The UK Insurance Blog

In the article “How to get the most from your household budget”  resources were pooled to produce some handy tips on how to stretch our money just that little further.

Moneynet.co.uk adviser Andrew Hagger says “It’s been a tough six months for our bank balances and things won’t get much easier unless we act now.”

How to make considerable savings as well as to get the best value for money that we can by reassessing our household expenditure.

How much do you spend on contents and home insurance? Could it be that another policy would provide cheaper premiums or if not at least provide better value for money?

The cost of borrowing is going through the roof, our fixed-rate mortgages are coming to an end this year and we are all trying to remain optimistic that we are going to make ends meet. Nobody seems prepared for the recent downturn in our economy. From the UK’s biggest companies like Marks & Spencer, Barclays and Taylor Wimpey to the person next door, everybody is having a difficult time of it. The article rightly points out that the person next door only has his wits about him to get through the rough times whereas the big companies can go cap in hand to their city fundraisers.

What it is necessary to do is to look close to home to discover new ways to spend our money more wisely and give our spending a bit of a boost. Begin, Andrew Hagger suggests, by seeing if your mortgage lender will allow you to change to paying interest only for a period. If you could use some breathing space from paying a £140,000 mortgage on 6% then £200 per month will be freed up towards your payments.

A gem of an idea that works instantly, is to avoid daily shopping trips. Instead, do your food shopping once a week. All those ‘in-between’ shopping trips can be costly by the end of the week!

If you plan to make any considerable purchases at all, first of all, check out a price comparison website like kelkoo.co.uk to get the best value for money.

Borrowing on your credit card can result in high interest, so do try to get the best interest rates on the market or consider switching over to a life balance transfer card.

When buying petrol or food, the adviser suggests you should use a credit card with a cash back offer such as the American Express platinum money back card. With this facility you could earn yourself an extra £25 every month for three months if your monthly food and petrol bill is £500.

Why not work out the yearly cost of your car and put the money by every month. Add to this your annual expenditure for birthdays and Christmas and you save yourself the strain of a big bill. This way you can even earn a bit of interest too!

Take a look at your energy suppliers and see if you can’t get a better deal on energy prices somewhere else. Online tariffs or dual fuel tariffs for example may prove somewhat cheaper.

Earn some extra money by sorting through unwanted items and setting up your own stand at a local car boot sale. You could make an easy £100 or so. Or if you prefer to work online then try selling unwanted items on Ebay.

More ideas include organising a work car share instead of forking out for petrol as well as removing your savings out of a minimum interest savings account so you can earn some extra on it in a high interest yield.

The last word is that if we make an effort, looking at our current household expenditure patterns some simple changes can effectively see us riding out the tough times.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

In the article “Holiday nightmares” we are reminded of how ticking those boxes too quickly on a travel insurance form may come back to haunt us one of these days.

It turns out that some people (and we know who we are) who are generally sensible when it comes to booking a holiday online, noting down all the reference numbers and dates and printing out duplicates for her records always neglect the travel insurance forms. We tend to quickly stick a couple of ticks in what seem to be the appropriate places ensuring the most inexpensive cover is acquired. How easily this can go wrong. This type of attitude toward insurance forms could end up giving you nightmares.

First of all, when about to travel, research various types of travel insurance and consider with care the terms and conditions of the policy. No more should you have a quick look through to ensure you are covered for the usual things (luggage that goes missing and theft).

There’s more to it than that.

There are some particular things to look out for on a travel insurance form. It could turn out that you are not actually covered when you think you are.

If you are likely to be bungee jumping (for example) and many are, you need to make sure you are covered for it. About one in six British holidaymakers knowing they will be participating in adventure sports, in the event of injury, will not be covered by insurance, according to Esure. Many actually believe that a standard travel insurance policy automatically covers them for things like bungee jumping and white water rafting. Next time you look at a travel insurance form, you will see that many have exclusions which generally include those more extreme activities. In the event that your policy does cover adventure sports, check the fine print for terms and conditions. Don’t be too surprised to find provisos such as ‘hiking only covered when below a specific altitude’ or ‘scuba diving only to a certain depth will be covered’.

Next, always check the small print. If in any doubt contact your insurance company well in advance of your travel arrangements.

The article recommended the reading of “The Passport to Extreme Fun” prior to an extreme adventure holiday. Published by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office it provides information that you really need to know before you go! For example, an accident under the effects of alcohol may not be covered. Many insurance companies don’t! It can go either way whether an insurance company will pay up for a fall under the influence of alcohol as the decision pretty much depends on what the insurance company defines as ‘under the influence’.

Another plus for travel insurance coming up! The biggie is, if your holiday gets cancelled, travel insurance will ensure you don’t lose all your money. In 2006, over the summer holidays, £6 billion was lost in cancelled holidays by British passengers. If only they were not leaving their travel insurance to the last minute, they would have been compensated. According to More Th>n, an average cancelled holiday pay out by the insurance company was £856 per person. You never can tell what’s around the corner so don’t keep leaving that travel insurance to the last minute.

