accurate and prolific.

“He was the ultimate storyteller. I said to him a few times that Walt must look kindly on him as one of the people who’s keeping his legacy alive,” said Deb Wills, former owner of AllEars.net, a fan site that published Korkis contributions.

“He just had a very clear way of communicating and sharing his knowledge. He wrote well, and he also wrote in a way that was easy access for people,” said Didier Ghez, author of the “Walt’s People” series of books. “Kids and adults alike could read one of Jim’s books and say, ‘Wow, this is exciting. I love what he’s talking about.’” read more