Another red light here. What if you are travelling to one of the World’s more dangerous areas? If travelling to a trouble spot against advice from the Foreign Office, your insurance could become invalid. Then again, if you don’t go to a trouble spot without the Foreign Office telling you not to, your insurance company will not pay your expenses. Watch out for this, you may find that civil war zones are not the only landmines to worry about.

The last word is, save yourself loads of money and do your homework before you go away! To avoid holiday disasters becoming nightmares, stop leaving important things like travel insurance forms to the last minute!

A recent article highlights the increasing incidence of motor vehicle crime committed by females.

As a reaction to rising vandalism offences, the insurance company Direct Line did a bit of digging. The results that were revealed were somewhat surprising.

Recent studies have shown that women are the culprits of vandalism to a greater extent than most would think. Women owning up to acts of vandalism upon a motor vehicle recently totalled about 1.5 million women. Direct Line actively encourages car owners to consider acts of vandalism in their insurance policies.

Why are women climbing the charts all of a sudden? Why are they suddenly turning into yobs? Probable causes include alcohol and sheer boredom. The Direct Line report on vandalism revealed there is a fifty per cent increase in the amount of 11-17 year old females doing damage to cars. Popular yob-like activities these girls are taking to include scratching paintwork, window smashing and tyre slashing. While 10% claimed their actions were the result of being drunk, twenty three per cent offered the reason of having nothing whatsoever better to do. Eight per cent of female vandals blame peer pressure for their wrecking sprees while most claim it was a last minute thing.

This female vandal crime agenda accounts for up to sixty thousand criminal offences annually across the last five years. They tend to gravitate towards the acts of public property damaging, messing around with road signs, interfering with personal property of a third party and graffiti.

Direct Line’s UK Vandalism Report revealed an overall accumulation of offences caused by females. Results revealed that car vandal victims had increased by thirty per cent. Something of a girls in gangs culture was revealed to be the cause of a substantial increase in car vandalism. As a result, Direct Line car insurance became the first motor insurance product to offer protection of no claims bonus in cases of vandalism.

Now that people are tightening their belts throughout this season of credit-crunching, it helps a lot to know that random acts of vandalism cannot affect your No Claims Bonus.

As our towns and cities once again are flooded, a recent article “More than 1/3 of Brits do not have home insurance, despite an increased risk of flooding” in Fair Investment, reveals some surprising results about British homeowners. That even in the face of homes in Britain being absolutely devastated by floods, insurance is not a priority in some households.

You would think the incidences of flooding happening all over the country would be enough to push those currently uninsured to look into acquiring home insurance. Why do we then find that a third of the general public do not feel a need for insurance. What is happening here? The article delves a bit deeper.

With ten per cent of houses up and down the UK at serious risk of flooding (equivalent to up to £214 billion worth of property, assets and land, it comes as a shock to discover that nearly forty per cent of those questioned do not have any house insurance. Breaking it down even further, it was then discovered that men are far less likely than women to purchase house insurance. Only fifty seven per cent of men have house insurance while 64% of women do.

The people at Fair Investment suggest that in this age of frequent flooding and inadequate flood defences that we should all take out home insurance to protect us in the future. Even in these tough financial times, insurance should never be overlooked when flooding could happen to anybody.

What with the new university terms set to start, the article “Freshers’ week means rich pickings for burglars” couldn’t be better timed. It is about time students had some help protecting their belongings, they will certainly have their hands full in the weeks ahead.

Shockingly, one in three students will become a victim of the dreaded ubiquitous burglar, which is all the more reason for security to be upped and contents insurance to be in place. Burglars see students at rich pickings on account of their bountiful possessions. Let’s face it, students accumulate expensive gadgets like there’s no tomorrow!

Saga Insurance have a free ‘Student Survival’ guide book to help students help themselves as well as offering really handy contents packages. The most important feature it offers is that windows and doors in student digs are checked for security which is the main point of entry for thieves as well as other ways to drastically reduce the occurrence of burglary.

The people at Saga have, if you have a contents package with them, added on to your insurance package a student appendage offering up to £3,500 protection for your children’s valuable possessions. This will entitle you to cover when possessions are in transit as well as at the new students accommodation. What will definitely appeal is that downloaded music and items of a digital content are also protected.

Before you move in permanently to your new student accommodation, check out the security of the building looking out for security lights, locks and burglar alarms. Marking all belongings with a UV marker is highly recommended as well as lights on timer switches (to give the impression you are home) and getting your student possession insurance in place.

According to a recent article, “Quarter of pet owners have insurance” pet insurance is on the up! Never has the going been so good in the field of pet insurance and things are expected to improve further still, according to ‘Datamonitor’.

Why is pet insurance on the rise? There is an opinion that pet insurance is much more accessible than it once was. It is possible that customer were not even aware that it existed to the degree people acknowledge it today. Everybody has heard about pet insurance and people can see the benefits especially thanks to the rising costs of vet services. Technological advances in the pet medical sector are becoming more sophisticated and cost more than people are able to afford to pay.

One the most rapidly growing of all insurance markets, pet insurance is currently worth £440 million with a potential to grow to £700 million in five years.

The nation loves its pets and will go all out to provide what is necessary.

In a recent article “Nationwide provides advice for homeowners affected by floods” practical tips are provided as to what to do in a flood emergency should you have one.

The tips are delivered to you on behalf of the Nationwide Building Society and should be noted in case what has been happening up and down the country should happen to you too.

First of all, get in touch with your insurance company. Above all else, make them aware your home is flooded. If there is a 24 hour helpline, now is the time to use it.

If there is anything you can do to prevent even more damage from occurring, get that underway as soon as possible ensuring permanent work is not being done without at first arranging this with your insurance company.

Although it is tempting to throw out damaged furniture, it is important you hang onto it until the insurance company have inspected it.

Everything that you’ve bought, keep those receipts and for damage limitation move all valuables out of reach of the water. Keep food upstairs out of the way of water damage too.

Do not use gas and electricity or drink tap water until you are told it is safe and pull all furniture away from walls.

Alternative accommodation may be included in your insurance, so make sure you look into that.

Under your comprehensive car insurance, claim for damage to your family vehicle(s).

Once the floods have subsided, these tips should make life that bit easier for those affected. Add oil to hinges and locks. This will prevent corrosion.

Drying out the house will be a lot easier if you keep windows and doors open when it is safe to do so and when you’re around to keep an eye on things. Never leave them open if you have to go out.

Once the insurance company have visited you, you will be free to remove any carpet or floor coverings as well as washing the walls and surfaces down with disinfectant.

During these tough financial times, people are under pressure to ‘tighten their belts’ outlines the article “Families cut back on savings and pensions to cope with rising costs” Cut backs are going on everywhere you look. People are constantly on the look out for new ways to stretch their money and in some cases people are preparing to default on payments, defer insurance policies and slide into debt. The people surveyed by American Express insurance revealed their savings accounts would be the first to suffer, they would stop paying income protection insurance and other insurances while 14% would stop paying into their pension funds.

The problem of debt seems to be increasing all the time. The people at the CCCS (Consumer Credit Counselling Service) reported an 18% increase on debt advice in July and August on the previous year.

Prices are rising all the time and with increasing food and petrol prices placing more strain on the family finances, twelve per cent of people surveyed revealed they would, if pushed, reconsider paying off their credit card bills. Similarly, people revealed they would look at stopping their monthly car finance payments or paying towards their personal loan balances.

Surprisingly, 8% of people who took part in the survey revealed they would consider dropping their home contents insurance, while 17% would stop their pet insurance. These are the lengths people are willing to go to just to make ends meet while the nation is in the grips of a credit crunch.

According to the article “Pets suffer as North Wales owners hit by credit crunch” our furry loved ones are the first to go when the going gets tough in one region of Britain! Many owners of pets across North Wales are suddenly finding they cannot afford the expense of keeping pets.

Animal rescue organizations are observing increases in their numbers particularly Flintshire and Wrexham in the north of Wales. One animal rescue centre, Capricorn in Padeswood has found pets are being given up due to financial pressures, repossessions and because people are generally struggling through the nation’s ‘credit crunch’ downsizing wherever possible.

People are losing their jobs and families are breaking up all because of money worries too and it is the pets that are stuck in the middle of it all, sadly ending up at an animal charity centre like Padeswood. What some people don’t seem to realise is that centres such as these are often independently run and that their funds are currently being pushed to the limit to the extent they unfortunately have to turn people and their pets away.

If not getting to the stage where owners are giving up their pets, the bad news is they are certainly neglecting certain significant expenses caused by things like neutering, insurance or inoculations. The main worry is that people seem to be cancelling their pet insurance out of desperation to cling onto extra pounds. The animals will be the ones to suffer. Whatever you do, try to resist the urge to cancel your pet insurance. Rescue centres urge pet owners to keep going on the pet insurance on account that those premiums will seem like peanuts next to a gigantic veterinary bill.

To hold on to your pets in these troubling times, pet owners are encouraged to think ahead. Keep paying those premiums and find out if you are eligible for financial assistance (there is always help available if you are suffering hardship). But, at the end of the day, if you feel you are truly unable to continue to provide a home for your pet, the RSPCA urges you to give them a call or visit their website www.rspca.org.uk.

You don’t need to spend a fortune on pet insurance confides Jacob Floyd in his article, “Keep costs on a leash” published in the Independent. You don’t need to pay out a fortune for your pet and here are some top tips to help you manage your pet expenses.

With the assistance of the moneysupermarket.com, he was able to ascertain some helpful costs. Check out Tesco for the best value insurance. It will cost you under a fiver a month for a five year old cat. With possible medical bills costing thousands of pounds, this is without doubt the bargain of the century! The insurance premiums for a puppy under a year old will only set you back £7.30 a month at Tesco. When you consider the expenses like up to £2,500 in medical costs, this is a considerable saving. A dog up to the age of six will warrant premium costs of about £6.80 a month.

A good tip, Mr Jacob goes on to mention, is to avoid overpaying on your insurance. For example third party liability is useless in the case of a cat (who can claim total responsibility for the actions of a cat?) Watch out for crafty add -ons like this in your policy, you will have to pay more for something that is entirely pointless!